Eng 333 - CDL - Edited - Mele

ENG 333: Modern African Poetry

UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI
CENTRE FOR DISTANCE LEARNING

ENG 333: Modern African Poetry (2 Units)

Course Facilitator: Dr. Markus Ishaku
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STUDY GUIDE
Course Code/ Title: ENG 333: Modern African Poetry
Credit Units: 2
Timing: 26hrs
Total hours of Study per each course material should be twenty Six
hours (26hrs) at two hours per week within a given semester.
You should plan your time table for study on the basis of two hours per
course throughout the week. This will apply to all course materials you
have. This implies that each course material will be studied for two
hours in a week.
Similarly, each study session should be timed at one hour including all
the activities under it. Do not rush on your time, utilize them adequately.
All activities should be timed from five minutes (5minutes) to ten
minutes (10minutes). Observe the time you spent for each activity,
whether you may need to add or subtract more minutes for the activity.
You should also take note of your speed of completing an activity for the
purpose of adjustment.
Meanwhile, you should observe the one hour allocated to a study
session. Find out whether this time is adequate or not. You may need to
add or subtract some minutes depending on your speed.
You may also need to allocate separate time for your self-assessment
questions out of the remaining minutes from the one hour or the one
hour which was not used out of the two hours that can be utilized for
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your SAQ. You must be careful in utilizing your time. Your success
depends on good utilization of the time given; because time is money, do
not waste it.
Reading:
When you start reading the study session, you must not read it like a
novel. You should start by having a pen and paper for writing the main
points in the study session. You must also have dictionary for checking
terms and concepts that are not properly explained in the glossary.
Before writing the main points you must use pencil to underline those
main points in the text. Make the underlining neat and clear so that the
book is not spoiled for further usage.
Similarly, you should underline any term that you do not understand its
meaning and check for their meaning in the glossary. If those meanings
in the glossary are not enough for you, you can use your dictionary for
further explanations.
When you reach the box for activity, read the question(s) twice so that
you are sure of what the question ask you to do then you go back to the
in-text to locate the answers to the question. You must be brief in
answering those activities except when the question requires you to be
detailed.
In the same way you read the in-text question and in-text answer
carefully, making sure you understand them and locate them in the main
text. Furthermore before you attempt answering the (SAQ) be sure of
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what the question wants you to do, then locate the answers in your in-
text carefully before you provide the answer.
Generally, the reading required you to be very careful, paying attention
to what you are reading, noting the major points and terms and concepts.
But when you are tired, worried and weak do not go into reading, wait
until you are relaxed and strong enough before you engage in reading
activities.
Bold Terms:
These are terms that are very important towards
comprehending/understanding the in-text read by you. The terms are
bolded or made darker in the sentence for you to identify them. When
you come across such terms check for the meaning at the back of your
book; under the heading glossary. If the meaning is not clear to you, you
can use your dictionary to get more clarifications about the
term/concept. Do not neglect any of the bold term in your reading
because they are essential tools for your understanding of the in-text.
Practice Exercises
a. Activity: Activity is provided in all the study sessions. Each
activity is to remind you of the immediate facts, points and major
informations you read in the in-text. In every study session there is
one or more activities provided for you to answer them. You must
be very careful in answering these activities because they provide
you with major facts of the text. You can have a separate note book
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for the activities which can serve as summary of the texts. Do not
forget to timed yourself for each activity you answered.
b. In-text Questions and Answers: In-text questions and answers
are provided for you to remind you of major points or facts. To
every question, there is answer. So please note all the questions
and their answers, they will help you towards remembering the
major points in your reading.
c. Self Assessment Question: This part is one of the most essential
components of your study. It is meant to test your understanding of
what you studied so you must give adequate attention in answering
them. The remaining time from the two hours allocated for this
study session can be used in answering the self- assessment
question.
Before you start writing answers to any questions under SAQ, you
are expected to write down the major points related to the
particular question to be answered. Check those points you have
written in the in-text to ascertain that they are correct, after that
you can start explaining each point as your answer to the question.
When you have completed the explanation of each question, you
can now check at the back of your book, compare your answer to
the solutions provided by your course writer. Then try to grade
your effort sincerely and honestly to see your level of performance.
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This procedure should be applied to all SAQ activities. Make sure

you are not in a hurry to finish but careful to do the right thing.
e-Tutors: The eTutors are dedicated online teachers that provide
services to students in all their programme of studies. They are expected
to be twenty- four hours online to receive and attend to students
Academic and Administrative questions which are vital to student’s
processes of their studies. For each programme, there will be two or
more e-tutors for effective attention to student’s enquiries.
Therefore, you are expected as a student to always contact your e-tutors
through their email addresses or phone numbers which are there in your
student hand book. Do not hesitate or waste time in contacting your e-
tutors when in doubt about your learning.
You must learn how to operate email, because e-mailing will give you
opportunity for getting better explanation at no cost.
In addition to your e-tutors, you can also contact your course facilitators
through their phone numbers and e-mails which are also in your
handbook for use. Your course facilitators can also resolve your
academic problems. Please utilize them effectively for your studies.
Continuous assessment
The continuous assessment exercise is limited to 30% of the total marks.
The medium of conducting continuous assessment may be through
online testing, Tutor Marked test or assignment. You may be required to
submit your test or assignment through your email. The continuous
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assessment may be conducted more than once. You must make sure you
participate in all C.A processes for without doing your C.A you may not
pass your examination, so take note and be up to date.
Examination
All examinations shall be conducted at the University of Maiduguri
Centre for Distance Learning. Therefore all students must come to the
Centre for a period of one week for their examinations. Your preparation
for examination may require you to look for course mates so that you
form a group studies. The grouping or Networking studies will facilitate
your better understanding of what you studied.
Group studies can be formed in villages and township as long as you
have partners offering the same programme. Grouping and Social
Networking are better approaches to effective studies. Please find your
group.
You must prepare very well before the examination week. You must
engage in comprehensive studies. Revising your previous studies,
making brief summaries of all materials you read or from your first
summary on activities, in-text questions and answers, as well as on self
assessment questions that you provided solutions at first stage of studies.
When the examination week commences you can also go through your
brief summarizes each day for various the courses to remind you of main
points. When coming to examination hall, there are certain materials that
are prohibited for you to carry (i.e Bags, Cell phone, and any paper etc).
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You will be checked before you are allowed to enter the hall. You must
also be well behaved throughout your examination period.
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ENG 333: MODERN AFRICAN POETRY
Modern African Poetry

BY
Markus Ishaku, PhD
Division of General Studies
University of Maiduguri
Maiduguri, Nigeria
[email protected]
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Introduction to the course
ENG 333: Modern African Poetry is concerned with poetry as a subject in a historical context of
the African literary imagination. It is preoccupied with, modern African poetry as a potent force
for challenging and surmounting oppression and exploitation, and as an instrument for the
rejection of injustice that prevailed at certain times in Africa in the forms of apartheid,
colonialism and other socio-political problems. Poets selected as examples in this course
responded to these definite historical events, and are used as representative voices. What is most
paramount to modern African poets is the question of justice and human happiness, whether
they, as poets and historians have successfully achieved this is based on the fact that the poems
are primarily about the suffering and the struggle of particular section of humanity caught in the
toils of a well-engineered political and economic situation imposed on them without their
consent and through no fault of their own. The particular circumstances studied, their histories
preyed to distortion and their identity subjected to constant suppression, have instinctively led
the poets to produce historical documents, and these accounts provide major creative addition to
the already very rich corpus of modern African poetry. These works selected from wide range of
African literary output, appear to be very suitable for the depiction of the continent’s history.
The course covers the oral background of modern African poetry, scope of modern African
poetry, themes of modern African poetry and analyses of selected poems of few African poets
who serve as representative voices.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to the course
Study Session 1: Oral Background of Modern African Poetry
1.1 What is literature
1.2 Poetry of the preliterate society
1.3 Summary
1.4 ITQ
1.5 ITA
1.6 SAQ
1.7 SAA
1.8 References /Suggestions for Further Readings
Study Session 2: Scope of Modern African Poetry
1.1 What is Modern African Poetry
1.2 Historical Development of Modern African Poetry
1.3 Summary
1.4 ITQ
1.5 ITA
1.6 SAQ
1.7 SAA
Study Session 3: Themes of Modern African Poetry
1.1 Themes of Religious and Cultural Suppression
1.2 Themes of Political and Economic Exploitation
1.3 Personal Themes
1.4 Contemporary and Post-independence themes
Study Session 4: Analysis of Form, Techniques and Themes of -
1.1 A Poem of Leopold Sedar Senghor
1.2 A Poem of Gabriel I. Okara
1.3 A Poem of Dennis Brutus
1.4 A Poem of David Diop
1.5 A poem of Kwesi Brew
1.6 A Poem of David Rubadiri
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1.7 A Poem of Christopher Okigbo

1.8 A Poem of Wole Soyinka
1.9 A Poem of J. P. Clark
1.10 A Poem of AgostinhoNeto
1.11 A Poem of Oswald Mtshali
1.12 Summary
1.13 ITQ
1.14 ITA
1.15 SAQ
1.16 SAA
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STUDY SESSION 1: ORAL BACKGROUND OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
To have a clear idea of what constitutes Modern African Poetry. The student needs to know the
root from which it stems. That means it is necessary to define the term literature and place poetry
as a branch of literature. Within the broad definition, the study will distinguish modern African
poetry from the poetry that preceded it, that is traditional or oral African poetry.
1.1LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR STUDY SESSION 1

When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
1.1.1 define literature and
1.1.2 discuss poetry of the pre-literate African societies.
IN-TEXT
1.2 WHAT IS LITERATURE?

