Recent scholarship on contemporary Nigerian poetry has appropriately identified the Nigerian poet as a social commentator. In this regard, Sule Egya contends that “poets in Nigeria, since the emergence of the second generation of poets heralded by the poetry of Odia Ofeiumum, have come to see themselves as socially committed poets” (66). He further explains that: “their poetry is concerned with socio- political issues that affect the ordinary people in the society” (66). In Egya’s view, such poetry transcends language and becomes an instrumental tool to fight oppression and corruption. Similarly, Allwell Abalaogu Onukogu and Ezechi Onyerionwu have argued that poetry is the genre in which 21st century writers have demonstrated their literary craftsmanship and productivity the most:
… Nigerians have written more poetry, and have published more Poetry collections than they have written and published novels and Plays in the 21st century. This may not just be because poems take Far less time to write than novels or plays, but there are strong indications that the contemporary situation with all its exegesis has driven the Nigerian creative writer to the genre that grants him/ her the ambience to interiorize and mediate about his place and his role in the scheme of things (137).
From the above views, it is worth remarking to say that the invaluable contribution of the contemporary Nigerian poets to social and political issues in our society cannot be over-emphasized. In this essay, I examine the dynamic role of the Nigerian poet in the society on the one hand and the theme of political consciousness in Isidore Diala’s poetry on the other. Thus, I highlight the themes, imageries and the revolutionary aesthetics used by this poet to comment on the sufferings, pains and death of the oppressed in the hands of military despots and corrupt civilians alike. Also, I reappraise the poetry of the contemporary Nigerian poets focusing on the “third generation” with a view to highlighting the poet’s responsibility to his/her society. In doing so, I draw primarily on the poetry of Isidore Diala’s The Lure of Ash.
It is instructive to note that there is abiding relationship between the poet and the masses. This is because the poet is seen as one who is inevitably a public figure adopting a public stance, functioning as the eye, mouth piece of the people and as well playing pivotal role in the task of Nation building. In many instances, the poet guilds the society in certain directions; bringing to the fore the things that the ordinary man cannot easily identified and proclaim. In view of the foregoing Emmanuel Inedu identifies the poet as a “special person in the society, one who is blessed with superb imagination and insight, but with an almost supernatural vision” (2). Remarking on the roles of the artist (poet) in the society, L.O Bamidele cites Shelly that “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, philosophers of the very loftiest power, men of the most spotless virtue, the most consummate, prudence [sic] and, if we could look into the interior of their lives, the most fortunate men’’ (29). Although this view is somewhat romanticized, this position isn’t far from the truth.
Isidore Diala belongs to the third generation of Nigerian writers whom Obu Udeozo described in his book Gardeners of dreams – The third Wave of Nigerian Writers as the most ‘cerebral’ of this group. Olu Oguibe, Afam Akeh, Esiaba Irobi, Ogaga Ifowoda, Uche Nduka, Isidore Diala, Chiedu Ezeanah, Idzia Ahmad, Remi Raji, Joe Ushie, Maik Nwosu, among others are the most important voices of the third generation of Nigerian poets. Isidore Diala is not only a distinguished award winning poet; he is also an astute scholar and critic whose scholarship reflects the Nigerian situation, especially the myths and rituals of his Igbo background. Diala’s The Lure of Ash is one of the evocative volumes of poetry among third wave of Nigerian poets. The Lure Of Ash, which won the ANA (Association of Nigerian Authors) Cadbury Poetry Prize in 1998 is no doubt Isidore Diala’s reflection on the socio-political issues in contemporary Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. Diala’s perception of the socio- political and cultural situation of his country strikes a note of importance, given the overriding imagery of the sterile Ash in the entire scheme of his poetry. Hence, his use of imageries, metaphors, aphorisms, allusions, especially those ones containing the structure and nature of bad leadership during the successive military regimes in Nigeria.
The Lure Of Ash is a collection of poems arranged in three phases: “The Hues of Ash’’ “The Swell of Ash” “The Trail of Ash.” In the first phase, the poet- persona begins with a yearning for regenerative cycle, which presents to us the gloomy portrait of a nation under the military siege. The leadership problem in Nigeria which generates chains of social and political woes is made vivid in the poem “Invocation’’ which is a poem written in four sections. The first section reminds us of the hopeless state of human activities in the world:
Beyond this season of Fire
Season of fire, season of fire
Beyond this season of fire
Sombre harvests of Ash
Ash on the painter’s choice of brush
Ash on the dyer’s groomed palms (4).
