Oral and Written African Poetry and Poetics
Ernest Emenyonu
We are a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets. Thus every great event such as triumphant return from battle or other cause of public rejoicing is celebrated in public dances which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasion.
(Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative… (1789). Quoted by Isidore Okpewho, 1989:18)
This issue of African Literature Today (ALT 42) seeks to appraise crucial developments in the broad field of African poetry (written and oral) and poetics since the publication of its first and second special issues on poetry, ALT 6 (1973) and ALT 16 (1989), respectively. Titled Poetry in Africa, ALT 6 explored some of the prevailing subjects and debates of the period: primarily the resistance to Western cultural hegemony, the African poet’s authentic sources of inspiration and poetics, the utilitarian purpose of poetry, and the tradition in which the work of an African poet ought to be anchored. The attention paid in the volume to both written and oral poetry makes a categorical statement of purpose, just as the representative body of poetry discussed virtually established the hegemonic faction of African poetry at that time, with the expected focus on the offerings of Leopold Sedar Senghor, Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, and Dennis Brutus. Sixteen years later, ALT 16, with the theme ‘Oral and Written Poetry in African Literature Today’, extended the frontiers of several critical issues raised in ALT 6, especially the kinship between African oral and written literatures, questions on poetics, and the social relevance of poetry. Moreover, Soyinka and Okigbo continue to dominate critical attention, and though Niyi Osundare and Isidore Okpewho appear in the volume, they do so as critics. In his lead article in the volume, ‘African Poetry: The Modern Writer and the Oral Tradition’, Okpewho framed precisely the focus, expectations, and challenges for modern African poets:
The one solid thing that has occurred with the colonial experience is the emergence of a different breed of poets who, having usurped from the traditional poet his time-honored role of giving both delight and education to the society, have found themselves locked within a medium and a context of ideas which lack much of that immediacy that ensured a bond between the traditional poet and his people. Some of the effort in contemporary (written) African poetry is geared toward recovering that traditional image of the poet. But there are severe problems and stresses… (1989:13)
Almost half a century after ALT 6 and thirty-three years after ALT 16, the question is what has changed and what is still focalized in African poetry and poetics? There is a compelling need to examine the field in considerable detail, with a view to highlighting major developments and continuities in the practice of the art of poetry in the continent. Are there national or even regional imperatives? Are there global movements that reverberate in the praxis of African poets? Are there continuities in the tradition(s) established by Africa’s pioneer poets and the work of the younger generations, and between the oral indigenous traditions and contemporary written poetry? Who are currently Africa’s foremost poets? Are there crucial innovations in the arts? Are the forces responsible for the increasing attention to eco-poetry and the like and the practice of the so-called ‘spoken word poetry’ internal or external? What nexus (if any) is there between Africa’s oral poetic heritage and written poetry? Are there new themes in African written poetry? Are there innovations in African orality? What are the impacts of important literary prizes such as the ‘Nigeria Literature Prize’ (NLNG) on the development of African poetry? In a nutshell, what is the state of poetry and poetics in Africa today? These and many more questions could be raised about the trajectory of a field as broad as African poetry and poetics over the past several decades. Eight critical articles address these issues and questions from a variety of perspectives.
The lead article, ‘A New Frontier for African Heroic Saga: The Sahara Testaments by Tade Ipadeola’ (Winner of the 2013 Nigeria Prize for Literature) is by Kofi Anyidoho. He is a prominent literary scholar, celebrated poet, and authoritative veteran witness who straddles the field of African Poetry in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He starts with an introduction that is illuminating and startling. He puts it this way:
…The epic grandeur we encounter in The Sahara Testaments is not limited to any one African nation or empire. It is anchored in a pan-African vision, from the dawn of history into the far future, with Africa herself as the epic heroic figure at the centre of the narrative. As readers, we may be challenged by the breathtaking expanse of the world and knowledge covered by The Sahara Testaments…
Anyidoho navigates African history and its precarious contours over time and concludes with a sublime message of hope despite humbling impediments: ‘The Sahara Testaments is a work of rare creative genius, written to a competent technical polish, profound in its articulation of a bold vision for the African continent and for humanity at large.’