In sociology and social anthropology culture refers to the beliefs, behaviour, language and entire
way of life of a particular group of people at a particular time. These include customs,
ceremonies, works of art, inventions, technology and traditions. Literature is one of the branches
of cultural studies which is a big tree with several branches. But for this study we shall group the
branches into three: art, religion and language.
Each of these has smaller branches. For instance, art is divided into literature, painting and
sculpture as shown below:
These three branches have something in common; they require imaginative and creative ability
to be produced. The painter must be creative and imaginative, so is the person who carves shapes
out of clay, wood, metal or wood. Producing works of literature also demands the power to
imagine and to create. The only difference between literature and painting or sculpture is that
the painter uses brush and paint and the one who carves needs wood carving tools to work. On
the other hand, the tool and material of the producer of literature are words and the ability to
organize in a pleasing manner.
The English word literature comes from the Latin word literare, that means to write. We use the
word to refer to written works of art. This covers everything that is written in any field of
knowledge. In the field of literary criticism, the term refers to written works of drama and play
and prose. The works of drama, poetry and novels are largely products of creative imagination.
Literature is therefore sub-dived into the three genres as shown below:
Drama (plays)
Poetry (poems)
Prose (novels and short stories)
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From the position of literary criticism, one sees that literature refers to only written works. But if
we take this as it is we shall not adequately cover African literature and possibly deviate from the
position of literature as a cultural production.Because of these possibilities, we shall define
literature here as the use of language in extraordinary or peculiar ways. It simply means language
in action. Hence literature emphasizes ordinary speech. For example, if you look up the word
‘man’ in the dictionary, the meaning one gets there includes ‘human being’ or ‘person’, but its
use in literature goes beyond the dictionary definition. For example, in the quotation from
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar below in which mark Anthony speaks over the corpse of his enemy
Brutus, ‘man’ means more than just ‘human’ or ‘person’. He says:
His life was gentle and the elemen
So, mixed in him, that nature might stand up
And say to the entire world: this was a man.
Although Mark Anthony hates Brutus for his involvement in the murder of Caesar, he has
acknowledged the good side of Brutus by the use of the word ‘man’which suggest many ideas in
the mind of readers. It shows that Brutus has manly qualities like honesty and courage. We can
then conclude that language and literature are interwoven. And this relationship operates not only
in written form but in speech also. Language acts as the vehicle which conveys and provides the
material for literature.
The concern of this course is modern African poetry and so we shall define briefly what is poetry
in general, as a branch of literature before embarking on our subject.
Poetry is a branch of literature, an imaginary expression of deep thought and experience that
makes its effect by sound and imagery of its language. It is often in verse form and arranged in
patterns of sound and lines. A poem may be spoken, recited or sung. Poetry therefore, is a branch
of literature that gives concentrated imaginative utterance to experience in words so chosen, and
so arranged that they create an intense emotional response through the union of theme, language,
sound and rhythm.
A famous English poet, William Wordsworth,says all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful emotions by a man who, being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility and has
fought long deeply. Poetry is written to give immediate pleasure to a human being possessed of
that information which may be expected from the poet, not as a lawyer, a physician, a mariner an
astronomer or a natural philosopher, but as man. In his preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1798),
Wordsworth describe poetry thus:
- The image of men and nature
- Acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe
- A homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand elementary principle
of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels and lives and moves
- Is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge. It is the first and last of all knowledge
- It is immortal as the heart of man
In a related development, Edgar Allan Poe described poetry as the rhythmical creation of beauty.
While Arlington Robinson says,poetry islanguage that tells us through a more or less emotional
reaction to something that cannot be said.
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Poetry is about experiences, feelings and beauty. It is more intense, less direct, more suggestive
and ambiguous. The language of poetry is essentially image; therefore, good poems are
structures of images.
1.3 POETRY OF PRE-LITERATE AFRICAN SOCIETIES

The term ‘Modern African Poetry’ may bring to your mind the thought of an ‘older poetry’
before the ‘modern’ one. To clear your mind about this subject we shall devote the next few
pages of this session to the earlier poetry of Africa before the Modern African Poetry.
Modern Africa poetry takes its origin from the oral poetry of pre-literate African societies. That
goes to say before modern African poetry, there was African poetry in but in oral form. Poetry at
that level performs distinct significant functions in the society ranging from social, occupational,
religious to ‘oracular’. The following illustrate the aforementioned:
PRE-LITERATE ORAL POETRY

A. Occupational(hunters, fishers and farmers)
B. Social (dirge, work, children praise, love and war)
C. Cult(religious, medicinal and oracular)
ITQ: Briefly discuss African poetry before the advent of modern African poetry, highlighting
the functions of poetry or factors in the discussion.
ITA: Poetry in Africa before the advent of modern African poetry combined all bodies of work
created by African artists of deferent origins and fields of endeavours. Different criteria
such as location, profession and purpose of the artists, history, sociological or
geographical conditions of the performers, the subject matter of the poetry - e.g. ancestral
worship, profession, love, can be used in identifying the functions of poetry in such
societies.
Each class of poetry has its peculiarities commiserate with its function. For example, under cult
the poems listed are religious, medicinal and oracular. These, at the formal level, share the form
of generally being rendered in a heightened voice, functionally being part of magic or prayer and
sharing some significant aspect of the occult art itself.
At the social level, the dirge may share the same formal quality - slow solemnity with some
Ijala, the Yoruba hunters’ poetry listed under ‘occupation’. The group listed under
‘occupational’ includes poetry that is peculiar and specific to certain trades. For example, hunters
among Yoruba are bound by their allegiance to Ogun, the god of hunting, which unites them
with blacksmiths. But hunters also share the love of forests and animals; hence, they participate
in a more cultic essence of Ogun. The Ijala, one of the most popular occupational poetry, is a
speech-like song chanted at the gatherings of the devotees Ogun. Ijala contains imagery drawn
from all aspects of non-human life. It deals with human relations, provides admonitions for
ethical conduct and covers the whole range of traditional mythology. Its subject matter includes a
salute to animals, stressing their attributes, characteristics or roles in legend. The Ijala also
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contains a salute to particular lineages and distinguished individuals, which form by far the
largest division of the subject matter, sharing something with the Yoruba Orikipraise song poem
which has a broader communal appeal.
Other occupational groups use poetry as an essential aspect of work. These poems go beyond
being just mere work songs since they are part of a reportorial accumulation used in specific
religious functions pertaining to the group’s calling. A good example is the Ewe fisherman’s
song tradition. These poems invoke the sea, fish lore and ceremonies pertaining to specific nets.
They are a times accompanied by drums; they are marked by a quick, almost martial rhythm.
Cult poetry covers religious poetry, medicinal poetry, and oracular poetry. Religious poetry
includes the praise poems of gods, or what may be called hymns. For instance, the Yoruba god
Esu-Elegba, the messenger deity, has his own worshippers who perform his rituals his praise
names.
When he is angry he hits a stone until it breaks
When he is angry he weeps to tears of blood.
Eshuconfuser of men.
Or the praise poetry of Shango, the god of thunder:
Huge sacrifice
Too heavy for the vulture,
It trembles under your weight.
It is clear that these praises are sung to put the gods in good humour. Elaborate prayers for good
health, plentiful harvest, children and wisdom follow the praises. Among the Dinkapeople of the
Sudan, the songs same pattern exist- extravagant praise, followed by a quiet reflection on the
meaning of life, and then the characteristic demands and complaint:
Do not here, O Divinity?
The black bull of the rain has been released from the moon’s byre
Do you not hear, O Divinity?
I have been left in misery indeed.
Divinity, help me!
Will you refuse the ants of this country?
Sometimes the gods are rebuked for failure or persistent male-violence. This, too, is an aspect of
worship. The long ceremony of libation among the Ashanti and Ewe includes a long poem to the
dead ancestors who are invoked at important occasions such as birth or death rites to give
succour to the living. Some of these poems, generally recited, are interrupted with characteristic
yells from the audience to signify agreement and emphasis.
The diviner’s art exists within the significant contest of a poetry that produces direct revelation
of the cure. Diseases has both physical and metaphysical dimensions. There are a number of
cures or medicines, cults whose art rest very much within the nature of the poetry they engender.
Among the Ewe, medicine cults such as Dente and Brekete use an elaborate system of chant to
induce cure.
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The grouping under social poetry, has six sub groups: dirge, work, children praise, love and war
poetry. In the broadest sense, the dirge is the lamentation for the dead. The elaborate African
funeral, from the wailing and ululation through the first burial and second or third burial,
provides occasion for poetry. This type maybe described as philosophical, seeking the meaning
and purpose of life and has an expected tone of solemnity and sorrow. The Ewe dirge for
example, reveals the loneliness and sorrow caused by death, traditional world views of what the
next stage of the journey is, and finally a message or prayer. The dead person is a traveller from
the world of the living to that of the ancestors; he is given intimate message to deliver to those
who had gone ahead.
Prominence is given to the words over the simple melody which serves only as a vehicle to
convey the basic notions and ideas of the poem. Repetition of lines or large segments and of
imagery and sounds act to enhance the ‘chorality’ of the lament. This gives it a persistence that
tends to relieve the mourners of the burden of their sorrow. The African dirge of Ghana is a
famous example of elegiac poetry, chanted mostly by women in a dense of sobbing, wailing and
weeping. Among the Illa and Tonga people of Zambia, these poems are composed only once,
that is, at the funeral of a person whose death inspires them. Among the Bura people in
northeastern Nigeria and the Akan of Ghana, praise names are invoked.
Work songs are very commonplace throughout Africa. They have a directly functional
relationship to the activity they accompany. The mine and plantation workers of South Africa are
said to have no end of work songs. Most of this poetry is simple in form and rhythm. Its
landmark is a rhythmic repetition that tends to relieve the sheer drudgery of labour.
Children songs can be grouped as one group of poetry serving social needs. Like lullabies in
other traditions, they are simple both rhythmically and in terms of ideas, they cover a number of
subjects. Ewe cradle poetry ranges from solemn dirge-like songs of consolation to a brisk type
that employs a great many idiophones and plays on words for effect.
The largest subgroup under social poetry is the praise poetry, and it also includes blame poetry
or the poetry of abuse. Within this group, we have the Yoruba ‘Oriki’ (praise poems), the ‘halo’
poems of abuse among the Ewe, and the praise poetry of the Zulu, sometimes called heroic
recitations. Among most African peoples, praise singing is an art which may be part of a chief’s
court, as among the Ashanti and Hausa. There are also professional praise singers as among the
Yoruba, Hausa and the Wolof. These are strolling performers who follow their patron through
the streets, and at social gatherings, beating out their patronymic salutations and heaping upon
them exaggerated array of praise epithets. They liken him to the elephant to signify strength, to
the fox to signify sagacity or to the cow for his meekness. If the patron recognizes the singer’s
work and rewards him, he may soon be elevated to the status of a lion, a leopard or some other
noble beast. But if he makes the mistake of ignoring the singer, he may soon be likened to the
red-bottomed baboon or the greedy goat that ate too much at his own mother’s funeral and thus
befouled the funeral compound.
Shaka, the 19thcentury warrior-king of the Zulu, utilized praise poems as an essential aspect of
war and heroism. Some of the poems may refer to real acts of heroism or to the nobility of
particular chiefs and their benevolent reigns. The poems are sometimes addressed to animals,
especially among the Southern Bantu people, particularly Zulu, Xhosa and Swazi whose earth
occupy a significant ceremonial and economic role. At times, the praises are an aspect of the rites
of passage, marking the point of upward movement of a man into the next group. Praise poetry
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also does coincide with war poetry, especially among the Zulu and other Southern Bantu
groups. Praise poetry occupies important positions in the royal household. They acquire wealth
and status according to their success. This type of poetry is very public, being recited at festival
occasions like anniversaries or victories. Its scope may include legend, mythology, and history.
Its delivery is ceremonial.
Closely associated with praise poems is the poetry of abuse. The poetry is more pronounced
among certain peoples, especially the Ewe and the Yoruba. The Ewe ‘halo’ poetry was a regular
feature of Ewe drumming for a long time. Its essence is its verbal agility, exaggeration, and
elaborate use of imagery. Halo becomes the instrument through which rival villages settled
outstanding differences. Each side commissioned its poets to dig into the history of the other
group for all the scandalous details about their leaders, true or false. The ingredients constitute
the material for verbal assault on the ugliness of the opponent’s leadership, juicy bits about
whose grandmother was a whore or whose great-grand father built a wealth on stolen goods.
Love or erotic poetry has a long tradition as any of the other types. It exists within specific
framework of the lovers’ performances, young men and women fall in love around these
performances and the love poets take a lot of liberty in their song. At times,their work borders on
the bawdy and ribald, this is essential for the purpose of destroying or embarrassing
beautifulness. They try to remove decent shyness in young girls especially by open reference to
the love act, to establish rapport with the loved one through flirtatious references to her
beauteous endowments and to arouse attention from the lover by exaggerating her virtues and
those of her lineage. The full moon is the occasion for poetry. It sometimes states the sorrow of
love, the demise of love, and the parting of lovers. Below is an example of Ewe love poem:
I am on my way to death’s land
Folk art in tears, my beloved, weep not,
For it is for you I die.
Love songs are mostly composed by young women who usually sing on the way to visit their
young men. They visit them in groups or singly waiting to be entertained by their men by the
light of the full moon.
The last subgroup of social poetry deals with war. War poetry is fast, agile and brief,
accompanied by a chorus of yells. It is calculated to frighten the enemy, to instil the spirit of
bravery into the hearts of the warriors and to recall the heroic deeds of the past. In some
communities, war poetry rests within the war drumming performances such as the Ewe war
poetry. This then brings us to one non-oral type of drums and horns. Drum language plays a
very important part in traditional life. In the first place, drums serve as signalling instruments,
sending out agreed codes. Secondly, drums communicate the tonal system of languages and are
therefore used as a literary medium. The drum can play stereotyped phrases.
ACTIVITY:
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1.4. SUMMARY
In Study Session One, you have learnt that poetry in Africa, before the advent of modern African
poetry, generally expresses itself in the songs, ritual incantations, prayers to gods, or salutations
to gods and men. It covers all that ordinary every day speech does not express. In everyday life,
good deal of poetry is performed in the name of gods. The pouring of libation before a meal or a
drink is a prayer and a poem. Thus, poetry involves an extremely complicated sense of materials
and structures, the manipulation of multiple elements. Its boundaries are limitless in the sense
that the total world-mythology, legend, music, dance, worship-is embraced in a feeling for “the
solidarity of all life”. Its folk nature is only discernible within the scope of the genius of
individual talent flowers, for the poem is carried by the voice. The most significant fact is that
the ultimate realization of this material lies in the occasion and atmosphere of its performance.
1.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS (SAQ)
Now that you have completed Study Session 1, you can assess how well you have
achieved its learning outcomes by answering the following questions. Write your answer
in your study diary and discuss them with your tutor at the next contact. You can check
your answers with notes on the Self-Assessment Questions at the end of this module.
SAQ 1.1 (TESTING LEARNING OUTCOME 1.1.1)

