bards of different tunes: contrasting ...the poetry of what has become known as second generation...

BARDS OF DIFFERENT TUNES: CONTRASTINGPERSPECTIVES IN MODERN NIGERIAN POETRY (1986-2006)

BYDR JOY M. [email protected]

FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGYCROSS RIVER UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

CALABAR-NIGERIA

SUBMITTED TO

ANSU JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

ABSTRACTBetween 1986 and 2006, the Nigerian literary environment witnessed an upsurge in poetic

production. An examination of these poetic outputs by male and female authors indicates a

difference in thematic preoccupations between the female and male poets. While issues of

religion and gender take centre stage in the poetry of the female, the male poets seem to be

more concerned about socio-political matters and moral degradation. With specific

examples, this paper elucidates these contrasting perspectives, without, however, forgetting

some meeting points.

1

BARDS OF DIFFERENT TUNES: CONTRASTINGPERSPECTIVES IN MODERN NIGERIAN POETRY (1986-2006)

ISome scholars of Nigerian poetry have divided Modern Nigerian poetry into three

phases (Aiyejina 1989; Osundare 1996; Ojaide 1996; Ushie 2002; Etta 2006). The first phase

is said to cover the early years of this poetry up to 1965; the second phase is said to include

the poetry of what has become known as second generation poets; the third phase has to do

with poetic productions from the 1980s and beyond. According to Aiyejina (1989), early Nigerian Poetry in English... was marked by an excessive preoccupation withthe poet’s private grief and emotion over and above societal tragedies and triumphs. It was also a poetry distinguished by an undue eurocentrism, derivationism, obscurantism and private esoterism(112).

This class has Wole Soyinka, the early Okigbo, J. P .Clark, Dennis Osadebay, etc. Etta (2006) has that the second generation poets are made up of poets ‘‘whose vision

was focused on the collective predicament, whose temper was impatient with individual

bombast, and whose language catered to the generality of the populace...’’ (66). Some of

these poets include Tanure Ojaide, Onuora Enekwe, Femi Osofisan, Femi Fatoba, Niyi

Osundare, among others. According to Ushie (2002) the third phase ‘‘constitutes an

unchartered literary terrain’’ (24). It is made up of poets, in the words of Osundare (1996),

‘‘born around 1960’s, Nigeria’s midnight children, as it were who have spent the first three

decades of their lives confronting the nightmare that the country has become’’ (20). A

prominent feature of these poets is that they adopt an artistic style that is people-oriented,

acting as the mouth-piece of their generation or group. Like the second generation poets,

2

members of this third group are generally impatient with unjust systems. Nnimmo Bassey,

Remi Raji, Joseph Ushie, Ogaga Ifowodo, Chin Ce, Bassey Ekpenyong, Toyin Adewale-

Nduka, Cecilia Kato, Mercy John-Ekanem, are among the poets of this group.The above categorisation of Nigerian poetry may not be absolute. This is because

there could be some overlapping of vision and focus between the different phases and the

poets of each era. However, the categorisation is a helpful instrument especially on a

discussion that is period-based as in this present study.

The period under study (1986–2006) witnessed a kind of poetry production that could

be said to have the characteristics of both the second and third categorization, while still

evolving other peculiar traits. For instance, issues of politics, especially the failure of the

political class to assuage the pains of the masses; oppression; and moral degeneracy, which

are some of the main preoccupations of the poets in this study, have been addressed by poets

of the second and third categories. However, the ‘gender war’ and the existence of the

Christian religion as a creative impetus are almost alien to poets of the first and second

generations. The poetry of Joseph Ushie, Chin Ce, Nnimmo Bassey, Mercy John-Ekanem,

Titilola Shoneyin, Fatima Alkali, Rosemary Asen, Joy Odewumi, Toyin Adewale-Nduka, JIP

Ubah, among others, are selected for this study.

II Joseph Ushie’s poem ‘‘First October’’ presents Nigerian’s Independence Day as the

day the will of the people was mortgaged. It was a day of contrast: contrast between the rich

and the poor; the looters and the looted; the governors and the governed. For the rich, the

looters and the governors it was a day freedom ‘slipped/into the pockets of the strong’. It was

a day ‘They look for where/to heap their loot/............/their day of boom (15). For the poor,

who were/are the masses, 1st October signifies the day ‘peace (was) looted from our toils’; a

day that ‘walking skeletons... look for how to stay alive’; and indeed ‘our day of doom/.../ our

day of death’ (15). The implication of this contrast is that a day (Independence Day) that

3

should have been a day of jubilation for all, a day of fulfilment for the whole society, a day of

enthronement of justice and equity, has been hijacked to serve the selfish inclinations of a

few. Therefore, for the poor, Independence becomes a stamp of sorrow and more sorrow

(images of death and doom); while for the rich it is a pedestal for self enrichment and

aggrandisement. Chin Ce’s ‘‘May 29 1999’’ (African Eclipse) is an irony, and it shares the same

political disappointment with Ushie’s ‘‘First October’’. May 29, 1999, should actually be a

day of celebration, celebration of democracy, celebration of the return of power to the people.