In ‘Nigeria’s Instapoetry: Cultivating Inward, Ideological Activism, Revitalizing African Orality and Re-defining the Art of Poetry’, Oluwafumilayo Akinpelu engages unarguably uncharted areas, forms, and productions in contemporary Nigerian poetry. The opening statement is unequivocal – ‘It is the twenty-first century, and poetry as we know it is changing. Poetry is going digital, and, due to its digitality, the rhetoric of orality, which, for a long time, seems to have been supplanted by verse and rhythm, is now being re-asserted as a core element of poetry.’ This article adds an important dimension to discussions of Nigerian (and African) performance poetry and could have considerable impact on debates about orality as well as discussions about social media/digital genres in relation to histories of poetic ‘literary activism’ on the African continent.
In ‘A New Direction in Contemporary Nigerian Poetry: The Pandemic Poems of Tanure Ojaide and Kola Eke’, Ogaga Okuyade and Edafe Mukoro focus on the theme of the recent major pandemic in the works of two important and innovative Nigerian poets. The article is a refreshing and significant addition to African poetry and its criticism. The authors demonstrate a wealth of understanding of the imaginative and innovative creativity of Ojaide and Eke in their respective works.
Iquo Diana Abasi’s ‘History and the Call of Water in Romeo Oriogun’s Nomad’ situates Oriogun within a lineage of Nigerian poets who utilize water imagery in their works, particularly Christopher Okigbo and Gabriel Okara, and highlights their collective significance and influence on Oriogun.
In a different tone, and with different particularities and emphasis, Milena Vladic Jovanov demonstrates in ‘Voice, Identity, Tradition in Postcolonial Modernism: T.S. Eliot and Kofi Anyidoho from the perspectives of Posthumanism and Post-Deconstruction’, an interesting and incisive comparison of the practice of two poets across global geo-temporal axes.
Adetayo Alabi’s ‘Personal Reflections on Niyi Osundare, Oriki Praise Tradition and the Journey Motif in If Only the Road Could Talk’, is rich with reflections on the author’s travels with Osundare. The close reading of Osundare’s poem ‘Eko’ is exquisite.
‘Lost and Gained in Translation: Navigating the Contours of Kofi Anyidoho’s Bilingual Poetry’ is an important piece by Mawuli Adjei on the translation of poetry from Ewe language into English. He locates the act of translation as a culturally determined form of labour.
In the last of the articles, ‘Poetry and Performance: The Spoken Word Poetry as a Reincarnation of African Oral Literary Tradition’, Paramita Routh Roy demonstrates a good understanding of the historical process of the development of oral African poetry. The critical perspectives cited in support of the process are quite illuminating.
In addition to the articles, the volume has interviews with three poets: Kofi Anyidoho (by the ALT team), Kwame Dawes (by Kadija George), and Kehinde Akano (by Adewuyi Aremu). There are also two tributes by Rose Sackeyfio and Alexander Opicho, respectively, in memory of Ama Ata Aidoo. Besides these, there is a Literary Supplement consisting of poems by Kofi Anyidoho, Ademola Adesola, Rachel Oluwafisayo Aluko, Jerome Masamaka, Victor Temitope Alabi, and Ernest Emenyonu, as well as two short stories by Ifeoma Okoye and Matrida Phiri, respectively. Finally, the volume contains book reviews by Rose Sackeyfio, Elizabeth Onogwu, Nonye Ahumibe, Mawuli Adjei, Petrollina Kpanah, Irene Isoken Agunloye, and Iniobong Uko.
Work Cited
Okpewho Isidore: ‘African Poetry: The Modern Writer and the Oral Tradition’ in Oral and Written Poetry in African Literature Today (eds.) Eldred Durosimi Jones, Eustace Palmer, and Marjorie Jones, James Currey, London / Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey, 1989.