Can oral poetry which consist of materials transmitted by mouth be of any relevance in our
modern age that is visibly infested with scientific and technological forces?
1.8 REFERENCES / SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Findly, A. (1985). Root and Branch: An Anthology of Southern African Literature. London:
McMillan.
Finnegan, R. (1970). Oral Literature in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finnegan, R.(1977). Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nkosi, L. (1986). Tasks and Mask. Ibadan: Heinemann.
Murphy, M. J. (1972). Understanding Unseens. London: John Allen and Unwin Limited.
Nkosi, L. (1986). Tasks and Mask. Ibadan: Heinemann.
Maduakor, O. (1991). Wole Soyinka: An Introduction to his Writing. Ibadan: Heinemann.
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STUDY SESSION 2: SCOPE OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

2.0 INTRODUCTION
In Study Session 1, you have learnt about poetry in Africa before the emergence of the genre
referred to as modern African poetry. We have also discussed the functions of poetry at that
level. Study Session 2 will expose you to what modern African poetry is and the marked
differences between the old and the new.
2.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR STUDY SESSION 2
1. define what is modern African poetry and
2. describe the historical overview of modern African poetry
2.2 WHAT IS MODERN AFRICAN POETRY?
Modern African poetry refers to the written form of poetry by poets of African descent. In study
Session 1, we have learned that African poetry in the preliterate African societies was basically
oral. Modern African poetry on the other hand is largely written. It is the re-arrangement of
traditional images of Africa by African poets into a cohesive whole (Dathone 1982). Modern
African poetry, like the earlier poetry of Africa, expresses the totality of the experience,
worldview, and sensibility of Africans in modern times.
The middle of the 19th century witnessed the consolation of Western imperial interests in Africa,
with administrative. This brought about European culture and education and the rise of a
westernized middle class which began to write. It is this class of writing, especially in poetic
form that we now call modern African poetry.
African literature generally, and poetry in particular, is a reproduction of African culture-
religion, language and art. It expresses the totality of the experience, worldview and sensibility
of Africans. Modern African poetry combines two traditions: the African (oral tradition) and
the Western (written tradition). As a result, understanding it requires the knowledge of:
- Traditional oral literature
- Africa’s history
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- The African environment (fauna and flora), and

- The influence of Western languages and literary conventions
Orality is one of the cultural determinants that have given modern African poetry its tonality. It
involves a totality that conjoins communication and participation as a communal event. Modern
African poetry is therefore highly indebted to the oral poetry of Africa- proverbs, axioms,
folklores and epics.
Africa’s history involves the experience of slavery, apartheid, colonialism, neo-colonialism,
military and civilian dictatorships, civil wars, religious, tribal and political crises. These serve as
constant reference for African imagination. Eustace Palma (1979) and IreleAbiola (1981) argue
that African literature generally is a reaction to the consequences of imperialism. Modern
African Poetry, in the opinion of these critics, is reactive to historical developments: first to
external (the European) encounter with Africa and later to internal (African) experience since
political independence.
The flora and fauna of Africa assume symbolic significance wile the African world-view and
sensibility serve as background of Modern African Poetry.
Before the emergence of what is now known as modern African poetry, writings had actually
begun in the metropolitan languages as a result of regular contact with European settlers and
traders. One of the best-known authors of this era is Phyllis Whitley, seven year old girl captured
into slavery from Senegal in 1760. She wrote accounts of her experience as a slave girl in a
publication “On Being Brought from Africa to America”. Her style and language were imitative
of the vogue in English poetry, with much recourse to Christian scriptures and hymn books for
tone and ethic. She was the first black womanto publish a book of verse in the United States. Her
poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1973) went through 11 editions before 1816.
2.3 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY
Modern African poetry comes in three phases. Historical consciousness of each period matters in
its thematic preoccupation. As you continue with this study session, you come to discover that
these phases dovetail into each other and the dividing line becomes so thin because poems, poets
and issues reoccur in each phase.
Much as the poets address historical issues and happenings in their environment actually dictate
their themes.The poets sought to commend their faith in Africa and so they show no interest in
historical accuracy. As a result, there is little of direct historical documentation and dating as
would refer to in historical material in the poems.
Senanu and Vincent in their anthology, Selection of African Poetry (1976) suggest the divisions
into generations from the pioneering phase to the contemporary. Those who started to write
poetry in the modern way are called the pioneers. Their works are more of apprentice
literature. This group include Dennis Odadebay of Nigeria, H.I.E.Dlomo and Bendict Wallet
of South Africa, Michael Dei Anang, Gladys Casely-Hayford and R.E.G. Armottoe of Ghana.
These poets approved of colonialism without reservation. Osadebay’s “Young Africa Thanks”
ignored loss of indigenous culture, forced labour of natives, unfair taxes, siphoning of natural
resources and suppression of local freedom. This group was generally preoccupied with themes
of race, Christianity and heroism and was influenced by missionary hymn books, the Bible,
Greco-Roman allusions and mimicry of Victorian diction.
21
In the paragraph above we are being specific about the English extraction which involved the
poets listed.When we include the Negritude poems of the French extraction, and that of
Portuguese extraction which were written much later, we shall have a solid period of 20 years of
poetry writingi.e. 1931-1943. It is this period that is referred to as the pioneering phase of
modern Africa poetry. Three representative voices, one from each of the orientations that make
up this group shall be used to illustrate this period.
2.3.1. LONG, LONG HAVE YOU HELD
This is a poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor of French extraction.
Long, long have you held between your hands the black face of the warrior
Held as if already there fell on it a twilight of death.
From the hill I have seen the sun set in the bays of your eyes.
When shall I see again, mu country, the pure horizon of your breast?
Hidden in the half-darkness, the next of gentle words.
I shall see other skies and other eyes
I shall drink at the spring of other mouths cooler than lemons
I shall sleep under the roof of other heads of hair in shelter from storms
But every year, when the rum of springtime sets my memory ablaze,
I shall be full of regret for my homeland and the rain from your eyes on the thirsty
Savannahs.
2.3.2 NIGHT
AgostinhoNeto’s ‘Night” best illustrates the Lusophone pattern from the Portuguese
type.
I live
In the dark quarters of the world
Without light, without life
They are slave quarters