Ironically, though this day is seen as a democracy day, it is the day 'The sluggard has

slouched /his pot/onto the rock' (12). It is the day of ‘the gang of wolves’ and a ‘kakistocracy

day’ (12). It is a day of kakistocracy because one khaki man handed over to another khaki

man through the latter was dressed in civilian robes. In ‘‘Champ’’, Chin Ce captures the dictatorship that military politics in Nigeria

symbolises. The military politicians are referred to as ‘band of vultures’ that ‘swooped

vicious circles/upon the land of carcasses’ (African Eclipse 8). Using the image of octopus,

Ce demonstrates how the military has their ‘hands/around a hundred contracts (of)/bunkered

oil and stolen rice’ (8). It is a commentary on the military who have failed in their security

and leadership roles. Greed, avarice and selfishness have become their hallmarks.In a similar vein, Nnimmo Bassey’s Poems on the Run (1995) chronicles the

oppression and brutality that characterised military juntas in Nigeria. ‘‘August 25’’,

“Gunrules”, “They took our today”, ‘‘Evil reign”, “BACHA stove”, among other poems,

decry the senseless decrees that are ‘Barricades of freedom’ and ‘fussilades of oppression’

(19). In “Gunrules”, the Head of the Military junta, nicknamed ‘High Prince of Gunrule’ is a

primitive accumulator who specialises in stealing the national wealth and then sowing discord

among the people: You rule our nations You steal our rations You pitch one sectionAgainst another section (Poems on ... 46).

4

On the other hand, their subordinates in the military (‘Evil sentinels of the wicked gates’)

‘Kill/Plunder/Demolish/Rape/Shoot/Maim/Despoil/Shatter/Batter’ (35) just to be seen to be

doing something (“Rock Cocktail”)Beyond politics, moral degeneracy occupies the attention of the male poets. Chin Ce’s

‘‘Fun rail’’ and ‘‘Preacher’’ and Ushie’s ‘‘Song of the dead’’ reveal the debasement of societal

values, values that have hitherto enhanced societal growth and sustenance. In ‘‘Preacher’’ the

persona, a young man (or woman?) deliberately chooses not to listen to the preacher. He sees

the preacher’s activities as a ritual, and so the essence of the preacher’s message is lost on

him. I groaned as you rose In robes that great the floor With your book of life Thy rod and thy staff .............................. I beamed as you turned Elephant-like down the steps ............................... I yawned and stretched my hand But hey dear old preacher What was that you said again? For in my young and vagrant Mind, see? I cannot remember a thing! (33).

For a young man who needs direction and shaping, his rejection of this spiritual directing

depicts a rejection of esteemed values. Emezue (2006) sees this act as ‘the extent of spiritual

degeneracy in the society’ (250).A funeral is said to be a sacred passage from one level of existence to another, and in

most African culture a transition from mortality to immortality. The rites of passage are

therefore expected to be (and were usually so) solemn and are therefore seen as a spiritual

enactment. However, funeral passage rites have lately been turned into ostentatious display of

wealth. The spiritual essence is, by implication, almost lost. In ‘‘Fun rail’’ the dead is buried

‘After anniversary in mortuary’ and sympathisers only come ‘To eat and drink’. The import

5

of this reversed value is felt and disapproved even by the dead who ‘wondered the

delirium/On a sacred pathway of transition’ (African Eclipse 31). Ushie’s Poem ‘‘Song of the dead’’ corroborates the sad commentary on the treatment

of the dead or rites of burials. This poem, contrasts the abandonment and lack of recognition

suffered by somebody while alive with the honour and greatness accorded the same person at

death. The dead man, while alive, was unsung, hungry, naked, diseased, neglected and

dejected. At death, he is dressed in silk, bought ‘an eye-catching casket’, market of mourners

are fed and the hills shake with ‘the echoes of wails’. Before I died you could have sought a cure for my illness; But you did nothing; And now you buy me an eye-catching casket

Before |I died you could have cladmy body from cold and shame;But you did nothing; and now you dress my dust in silk. Before I died You could have let me lean on crumb of yours; But you did nothing; And now you feed a market of mourners.

(Hill Songs 37)

A central thread that runs across the poetry of this era, especially of these male poets,

is that they identify with the masses, the oppressed or freedom fighters. Bassey’s ‘‘A Pregnant

Watch’’ is a dedication to:

... Courageous Folks Who bear the pains of this fire Who stroke the fires of this rage Who stand at the front and the rearOf thisBat Tle

For What

6

Right Ly Is

OURS (34).

In ‘‘Tombstone count for naught’’, dedicated to Tai Solarin, Bassey argues that despite all that

the forces of oppression tried to do to Tai ‘they failed’. Each stanza extols an aspect of Tai’s

struggle for justice and equity and the various plots made to pull him down. And each stanza

ends with an exclamation ‘But see how you failed with Tai!’. Tai, to the poet is an

embodiment of the people’s struggle for liberation:He was our song, our poem And our drilling rig He was our labour, our leisure Our laughter and our cry He washed our scars And stitched our veins He was the flame and the axe The general up at the front (30–31. emphasis mine)

The word ‘our’ is recurrent in almost all the poems in Poems On... that express the plight of

the oppressed. Bassey sees this plight as a collective responsibility (‘our daily battles... our

struggles’ (37). He is concerned about ‘our people’s cries’ (34), ‘our bleeding land’ (38), ‘our

woes’ (41), ‘our roofless huts’ (42), ‘our sad tears’ (49), ‘our hungers, our fears’ (42). Ushie

talks about ‘our ... doom’ (Hillsongs 15).In Ushie’s ‘‘Song of Sisyphus’’ (Eclipse in Rwanda) the poet-persona is moved by the

sight:Of that child orphaned by design; Of that woman widowed by plan; Of our streets peopled by bones; Of our black race and its kamikaze race; Of the human... waste (12).

