Prof. Okello Oculi
Abuja, Nigeria – August 2, 2025: The family of the late Professor Okello Oculi, a renowned Pan-African intellectual, poet, and academic, has announced that he will be laid to rest in Abuja, Nigeria, where he lived and worked for nearly five decades.
In a formal communication addressed to the Ugandan High Commission in Abuja, Professor Oculi’s son, Sembene Yusuf Oculi, expressed the family’s heartfelt appreciation for the High Commission’s condolence message dated July 29, 2025.
Professor Oculi, who passed away last month of natural causes, spent the last 48 years of his life in Nigeria, significantly contributing to the country’s academic and civil society spaces. His work, spanning literature, public discourse, and Pan-African scholarship, earned him deep respect across the continent.
While acknowledging the embassy’s wish to see the scholar laid to rest in his ancestral home in Uganda, the family stated their firm decision to bury him in Abuja, describing the city as both his “operational base” and a community that “dearly loved, cherished, honoured and unreservedly respected” him.
“His sudden demise has left a lot of devastation within these communities,” said Sembene, speaking on behalf of the family. “We believe that my father, as a great Pan-Africanist, belongs to all African Ancestors.”
The family emphasized that Abuja will serve as a lasting memorial to Professor Oculi’s legacy, and they plan to share the official funeral programme in the coming days to allow participation from his Ugandan, East African, and international networks.
Professor Oculi is widely remembered for his intellectual activism and efforts to promote African agency, indigenous knowledge, and socio-political transformation through education and literature.
The burial in Abuja is expected to draw mourners and dignitaries from across the continent.
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