INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we will study the works of select new poets in Nigeria. They classified as new poets because they fall under the third generation of writers to emerge from Nigeria. However, one of the select poets here, Hyginus Ekwuazi has been writing poetry for a long time alongside the second generation Nigerian poets like Osundare, Osofisan, Enekwe amongst others but his only collection of poetry Love Apart was published in 2007 by Kraft Books, and hence he falls under the new generation poets in Nigeria. Other works to be used in illustrating this new poetry in Nigeria include: Austyn Njoku’s Night in Lagos and Akeem Lasisi’s Iremoje.
3.1 General Overview
Writing poetry is a most personal enterprise and hence poets are prone to expressing certain peculiar opinions in defense their works, especially when faced with a criticism that challenges the value of such works. For some Nigerian poets the problem is less of talent than of their indolence and reluctance in undergoing the laborious process of developing their craft. Many critics believe that the third generation writers are hasty. They accuse them of being too anxious to get published. They ask: how many of the poets of this generation are ready to undergo pain-staking craftsmanship? Every true poet who desires greatness must as of necessity be determined upon a life of poetry - he must be ready to work hard at his art, suffer for it, bleed for it, he must make himself amenable to constructive criticisms and most of all he must be his own bitterest critic.
The question remains: what will the future poets find in the best poets of this generation to admire and emulate? The poetry of every generation the world over has always had some distinctive features that distinguish it from the one of the preceding generation. Are there some distinguishing features peculiar to the poetry of this generation of Nigerian writers? Some critics have also observed that in spite of the increasing chunks of poetry that are being churned out everyday, Nigerian poets are yet to evolve a style that would distinguish them from their predecessors and that there are hardly new trends in the poetry being currently written. They want to imitate the trends of Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide. Almost every poet still wants to write in the oral, lyrical fashion of Osundare and Ojaide. There is nothing wrong in being influenced by the great masters of the art of a preceding generation, as Wole Soyinka asserts in his preface to Poems of Black Africa:
There is a distinct quality in all great poets that does exercise a ghostly influence in other writers, but this need not to be cause for self - flagellation. The resulting works is judged by its capacity to move ahead or sideways by the thoroughness of ingestion within a new organic mould, by the original strength of the new entity(2)
The renown that the Niyi Osundare generation presently enjoys is a result of its resolve to 'move ahead' from the conservative poetic trends of the poets of Soyinka’s generation and evolve its own unique poetry in a new 'organic mould'. The present generation of Nigerian poets has tried to do likewise.
As exceptional as the poetry of Osundare’s generation is, it still does have some gross weaknesses. It is unfortunate that the poets of the present generation have continued to imitate such styles. Its best poets though very brilliant still have their bilabials lost in the gutturals of the masters, to put it in stricter words, their voices can at best be categorized as self - displaying babels that are yet to evolve into one organic, unmistakable voice that would denominate their generation and distinguish it from the preceding generation. Our poetry should reflect that vastness and endlessness.
We have had poets addressing the so called socio - political ills since the country's independence, yet nothing has changed. There is no way politics can be completely expunged from our poetry, but if we must write about politics let us be more subtle and creative about it. Every student of literature knows that the development of poetry, nay literature, has always followed and maintained fidelity to one unchanging tradition - the tradition of action and reaction, of counter reactions and returns. Thus we have romanticism as a reaction against neo-classicism, modernism as a reaction against Victorianism, etc., and poetry is much the better or it. Why then has the present generation of Nigerian poets created for itself dark stagnant waters in which it has continued to wallow in the oral traditions of the second generation of Nigerian poets? Why should our contemporary poets continue to write in the aesthetics in whose evolution they had no hand and in which their predecessors have continued to record unsurpassable achievements?