Ushie is also pained by the ‘cosmetic camaraderie of the rented,/camara-daring crowd

shouting hosanna to/the leopard, (‘‘Town Crier’’), and the presence of ‘a cacophony of

conferencing/skeletons on famished streets’ (16). And so the poet cannot change his song:until it turns a household word a spear or a dagger and hounds and pounds the leopard that pounds on our fragile sheep (13).

7

To borrow the words of Ikiddeh (1996), ‘it is clear the poet Ushie has pitched his camp with

the voiceless and defenceless of society, making himself their advocate’ (Forward to

Eclipse... 6). Though the above assessment is made with specific reference to Ushie’s poetry,

it can apply to Ce, Bassey, and other poets such as Bassey Ekpenyoung (Excursions, 1996;

Expeditions, 2002), Eze Chiazo (The Song of A Foetus, 1997), Anthony Adah (Eve of

Democracy, 1996) and Maik Nwosu (Suns of Kush, 1996), among others, whose works

cannot be accommodated here because of limitations of length but who share the same

thematic relevance like the male poets discussed here. For instance, Bassey Ekpenyong in

‘‘Who says we are sane’’ rhetorically asks:Is sanity diverting publicMoney into private pockets?

Is sanity exploiting and Subjugating the already dead masses?

Is sanity siphoning our Nation’s wealth into strange lands?

Is sanity lavishing money On a corpse which starved to death?

IIIIssues of religion (mostly Christian religious influences) and the female condition

dominate the poetry of this period by women. Most of these poems which sound like psalms

of praises to the Christian God acknowledge the tremendous grace of this God not only to the

poets but to humanity. Mercy John-Ekanem’s poetry (1995) resonates Christian ethics and

precepts. Jesus Christ is acknowledged ‘the atonement at Calvary/paid for with blood’ (22).

She admonishes all to restore ‘fellowship/with Him whose/Grace abounds!’ (59); just as she

is ‘holding on/to unchanging grace/proffered by my God’ (55). There is almost no difference

between her poetry and what is churned out from pulpits in Christian churches: Your road may be rough Your circumstances insurmountable

8

Oh! Tempest tossed Soul! Be still and know there is God! (58)

Elizabeth Adebimpe’s ‘‘The Still Small Voice’’ (Five Hundred Nigerian Poets 1)

declares the unchanging nature of God’s love which makes ‘the soul delighted’ and ‘brings

joy unsearchable’, is fresh ‘like morning rose’, bright ‘like the sun’ and cool ‘like dew drops’

(20). These female poets seem to be following in the footsteps of some Nigerian female poets

like Toyin Adewale-Nduka (2000) and Ebele Eko (1987, 2005) who subject their poetic

creativity to the expression of their Christian religious beliefs. Though some artists like

Emenyonu (ICALEL, 2006) and Nnolim (sic) would rather wish otherwise, Christian

religious inclinations, like the subjects of colonization, failure of political class, and culture

have continued to invade our poetic sensibilities.The female poets are also concerned with the damning treatment of women by society

(which basically implies male). In Titilola Shoneyin’s ‘‘She Tried’’ (So All the Time I was

Sitting on an Egg), one sees the insistence of patriarchy to relegate the female to the

background or to frustrate all her attempts at self-fulfilment beyond her male-ordained

domain. The female in this poem, represented by the pronoun ‘she’, tried to be a doctor,

lawyer, a teacher and a writer. At every of these attempts the patriarchal clan represented by

the pronoun ‘they’ offers weak and nauseating excuses to prevent the realisation of female

goals. Out of frustration she then chooses to be a woman, and this is when she gets the

approval to be: She tried to be a doctor But they said The enamel paint on her talons Stained the scalpel

She tried to be a lawyer But they said Her skirts, way too high, Distracted the judge

She tried to be a teacher But they said Her voice was too weak

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Not quite loud enough to control the children

She tried to be a writer But they saidShe needed guts And of course, that phallic mind

So she tried to be a woman They pat her on the back And showed her the kitchen, the garden ... and the bed (13).

To use the words of Ushie (2001), ‘‘patting her on the back and showing her the kitchen, etc,

are physical actions by men (or ‘they’) endorsing woman’s confinement to routinised

domestic chores as well as yoke and restrict her to satisfy men’s sexual pleasure’’ (197). Fatima Alkali’s female in ‘‘A Woman’s Fate’’ (Vultures in the Air, 1995) faces the

same ‘imprisonment’ as shoneyin’s. Her identity is enslaved, her strength caged and

undiscovered, and she possesses a will but no voice. However, unlike shoneyin’s woman,

Alkali’s is resilient; she is optimistic that the woman will one day break free from her yokes.Rosemary Asen’s poem, ‘‘woman’’ and Joy Odewumi’s ‘‘The mother’’ (Five

