The Failings Of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry
- By Obakanse S. Lakanse
- Published May 23, 2005
- Essays
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Obakanse S. Lakanse
Obakanse S. Lakanse is a teacher of literature-in-English in one of the secondary schools in Lagos.
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Ebereonwu's foreword to his latest collection of poetry published in Vanguard on the 25th July, 2004 has prompted me finally into writing this essay about the nature of recent Nigerian poetry over which I had been musing for quite sometime. I must however hasten to say that I am doing this not as a professional critic - I have no such pretensions - but as someone who has been closely observing the happenings in the Nigerian poetry scene for quite some time and who feels he has a few humble suggestions to make about its development.
Ebereonwu's essay has thrown up quite a number of pertinent questions which a close observer of the contemporary Nigerian poetry cannot have failed to have noticed namely; the overwhelming preponderance of poetry that is being written over the other genres of literature, the nature of the poetry itself and lastly the narcissism and self - glorification of which the present generation of Nigerian poets is most guilty, including Ebereonwu. For how does one explain a poet adjudging his own collection of poems. The Insomniac Dragon as the best of all the poetry collections to have emerged from Nigeria. If that is not narcissism and self - glorification, I wonder what it is.
Writing poetry, alas is a most narcissistic enterprise and hence poets are prone to expressing certain peculiar opinions in defense their works, especially when faced with a criticism that challenges the value of such works. Be that as it may, I think it is inexcusably vain for a poet to go as far as stretching his poetic license to include arrogating to himself the privilege of the reader and adjudging his own work as the best there is or even for that matter the worst, as he claims his latest collection, Medemede is. It is meet that such judgments be left to his readers. There is no doubt as to the brilliance of Ebereonwu as a poet, and the respect he seems to enjoy from his fellow poets confirms this view. What I rage against is this mentality of self - glorification that is most endemic in the present generation of Nigerian poets.
Another example of this effusion of enormous conceit I can readily think of outside these shores is that of Whitman, a nineteen century American poet who not only published his own work, but also in his relentless campaign to assure his Leaves of Grass a breathing space in the world, reviewed his own book, interviewed himself and planted stories in several newspapers about his activities and whereabouts. Whitman may perhaps be pardoned for such exhibition of unbridled vanity. At least he did turn out later to be a great poet.
The same, I dare say cannot be hoped for some Nigerian poets I have come across. Their problem is less of talent than of their indolence and reluctance in undergoing the laborious process of developing their craft. They are usually too anxious to get published. E.E. Cummings, one of America's greatest poets of the last century wrote over a hundred versions of a poem before he felt it was right. William Blake was a poet who claimed all his poems were dictated to him by spirits. Yet his manuscripts show he saw nothing wrong in subjecting such dictations to vigorous revisions, by making alterations upon alterations deletions upon deletions, re-arrangements upon re-arrangements until the resulting works appeared almost effortless. How many of the poets of this generation are ready to undergo such pain-staking craftsmanship? Every true poet who desires greatness must as of necessity be determined upon a life of poetry - he must be ready to work hard at his art, suffer for it, bleed for it, he must make himself amenable to constructive criticisms and most of all he must be his own bitterest critic. Very few poets of this generation are ready to make such sacrifices. They are just too anxious to be called poets, and thereby fitting perfectly into the description of James Russel Lowel who described such writers as "those who might have been poets but that in its stead preferred to believe they were so already". And so what we get to see these days are many poets, little poetry.
Literary history is a self-pruning process - it prunes poetry to the study of few poets of each generation and it may be that these poets generally regarded as the best of this generation will be studied, Akeem Lasisi, Ogaga Ifowodo, Uche Uduka, Chiedu Ezeanah, Ebereonwu, Lola Shoneyin, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Obi Nwakama, Remi Raji, Tony Kan, Promise Okekwe and others. But this is only a tentative judgment. However ecstatically we praise these poets, the final verdict belongs to the future generation of poets, who will find in some of these poets something to admire and emulate. This leads me inevitably to the next question.
What will the future poets find in the best poets of this generation to admire and emulate? The poetry of every generation the world over has always had some distinctive features that distinguish it from the one of the preceding generation. Are there some distinguishing features peculiar to the poetry of this generation? If there are, they are very few. It is quite unfortunate that in spite of the increasing chunks of poetry that are being churned out everyday, Nigerian poets are yet to evolve a style that would distinguish them from their predecessors. There are hardly new trends in the poetry being currently written. Nothing to consider as a development and as a deliberate reaction against the trends of Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide generation. Almost every poet still wants to write in the oral, lyrical fashion of Osundare and Ojaide.
There is nothing wrong in being influenced by the great masters of the art of a preceding generation, as Wole Soyinka asserts in his preface to his anthology of African poems, Poems of Black Africa:
'There is a distinct quality in all great poets that does exercise a ghostly influence in other writers, but this need not to be cause for self - flagellation. The resulting works is judged by its capacity to move ahead or sideways by the thoroughness of ingestion within a new organic mould, by the original strength of the new entity' The renown the Niyi Osundare generation presently enjoys is a result of its resolve to 'move ahead' from the conservative poetic trends of the Soyinka generation of poets and evolve its own unique poetry in a new 'organic mould'. The present generation of Nigerian poets has failed to do likewise. They have failed to capitalize on the weaknesses of their predecessors and build on them. As exceptional as the poetry of Osundare generation is, it still does have some gross weaknesses. It is unfortunate that the poets of the present generation have continued to perpetuate such weaknesses. Its best poets though very brilliant still have their bilabials lost in the gutturals of the masters, to put it in stricter words, their voices can at best be categorized as self - displaying babels that are yet to evolve into one organic, unmistakable voice that would denominate their generation and distinguish it from the preceding generation.