Worlds of misery. Dark quarters where the will is watered down.
And men have been confused
With things.
Anxious to live,
I walk in the streets
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Feeling my way
Leaning into my shapeless dreams
Stumbling into servitude.
I walk lurching
Through the unlit unknown streets crowded
With mystery and terror,
I arm in arm with ghosts,
And the night too is dark.
You should note the ambivalent target of its protest: both oppressors and their victims. This
surrounds the use of “walk” to describe the only living activity of the speaker. Although the
poem begins by refereeing to “dark quarters of the world”, the rest of the poem gives a specific
character to the speaker’s situation. The vague reference as well as the specific location are very
important for the total effect of the poem.
ITQ: State few advantages of African encounter with Europe in the mid-19th century.
ITA: The middle of the 19th century marked the beginnings of a consolidation of Western
imperial interests in Africa with administrative settlements turning into colonies. This
brings about:
- Western education which aids the beginning of written poetry in Africa.
- Materials for poetry writing in form of oppositions to the activities of the
colonialists
2.3.3 AFRICA
R.E.G Armottoe’s “Africa” represent the earlier English phase group.
I once saw a maiden dark and comely,
Sitting by the wayside, sad and lonely.
Oh! Pretty maiden, so dark and comely,
Why sit by the wayside, sad and lonely?
‘I am neither sad nor lonely’, she said,
‘But living, sir, among the deaf and dumb;
Relentlessly watching these shameless dead,
Makes my warm heart grow very cold and numb.
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The second phase of modern African poetry came of age at the end of colonialism in the late
1950s and 1960s. The poetry of this period condemned colonialism and was characterized by
freshness of imagery, innovative use of language, utilization of the African experience in a
personal way, and established the cannon of the modern African poetry. The poets were
educated, mostly taught by Europeans in African universities and very much aware of literature
as an art form. Poets like Senghor and Okara expressed historical grievance against slavery and
colonialism as demonstrated in racial /culture conflict of African versus European, identity issues
as in negritude and African personality.
These poets lived in a period of transition, so they expressed their unease with the new ways, as
in Pbitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. These poets wrote in one voice for all Africans,
acted as defenders of all Africa against denigration and as a result of education, important
elements of the Western structure of mind were integrated in their works. The use of individual
and universal experiences as a Mtshali, Nwosu, Senghor, Soyinka and Clark is characteristics of
their poems. These poets were influenced by the modernists’ use of language: paradox,
irony,allusiveness and difficulty/obscurity.Hence, intertextuality and acute sense of craft in
Dennis Brutus, Okigbo, Clark and Soyinka. This is ironical as they used Western modernist
techniques while advocating African culture. The following examples express the poetry of this
phase:
1. OkotPBitek’s “Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol” shows Africa’s unease with the new
ways adopted from the Western style of life.
2. T.C. Nwosu’s “Combat” and “Star Dust” express theexperiences of civil wars in Africa.
3. Mtshali’s “Nightfall in Soweto” shows Africa’s experience under an apartheid system.
4. Soyinka’s “Night”, ‘Abiku’ and “I Think it Rains“ are expressions of personal themes
with universal applications.
5. Most poems of Soyinka, Okigbo, Dennis Brutus and J. P. Clark illustrate the influence of
modernist use of language: paradox, irony, allusiveness and difficulty/obscurity.
The third generation is made up of the new poets who came of age from the mid-1970s,
a period characterized by declining economies due to energy crisis, civil wars, military
coups, apartheid, civilian /military dictatorships, and other forms of social, economic and
political instability. Some examples of these poets include Mapanje, Ojaide, and
Osundare who were highly educated and exposed. They see themselves as agents of
change –attacking corruption, injustice, and economic mismanagement. In theirwriting is
a growing rebelliousness –anti-establishment and anti-status quo. The women in
particular write about their private lives and individual experiences, their bodies and sex.
This group of poets attached so much importance to communicating a message; so, the poets use
simple language i.e., the syntax of prose as in African oral tradition and loosening of form in the
use of Pidgin English and colloquialisms. This phase is often criticized for ignoring craft at the
expense of urgent meaning and differs from the first phase in the use of repetition for emphasis,
not just for music, as in Okigbo.
The more recent period is characterized by military /civilian dictatorships, religious/ethnic
violence, political thuggery, energy crisis, corruption, misrule, unemployment, god-fatherism,
human trafficking and terrorism. These are issues that made available themes for poets to
address. Poets like NiyiOsundare, TanureOjaide, Kofi Anyidoho, Jared Angira, FunsoAyejina,
24
and Cyl-Cheney Cooker, feature prominently.NiyiOsundare and FunsoAyejina particularly have

shown a firmer grasp of the contemporary situation through the intensity of their understanding
of traditional aesthetics.
Modern African poets of these phases created a clear difference from their European counterpart
by shedding of conventions like rhyme, alliteration and assonance for traditional forms like
dirges, abuse, praise songs, proverbs, axioms and folklore. This gives birth to national
literatures;thus, we have Nigerian, Kenyan, South African, Ugandan and Zimbabwe.
NOTE: The generational divide of modern African poetry is largely taken from Senanu K. E,
and T. Vincent (eds)(1967). Selection of African Poetry.Students are therefore advised to look
for the original text for further readings.
ACTIVITY:
2.4 SUMMARY
In this Study Session, the scope of African poetry was defined with emphasis on its historical
development. The following points were highlighted:
- Modern African poetry is found to be actively influenced by African oral tradition,
culture issues, African encounters with Europe which brought about colonialism and
socio-political events of the past and present
- Modern African poetry, like other genres of literature, is a major participant in all the
vigorous revolutionary struggles of the 19 th and 20th centuries. Therefore, politics
imposes greater strain on the modern African than any other factor.
- Modern African poetry in its characteristic of addressing historical issues, usually
determines where and how the poet lives and prefigures a degree of personal struggles
greater than that which poets of the free world tend to experience.
SAQ 2.1 (Testing Learning Outcome 2.1.1)
Comment on the link between oral literature (poetry) and written literature in Africa
2.6. REFERENCES / SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGS

Irele, A. (1991). The African experience in literary ideology. London: Heinemann.
Magquet, J. (1972). Africanity: The Cultural unity of black Africa. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Kilam, G.D. (ed) (1973). African Writers on African Writing. London: Heinemann.
Oyekan, O. (ed)(1993). A history of twentieth century African literature. London: University
25
Press.
Senanu K,E, and T. Vincent (eds)(1967). Selection of African Poetry. London: Longman.
www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/computayional:myht-literature-
and-african-world-1, retrieved september2nd, 2013
26
STUDY SESSION 3: THEMES IN MODERN AFRICAN POETRY
3.0 INTRODUCTION
In Study Session 3, we shall identify and evaluate the various thematic components of modern
African poetry both in relation to unified poetic expression: images, metaphors, and other literary
conventions. We will now embark on a careful analysis of selected poems of modern African
poets to ascertain to what extent the socio-economic and socio-political situations in most
African nations have influenced the themes and contents of modern African poetry
The theme of any literary work is derived from the subject matter. The theme is usually the
main message the writer intends to pass on to his readers. It is always arrived at by total
consideration of the work. Poetry reflects human experiences, and so African poets have found
poetry a convenient medium to express the experiences of their people at various periods of the
development of Africa. For example, we have protest poems from Apartheid South Africa,
Negritude poems from assimilated francophone societies, in East Africa it is poetry to reclaim
land, and in north Africa it is a problem of cultural identity that feature in their poetry, while in
Anglophone Africait is mostly about culture conflict. As a matter of fact, African poets will
continue to witness new events as the continent passes through her stages of development. This
explains that African poets will continue to experiment with new themes and possibly styles.
3.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR STUDY SESSION 3
3.1.1 Identify the four major themes on which the pre-occupation of poets from Africa depend.
These include:
1 The theme of religious and cultural suppression
2 The theme of political and economic exploitation
3 Personal themes
4 Contemporary and post-independence themes
3.2 THE THEME OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL SUPPRESSION

With the coming of European education in the mid-19thcentury, African culture came to be
downgraded by Africans who have been exposed to the “new things”. Africans started to rush
after the new way of life, new form of dress, attitudes and general mannerism that were contrary
to the African way of life. This affects religious activities where African religions were
considered heathenism. The poets who took up these issues did not ask questions about Western
practices but were opposed to they being asked to abandon their indigenous religious beliefs and
practices in preference to the supposedly ‘superior one’. This is the point George Awoonor-
Williams is making in the “Weaver Bird”:
The weaver bird built in our house
And laid its eggs on our only tree
We did not want to send it away
27
We watched the building of the nest

And supervised the egg-laying.
And the weaver returned in the guise of the owner
Preaching salvation to us that owned the house
They say it came from the west
Where the storms at sea had felled the gulls
And the fishers dried their nets by lantern light
Its sermon is the divination of ourselves
And our new horizons limit at its nest
But we cannot join the prayers and the answers of the communicants.
We look for new homes every day,
For new alters we strive to re-built
The old shrines defiled from the wear’s excrement.
In Kwesi Brew’s “Least we should be the last”, the poet presents in cynical way the
disappointment and disillusionment of the early Christian converts who on getting into
Christianity become disillusioned because they did not get something new.
3.3 THE THEME OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION

Politics is usually integrated into a people’s culture and everybody is in one way or the other
affected by politics. Political practices are part of a people’s culture. Thus, politics forms an
important thematic preoccupation for modern African writers. In poetry, in other genres of
literature, it is important who is writing and in what context the writer is writing. Time and
space, history and place set the context of a literary creation. The history of a society is also
essential as many themes stem from a society’s historical background. Modern African poets are
greatly influenced by their rich oral literature which is essentially didactic. Most poets make use
of the functional didacticism of oral literature to reflect the culture, history, politics and society
as a whole in their writings. The experience of Africans after independence was so terrible and
called for protest. African poets being an integral part of the struggle for independence felt
cheated and so being disillusioned they started to write.
An example of this poetry is Abioseh Nicole’s “The Meaning of Africa” which is based on the
situation of Africa after independence. Africa is presented as a continent of multiple
complexities. And in David Diop’s “Africa” the political theme is fully illustrated in a moving
and rhetorical language.
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ITQ: How correct is to assert that modern African poets have lived up to their responsibilities?
ITA: From the discussion in Study Session 3, we can conclude that African poets have lived up
to their literary responsibilities, or displayed a sufficient sense of tradition and history, by
illustrating in their poems a response to the economic, political and social traumas of the
African peoples. In the eras of apartheid, colonialism and post-independence, for
example, the passion of modern African poetry was for the liberation of Africa. This was
successful with the collapse of apartheid and colonialism and the sustained literary
campaign against contemporary issues.
3.4 PERSONAL THEMES