Hundred...) concentrate on the pains and travails of being a woman. Asen’s woman’s dreams

of a home filled with love, food and children is crashed as she is saddled with a loveless and

childless home. Her husband is unfaithful, stingy and a wife-batterer; her in-laws are callous;

she alone bears the responsibility of her childlessness and at the death of her husband she is

the witch responsible for his demise. So her life becomes emptied of ‘joy, integrity and

property’ (20). Mabel Segun (1986), one of Nigerian’s early female poets, have lamented the

‘misuse’ of the woman in marriage by the males in her poem ‘‘Exploitation’’: Ready to be plucked, she was, Like a coconut; The warm milk from her swollen breast They drained without regard For the emptiness they left behind. I saw her plum and ripened flesh Shredded and chewed into tiny bits. I saw them use her – Or what was left of her – As a footmat; And when they got worn

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They threw it out Onto the dung heap And moved away To greener pastures.(Conflict ... 7)

What this implies, especially judging from the time span between when Segun wrote (1986)

and 2005, is that the status of the female and the roles designated for her by the male has not

changed. Odewumi’s poem of 11 lines and 16 words seems to be a summary of the status of

woman in society captured by other female poets. For emphasis we quote the whole poem:Pained Stressed Sad Happy Disguised Displeased Disappointed Watchwoman All day and night That is the mother (Five Hundred ... 304)

Though the above quotation could also be a description of the status of other members of the

oppressed in the society, the last sentence emphatically demonstrates that her concentration is

on the feminine gender.

IVThe discussion above indicates that the language of the male poets is combative and

aggressive. For instance, the politicians (civilian or military) are referred to as ‘a band of

vultures’ (Chin Ce), ‘leopard’ (Ushie), ‘rogue’ (Bassey), etc. The male poets are more overtly

revolutionary; the victims are encouraged to rise up to the forces that oppress them. To these

poets, the downtrodden include men, women and children who are at the receiving end of

political misrule. For the female poets, the down trodden are just the female - wife, daughter, mother

and sister. They are not overtly revolutionary or combative; they present the female situation

in its supposed nakedness or realistic existence as a way of calling for a redress. And this

could account for why the language of the female poets is more subtle and full of rather

proverbial usage.

11

However, this is not to say that there is no meeting point(s) between them. For

instance, Adewale-Nduka decries the lack of responsiveness of the political class to the

provision of security and social amenities, when she talks of "the venom of political guns and

the yawning graves of our pathways" (49). Like the female poet, Ubah’s Daybreak (1997)

celebrates the awesomeness of God when he enjoins us:Let us praise God and his anointed Son Whose loving care Showers us with lights of a new day Let us honour him In work and play As we savour each daybreak (p4)

Both male and female poets use social ‘raw’ materials. The poems are all nourished

by socio-political cum cultural environment of their time. They demonstrate the age-long

perception that literature is given impetus by social realities. In addition, the poets are

concerned about positive social changes: changes that will enhance positive social values;

changes that will guarantee societal cohesion; changes that will lead to a new social order that

will be for the good of all especially in favour of the less privileged or the downtrodden.

REFERENCESAdewale-Nduka, T. 2000. Naked testimonies. Lagos: Mace Associates.

Agada, J. (Ed.). 2005. Five hundred Nigerian poet. Vol.1. Makurdi: Aboki.

Aiyejina, F. 1989. Mabel Segun: A critical review in H. Otokunefor and O. Nwodo (Eds.). Nigerian female writers: A critical perspective. Lagos: Malthouse, 132-140.

Alkali, Z. and Imfeld A. (Eds.). 1995. Vultures in the air. Ibadan: Spectrum.

Bassey, N. 1995. Poems on the run. Ibadan: Kraftgriots.

Ce, C. 2000. African eclipse. Enugu: Handel.

Eko, E. 1987. Wings of the morning. Calabar: Word Family.

Eko, E. 2005. Joy unspeakable: Inspirational poems and tributes. Calabar: Unical Press.

12

Emezue, G. M. T. 2006. Dialogism and dispossession in post war Nigerian poetry: A study of the works of five Nigerian poets’’. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Department of English & Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Calabar.

Etta, J. 2006. Imagery and symbolism in the poetry of Niyi Osundare. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Department of English & Literary Studies, University of Calabar,Calabar.

John–Ekanem, M. 1995. A harvest of scarlet coals and other poems. Uyo: Inela.

Ojaide, T. 1996. Poetic imagination in black Africa: Essays on African poetry. Durham: Carolina Academic press.

Osundare, N. 1996. Singers of a new dawn: Nigerian literature from the second generation on’’. A paper presented at Anglestentag, Dresden, Germany, October 1.

Segun, M. 1986. Conflict and other poems. Ibadan: Spectrum.

Shoneyin, T. 1998. So all the time I was sitting on an egg. Ibadan: Ovalonian.

Ubah, J.I.P. 1997. Daybreak. Calabar: Editions Eh.Ushie, J. 1998. Eclipse in rwanda. Ibadan: Kraftgriots.

Ushie, J. 2000. Hill songs. Ibadan: Kraftgriots.

