Introduction
“A Desert of Reincarnated Lifetimes”, by Leticia Mbaiver Nyitse, is a collection of fifty poems. They are diverse and personally reflective. Each poem here is a perspective on life, on world situations, with a specific concern for Nigeria. The volume has seventy-seven (77) pages, and some of the poems are attached with explanatory notes where non-English or peculiar Nigerian expressions are used.
The title “A Desert of Reincarnated Lifetimes” is taken from the last poem in the volume. It suggests the cyclical nature of human life, but there is a sense of barrenness of hope in the word ‘desert’ which must be examined against the rest of the poems in the collection.
“A Postscript” is the opening poem of the collection, and it takes on the aftermath of the euphoria that greeted the 2015 rise to power of a much-awaited messiah in Nigeria. Anti-climax soon sets in as the people realise that the joke is on them. It must be another false start. Is this an end or a beginning? The poem ends with a rhetorical reference to the Roman god of ‘endings’ and ‘fate’. “Is Janus the face of the King?” (p1).
Nyitse’s poetry may be called ‘lines of a patriot growing weary’. Her concern with the wellbeing of her country and the world in general runs through the poems. But, things do not go the way they are expected: the ‘centre’ is not holding, and there is enough blame for everybody. The poet resorts to oxymoron: We are ‘together alone’! (p2)
What these poems do to the reader is to open up a vista of scenes, objects and events, mostly African but also covering foreign, unknown lands. You could be envisaging Pearl Harbour, and Americans chasing Mexicans out of Fort Knox, and suddenly be confronted with the shocking picture of an elephant warding off an ant in a fight (“The Mexican Wall” p5).
One function of great poetry is to get readers to actually think beyond their environment, and learn new possibilities, new horizons. Nyitse’s imagery is rich and varied, but beyond that, it offers the reader an opportunity to travel with the poet. Consider “In My Mind’s Eye” (p21) where you must envisage the domestic struggles of the first woman, actually a metaphor for today’s continuing female struggle. We readers are in the poet’s mind here, and we see through her eyes. She says it is ‘hilarious’ and so we smile. But it is really no fun: the wood for cooking is “soggy and smoky”, and all that lies in the woman’s horizon is “work and work”.
Also, a good number of the poems in A Desert of Reincarnated Lifetimes are inevitably humorous. They reflect a poetic mind that cannot help but see the funny, even ridiculous side of everyday human life. “Eshu’s Nuptials” is a hilarious depiction of a modern wedding. We Africans are having to combine our natural marriage feast traditions with the christianised ‘white weddings’, sometimes with chaotic results. Nyitse’s satirical depiction of Eshu’s wedding is immediately sobered up by the next poem “Waiting” which starkly reminds readers of the great fate that is marriage. A female life could go either way ̶ happiness or horror depending on what happens at the end of the ‘wait’ (p24).
Away from humour, the other poems call out society in unambiguous terms. The poem “Justice” (p70) challenges the existence of that concept, and laments its historical violations. “A Mother’s Symphony of Hope” (p73) takes on the existential female case:
Ignored in all her ancient lives ̶
Abused even when a suckling
Groomed for sacrifice as a duckling
On the altar of avarice
Never an inheritor; always to be inherited (p73)…
Is this the signal poem of Nyitse’s collection? Probably not. Only “A Mother’s Symphony…” stands out in its stark depiction of what the centuries have done, and continue to do to the female segment of humanity. It is the same strand of protest and public involvement that is found in the last poem of the volume “In a Desert of Reincarnated Lifetimes”. The word ‘in’ squarely places poet and reader in the troubled valley. Here we must return to the cyclical motif of expectations, dashed hopes, and more expectations earlier mentioned. ‘Mai Gaskia’ did not eventually deliver the truth. Nyitse painfully refers to the entire hype of integrity as a ‘myth’, and at the end of it all we are still standing in one spot of the cycle:
But in an endless search, we stand poised on a threshold
A date palm seeking a foothold in the desert
Of reincarnated lifetimes. (P75)
This review had earlier alluded to Leticia Nyitse’s poetic involvement and patriotism which is wearied by repeated false starts of her nation. Poetry offers a unique window into a poet’s prevailing mood, quite distinct from any biographical note. The poems in this collection reflect a lifetime of groping for something that so far remains elusive. The poet’s personal achievements (motherhood, grand motherhood, academic professorship, award-winning authorship, etc) are not matched by her country in any national achievement or great societal progress. Injustice and backwardness are still pervasive in our world. The verses in this collection suggest that, at the peak of her life and career, the poet is poised at a philosophical ‘threshold’ with the question: is this all there is?
Perhaps the one poem that could sum-up tone and mood in this collection is “My Feet of Clay Are Better than Yours”. (p37) Intriguing at first, this poem puts us all in our place—clay feet and all. But a second reading reveals deep faith and belief, both in creator and humanity. Nyitse’s message is: if we are ever going to do it, it must be together. No ‘… wresting over crickets. When concerted efforts could snare us elephants!’
Edward Luper Gar is a teacher of English and Literature at the Benue State College of Education, Katsina-Ala. He is also a writer of prose, fiction, and is keenly interested in the poetic genre.