The second section is an invocation of God’s divine power to salvage us from our political woes that are characterized by deceptive and hypocritical leaders, military incursion in politics, election violence and incessant religious killing: “save us lord/ from the plumage of hollow laughter’s/ forge in the seething ore of hate/from the diamond muzzle of the tyrants gun/ And the stench of the foetus of aborted elections’’ (5). The third section is a call on Nigerians to learn from their history and daily experiences and amend their lives for the good of all. Thus, the poet-speaker reminds us that: “May we learn /The truth of the season/That return at its appointed time’’/ (5). However the poet in the fourth section offers good virtues as the only viable means through which the Nigerian state can achieve its goals and overcome its political problems: “my chant is the snail’s legendary tongue / Dancing across a forest of thorns’’ (6). The poet in “On a Tombstone” Says that Nigerians should emulate the patriotic spirit of Christopher Okigbo. He was a Nigerian writer and a Biafran solider. He fought with pen and consequently took up arms against the federal government for the injustice, exploitations and the killings of the people of eastern region of this country. The poet speaker eulogizes the patriotic spirit of Okigbo:
Chris: Poet, prophet, patriot
Martyred that the letting of his blood
May hasten the birth of the ideal nation (10).
In the poet’s perception, It is through self-sacrifice that we can heal our political maladies and consequently be a “light and a sign-post to the living” (10). History tells us that Okigbo lost his life during the Nigerian Civil war which has its primal origin in the ill-fated coup d’état of January 15, 1966. Nwachukwu Agbada in his essay “Because of Humanity: The Ring of Patriotic Anguish in Wole Soyinka’s Poetry” argues that poetry is a veritable tool for confronting a decadent system. Thus he suggests that; “We have a simple choice of dying as a nation or of fighting governmental arrogance wherever it shows itself…’’ (80). Furthermore, the poet in Nzeogwu’s “Epitaph” believes that the primary motive of that coup was to salvage Nigeria from the political mess the inept politicians of that time were leading into, but due to its wrong execution, the coup led the Nigeria Nation into a civil war that brought about the destruction of so many lives and properties:
Salvation stalks the fires of self
For monuments are frail memorials
For a land that sought to extract
The Ash in the flesh of lightening
And sow it with thunder (11).
It is pertinent to know that Nigerian socio-political problems have both religious and ethnic undertone. This comes into focus when one examines the relationship between the Christians and Muslims in the country. These religious bodies find it difficult to tolerate each other and for this reason violence often occur between them. This situation is vividly seen in the poem “A Voice from Zango- Kataf” as the poet speaker articulates the politics of the crisis:
Do not mourn for me, Nigeria.
Spare me your passionate elegies
On my mouth barred by decrees of silence,
Withered by policies of starvation
At last touched by the bliss of eternity,
Mercifully sealed by the grave silence of death (17).
Reflecting on the bloody tribal crisis of Zango Kataf in the Northern part of Nigeria, Okey Okonta argues that the incident is not only motivated by religious fanaticism, but also by the increasing poverty in the country:
I can adduce that the carnage in Kaduna is not as result Of ethnic and or religious Intolerance as postulated in certain quarters, but as a result of biting economic Hardship invigorated by corruption, insecurity, Moral decadence, betrayal of trust pervading the country now (4).
While the dead Nigerians in “A Voice from Zango-Kataf” died as a result of religious violence, the dead Nigerians in “Forbidden Ascent” died in their bid to fulfill a national assignment. The Nigerians in “Forbidden Ascent” are high-ranked men in the Nigerian army. They met their death at the Ejigbo plane crash. According to the poet, their death attracted to our country “a siege of passionate mourners and hollow condolences” (17), from different parts of the world. Other poems in this phase include: “Earth Lament”, Every Mourner’s Cry, “The Beckoning” “Song of the Elect,” “Rites of flames,” “Waiting” etc.
It is instructive to note that the poems in this phase are interwoven with contrasting images of death and birth. Apparently, leaving the readers’ with the repugnant image of a painful pilgrimage. However, these poems are lamentations and prayers, depicting in vivid images of pain, despair, sorrow, suffering and death of many Nigerians. The Second phase of the collection “The Swell of Ash” is a parable of absurdity, self-delusion and self destruction inspired basically by the events that preceded and followed the annulment of June 12, 1993 general election held in Nigeria”. In this section, Diala captures the Nigerian political turbulence and economic experience with an impressive sense of duty and commitment. Thus, the poet persona tells us in the poem “June 12” how some Nigerians scramble for the available socio-economic resources of our country for their own well being. It is in a bid to get an upper hand in the quest for scarce socio-economic resources in the country that the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the June 12 presidential election that would have ushered in the third Republic. Hence, the poet-speaker comments:
Leading a people on an eternal pilgrimage
is dwelling in everlasting anxiety.