This involves poems that discuss personal themes but with universal applications. Poets like
Gabriel Okara, Lenrie Peters and Wole Soyinka are concerned with what on the surface look like
personal problems but have universal applicability to the rest of humanity. Okara in “The Call of
the Nun” is worried about man’s prospects on the journey of life from dawn to that inevitable
end. Soyinka in “Death in the Dawn” warns the early traveller to be curios because the rest of the
day might hold something ominous in store for him. Senghor’s “African Woman” and Peter’s
“The Fire has Gone Out”are classified as the frustration of hopes at the initial stage of one’s life.
3.5 CONTEMPORARY AND POST-INDEPENDENCE THEMES
The failure of independence to bring about a new dispensation is a hot cake for writers. The
abundance expected from independence was unfortunately just a bag-load of unprecedented
social upheavals. There are incessant military coups that have plagued most African states since
independence. Political instability, coupled with economic instability, disorganized the society
and made life unbearable for the ordinary people. Corruption became endemic with the rich
becoming richer and the poor poorer. J.P. Clark’s “The Casualties” and “A Song for Ajegunke”
by NiyiOsundare are about post-independence problems of social and political mal-adjustment.
The poems discuss the marginalized citizens who have been reduced to sub-human level in
society. While Ojaide’s “The Fate of the Vulture” depict military in politics’
3.6 SUMMARY
In Study Session 3, we have discussed major themes of modern Africa poetry. The mentioned
themes summarize the activities of modern African poets and their contributions as participants
in all the vigorous revolutionary struggles against the pervasive apartheid, colonial and post
independent issues. The four themes show that modern African poetry has been concerned
almost exclusively with the reality of African life. They demonstrate that modern African poets
have not turned their backs on their own cultures; rather they have faced up to the problems and
sought solutions for them in imaginative form. Modern African poems therefore are literary
echoes of the African reality.
29
With relevant examples, discuss the thematic preoccupation of the second phase of modern
African poetry.
3.8 REFERENCES/SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Ajayi A. S. (2005) African Culture & Civilization. Ibadan; Atlantic Books.
Aiyejina, F. (1988) “Recent Nigerian Poetry in English: An Alter-Native Tradition” in
Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present. Vol. One Lagos: Guardian Books
Nigeria (Ltd).
Amuta, C. (1989) The Theory of African Literature:Implications for practical Criticism London:
Zed Books.
Bondunde, C. (2001) “Oral Traditions and Aesthetic Transfer: Creativity and Social Vision in
Contemporary Black Poetry”, Bayreuth African Studies Series, 58. Bayreuth: Bayreuth
University.
Chukwukere, B.I. (1992) African Literature Today, 12 New Writing, New Approaches. Books,
London: Heinemann Educational, pp.16-24.
Heywood, C. (ed) (!989) Perspectiveson African Literature. London: Heinemann Educational
Books.
Jones, O. Eldred and Narjorie, Jones (ed) (1996) New Trends and Generations in African
Literature, No.20, London: James Curry Ltd. pp.1-8
Nwoga, I.D. (1979) “Modern African Poetry: The Domestication of a Tradition”. African
Literature Today, Retrospect and Prospect, No.10, New York: Africana Publishing Company.
pp.32-56.
Ogede, S. O. (1996) “New Trends and Generations.” African Literature Today, No.20,
London:James Currey. pp.62-72.
Senanu, K.E. &Vincent T. (1999) A Selection of African Poetry (New Edition)London:
Longman.
http://www.google.com/urf/m.brighthueducation.com
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STUDY SESSION 4: ANALYSIS OF THEMES AND TECHNIQUES OF MODERN

AFRICA POETRY
4.0 Introduction
Modern African literature as a whole and modern African poetry in particular which is informed
by African culture is utilitarian in nature. It is community-oriented rather than based on
individual psychology and is didactic for ethical and moral instruction. African poetry draws on
beliefs, worldview and folkloric heritage of the African people. This session will discuss how
modern African poetry is conceived to be functional and how the poets have striven to make
their poetry relevant to their respective societies.
Viewed from the critical perspective of content, African poetry deals primarily with collective
destinies of the African within his own human and physical environment. Although a particular
human living condition which the poet expresses is inserted in a time and space framework, his
creative imagination has a temporal and spatial forward and backward movement, which unfolds
the evolution of the society and life.
Since African poetry takes “matter” from the realities of African living conditions and value
systems in the past and present, one easily recognizes it in socio-historical events, names and
environments. In the African society, the poet is a sensitive “questioner” and reformer, as all
literature in a way is criticism of the human condition obtainable in the society it mirrors. The
poet often cannot help exposing the bad and the ugly in man and society. Thus,much of African
poetry expose the deplorable,harsh and inhuman conditions in which the majority of Africans
live in - poverty, misery, political oppression, economic exploitation, excesses of the affluent,
liquidation of humane African traditional values and all forms of injustices which seem to be the
lot of a large majority in most African societies.
Modern African poetry has not only deep and solid roots but also has a concrete and relevant
background and setting. The culture provides the poetry with allusions, images, symbols and a
moral ethical imperative. The ethically rich culture has enhanced the works of the creative
writers who see themselves as having the social role of cleansing the society. New novels, plays
and poems are modelled on folklore forms and techniques. These works demonstrate the
affirmation of faith by different generations of African poets in their cultural heritage.
Modern African poetry has deep and solid roots in culture and tradition of the African people.
The culture provides the poetry with allusions, images, symbols and a moral ethical imperative.
The ethically rich culture has enhanced the works of the poets who see themselves as having the
social role of cleansing the society.Most poets make use of the functional didacticism of oral
literature, to reflect the culture, history, politics and society as a whole in their writings. These
works demonstrate the affirmation of faith by different generations of African poets in their
cultural heritage. This session shall therefore discuss selected poems of modern African poetry to
serve as representative voices of the genre for the purpose of our discussion.
4.1 Learning Outcomes for Study Session 4
4.1.1 analyse the theme and technique of selected poems of:
1. Leopold S. Senghor
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2. Gabriel I.Okara
3. Dennis Brutus
4. David Diop
5. Kwesi Brew
6. David Rubadiri
7. Christopher Okigbo
8. WoleSoyina
9. J.P.Clark
10. AgostinhoNeto
11. Oswald M. Mtshali
4.2 Themes and Techniques of Selected Poems of Leopold SedarSenghor
In this session, we will embark on thematic and stylistic analyses of a poem by a Francophone
poet Leopold Sedar Senghor. This is to enable us link up with our earlier session with West
African French poets.
Leopold Sedar Senghor, one of the oldest and most prominent of African poetswasborn in
Senegal. A poet philosopher, scholar and statesman, Senghor is also the greatest exponent of the
philosophy of Negritude. Negritude as an ideology was merely developed as a reaction to
cultural deprivation that African poets experienced in Europe. This led the educated elite to
revive, through literature, cultural values and beauty of Africa by extolling their ancestral glories.
This led to the use of traditional imagery, symbols and rhythm, Negritude has passed through a
number of phases and was at times accused of over sentimentalism. Nevertheless Senghor’s
poetry gained great importance and won many international prizes for his contribution to African
literature as a whole and African poetry in particular.Let us analyse Senghor’s poem “I Will
Pronounce Your Name”.
I will pronounce your name, Naett, I will declaim you ,Naett!
Naett, your name is mild like the cinnamon, it is the fragrance in which
the lemon grove sleeps,
Naett, your name is the sugared clarity of blooming coffee trees
And it resembles the savannah, that blooms forth under the
the masculine odour of the midday sun.
Name of dew, fresher shadows of tamarind,
Fresher even than short dusk, when the heat of the dusk is
silenced.
Naett, that is the dry tornado, the hard clap of lightning
Naett, coin of gold, shinning coal, you my night , my sun!---
I am your hero, and now I have become your sorcerer, in order to
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pronounce your names.

* Futa - A kingdom in the 18thcentury. The capital was FutaDjallong.
*Princess of Elisa, banished from Futa on the fateful day.
Though this is a written poem, the word “pronounce” in line 1 and the repetitious declamation of
“Naett” suggest an orality which links the poem to the traditional form of poetry found in oral
literature. The repetition evokes the passion of fondness the poet has for the subject “Naett”. This
passion is reinforced by the poet’s exuberant comparison of “Naett” with various states in nature:
“mild like cinnamon”, “the fragrance in which the lemon grove sleeps”, “the sugared clarity of
blooming coffee trees” and “the freshness of dew of the “tamarind”. He compares Naett even to
a “dry tornado” and “the hard clap of lightning”. Up to this point we get no clear indication of
who Naett is. But when he likens Naett to “coin of gold”, “shining coal, you my night, my sun! --
-”, we get the impression that this person who is so precious to the poet could be a black woman.
This impression is reinforced when he refers to her as “Princess of Elisa” in the last line.
The poem is symbolic in nature. In the poem, Senghor expresses his love and reverence to Black
Africa. Naett seems to symbolize everything African. In an evocative manner, the poet
celebrates his love for Africa and gives her the image of a woman. Using similes and metaphors
Senghor’s praises black Africa in the manner of Negritude poets. The name “Naett” sounds like
“night” which suggests darkness or blackness.
4.3 Themes and Techniques of Selected Poem of Gabriel Okara
GrabrielInomotimeOkara was born in the Rivers State of Nigeria. Unlike poets of his time who
attended famous universities at home and abroad, Okara is a self-tutored poet. He is one of the
older modern Nigerian poets who started writing in the fifties and is still writing. Okara, like
Okigbo, experienced the wrath of the Nigerian Civil War and many of his war poems are
considered among the best among war poems in Nigerian poetry.
Okara imbibed deeply his rich tradition and culture and this is reflected in his poems. The
influence of traditional folk literature, along with motifs of childhood innocence and concerns
about the identity of his people as a minority group in Nigeria, run through his poems. Okara
held several important government positions and these brought him closer to a cross-section of
the society. This enabled him to have a greater insight into human nature, which later provided
him material for his later poems. His first collection of poems is entitled “The Fisherman’s
Invocation”and his second is entitled “Fantasy”. There is a subdued tone and rhythm, irony with
lyrical grace as well as imagery. These characteristic features are very evident in his poem
“Moon in the bucket”
Look!
Look out there
in the bucket
the rusty bucket
with water unclean
Look!
A luminous plate is floating
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The moon, dancing to the gentle night wind