Literary history is a self-pruning process - it prunes poetry to the study of a few poets of each generation and it may be that these poets generally regarded as the best of this generation will be studied, Hyginus Ekwuazi, Akeem Lasisi, Ogaga Ifowodo, Uche Uduka, Ebereonwu, Obi Nwakama, Remi Raji, Promise Okekwe, Austyn Njoku and others. But this is only a tentative judgment. However ecstatically we praise these poets, the final verdict belongs to the future generation of poets, who will find in some of these poets something to admire and emulate. Every poet worth his salt knows that his poetry will be richer if he submits himself to vast extensive readings; if he makes himself receptive to all poetic trends all over the world, while maintaining a consciousness of his base; if he loosens up his current stilted poetic lines and finally if he embraces all subjects as material for poetry. It is, however, gratifying to note that propitious signs about the development of new Nigerian poetry are already emerging from certain poets. In the freshness of imagery, in the musicality of lines, in the inventiveness of imagination and language these new poets are certainly some of the poets that shall define the aesthetics by which their generation of poets will be enjoyed and remembered by subsequent generations of poets.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Critically discuss the various criticisms against the new Nigerian poetry.
3.2 Poetry of Passion: Hyginus Ekwuazi’s Love Apart (2007)
Hyginus Ekwuazi is a director at the Nigerian Film Institute in Jos. He was a Senior lecturer at the department of Dramatic Arts, University of Ibadan. He has been a well known researcher in the field of dramatic arts, films studies, Nigerian home videos and creative arts generally. He has been writing poetry for the past two decades. His earlier poems were ranked alongside the second generation Nigerian poets like Niyi Osundare, Tanure Ojaide, Okinba Launko (Femi Osofisan) amongst others. However, his only collection of poetry Love Apart was published in 2007. This collection won two awards: ANA NDDC Prize and Gabriel Okara Prize for literature. The judges commended the poetic novelty in the collection.
In this collection, Hyginus uses a poet persona who passes through a series of love experiences to explore issues of human relationship, politics, culture, and the essence of societal growth. Love Apart is a poetic journey that grows from innocence to experience where apart from love other aspects of human passionate realities are treated with in- depth poetic essence. According to Ekwuazi in his preface to Love Apart:
All I’ve been leading to is simply this: there are here, like Okigbo would say, the errors of the rendering. I daresay, the amount of such errors here could 9should?) be overwhelming. Of course, I’m only too well aware that no amount of polishing/rewriting can completely or, even, substantially, remove them. (6-7)
The poems trace the effects of separation, the obvious effects of living apart after a long time of togetherness. We see the effect of power as one of the obvious causes of separation. We see greed, anarchy and other forms of subjugation which are parts of the errors of the rendering. He sees silence as poetry. Silence is golden when applied with caution and reasoning. In the poem “Those men that prance and dance around you”, he attacks those leaders, politicians, military men and other people who have been killing the joy of the helpless populace who dance to the various tones of anarchy permeating the entire system:
the one who would share and share alike the ancient throne of his fathers for half your bed …
the one whose carrot stick is a mansion and a million in any currency not the dollar or the euro the oil sleek politician false as only a Nigerian butchers scale can be …
Love Apart takes careful incursion into the effects of betrayal, lust, denial and rejection. It uses personal relationship as yardstick for measuring communal belief and the need for love which should form the basis for harmony in the society.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
Explain the effectiveness of the theme of love in appraising governance in Love Apart.
3.3 Poetry of the City: Austyn Njoku’s Night in Lagos (2008)
Austyn Njoku has been in Nigeria’s literary sphere for more than two decades. He was a crew staff of the defunct Nigeria Airways, a job which sharpened his interest in literature. Having travelled to over 20 countries, his contact with people of many races in comparison with his Nigerian life helped so much in making his poetry a unique voice. He writes poetry with individualistic touch. So far, he has written three collections of poetry I’ve Been a Crew (1998), Scents of Dawn (2002) and Night in Lagos (2008).
Lagos is beyond a mere city. It is a phenomenon: the good, the bad and the ugly. Austyn Njoku’s Night in Lagos (2008) takes a poetic incursion into the various aspects of Lagos: the sociological, the psychological, the physical and the spiritual. It treats each aspect with much dexterity. In his preface to Night in Lagos, Olu Obafemi says: “Talking about commitment and passion, the two most notorious passport of any Nigerian poet, I dare say in our obsolescent Nigerian society today, Austyn Njoku robs soul and body with his contemporary third generation Nigerian writers” Talking about Lagos, the subject of the collection, Obafemi adds: “Osofisan has warned us, in a recent Ibadan Lecture Series, to expect more of literature of anguish, disillusion, delectable sensuality in, hopefully arty forms from Lagos, a new centre of creativity haven seized the baton from Ibadan”(v).