Ebereonwu's essay has thrown up quite a number of pertinent questions which a close observer of the contemporary Nigerian poetry cannot have failed to have noticed namely; the overwhelming preponderance of poetry that is being written over the other genres of literature, the nature of the poetry itself and lastly the narcissism and self - glorification of which the present generation of Nigerian poets is most guilty, including Ebereonwu. For how does one explain a poet adjudging his own collection of poems. The Insomniac Dragon as the best of all the poetry collections to have emerged from Nigeria. If that is not narcissism and self - glorification, I wonder what it is.
Writing poetry, alas is a most narcissistic enterprise and hence poets are prone to expressing certain peculiar opinions in defense their works, especially when faced with a criticism that challenges the value of such works. Be that as it may, I think it is inexcusably vain for a poet to go as far as stretching his poetic license to include arrogating to himself the privilege of the reader and adjudging his own work as the best there is or even for that matter the worst, as he claims his latest collection, Medemede is. It is meet that such judgments be left to his readers. There is no doubt as to the brilliance of Ebereonwu as a poet, and the respect he seems to enjoy from his fellow poets confirms this view. What I rage against is this mentality of self - glorification that is most endemic in the present generation of Nigerian poets.
Another example of this effusion of enormous conceit I can readily think of outside these shores is that of Whitman, a nineteen century American poet who not only published his own work, but also in his relentless campaign to assure his Leaves of Grass a breathing space in the world, reviewed his own book, interviewed himself and planted stories in several newspapers about his activities and whereabouts. Whitman may perhaps be pardoned for such exhibition of unbridled vanity. At least he did turn out later to be a great poet.
The same, I dare say cannot be hoped for some Nigerian poets I have come across. Their problem is less of talent than of their indolence and reluctance in undergoing the laborious process of developing their craft. They are usually too anxious to get published. E.E. Cummings, one of America's greatest poets of the last century wrote over a hundred versions of a poem before he felt it was right. William Blake was a poet who claimed all his poems were dictated to him by spirits. Yet his manuscripts show he saw nothing wrong in subjecting such dictations to vigorous revisions, by making alterations upon alterations deletions upon deletions, re-arrangements upon re-arrangements until the resulting works appeared almost effortless. How many of the poets of this generation are ready to undergo such pain-staking craftsmanship? Every true poet who desires greatness must as of necessity be determined upon a life of poetry - he must be ready to work hard at his art, suffer for it, bleed for it, he must make himself amenable to constructive criticisms and most of all he must be his own bitterest critic. Very few poets of this generation are ready to make such sacrifices. They are just too anxious to be called poets, and thereby fitting perfectly into the description of James Russel Lowel who described such writers as "those who might have been poets but that in its stead preferred to believe they were so already". And so what we get to see these days are many poets, little poetry.
Literary history is a self-pruning process - it prunes poetry to the study of few poets of each generation and it may be that these poets generally regarded as the best of this generation will be studied, Akeem Lasisi, Ogaga Ifowodo, Uche Uduka, Chiedu Ezeanah, Ebereonwu, Lola Shoneyin, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Obi Nwakama, Remi Raji, Tony Kan, Promise Okekwe and others. But this is only a tentative judgment. However ecstatically we praise these poets, the final verdict belongs to the future generation of poets, who will find in some of these poets something to admire and emulate. This leads me inevitably to the next question.
What will the future poets find in the best poets of this generation to admire and emulate? The poetry of every generation the world over has always had some distinctive features that distinguish it from the one of the preceding generation. Are there some distinguishing features peculiar to the poetry of this generation? If there are, they are very few. It is quite unfortunate that in spite of the increasing chunks of poetry that are being churned out everyday, Nigerian poets are yet to evolve a style that would distinguish them from their predecessors. There are hardly new trends in the poetry being currently written. Nothing to consider as a development and as a deliberate reaction against the trends of Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide generation. Almost every poet still wants to write in the oral, lyrical fashion of Osundare and Ojaide.
There is nothing wrong in being influenced by the great masters of the art of a preceding generation, as Wole Soyinka asserts in his preface to his anthology of African poems, Poems of Black Africa:
'There is a distinct quality in all great poets that does exercise a ghostly influence in other writers, but this need not to be cause for self - flagellation. The resulting works is judged by its capacity to move ahead or sideways by the thoroughness of ingestion within a new organic mould, by the original strength of the new entity' The renown the Niyi Osundare generation presently enjoys is a result of its resolve to 'move ahead' from the conservative poetic trends of the Soyinka generation of poets and evolve its own unique poetry in a new 'organic mould'. The present generation of Nigerian poets has failed to do likewise. They have failed to capitalize on the weaknesses of their predecessors and build on them. As exceptional as the poetry of Osundare generation is, it still does have some gross weaknesses. It is unfortunate that the poets of the present generation have continued to perpetuate such weaknesses. Its best poets though very brilliant still have their bilabials lost in the gutturals of the masters, to put it in stricter words, their voices can at best be categorized as self - displaying babels that are yet to evolve into one organic, unmistakable voice that would denominate their generation and distinguish it from the preceding generation.