Ushie, J. 2001. Many voices, many visions: A stylistic study of ‘new’ Nigerian poetry’’. Unpublished Ph.D Dissertation, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

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Etiowo, J. M., (2014); Bards of Different Tunes: Contrasting Perspectives in Modern Nigerian Poetry (1986-2006), ANSU Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 2 (2):53-60

Bards of Different Tunes:Contrasting Perspectives in Modern Nigerian Poetry (1986-2006)

Etiowo, Joy M. PhDFaculty of Communication TechnologyCross River University of [email protected]

Abstract Between 1986 and 2006, the Nigerian literary environment witnessed an upsurge in poeticproduction. An examination of these poetic outputs by male and female authors indicates adifference in thematic preoccupations between the female and male poets. While issues of religionand gender take centre stage in the poetry of the female, the male poets seem to be more concernedabout socio-political matters and moral degradation. With specific examples, this paper elucidatesthese contrasting perspectives, without, however, forgetting some meeting points.

Keywords: Poetry, Religion and gender, Moral degradation.

53

ANSU Journal of Arts and Social Sciences

ISome scholars of Nigerian poetry have dividedModern Nigerian poetry into three phases(Aiyejina 1989; Osundare 1996; Ojaide 1996;Ushie 2002; Etta 2006). The first phase is saidto cover the early years of this poetry up to1965; the second phase is said to include thepoetry of what has become known as secondgeneration poets; the third phase has to do withpoetic productions from the 1980s and beyond.According to Aiyejina (1989),

early Nigerian Poetry in English...was marked by an excessivepreoccupation with the poet’sprivate grief and emotion over andabove societal tragedies andtriumphs. It was also a poetrydistinguished by an undueeurocentrism, derivationism,obscurantism and private esoterism(112).

This class has Wole Soyinka, the early Okigbo,J. P .Clark, Dennis Osadebay, etc.

Etta (2006) has that the secondgeneration poets are made up of poets ‘‘whosevision was focused on the collectivepredicament, whose temper was impatient withindividual bombast, and whose languagecatered to the generality of the populace...’’(66). Some of these poets include TanureOjaide, Onuora Enekwe, Femi Osofisan, FemiFatoba, Niyi Osundare, among others.According to Ushie (2002) the third phase‘‘constitutes an unchartered literary terrain’’(24). It is made up of poets, in the words ofOsundare (1996), ‘‘born around 1960’s,Nigeria’s midnight children, as it were whohave spent the first three decades of their livesconfronting the nightmare that the country hasbecome’’ (20). A prominent feature of thesepoets is that they adopt an artistic style that ispeople-oriented, acting as the mouth-piece oftheir generation or group. Like the secondgeneration poets, members of this third group

are generally impatient with unjust systems.Nnimmo Bassey, Remi Raji, Joseph Ushie,Ogaga Ifowodo, Chin Ce, Bassey Ekpenyong,Toyin Adewale-Nduka, Cecilia Kato, MercyJohn-Ekanem, are among the poets of thisgroup.

The above categorisation of Nigerianpoetry may not be absolute. This is becausethere could be some overlapping of vision andfocus between the different phases and thepoets of each era. However, the categorisationis a helpful instrument especially on adiscussion that is period-based as in thispresent study.

The period under study (1986–2006)witnessed a kind of poetry production thatcould be said to have the characteristics of boththe second and third categorization, while stillevolving other peculiar traits. For instance,issues of politics, especially the failure of thepolitical class to assuage the pains of themasses; oppression; and moral degeneracy,which are some of the main preoccupations ofthe poets in this study, have been addressed bypoets of the second and third categories.However, the ‘gender war’ and the existence ofthe Christian religion as a creative impetus arealmost alien to poets of the first and secondgenerations. The poetry of Joseph Ushie, ChinCe, Nnimmo Bassey, Mercy John-Ekanem,Titilola Shoneyin, Fatima Alkali, RosemaryAsen, Joy Odewumi, Toyin Adewale-Nduka,JIP Ubah, among others, are selected for thisstudy.

IIJoseph Ushie’s poem ‘‘First October’’ presentsNigerian’s Independence Day as the day thewill of the people was mortgaged. It was a dayof contrast: contrast between the rich and thepoor; the looters and the looted; the governorsand the governed. For the rich, the looters andthe governors it was a day freedom‘slipped/into the pockets of the strong’. It was aday ‘They look for where/to heap theirloot/............/their day of boom (15). For the

54


poor, who were/are the masses, 1st Octobersignifies the day ‘peace (was) looted from ourtoils’; a day that ‘walking skeletons... look forhow to stay alive’; and indeed ‘our day ofdoom/.../ our day of death’ (15). Theimplication of this contrast is that a day(Independence Day) that should have been aday of jubilation for all, a day of fulfilment forthe whole society, a day of enthronement ofjustice and equity, has been hijacked to servethe selfish inclinations of a few. Therefore, forthe poor, Independence becomes a stamp ofsorrow and more sorrow (images of death anddoom); while for the rich it is a pedestal for selfenrichment and aggrandisement.

Chin Ce’s ‘‘May 29 1999’’ (AfricanEclipse) is an irony, and it shares the samepolitical disappointment with Ushie’s ‘‘FirstOctober’’. May 29, 1999, should actually be aday of celebration, celebration of democracy,celebration of the return of power to the people.Ironically, though this day is seen as ademocracy day, it is the day 'The sluggard hasslouched /his pot/onto the rock' (12). It is theday of ‘the gang of wolves’ and a ‘kakistocracyday’ (12). It is a day of kakistocracy becauseone khaki man handed over to another khakiman through the latter was dressed in civilianrobes.