The puddle in the broken pot is dogs.
The rite cries for consummation (29).
It should be noted that the Nigerian political scenario since the 1980s and 1990s is one beset by Military despotism, tyranny and oppression. In this regard, Ernest Emenyonu’s comment on the Nigerian military is characteristically revealing and will be quoted at length:
The military is not the “Messiah” that is proclaimed itself when it grabbed power (often through bloody means) and deposed the constitutionally elected government of the country. Far from redressing the wrongs and injustices of the civilian regimes, the military turns out to “out-corrupt” all preceding governments. The most disturbing aspect of military regimes is that the despots would want to remain in power (106).
The portrait of the military in Isidore Diala’s The Lure Of Ash Shares a striking similarities with Remi Raji’s second collection, Webs of Remembrance (2001). Remi Raji, a leading poet in the “third generation” of Nigerian writers articulates the suffering, dehumanization and oppression of the Nigerian citizens under military regimes. Thus Raji admits in an interview with Julie Dill and Mathew Schmitz that:
Even though I wrote these poems (in Webs of Remembrance) all at different times, I suddenly realized that most of the things I was talking about had to do with the country, all forms of oppressions, different kinds of silence…(10).
It is therefore significant to note that in the poem “The Lending” Diala highlights the hypocritical attitude of General Ibrahim Babangida who assumed office as the head of state in 1985 with the promise to build up a Nigerian nation devoid of corruption and injustice, as well as the improvement on the social conditions of the poor masses. The poet-speaker describes him thus: “The gap-toothed smile charmed them to adoration/like a vision of bliss to an ascetic monk/As he swore love, vowed our country’s rebirth”/ (29). Furthermore, the poet explains that in his luxury of power and affluence, he forget his initial promises to Nigerians and as a result began to exploit, dehumanize and kill the poor Nigerians, particularly those who writes to inform the public of his draconian laws: “At break of day, claw and tooth dripping red/horns threatening the sky, hoofs piercing the earth/He growls at the bewildered folk”/ (29). Also, the poet-speaker further mediates on the terror of exploitation perpetrated by the military leaders of the country against Nigerians in the poem “I’m Dying, Nigeria Dying.” The poet reflects on the corrupt practices of the army generals whom he depicts as tyrants, ruthless, lawless and “beast” without feelings. To the poet, this form of “corruption forged in the highest place” (31). Is frustrating and lethal in nature:
I’m dying, Nigeria dying
In the folds of manacles of terror
Wrought of the glowing mass
Bleached forth by the Emperor’s Furnaces
In groan as though the earth
Wretched out of course and pelted at the sky
Uttered the terminal shriek;
I’m dying, Nigeria, dying. (31).
The theme of unrealization of the transition to civil rule is creatively depicted in the poem “August 27”. Here, the poet deals on the promise made by general Babangida’s administration to hand over power to the democratically elected government on August 27, 1993. The poet describes this action of Babangida’s administration as deceptive: August 27, destined to ride/Amadioha’s lethal bolts/Ghost begotten in the ash of dead dreams/ and that in its own ash may beg more, /careering to the same Ironic close…” (32).
One remarkable trait of Isidor Diala as a Nigerian poet is his dexterous use of imageries, myths, metaphors and symbols to achieve a synthesis of content and form in his poetry The Lure Of Ash. For instance, he uses the myth of Amadioha as an explanatory symbol in the poem August 27, to attack the deceptive and cruel style of military administration. He appropriates imageries, allusion, Metaphors and poetic symbols to paint a gloomy picture of sadness, Pain, suffering and death in the following poems: “Like Sisyphus” “For Mandela’s Mother” “for little Irma Hadzimuratovic” “Do not Ask Me Not to Flee” and “sacrifice.”