Look! all you who shout across the wall
With a million hates. Look at the dancing moon
It is peace unsoiled by the murk
and dirt of this bucket war.
This poem is an excellent example of the brevity of a poem surpassed by the weighty nature of
its content. This twelve-line piece establishes Okara as one of Nigeria’s finest poets. The poem
is symbolic in many ways. The poet was greatly affected by the ravages of the Nigerian Civil
War and many of his poems often echo the poet’s desire for harmony and peace among mankind.
The poet makes the moon a symbol of love and peace; a symbol that is steadfast and resolute in
whatever condition it is seen by man. Even when the reflection of the moon is seen in a rusty
bucket with murky water, its beauty and light is not distorted in any way. No matter what hatred
or discord surrounds the moon, it does not affect its beauty or its luminous nature. The poet
appeals to the human heart to be resolute and resilient like the steadfast moon in our love for
each other. The poet pleads not to let external forces influence or dampen his inner good self and
let it shine untainted like the reflection of the moon in murky water.
4.4 Themes and Techniques of Selected Poem of Dennis Brutus
Born in Rhodesia, Brutus migrated to South Africa where after graduation he taught English and
Afrikaans. But he soon participated actively against the apartheid system in south Africa and
was harassed and exiled many times from many countries until he settled in the United States
America. Most ofhis poems can be categorized as protest poemswhich was the hallmark of
many poets who were subjugated by the inhuman apartheid system.
Having mastered the English poets, his style does bear the stamp of traditional English poetry.
Traces of Tennyson, Wordsworth and Hopkins are easily discernible in many of his poems. But
he does possess a reliant, sensitive, probing yet controlled tone that enables the tenderness
towards his home and people come through even from his virulent protest poems. Reading his
poems, one feels both the pain and the passion that the poet expresses in his poems. Now look at
the poem below titled “The sun on this rubble”:
The sun on this rubble after rain.
Bruised though we must be
some easement we require
unarguably, though we argue against desire.
under jackboots our bones and spirit crunch
forced into sweat-tear- sodden slush
- now glow- lipped by this sudden touch:
- sun- stripped perhaps, our bones may later sing
or spell out some malignant nemesis
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Sharpsvilled to spear points for revenging

but now our pride- dumbed mouths are wide
in wordless supplication
- are grateful for the least relief from pain
- like this sun on this debris after rain.
Just as man often turns to mother nature for solace and respite, Brutus too appeals to nature to
mediate and bring about the long overdue peace and happiness to a people that have been
unjustifiably tormented, tortured and opposed. He uses the sun as a symbol of life and nature’s
blessing to man trying to survive in defiant and hostile society. The poet’s control and the
colloquial tone is noticed when the poet writes about his people’s sufferings. There is no venom
or hatred expressed. But most of the themes are conveyed through distilled lyrical verse and
ironic humour. Simplicity, irony and cynicism are the main characteristic features of his poetry
as can be seen in the poem above.
4.5 Themes and Techniques of the Poem “Certitude” by David Diop
David Drop belongs to the period of protest poetry writing in Africa.Though he died young in a
plane crash, his few surviving poems have placed him as a credible modern African poet. Like
poets of his time who had undergone and experienced the humiliation of colonization, most of
his poems are full of nostalgia for Africa’s glorious past. The hypocritical and destructive
influences of colonial rule and his dreams and vision for a free and independent Africa are all
embedded in his poem titled Certitude. The poet expresses his sincere faith that Africa will one
day break the shackles of slavery and return to its former glory. “Certitude” is one of his poems
that demonstrate his optimism in Africa’s future. Read the poem below:
Certitude
To those fatten themselves with murder
And measures their the stages of their reign by corpses I say that days and men
That the sun and the stars
Are shaping out the rhythmic brotherhood of all peoples
I say that the heart and the head
Are joined together in the battle line
And that there is not a single day
When somewhere summer does not spring up
I say that manly tempests
Will crush those who barter other’s patience
And the seasons allied with men’s bodies
Will see the enactment of triumphant exploits.
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In the poem, the poet recounts all the harm and degradation Africa and its peoples have been
subjected to in the hands of the colonial powers. He expresses his firm belief that nature itself
will find a solution to the obnoxious situation African nations find themselves in. Drawing
parallels with the changing nature of the seasons, Diop assures the world that after the storm
comes calm. The poet reminds us that indestructible link between man and nature will surely
bring hope and peace for the downtrodden.
4.6 Themes and Techniques of “The Mesh”by Kwesi Brew
The style and the theme expressed in the Ghanaian poet Kwesi Brew’s poem, “The mesh” will
be critically analysedso that by the end of this section of the session you should be able to
interpret both the theme and subject matter of the poem and identify the figures of speech or
tools used by the poet.
Kwesi Brew was born and educated in Ghana. He served as a diplomat and thus travelled far and
wide. Most of his poems are recollections of pastexperiences which he expresses in great detail
with controlled tone and rhythm. His collection of poems includes poems on love, nature and a
number of elegiac poems. One example we shall discuss here is “The Mesh”:
We have come to the cross-roads
And I must either leave or come with you.
I lingered over the choice
But in the darkness of my doubts
You lifted the lamp of love
And saw in your face
The road that I should take.
The above is a brief and subtle poem included in his collection of poems titled “The Shadows of
Laughter”. The poem displays some undertones of the English metaphysical poet John Donne.
At first reading the poem seems to be a little misleading but a closer study of the poem reveals
the title’s appropriateness. The poet speaks of the often-spoken subject of love. The poet who it
seems has fallen in love is not sure of his feelings. He seems to have reached the crossroads in
his relationship with the one he is in love with, as he is not certain whether his love would be
returned. But he soon discovers that his love is reciprocated. Though uncertain at the start,
unreserved reciprocation entangles him in a mesh of naturally given and accepted love. The
dawning of love between two people is given a unique expression.
4.7 Themes and Techniques of “An African Thunderstorm”by David Rubadiri
David Rubadiri, the Malawian poet, was educated in Makere and Cambridge. Besides being an
educationist, he was an ambassador to the United States of America. He is also considered the
father of modern African poetry from East Africa. David Rubadiri is keenly interested in the
promotion of arts, especially literature. Besides writing poetry, he has also written a novel titled
No Bride Price. He has been teaching and is still teaching in many African universities. The
theme and techniques of a poem from the Malawian poet DavidRubadiri will be analysed so that
you should be able to write on the theme of the poem and discuss the various devices used in the
poem. The poem to be considered is “An African Thunderstorm”
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From the west

Clouds come hurrying with wind
Turning
Sharply
Here and there
Like a plague of locusts
Whirling
Tossing up things on its tail
Like a madman chasing nothing
Pregnant clouds
Ride stately on its back
Gathering to perch on hills
Like dark sinister wings;
The wind whistles by
And trees bend to let it pass.
In the village
Screams of the delighted children
Toss and turn
In the din of whirling wind,
Women –
Babies clinging on their backs –
Dart about
In and out
Madly
The wind whistles by
Whilst trees bend to let us pass.
Clothes were like tattered flags

Flying off
To expose dangling breast
As jagged blinding flashes
Rumble, tremble, and crack
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Amidst the smell of fired smoke

And the pelting march of the storm.
The havoc and destruction caused by an African thunderstorm is vividly captured in the above
poem. The sound and fury of the thunderstorm is portrayed through apt images and
onomatopoeic sounds. There is a strong local flavour both in theme and style of the poem. The
poet also uses various images and rhythmic patterns like alliteration and onomatopoeia to convey
a picturesque movement of the thunderstorm from when it sets in until it bursts into a heavy
down pour. Though the poem seems to be a straightforward description of a natural
phenomenon, there is an underlying meaning. The poet it seems wishes to remind his readers that
nature can be both benevolent and benign and is in complete control of man. One cannot go
against nature.
4.8 Themes and Techniques of “Come Thunder” by Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Okigbo is anerudite Nigerian poet. The theme and poetic techniques used in his
poem “Come Thunder”will be analysed. This is done to enable you discuss the theme as
expressed in the poem and to enumerate and discuss the use of traditional poetic devices by the
poet.
Christopher Okigbo can be considered as one of the most enigmatic of modern African Poets.
Born in the Eastern part of Nigeria, Okigbo was greatly involved in the development of literary
culture in Nigeria. His form and style influenced many younger African poets. His long
sequence entitled Labyrinths has many fine pieces especially in the sequence Heavensgate and
Path of Thunder. He participated fully in the Nigerian Civil War and was one of the causalities
of war. There is a great deal of musicality in his poems for Okigbo strongly believed that music
is anessential ingredient of the art of poetry. The poem titled “Come Thunder” is contained in
the sequence “Path of Thunder”:
“Come Thunder”
Now that the triumphant march has entered the last street corners,
Remember, O dancers, the thunder among the clouds…
Now that the laughter, broken in two, hangs tremulous between the
teeth,
Remember, O dancers, the lightning beyond the earth….
The smell of blood already floats in the lavender – mist of the
afternoon.
The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors of power;
And a great fearful thing already tugs at the cables of the open air,
A nebula immense and immeasurable, at night of deep waters-
An iron dream unnamed and unprintable, a path of stone.
The drowsy heads of the pods in barren farmlands witness it,
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The homesteads abandoned in this century’s brush fire witness it:

The myriad eyes of deserted corn cobs in burning barns witness it:
Magic birds with the miracle of lightning flash on their feathers….
The arrows of god tremble at the gates of light,

The drums of curfew pander to a dance of death;
And the secrets thing in its heaving

Threatens with iron mask
The last lighted torch of the century…..
This poem was written during the Nigerian civil war. It was also the period of the first military
coup d’etat and its aftermath. In the poem, the poet warns his opponents that their victory and
celebration is premature as there are strong major terrible destructions which seem to be eminent.
He foresees a lurking sinister force threatening to destroy the country totally. He seems to sound
a warning when he writes “Now that the laughter, broken in two, hangs tremulous between the
teeth”… and cautions the jubilating victors to “Remember, O dancers, the lightning beyond the
earth….” that might strike them when they are least prepared.
The poet-employs a number of images and metaphors such as “thunder”, “lightening”,
“blood”, “iron”, “stone”, “night”, “waters” and “death” to warn the impending doom and
destruction that Nigeria might face. The rhyme and rhythm gives the poem an original and fresh
form.
4.9 Themes and Techniques of “Abiku” by Wole Soyinka
The thematic and stylistic forms deployed in a poem by Nigeria’s foremost poet, Wole Soyinka,
will be considered. By the end of the lecture you should be able to discuss the use of tradition in
the poem and identify the traditional techniques used in the poem.
Wole Soyinka is one of Black Africa’s most distinguished writers. A foremost dramatist, actor,
producer, poet and author of a number of satirical reviews, is also a bitter critic of the Nigerian
society. A prolific writer he has published fifteen plays and a number of skits. He has also
published three volumes of poetry, Idanre and Other Poems, A Shuttle in the Cryptand Ogun
Abibima and an anthology Poems of Black Africa. Like Okigbo, he too was educated at
University College Ibadan before he left for Leeds. Soyinka often explores human themes in his
poems through his cultural milieu. He has won many international prizes including the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1986. Abiku is both interesting and intriguing. The poet, among other
things, expresses his culture consciousness in the poem. Now read his poem “Abiku” below:
In vain your bangles cast
Charmed circles at my feet;
I am Abiku, calling for the first
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And the repeated time.
Must I weep for goats and cowries

For palm oil and the sprinkled ash?
Yams do not sprout in amulets
To earth Abiku’s limb’s
So when the snail is burnt in his shell

Whet the heated fragment, brand me
Deeply on the breast. You must know him
When Abiku calls again.
I am the squirrel teeth, cracked

The riddle of the palm. Remember
This, and dig me deeper still into
The god’s swollen foot.
Once and the repeated time ageless

Though I puke. And when you pour
Libations, each finger points me near
The way I came, where
The ground is wet with mourning

White dew suckles flesh – birds
Evening befriends the spider, trapping
Flies in wind- froth;
Night, and Abiku sucks the oil

From lamps. Mothers! I’ll be the
Suppliant snake coiled on the doorstep
Yours the killing cry.
The ripest fruit was saddest;

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Where I crept, the warmth was cloying.