In ‘‘Champ’’, Chin Ce captures thedictatorship that military politics in Nigeriasymbolises. The military politicians arereferred to as ‘band of vultures’ that ‘swoopedvicious circles/upon the land of carcasses’(African Eclipse 8). Using the image ofoctopus, Ce demonstrates how the military hastheir ‘hands/around a hundred contracts(of)/bunkered oil and stolen rice’ (8). It is acommentary on the military who have failed intheir security and leadership roles. Greed,avarice and selfishness have become theirhallmarks.

In a similar vein, Nnimmo Bassey’sPoems on the Run (1995) chronicles theoppression and brutality that characterisedmilitary juntas in Nigeria. ‘‘August 25’’,

“Gunrules”, “They took our today”, ‘‘Evilreign”, “BACHA stove”, among other poems,decry the senseless decrees that are ‘Barricadesof freedom’ and ‘fussilades of oppression’ (19).In “Gunrules”, the Head of the Military junta,nicknamed ‘High Prince of Gunrule’ is aprimitive accumulator who specialises instealing the national wealth and then sowingdiscord among the people:

You rule our nations You steal our rations You pitch one sectionAgainst another section (Poems on ... 46).

On the other hand, their subordinates in themilitary (‘Evil sentinels of the wicked gates’)‘Kill/Plunder/Demolish/Rape/Shoot/Maim/Despoil/Shatter/Batter’ (35) just to be seen to bedoing something (“Rock Cocktail”)

Beyond politics, moral degeneracyoccupies the attention of the male poets. ChinCe’s ‘‘Fun rail’’ and ‘‘Preacher’’ and Ushie’s‘‘Song of the dead’’ reveal the debasement ofsocietal values, values that have hithertoenhanced societal growth and sustenance. In‘‘Preacher’’ the persona, a young man (orwoman?) deliberately chooses not to listen tothe preacher. He sees the preacher’s activitiesas a ritual, and so the essence of the preacher’smessage is lost on him.

I groaned as you rose In robes that great the floor With your book of life Thy rod and thy staff .............................. I beamed as you turned Elephant-like down the steps ............................... I yawned and stretched my hand But hey dear old preacher What was that you said again? For in my young and vagrant Mind, see? I cannot remember a thing! (33).

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For a young man who needs direction andshaping, his rejection of this spiritual directingdepicts a rejection of esteemed values. Emezue(2006) sees this act as ‘the extent of spiritualdegeneracy in the society’ (250).

A funeral is said to be a sacred passagefrom one level of existence to another, and inmost African culture a transition from mortalityto immortality. The rites of passage aretherefore expected to be (and were usually so)solemn and are therefore seen as a spiritualenactment. However, funeral passage rites havelately been turned into ostentatious display ofwealth. The spiritual essence is, by implication,almost lost. In ‘‘Fun rail’’ the dead is buried‘After anniversary in mortuary’ andsympathisers only come ‘To eat and drink’. Theimport of this reversed value is felt anddisapproved even by the dead who ‘wonderedthe delirium/On a sacred pathway of transition’(African Eclipse 31).

Ushie’s Poem ‘‘Song of the dead’’corroborates the sad commentary on thetreatment of the dead or rites of burials. Thispoem, contrasts the abandonment and lack ofrecognition suffered by somebody while alivewith the honour and greatness accorded thesame person at death. The dead man, whilealive, was unsung, hungry, naked, diseased,neglected and dejected. At death, he is dressedin silk, bought ‘an eye-catching casket’,market of mourners are fed and the hills shakewith ‘the echoes of wails’.

Before I died you could have sought a cure for my illness; But you did nothing; And now you buy me an eye-catching casket

Before |I died you could have cladmy body from cold and shame;But you did nothing;

and now you dress my dust in silk.

Before I died You could have let me lean on crumb of yours; But you did nothing; And now you feed a market ofmourners.(Hill Songs 37)

A central thread that runs across thepoetry of this era, especially of these malepoets, is that they identify with the masses, theoppressed or freedom fighters. Bassey’s ‘‘APregnant Watch’’ is a dedication to:

... Courageous Folks Who bear the pains of this fire Who stroke the fires of this rageWho stand at the front and the rearOf thisBat Tle For

What Right

Ly Is OURS (34).

In ‘‘Tombstone count for naught’’, dedicated toTai Solarin, Bassey argues that despite all thatthe forces of oppression tried to do to Tai ‘theyfailed’. Each stanza extols an aspect of Tai’sstruggle for justice and equity and the variousplots made to pull him down. And each stanzaends with an exclamation ‘But see how youfailed with Tai!’. Tai, to the poet is anembodiment of the people’s struggle forliberation:

He was our song, our poem And our drilling rig He was our labour, our leisure Our laughter and our cryHe washed our scars And stitched our veins

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He was the flame and the axe The general up at the front (30–31.emphasis mine)

The word ‘our’ is recurrent in almost all thepoems in Poems On... that express the plightof the oppressed. Bassey sees this plight as acollective responsibility (‘our daily battles...our struggles’ (37). He is concerned about ‘ourpeople’s cries’ (34), ‘our bleeding land’ (38),‘our woes’ (41), ‘our roofless huts’ (42), ‘oursad tears’ (49), ‘our hungers, our fears’ (42).Ushie talks about ‘our ... doom’ (Hillsongs 15).