In the beginning of Nigerian written literature, Cyprian Ekwensi began with People of the City, a novel which examines the social life of Victorian Lagos. It juxtaposes the new urban passion with the rural beginning of the people. The sad news is that the city, though with everything good, lacks the unity, love and the expected passion for brotherhood. The city in Nigerian literature since then has been a symbol of everything odd. Night in Lagos takes a deeper look at these odds of the city using the same Lagos as focus. Most of the poems revolve around the poet’s experiences in the city of Lagos where there are marked differences in class and topography. Some questions that come to mind are: why did the poet choose the title Night in Lagos?
What does night portend for Lagosians? Does Lagos night define uniqueness that the daytime never carries?
In one of the poems entitled “Lagos”, he pictures the ugly scenes of dirt, hate, destruction and the labyrinthine: “The sinks solemnly sigh/ At the sight of drab dishes/Swelling their brooding bowels” (2). This verse becomes more realistic with the next poem “Flood Lagos” which tries to question the population explosion in the city. Lagos population, to the poet, “Leaves a mystery yet unraveled” (3). Lagos is one of the most populated cities in the world but the infrastructural development is not as fast as the population increases by the minute. Even in the elite part of Lagos, the Island, the commercialization of the city centre which results in high traffic bothers the poet in the poem “Lagos Island”. The poem “Oshodi Oke”, pictures the inhuman part of Lagosians. Oshodi bus stop has been described as the busiest bus stop in the world with human traffic of over one million people on a daily basis. In this poem, the poet recalls how a dying man was left unattended to in the bus stop because “They all filed past him/ Like black busy ants/ In a long black procession” (7). Every body is busy in Lagos fighting for greener pastures even at the detriment of love, compassion and charity. It is in the title poem “Night in Lagos” that the poet revealed the horrors of Lagos:
Whispering in the shadows
Smooching shuffling of flesh
Moaning in the corners of Allen
Grabbing stabbing in Mushin
And slashing off a head or
Simply plucking some eyes-
Sleeping with serpents in Oshodi
While private parts fly into thin air!
These are just rhythms of night in Lagos (51)
Each of the poems in this collection examines the state of Lagos in various dimensions as the poet ruminates in awe at every aspect of the city’s odds. One is left at the end of the reading with much taught at the height of human carnage, environmental odds, political insincerity, underdevelopment and even spiritual wickedness. Olu Obafemi, in his affirmation of Lagos as a good subject matter in Nigerian literature adds thus:
In Lagos…in the mixture of rancid stench in deodorant fragrance; the ghetto and the super-maul(sic); abjection and opulence; lavish love and searing hate; pain and joy; prey and predation we see the new centre of creative burst of the emerging generation that will lead the light of Nigerian literature by young men and women (iv)
All these and more are captured in Night in Lagos in subtle poetic monologue with racy comprehensible images and message.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
Explain the sullen images of Lagos as reflected in Night in Lagos.