In the silence of webs, Abiku moans, shaping
Mounds from the yolk.
Soyinka’s Abiku seems to enjoy the anguish of the parents who are desperate to make him live.
In their desperation, they engage the services of various medicine men and diviners who put
“bangles” round his ankles, a kind of amulet “in vain”, useless, of no consequence. He enjoys his
status as Abiku: “I am Abiku, calling for the first / And the repeated time”. In stanza 2 he makes
the various rituals they perform to hold him down: the goats they slaughter, the cowries they
throw at crossroads, the palm oil they pour and the ashes they sprinkle as part of the ritual. He
wonders if they are supposed to evoke his pity or make him weep. In stanza 3 he taunts the
practice of cutting up the bodies of suspected Abiku. He urges them to sharpen their knives “And
the repeated time, brand me / Deeply on the breast” . When he is reborn they will know him by
the marks their knives have left on his body from the cuts they gave him from his early life. He
stresses the futility of their efforts “And when you pour libations, each finger points me near /
The way I came,” and reinforces it in the next stanza where he casts himself in the image of a
“Suppliant snake coiled on the doorstep” In that context the only option a mother has is “the
killing cry.” This means that the desperate efforts of the mother to save her child will ironically
amount to killing him. In the last stanza, he states that the older he gets the more devastating is
his departure. “The ripest fruit was saddest.” He finds the love the parents show him to be
“cloying” – sickeningly annoying. He complaints silently while all the time devising how to
convert life to death or a grave”… shaping / Mounds from the yolk”. The “mounds” are the
graves or death and “the yolk” is the life-giving part of the egg. Abiku here is implacable; no
effort of the parents can alter his tragic destiny.
Abiku is the Yoruba word for a child that dies young to be reborn by the same woman
over and over again. Soyinka explores the myth and essence of the capricious, elusive and
tyrannical qualities of Abiku. The poem speaks of the uncontrollable cycle of birth end early
death, until the two ideas of birth and death unite in the paradox of destruction of life only to
beget life. The images are all drawn from Yoruba beliefs and practices about abiku. The real
meaning of the poem cannot be fully understood if one is not conversant with the beliefs and
practices of the Yoruba’s. Soyinka’s great quality as a poet is his ability to distance an immediate
experience through the selection and deployment of expressive images.
4.10 Form and Content ofthe Poem “Abiku”by J.P.Clark
The form and content expressed by J.P. Clark’s poem will be analysed. Clark is another Nigerian
poet who has also contributed immensely to the growth of modern African poetry. By the end of
this session you should be able to discuss the subject matter of the poem and differentiate
between a similar subject by Soyinka.
John Pepper Clark was born in the Ijaw land of Rivers State. He, like Okigbo and Soyinka, went
to the University of Ibadan. A poet, playwright and essayist Clark has published a number of
plays and translated the Ijaw classic titled the Ozidi Saga. His volumes of poetry include, A Reed
in the Tide, Causalities and A Decade of Tongues. His poem titled “Abiku” will be analysed to
differentiate how the two poets-Soyinka and Clark, treat a very similar aspect of African
tradition in different ways.
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Abiku
Coming and going these several seasons,
Do stay out on the baobab tree,
Follow where you please your kindred spirits
If indoors is not enough for you.
True, it leaks through the thatch
When floods brim the banks, and the bats and the owls
Often tear in at night through the eaves,
And at harmattan, the bamboo walls
Are ready tinder for fire
That dries the fresh fish up on the rack.
Still, it’s been the healthy stock
To several fingers, to many more will be
Who reach to the sun.
No longer then bestride the threshold
But step in and stay
For good. We know the knife scars
Serration down your back and front
Like beak of the sword-fish
And both your ears, notched
As a bondsman to this house,
Are all relics of your first coming.
Then step in, step in and stay
For her body is tired,
Tired, her milk going sour
Where many more mouths gladden the heart.
Abiku is the Yoruba word for a spirit child that is born, dies and is reborn from the same mother
several times. The Igbo equivalent of the spirit child is Ogbanje. Belief in abiku or other forms
of abikuare very prevalent not just in Nigeria but in many parts of Africa as well. While
Soyinka’s use of lexical items and syntax give the poem a harsh tone and is difficult to unravel
content and form, Clark’s treatment on the other hand is very different. Clark in his poem accepts
the unpredictable and inconsistent nature of the spirit child. Throughout the poem, he presents
abiku as one who could be pleaded with, appealed to and probably persuaded to live longer.
While Soyinka portraysabiku as a heartless spirit that revels in death as a weapon for human
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torture, Clark appeals to the poet persona to intercede on behalf of the tortured mother, to bring
her some comfort, but Soyinka’s abiku seems to be completely in charge, looming like a death
heralding cloud that no human power can disperse. Clark’s expression of simplicity, tenderness
and humane treatment of the theme along with the rhythmic devices makes the poem one of his
most memorable poems.
4.11 Themes and Style in “Night”by AgostinhoNeto
A poem by AgostinhoNeto, one of the most prominent Lusophone poets, will be analysed. At the
end of the session you should be able todiscussthe theme of the poem and the oral techniques
deployed by the poet.AgostinhoNeto, an eminent Lusophone poet, was born in Luanda in
Angola. After his secondary school in Angola he went to Portugal to pursue his medical studies.
He was a keen political activist and played a very active part in protesting against the Portuguese
colonial administration. He was often arrested and imprisoned for his anti-administration
activities. His collection of poems titled Sacred Hope (SagradaEsperanca) has a number of
excellent poems. One of them is “Night”:
I live
In the dark quarters of the world
without light, without life.
They are slave quarters
worlds of misery. Dark quarters
where the will is watered down
and men have been confused
with things.
Anxious to live,
I walk in the streets
feeling my way
leaning into my shapeless dreams
stumbling into servitude.
I walk lurching
through the unlit
unknown streets crowded
with mystery and terror,
I, am in arm with ghosts,
And the night too is dark.
Just like the early Anglophone and Francophone African poets AgustinhoNeto was also a
committed cultural nationalist and freedom fighter and therefore many of his poems express
43
themes of anti- colonialism. In the above poem, the poet paints vivid pictures of the deplorable
ghetto life of poverty, deprivation and exploitation that colonialism had imposed on the people of
Angola. The poet’s pain along with love and anxiety for his land and people are passionately
expressed when he writes “Anxious to live , I walk lurching/ through the unlit /unknown streets
crowded / with mystery and terror”. Though the poet draws a gloomy picture, it is not without
hope as Neto is optimistic that his people will soon see the day after long dark and dreadful
nights of the worst form of European colonialism. By using oral techniques of repetition and
rhymes the poet instils faith and hope into a desperate and demoralised group of people.
ITQ: Briefly discuss the ways Clark and Soyinka treat the theme of abiku in their different
poems titled “Abiku”
ITA: J. P. Clark and Soyinka treat the theme of reincarnation of the wanderer child in their
poem with a similar title Abiku. In his poem, Soyinka treats the theme according to the
Yoruba tradition while Clark treats it as Ogbanje according to the Igbo belief. But both
poets express the traditional African belief in the cyclic nature of life and the things that
affect the space and time of African tradition.
4.11 Themes and Techniques in “Just a Passer-by” Oswald M. Mtshali
The South African poet Oswald Mtshali’s poem will be analysed thematically and stylistically so
you should be able to discuss the theme of the poem and identify the poetic techniques
employed.
Oswald M. Mitshali is one of black South Africa’s most talented poets. He was born in Natal and
was a victim of the apartheid system which denied him admission into the University of
Witwatersrand. But this did not dampen his desire for literary progress as he published his first
volume of poems titled Sounds of the Cowhide Drum which established him as a significant poet.
Mitshali’s poems are about the people and their life in a hostile society which he is part of. The
theme of survival in a defiant and hostile society runs through a number of his poems. The quiet
control and the colloquial tone is noticed when the poet writes of his peoples’ sufferings. There
is no venom of hatred expressed but most of the themes are conveyed through distilled lyrical
verses and ironic humour. Similarly, irony and cynicism are the main characteristic features of
his poetry as can be seen in the poem below:
“Just a Passer-by”
I saw them clobber him with kieries
I heard him scream with pain
like a victim of slaughter;
I smelt fresh blood gush
from his nostrils,
and flow in the street.
I walked into the church
and knelt in the pew
“Lord I love you.
44
I also love my neighbour. Amen.”

I came out
my heart as light as an angle’s kiss
on the cheek of a saintly soul.
Back home I strutted
past a crowd of onlookers.
Then she came in –
My woman neighbour:
“Have you heard ? They’ve killed your brother.”
“O! No! I heard nothing. I’ve been to church.”
This is a very ironic and sarcastic piece of poetry through which the poet expresses the helpless
condition of many blacks in apartheid South Africa. The poem incorporates a number of themes
besides describing the gruesome incident of a brother beings ‘clobbered’ while he (the poet)
passes on by without rendering any help. The poet draws an ironic parallel with parable of the
Good Samaritan. The religion of the whites (Christianity) that preachers to be your brother’s
keeper is itself the cause of violence. But the irony of what the poet considers an escapist religion
is that the poet instead of helping his brother from ticklers goes instead to the church to pray for
the brothers’ soul. The poem is indicative of the height of violence and the helplessness of the
people in the society the poet lives in.
4.12 Summary
The early 60s and 70s saw the flowering of modern African poetry. Thematically this generation
of African poets took it upon themselves to challenge the deliberate misconceptions of Africans
by Europeans. The Negritude writers asserted their ‘Africanity’ to fight against colonial
prejudices.Modern African poets were still concerned with the social ills of their societies
especially corruption and nepotism. They used their poems to express their disappointment over
the new set of leaders. Culture conflict also took the epicentre of many of their poems. This
generation can be said to have established the canon or what can be considered as parameters in
which subsequent poems or poets could be judged.
4.13 Self-Assessment Questions (SAQ)
SAQ
Compare the techniques of modern Africa poets with their European counterparts.
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4.14 References /Suggestions for Further Reading