In Ushie’s ‘‘Song of Sisyphus’’ (Eclipsein Rwanda) the poet-persona is moved by thesight:

Of that child orphaned by design;Of that woman widowed by plan;Of our streets peopled by bones; Of our black race and its kamikazerace; Of the human... waste (12).

Ushie is also pained by the ‘cosmeticcamaraderie of the rented/camara-daring crowdshouting hosanna to/the leopard, (‘‘TownCrier’’), and the presence of ‘a cacophony ofconferencing/skeletons on famished streets’(16). And so the poet cannot change his song:

until it turns a household word a spear or a dagger and hounds and pounds the leopard that pounds on our fragile sheep (13).

To borrow the words of Ikiddeh (1996), ‘it isclear the poet Ushie has pitched his camp withthe voiceless and defenceless of society,making himself their advocate’ (Forward toEclipse... 6). Though the above assessment ismade with specific reference to Ushie’s poetry,it can apply to Ce, Bassey, and other poets suchas Bassey Ekpenyoung (Excursions, 1996;Expeditions, 2002), Eze Chiazo (The Song of AFoetus, 1997), Anthony Adah (Eve ofDemocracy, 1996) and Maik Nwosu (Suns ofKush, 1996), among others, whose works

cannot be accommodated here because oflimitations of length but who share the samethematic relevance like the male poetsdiscussed here. For instance, BasseyEkpenyong in ‘‘Who says we are sane’’rhetorically asks:

Is sanity diverting publicMoney into private pockets?

Is sanity exploiting and Subjugating the already dead asses?

Is sanity siphoning our Nation’s wealth into strange lands?

Is sanity lavishing moneyOn a corpse which starved to death?

IIIIssues of religion (mostly Christian religiousinfluences) and the female condition dominatethe poetry of this period by women. Most ofthese poems which sound like psalms of praisesto the Christian God acknowledge thetremendous grace of this God not only to thepoets but to humanity. Mercy John-Ekanem’spoetry (1995) resonates Christian ethics andprecepts. Jesus Christ is acknowledged ‘theatonement at Calvary/paid for with blood’ (22).She admonishes all to restore ‘fellowship/withHim whose/Grace abounds!’ (59); just as she is‘holding on/to unchanging grace/proffered bymy God’ (55). There is almost no differencebetween her poetry and what is churned outfrom pulpits in Christian churches:

Your road may be rough Your circumstances insurmountable Oh! Tempest tossed Soul! Be still and know there is God! (58)

Elizabeth Adebimpe’s ‘‘The Still SmallVoice’’ (Five Hundred Nigerian Poets 1)declares the unchanging nature of God’s love

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which makes ‘the soul delighted’ and ‘bringsjoy unsearchable’, is fresh ‘like morning rose’,bright ‘like the sun’ and cool ‘like dew drops’(20). These female poets seem to be followingin the footsteps of some Nigerian female poetslike Toyin Adewale-Nduka (2000) and EbeleEko (1987, 2005) who subject their poeticcreativity to the expression of their Christianreligious beliefs. Though some artists likeEmenyonu (ICALEL, 2006) and Nnolim (sic)would rather wish otherwise, Christianreligious inclinations, like the subjects ofcolonization, failure of political class, andculture have continued to invade our poeticsensibilities.

The female poets are also concernedwith the damning treatment of women bysociety (which basically implies male). InTitilola Shoneyin’s ‘‘She Tried’’ (So All theTime I was Sitting on an Egg), one sees theinsistence of patriarchy to relegate the femaleto the background or to frustrate all herattempts at self-fulfilment beyond her male-ordained domain. The female in this poem,represented by the pronoun ‘she’, tried to be adoctor, lawyer, a teacher and a writer. At everyof these attempts the patriarchal clanrepresented by the pronoun ‘they’ offers weakand nauseating excuses to prevent therealisation of female goals. Out of frustrationshe then chooses to be a woman, and this iswhen she gets the approval to be:

She tried to be a doctor But they said The enamel paint on her talonsStained the scalpel

She tried to be a lawyer But they said Her skirts, way too high, Distracted the judge

She tried to be a teacher But they said Her voice was too weak Not quite loud enough to control thechildren

She tried to be a writer But they saidShe needed guts And of course, that phallic mind

So she tried to be a woman They pat her on the back And showed her the kitchen, thegarden ... and the bed (13).

To use the words of Ushie (2001), ‘‘patting heron the back and showing her the kitchen, etc,are physical actions by men (or ‘they’)endorsing woman’s confinement to routiniseddomestic chores as well as yoke and restrict herto satisfy men’s sexual pleasure’’ (197).

Fatima Alkali’s female in ‘‘A Woman’sFate’’ (Vultures in the Air, 1995) faces the same‘imprisonment’ as shoneyin’s. Her identity isenslaved, her strength caged and undiscovered,and she possesses a will but no voice.However, unlike shoneyin’s woman, Alkali’s isresilient; she is optimistic that the woman willone day break free from her yokes.