3.4 Ritual Poetry: Akeem Lasisi’s Iremoje (2001)
Ritual poetry is a type of oral poetry. It is that poetry expressed through the spoken medium. It is much realized when performed. Ritual poetry is a special kind of poetry that originated from the Ijala tradition. Ritual, according to Emeaba (1987) is, “A drama dealing specifically with religious beliefs in godly scenarios. The dramatic personae of most ritual dramas are made to represent gods, deities or spirits. Masks and masquerades are used to represent dead ancestors. The drama relies very much on excessive action and mime with little dialogue.” (176) Ritual poetry is, therefore, a type of poetry (with dramatic and/or rhetoric properties) usually performed as a tribute to the dead or a fallen hero. Iremoje is a tribute to the late Ken Saro Wiwa and other fallen heroes in Nigeria. More so, Ritual poetry is an art of ‘Ijala ’ tradition, which is a type of Yoruba traditional poetry. ‘Ijala’ according to Emeaba (1987) is “a poetic composition of lengths varying from between ten and hundreds of lines presented and conforming to specific rules of theme, meter and languages. Ijalas are connected with the legendary traditions of a people especially the Yoruba and accounts for the heroic exploits of Ogun and it is usually performed during annual festivals” (90). According to Akeem Lasisi in his ‘Preface to Iremoje’ (2000):
The Yoruba tradition is a functional art and it is largely event based. “Iremoje”, is a strictly specialized form, a valedictory ritual poetry, in honour of dead hunters. Other sub-genus such as Ekun Iyawo, Ijala e.t.c. are identified with ceremonies such as marriages and naming ceremonies. (1)
The Yoruba believe that hunters are great chanters with Ijala being their art-in-trade. But, when one of their ilk passes away, they celebrate his exit with a night of ‘Iremoje performance’ that invokes his great exploits especially during hunting expeditions; how he gunned down the wildest of hyenas and how he wrestled a buffalo to a standstill. (All these are just indications of what makes him great). More importantly though, is the form which symbolizes “a necessary rite of separation, t,he one that serves the lord that binds the deceased and the world and enrolls him into the league of his ancestors, who are believed to be carrying on their hunting business in their new sphere of existence.”
(Akeem Lasisi, Preface 1). The context and structure of Iremoje are ‘heavier’ than other forms because of its ritual property. It is experimentation in the direction of old venerable tradition. The performance aims at serving the dual purpose of giving Ken Saro- Wiwa, the indefatigable environmentalist, dogged human rights activist and accomplished author, who was murderously hanged on November 10, 1995, an immortal remembrance and to entertain using African orature. Iremoje is a service of poetry and also the renewal of a dying orature in modern literature.
In Iremoje, Akeem Lasisi makes use of anaphora scheme either through question asking or illustration of a point. This can be illustrated in the following extract:
Ask them:
Ask the snail
What it did that ruined its voice;
Ask the toad
What it did that cut its tail;
Ask the tortoise
What it did that spoilt its skin;
Ask the vulture
What it did that fallowed its head;
Ask them;
Ask the widowed wife of the hilterite weevil
Who trampled on the intricate traffic of nature’s web? (36)
The repetition of these initial lines gives the poem a songlike quality, as if it is a chorus. It also shows his emotional state. More like rhetorical questions, each of the imperatives creates images of reality and builds up feelings and thoughtfulness. The regular application of the words ‘ask’ and ‘what’ brings in a high level rhetoric inquiries whereby the human mind is constantly pushed towards deeper state of thoughtfulness. There is high invocative essence in the application. Anaphora is also a means of regulating the musicality of the poems. The imperative lexical choices build in tension and increase the tempo of the renditions. The fictionality of the reality paves way for truth and practicality. Akeem Lasisi uses some words to express his mind or inner thought. This occurs, not in clear language, but in various local dialects. Thus, the messages of such likes are still not elusive for they could still be understood in the context of application. Such words can be seen as illustrated in the poem below:
The elephant will yet weigh more than a healthy deer
Kulu kulu kulu. (46)
This onomatopoeic choice ‘kulu kulu kulu’ mimics the heaviness of an elephants exploits. It captures and/or shows how the word formulated illustrates the leaping of the verses. It reveals revered personality and suggests a heavy picture or outburst of reality. The onomatopoeic contour in the choice above shows the overwhelming truth of the war against environmental degradation and the odds of bad politics!
The sparrow wonders kwaai! kwaai!
Why the ferocious cruelty of the hunter’s gun. (33)
This epitomizes the sounds of anger and pain of the suffering populace. There is the image of a sparrow croaking with anger at the cruelty of the hunters. The choice of this onomatopoeic lexis shows the place of sounds at capturing reality and at the same time revealing situations. We see ‘the sparrows’, (innocent common man), being hunted and killed mercilessly by the blood thirsty hunters with their guns (the military men in power). The sound ‘ kwaai’ mimics the word ‘cry’ and captures the sorrowful experiences of the people.