Aiyejina, F. (1988) “Resent Nigerian Poetry in English: An Alter-Native Tradition” in
Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present. Vol. One Lagos: Guardian Books
Nigeria (Ltd).
Amuta, C. (1989) The Theory of African Literature:Implications for Practical Criticism.London:
Zed Books.
Gogura,S.M.&Agukwe,E.L. (ed) (2000) Issues and Trends in Language and Literature Teaching
for Nigerian CollegesYola, Paraclete.
Jones, O. Eldred &Narjorie, J. (ed) (1996)New Trends and Generations in African Literature,
No.20, London: James Curry Ltd.
King, B. (1975)A Celebration of Black and African Writing: London: Oxford University Press.
Nwankwo, C.(1990) “The Oral Foundations of Nigerian Written Poetry”. Literature and Black
Aesthetic, Ibadan: Heinemann.
Obasi, U. (1998) “Teaching of Poetry in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions”, Ganga, Journal of
Language & Literature, Unimaid,Vol.4, pp.37-48.
Ogede, S. Ode (1996) “New Trends and Generations.” African Literature Today, No.20,
London: James Currey Ltd. pp.62-72.
Ohaeto-Ezenwa (1991) “Dimensions of Language in New Nigerian Poetry”, African Literature
Today, No. 17.
Ojaide, T. & Joseph Obi (2002) Culture, Society and Politics in Modern AfricanLiterature: Texts
and Contexts. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Senanu, K.E. &Vincent, T. (1999) A Selection of African Poetry (New Edition). Longman Group
Ltd.
Umeh, P. O. (1991) Poetry and Social Reality: The Nigerian Experience. Onitsha, Bemax
publishers Limited.
Wright, E. (1981) The Critical Evaluation of African Literature. London: Heinemann
Educational Books Ltd.
www.webcrawler.com/englishliteraturemodernism
www.worcester.edu
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ANSWERS TO SELF-ASSESMENT QUESTIONS

SAQ 1.1 (TESTING LEARNING OUTCOME 1.1.1)
Can oral poetry which consist of materials transmitted by mouth be of any relevance in our
modern age that is visibly infested with scientific and technological forces?
SAA
In African societies, oral literary is very significant, it functions as the basis of modern African
poetry. By oral literature, we mean an art form, a mode prevalently and publicly performed in the
society in the examples of tales, epics, songs, lullabies, riddles, proverb, tongue twisters, jokes
and abuse. These art forms are performed for correction, entertainment and knowledge of the
society. These genres as art forms in most cases have been transformed into written form and
they now live as modern African poetry. Oral poetry is therefore very relevant today despite the
heavy presence of scientific and technological development in our present-day society.

Comment on the link between oral literature (poetry) and written literature in Africa
SAA
In the words of Kilam (1973), Modern African poetry has been concerned almost exclusively
with the reality of African life and most African poets have sought their thematic material inside
Africa and have used ‘orality’ as a tool for production of poetry. African poets have not turned
their backs on their cultures; rather they have faced up to the problems and sought solutions for
them in imaginative form. Modern African poetry is a literary echo of a general cultural reality
of Africa. While Kilam mentions only thematic material, we emphasise that African poets
borrow extensively from their oral backgrounds both in terms of content and technique.

With relevant examples, discuss the thematic preoccupation of the second phase of modern
African poetry.
SAA
African poets that gained prominence from the late 50s can be said to be the second-generation
poets and can be considered as modern African poets. These poets started to write just before
and after independence in their respective nations. Modern Anglophone poets include, Gabriel
Okara, Dennis Brutus, Kwesi Brew, David Rubadiri, Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Lenrie Peters,
O’kot p’Bitek, Kofi Awoonor and Oswald Mtshali. From the Francophone Africa, we have
Leopold Senghor, Birago Diop and Bernard Dadie. And from the Lusophone region we have
Jose Craverirha, Agostinho Neto and Noemia de Sousa to name but a few. The second phase of
modern African poets can be differentiated from earlier poets both in form and content. While
the pioneer poets were preoccupied with freedom movements, restoring human dignity and
trying to abolish racism, the modern / second generation poets had set themselves a different
agenda. The second-generation poets had an opportunity to receive higher degrees both at home
and abroad. The term “Neo- colonialism” gained currency in the late 60s and early 70s. The
47
second-generation African poets were still concerned with the social ills of their societies
especially corruption and nepotism. They used their poems to express their disappointment over
the new set of leaders. They addressed the excessive use of power and the get rich quick
syndrome which became a pandemic scourge which the modern African poets wished to express
through their poems. Culture conflict also took the epicentre of many of their poems. This
generation can be said to have established the canon or what can be considered as parameters in
which subsequent poems or poets could be judged. Thematically this generation of African poets
took it upon themselves to challenge the deliberate misconceptions of Africans by Europeans.
They deliberately took the opposite stance in their poetry and this manifested in poems such
Gabriel Okara’s Piano and drums and Wole Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation. The contrast
between African and Western cultures are also expressed in Okigbo’s “Heavensgate” wherein all
negative images are used to describe alien culture and positive ones to describe the African way
of life. In a similar manner Okot p’Bitek of Uganda in his Song of Lawino portrays Lawino as a
symbol of African culture, with dignity, humility, respect and authenticity. She is painted as a
contrast to Clementine and Ocol who indiscriminately copy alien Western ways of life and so
look absurd. Lawino assumes the royalty and courage of a lioness and the beauty and
gracefulness of a giraffe. Repulsive creatures such as the hyena, monkey, ostrich and the python
represent the copied alien ways. Soyinka too exploits, to a great extent, the Yoruba pantheon in
his plays, novels and poems. Idanre the title poem from his collection of poems titled Idanre and
Other Poems, is centred on Ogun the God of iron, war and hunting. In the same poem, there are
references to Sango, God of Thunder and Lightning and Esu, the God of Chance. J.P.Clark and
Soyinka treat the theme of re –incarnation of the wanderer child in their poem with a similar title
Abiku. In his poem, Soyinka treats the theme according to the Yoruba tradition, while Clark
treats it as Ogbanje according to the Igbo belief. But both poets express the traditional African
belief in the cyclic nature of life and the things that affect the space and time of African tradition.
SAQ 4
Compare the techniques of modern Africa poets with their European counterparts.
SAA
Modern African poets placed great emphasis on form than content and most of their techniques
are Western. Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm, including paradoxes and ironies. The
language was rather cumbersome in terms of diction, vocabulary and idioms. The use of
symbolism was dense and clustered, which often resulted in misunderstanding than
understanding the poetry. Most words were used to render associated meanings or ideas rather
than the dictionary meaning. These poets were greatly influenced by European writers such as
William Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Gerald Manley Hopkins, W. B. Yeats and the
French Symbolists. What was ironical was that these poets while focusing on African themes and
preoccupations were using Western poetic techniques to express them. This often rendered their
poetry obscure and difficult to understand. Poets like Okigbo, Soyinka and Clark were musical
in their poetry. Repetition was used to enhance musicality. While Clark attempted to create
‘sprung rhythm’ with his repetitions, Soyinka’s expressive use of alliterations often caused great
impediments to comprehensions. The poetry of this generation was very academic and privatist
in nature. In consequence, the language of these poets become more recondite.
48
In the Portuguese speaking parts of Africa, especially in Southern Africa, the struggle for
emancipation from colonial rule had the most direct impact on literature in general and poetry in
particular. The majority of writers had a profound commitment to the social and political
changes that were taking place in their region. Writers in Angola and Mozambique have
concentrated greatly in writing of verse; but very little is known of their work for reasons of
language. But critics of African writing acknowledge the high standards achieved by poets like
Agostinho Neto, Noemia de Sousa Jose Craveirirho and others. While remaining firmly
committed to the struggle against Portuguese colonialism, the best of these poets kept close to
those emotions that could open up the warmest affections of lyricism in the Latin language.
African poets of Portuguese expression, like their French counterparts, inherited the whole poetic
tradition and used verse to express public themes. Such a tradition combined indigenous African
traditions with Latin forms to create a powerful form of poetry that did not flinch from its public
function. Thus, politics and the passionate desire for change became the dominant theme of this
poetry. Marcelino dos Santos, Jorge Rebalo, Costa Andrado and others like them gave to
Lusophone poetry its political character. Agustino Neto’s poetry is a good example of this kind
of poetry. The above brief explication of the content and form of modern African poetry is
indicative of the social, political and cultural forces that were and are still at work on African
poetry as a whole. It also gives us a glimpse into the vast panorama of themes and styles of the
significant body of work in its long years of literary effort. It is also indicative that in Africa as is
elsewhere the development of poetry is close knit with the social, political and economic
development of society. An in-depth analysis of selected poems will reveal that what lies behind
the tortured obscurities of style and the recurrence of themes are as a result of the social,
economic and political forces often thought to be non-literary.
Modern African poetry thus seems to have risen from the aptness of poetry as a succinct verbal
art form in expressing feelings and attitudes in economically desperate times as Africans have
been going through. Commitment in African writing has always been present in one way or the
other. This seems to have been out by the thematic and technical preoccupations in much recent
African poetry. Modern African poetry expresses a strong and steadfast commitment towards
socio- economic change for the benefit of the generality of the people. It was only by the second
half of the 1960s that most modern African poets matured and established themselves as power
voices across the African continent and beyond.
49
50

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ENG 333: Modern African Poetry

ENG 333: Modern African Poetry (2 Units)

Course Facilitator: Dr. Markus Ishaku

This procedure should be applied to all SAQ activities. Make sure

ENG 333: MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

Modern African Poetry

Introduction to the course

1.7 A Poem of Christopher Okigbo

STUDY SESSION 1: ORAL BACKGROUND OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

1.1LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR STUDY SESSION 1

1.2 WHAT IS LITERATURE?

1.3 POETRY OF PRE-LITERATE AFRICAN SOCIETIES

PRE-LITERATE ORAL POETRY

SAQ 1.1 (TESTING LEARNING OUTCOME 1.1.1)

1.8 REFERENCES / SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

STUDY SESSION 2: SCOPE OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

- The African environment (fauna and flora), and

They are slave quarters

and Cyl-Cheney Cooker, feature prominently.NiyiOsundare and FunsoAyejina particularly have

2.6. REFERENCES / SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGS

STUDY SESSION 3: THEMES IN MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

3.2 THE THEME OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL SUPPRESSION

We watched the building of the nest

3.3 THE THEME OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION

3.4 PERSONAL THEMES

3.8 REFERENCES/SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

STUDY SESSION 4: ANALYSIS OF THEMES AND TECHNIQUES OF MODERN

pronounce your names.

The moon, dancing to the gentle night wind

Sharpsvilled to spear points for revenging

From the west

Clothes were like tattered flags

Amidst the smell of fired smoke

The drowsy heads of the pods in barren farmlands witness it,

The homesteads abandoned in this century’s brush fire witness it:

The arrows of god tremble at the gates of light,

And the secrets thing in its heaving

And the repeated time.

Must I weep for goats and cowries

So when the snail is burnt in his shell

I am the squirrel teeth, cracked

Once and the repeated time ageless

The ground is wet with mourning

Night, and Abiku sucks the oil

The ripest fruit was saddest;

Where I crept, the warmth was cloying.

I also love my neighbour. Amen.”

4.14 References /Suggestions for Further Reading

ANSWERS TO SELF-ASSESMENT QUESTIONS

SAQ 2.1 (Testing Learning Outcome 2.1.1)

SAQ 3.1 (Testing Learning Outcome 3.1.1)

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