The third phase of the collection, “The trail of Ash” clearly underscores the poet’s conception of his role as a priest, prophet, and patriot. Hence, the poet relied on the Igbo Mythical conception of life as a pilgrimage, to explore the bond between human and non-human to portray the painful realities of life in Nigeria. By way of supplication, Diala’s The Lure Of Ash evokes memories of painful death, for those who have lived, loved and lost to the cold hands of death. For instance, In “Warrior’s Chant” the poet mourns the death of Biafran soldiers who died during the Nigerian-Biafran civil war. In this poem, the poet speaker assumes the role of the “Crier” thus becoming the poet-crier whose voice is filled with grief. As the rhythm of the drum and flute mournfully flow, the wailing of “crier” remembers that: “The funeral chant ravages still bereaved lips;/Dust rises yet from the dancers’ mournful step, and the hunting echoes still strikes the gang at will” (54). This poem is rendered in sustained invocatory tone calling the ‘god’ (Amadioha) to bring succor to the bereaved and brutalized people. The poet-speaker invokes the power of Amadioha who, in his view is capable of liberating the people from the wrath of military tyrants:
Crier: Behold, tyrant and tremble!
I sing the communion of clans;
The awesome awakening of the deprived.
This awful tremor of the earth is their march;
Their chant, fearsome birth,
Yet reborn in heaven’s arch,
Funding a weird echo in thunder,
Amadioha’s mortal voice (55).
In the same elegiac mood, the poet in “Artist’s Trail” laments about the departure of Flora Nwapa, the first female Nigerian writer. The poet persona speaks of the salient grief that came as a result of her demise: “Again tonight in our communion of grief/we gather a harvest of tears/and mumble our ancient resignation. / Ash to ash… / Alone like a wanderer, chewing earth’s bitter roots” (58). Diala in a tone suggestive of mind brimming over with grief, despair invokes the image of loss and death in the poems “Sleep chaste”, “My beloved,” “Dust” and “The Lust of wood.” among others.
It is worth remarking that the poet captures the issues of tribal politics and election violence in the poems “Election” and “Their Home Going” The poet persona criticizes the issue of tribal politics brought into Nigerian politics by the first Republican politicians to nation’s politics:
They consummate rites of a tribal apotheosis
This gathering of the tribes
Where we blight communion
and exalt distinctions
As though keeping an anxious
Vigil… (51).
In the same vein, the poet in “Election” captures the terror, violence, rigging and thuggery associated with the nation politics: “We dance to Thunder’s rumble/ The weird dance of night/the cauldron echoes our spells in bubbles/the flame dances to the incantation/…In the wake of Thunder/The terror and mortal election”/(52). Diala’s fascination with metaphor, myth, allusion, proverbs, aphorism is akin to the prescient metaphors of Okigbo’s Path of Thunder. This lends credence to the fact that the poet’s commitment is reflected in his sociopolitical consciousness. The poet shares this consciousness with the audience with the view to awaken their interest and reaction against social and political injustice. It is therefore significant to see Diala’s affinity with Okigbo as more of contemporaneity and continuity, rather than imitation. However, if the strident voice of Diala inThe Lure of Ash is labeled as a “wailing poet” by critics, it is no doubt a confirmation of the lot of the artist (poet) in a politically troubled country. Thus, Esiaba, Irobi who is also himself a “third” generation Nigerian poet is more clinical and vociferous in his poetry. His three published poetry collection Inflorescence (1989), Cotyledons (1988), and Why I Don’t like Philip Larkin and Other poems (2005) x-ray the tragic trajectory of his life and country under military regime. Irobi’s poetry like Diala and Raji connate the image of the military as oppressors and “Beasts” devoid of humanity.
The very title of Diala’s The Lure of Ash is emblematic, the imageries poignant, the expression symbolic in its element of colour-The Ash and the experience of the suffering masses. Unarguably, Diala has a knack for striking imageries that resonant loud. His poetry is anchored on a philosophical tone, and his social commitment is well blended with the contemporary socio-political realities in the Country. To this end, Diala’s poetry has demonstrated ample sensitivity to social, political, economic and cultural experience of the people with an impressive duty and commitment.
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ChidiebereEnyia was born in Owerri, Imo state. He obtained his BA in English and Literary Studies form Imo State University Owerri. He is member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and Owerri Writers Forum (OWF). He writes prose fiction, short stories, poetry and essays. He was longlisted in the K&L literary prize with his short story “Tears of A Biafran Child”. His published books include:Once Upon A Hard Time (Novel) and Chants of A Messenger Poet (Poetry). He has also published essays, poetry in some journals. His Poetry appeared in ANA Anthology 2018. He is based in Owerri Imo State.
1 comment
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