Rosemary Asen’s poem, ‘‘woman’’ andJoy Odewumi’s ‘‘The mother’’ (FiveHundred...) concentrate on the pains andtravails of being a woman. Asen’s woman’sdreams of a home filled with love, food andchildren is crashed as she is saddled with aloveless and childless home. Her husband isunfaithful, stingy and a wife-batterer; her in-laws are callous; she alone bears theresponsibility of her childlessness and at thedeath of her husband she is the witchresponsible for his demise. So her life becomesemptied of ‘joy, integrity and property’ (20).Mabel Segun (1986), one of Nigerian’s earlyfemale poets, have lamented the ‘misuse’ of thewoman in marriage by the males in her poem‘‘Exploitation’’:

Ready to be plucked, she was, Like a coconut; The warm milk from her swollen breastThey drained without regard

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For the emptiness they left behind. I saw her plum and ripened flesh Shredded and chewed into tiny bits.I saw them use her – Or what was left of her –As a footmat; And when they got worn They threw it out Onto the dung heap And moved away To greener pastures. Conflict ... 7)

What this implies, especially judging from thetime span between when Segun wrote (1986)and 2005, is that the status of the female andthe roles designated for her by the male has notchanged.

Odewumi’s poem of 11 lines and 16words seems to be a summary of the status ofwoman in society captured by other femalepoets. For emphasis we quote the whole poem:

Pained Stressed Sad Happy

Disguised Displeased Disappointed Watchwoman

All day and night That is the mother Five Hundred ... 304)

Though the above quotation could also be adescription of the status of other members ofthe oppressed in the society, the last sentenceemphatically demonstrates that herconcentration is on the feminine gender.

IVThe discussion above indicates that thelanguage of the male poets is combative andaggressive. For instance, the politicians(civilian or military) are referred to as ‘a bandof vultures’ (Chin Ce), ‘leopard’ (Ushie),‘rogue’ (Bassey), etc. The male poets are more

overtly revolutionary; the victims areencouraged to rise up to the forces that oppressthem. To these poets, the downtrodden includemen, women and children who are at thereceiving end of political misrule.

For the female poets, the down troddenare just the female - wife, daughter, mother andsister. They are not overtly revolutionary orcombative; they present the female situation inits supposed nakedness or realistic existence asa way of calling for a redress. And this couldaccount for why the language of the femalepoets is more subtle and full of ratherproverbial usage.

However, this is not to say that there isno meeting point(s) between them. Forinstance, Adewale-Nduka decries the lack ofresponsiveness of the political class to theprovision of security and social amenities,when she talks of "the venom of political gunsand the yawning graves of our pathways" (49).Like the female poet, Ubah’s Daybreak (1997)celebrates the awesomeness of God when heenjoins us:

Let us praiseGod and his anointed Son Whose loving care Showers us with lights of a new day

Let us honour him In work and play As we savour eachdaybreak (p4)

Both male and female poets use social ‘raw’materials. The poems are all nourished bysocio-political cum cultural environment oftheir time. They demonstrate the age-longperception that literature is given impetus bysocial realities. In addition, the poets areconcerned about positive social changes:changes that will enhance positive socialvalues; changes that will guarantee societalcohesion; changes that will lead to a new socialorder that will be for the good of all especially

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in favour of the less privileged or thedowntrodden.

Works CitedAdewale-Nduka, T. 2000. Naked testimonies.

Lagos: Mace Associates.Agada, J. (Ed.). 2005. Five hundred Nigerian

Poet. Vol.1. Makurdi: Aboki.Aiyejina, F. (1989). Mabel Segun: A critical

review in H. Otokunefor and O. Nwodo(Eds.). Nigerian female writers: Acritical perspective. Lagos: Malthouse,132-140.

Alkali, Z. and Imfeld A. (Eds.). (1995).Vultures in the air. Ibadan: Spectrum.

Bassey, N. (1995). Poems on the run. Ibadan:Kraftgriots.

Ce, C. (2000). African Eclipse. Enugu:Handel.

Eko, E. 1987. Wings of the morning. Calabar:Word Family.

Eko, E. (2005). Joy unspeakable: Inspirationalpoems and tributes. Calabar: UnicalPress.

Emezue, G. M. T. (2006). Dialogism anddispossession in post war Nigerianpoetry: A study of the works of fiveNigerian poets’’. Unpublished Ph.Ddissertation, Department of English &Literary Studies, University of Calabar,Calabar.

Etta, J. (2006). Imagery and symbolism in thepoetry of Niyi Osundare. UnpublishedPh.D dissertation, Department ofEnglish & Literary Studies, Universityof Calabar, Calabar.

John–Ekanem, M. (1995). A harvest of scarletcoals and other poems. Uyo: Inela.

Ojaide, T. (1996). Poetic imagination in blackAfrica: Essays on African poetry.Durham: Carolina Academic press.

Osundare, N. (1996). Singers of a new dawn:Nigerian literature from the secondgeneration on’’. A paper presented atAnglestentag, Dresden, Germany,October 1.

Segun, M. (1986). Conflict and other poems.Ibadan: Spectrum.

Shoneyin, T. (1998). So all the time I wassitting on an egg. Ibadan: Ovalonian.

Ubah, J.I.P. 1997. Daybreak. Calabar: EditionsEh.

Ushie, J. (1998). Eclipse in rwanda. Ibadan:Kraftgriots.

Ushie, J. (2000). Hill songs. Ibadan:Kraftgriots.

Ushie, J. (2001). Many voices, many visions: Astylistic study of ‘new’ Nigerianpoetry’’.

Unpublished Ph.D Dissertation, University ofIbadan, Ibadan.

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bards of different tunes: contrasting ...the poetry of what has become known as second generation...

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