My poetry is oruku tindi-tindi
My poetry is oruku tindi-tindi (45)
Akeem Lasisi blends the local dialects and sounds freely to the extent that the non-Yoruba consumers of this art are forced into it in manner that does not make room for absolute complexities. The choice of this lexical choice of sounds, oruku tindi-tindi, suggests that the entire verse is filled or pregnant with ideas untold. It may also suggest the mysteries of poetry as the little song that reveals the reality of things or the unknown states of man. It also shows that poetry is shrouded in hidden truths, which must be told.
In Iremoje, there are serious attempts at blending African orature with modern poetry. Each blending carries with it a special effect in whole ritual recourse. Each poetic application aims at achieving certain effects which are realizable. They are significant as they embody the ideas of struggle and anarchy as reflected in the life of the hero, Ken Saro Wiwa. The use of local dialects like Ogoni and Yoruba languages adds more oral reality to the verses. As an oral discourse, Iremoje is has the effect of realizing the truth of the message with less doubt and this is one way that modern African poets have evolved in domesticating their arts.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4
Explain the various oral properties in Lasisi’s Iremoje.
4.0 CONCLUSION
There have been these calls for caution to the younger poets in Nigeria. Many critics believe that they are too hasty to publish. In essence, there are over 10,000 poetry collections published within the last two decades in Nigeria especially by the young writers. There are marked prolific outpourings especially in the genre of poetry. Many of these poets write with reasons: to belong to the edified group of writers, to express themselves poetically no matter the weakness in their craft, to get published and be called authors (as most of these works are self published). Many of these writers complained that established publishing outfits reject their manuscripts because they were not known authors like Soyinka, Achebe, Clark-Bekederemo, Okara or Osofisan. Prof. Femi Osofisan decided to experiment with a pen name in order to find out whether established publishing outfits would be able to find any substance in his poetry. Fortunately his collection was found publishable and since then he had published several works under the pen name ‘Okinba Launko’ .
However, these writers: Njoku, Lasisi and Ekwuazi are significant in their arts. Their poetry projects thematic vivacity, stylistic newness and painstaking poetic balance. Each of the poems in the collections treated here reveals a measure commitment to art and humanity. Njoku ponders on the odds of modern Lagos and uses the setting as a micro dissection of the general odds in Nigeria and Africa in general. Lasisi takes a careful incursion into the Yoruba ritual art, using it as a viable too for the revelation of the draconic governance in Africa while Ekwuazi takes a dive into the emotional and psychological make up of the vast populace of the downtrodden in the Nigerian society. At least, within
this sea of insignificant poetry, there are still some good ones to consume.
5.0 SUMMARY
The collections of poems treated in this unit are some of the significant poetry of this generation. It is not that there are no other better poets with good poetic skills but the choice here is based on style, theme and time. It is not surprising that all the poets treated here are males. This is because there are fewer female poets in Nigeria today and interestingly they far outweigh the female poets of the other generations. We have such strong female poets as Promise Okekwe, Molara Wood, Unomah Azuah and Angela Nwosu amongst others. They have good poetic skills but most of them are based in Europe and America. However, the male poets far outweigh the female but there seem to be many female novelists and they are than the female poets. The poets treated here are chosen because of the content of their massage and their craft. They rank among the best poets in Nigeria today and they constitute a framework for discussing the poetic craft of the generation of Nigerian poets today.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Answer the following questions carefully:
1. Discuss the various critical attacks on modern Nigerian poetry.
2. Explain the major thematic thrust in Njoku’s Night in Lagos.
3. Assess the function of Ijala ritual in Lasisi’s Iremoje.
4. Ekwuazi’s Love Apart is a poetic dissection of Nigeria’s trauma. How true is this perception?
5. Distinguish the thematic concern of modern Nigerian poets from their predecessors.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Ekwuazi, Hyginus (2007). Love Apart. Ibadan: Kraft.
Emeaba, Onuma Emeaba (1987). A Dictionary of Literature. Aba:
Inteks Press.
Lasisi, Akeem (2001). Iremoje (Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa). Ikeja: Hybun.
Njoku, Austyn (2008). Night in Lagos. Lagos: Jemie Books.
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