Poetry as Social Criticism: The Poetic Vision of Idris Amali in Back Again: At the Foothills of Greed

Citation: Usman SULEIMAN (2018). Poetry as Social Criticism: The Poetic Vision of Idris Amali in Back Again: At the Foothills of Greed. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 6. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660

POETRY AS SOCIAL CRITICISM: THE POETIC VISION OF IDRIS AMALI IN BACK AGAIN: AT THE FOOTHILLS OF GREED.

Usman SULEIMAN

Abstract

The concept of social criticism in African poetry accounts for tension, contradiction and confusion that result in alienation and social exclusiveness. This paper Guided by the Marxist paradigm, contents that the social criticism in Nigerian poetry will help in wiping out social vices in our societies. In trying to create poetry that stimulates the spirits, Idris Amali construes that only the destructions of the super class can bring in justice, equality and equity and a sense of belonging in a society bedeviled by corruption and dictatorship. His poetic works are artistic arsenal to fight social ills in our societies. The paper underscore the fact that, Amali’s poetic vision is set to explore and capture the reality in the Nigerian society. Thus, this research reveals that his poetry has made conscientisation, mis-use of power and corruption its campaign themes to overcome the impediments that have made life difficult and miserable to the common man

1.0 Introduction

Poetry, especially modern African poetry over the years has proven most effective as an instrument of social criticism. Having use it to fight the evils of colonialism, greed, political dishonesty and tyranny of African leaders after independence. Poetry, especially modern African poetry over the years has proven to be the only artistic arsenals of articulating the plight of the common man. African poets seem to be focusing more on the global human condition, especially in this current global era. Poetry undoubtedly is the cynosure of creative writing. Because it encapsulates thoughts and feelings in condense work form, yet clothes their meaning in flowery diction that appeals both to our intellectual and emotional sensibilities, the impact of poetry is great when used as an instrument of social criticism. Nigeria, the supposed Africa in miniature, is one African country whose poets, playwrights and novelist alike, have exploited the art of writing to criticize the ills that pervade the country’s social wellbeing. This paper intends to use poetry in Nigeria as a lens to see how the poets in this contemporary time perceive the world around them.

The idea of social criticism boils down to the discourse of social commitment in creative writings. For a poet to effectively criticize the social ills of his society he need to be committed and his poetic vision need fall within the frame of reference of his immediate society, lest he would be misread. In this light, Chinweizu et al (1980, p. 252) state in their book, Towards the Decolonization of African literature thus:

For the function of the artist in Africa, in keeping with our traditions and needs, demands that the writer as public voice, assumes a responsibility to reflect public concern in his writings and not occupy himself with his puny ego. Because in Africa, we recognize that art is in the public domain, a sense of social commitment is mandatory upon the artist…. It also demands that his theme be germane to the concern of the community.

Social criticism, thus, move in line with social commitment, which view literature, particularly poetry as a vehicle for social change. This paper sets out to examine the poetic vision of Idris Amali in his collection Back Again at the Foothills of Greed (2012) and to demonstrate that he is a social critic with a positive vision to his society.

The aim of this paper is therefore to demonstrate that the poet Idris Amali has vision as he addresses issues of contemporary Nigeria from the Marxist stand point. He views the failure of the political leaders from the standpoint of lack of morality and accountability.

The problems addressed in this paper are to ascertain the possibility of vision in richly loaded ideological poetry. In this paper we argued that Amali is a poet with a vision beyond his art that explains why art is and were always in the service of humanity. In view of the above stated problems, this paper attempts answers to the following research questions: in what ways can poetry bring positive change in Nigeria? Can poetry proffer any solutions to Nigeria’s enormous problems? Are moral values as intimated by Amali a panacea to the problems plaguing contemporary Nigerian society? Based on the above problems and research questions, this paper hypothesizes that Amali’s poetry constitutes moral force and political voice in Nigeria’s poetry.

1.1 Theoretical Considerations.

Marxism is an apt literary theory to read social critical tendencies out of a literary text. This is because, the theory is based on the nature and functioning of society; its social stratification and constrains. Marxism began around the 1848 as a politico- economic philosophy. It was founded by karl Marx, and his associate, Frederick Engels. Based on Marx’s study of the society, he concluded that the economy formed the foundation upon which all other elements of the society are based.

As a literary theory, Marxist sees literature as part of any culture’s superstructure, determined in both form and content by the economic base. Marxist critics maintain that literature reflects those social institutions out of which it emerges and is itself a social institution with particular ideological functions. Literature reflects class struggle and materialism Abrahams, (2015) in Glossary of literary terms asserts that Marxist generally view literature “not as a work created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria, but as ‘product’ of the economic and ideological determinants specific to that era”

Terms such as base, superstructure and ideology are usually recurrent in Marxist discourse analysis. Base in Marxism refer to economic superstructure, according to Marx and Engels, it emerges from this base and consist of law, politics, philosophy, religion and art, while ideology is the shared beliefs and values held in an unquestioning manner by a culture. It governs what that culture deems to be normative and valuable. For Marxist ideology is determined by economics. Terry Eagleton (1976, p. 5) explain this well in Marxism and literary criticisms. He state:

At a later stage, the developments of new modes of production organization is based on a changed state of social relations- this time between the capitalist class who own those means of productions and the proletarian class whose labor power the capitalist buys for profit. Taken together, these forces and relations of production from what Marx calls the economic structure of society or what is most commonly known by Marxist as the economic base or infrastructure. From this economic base, in every period emerges a superstructure certain forms of law and politics. Certain kind of state, whose essential function is tolegitimate the power of social class which own the means of production.

The stronghold of this theory is class stratification in society, that is, the upper class, the lower class and the middle class. In a typical English society, the upper class (people of noble birth and royalty) constitutes the bourgeoisies. The masses, who are the most common people in the society, constitute the proletarian class. During the medial period, a middle class emerged that comprised merchants, landowners and factory owners who amassed a lot of wealth for themselves. Educated people also fall within these groups.

In the case of Africans, society is not meticulously stratified. We could easily talk of the rich and the poor or the oppressors and the oppressed, the rich, mostly being corrupt politicians and a few genuine business fellows. There is another class of people that cannot go unnoticed; the class of intellectuals. These people neither belong to the oppressed nor the oppressor’s camp. They function like a connecting factor between the two. They can come close to the poor and they can as well afford to rub shoulders with the rich. This class can pass for a middle class and their function are to conscientise and give hope to the poor this is where the poet under this study falls. Thus, African Marxist should talk of the rich, the poor and the mediators. Writers in Africa mostly belong to the class of mediators and usually identified with the oppressed. In literary analysis, Marxist critics explore ways in which the text reveals ideological oppression of dominant economic class over subordinate classes. Most common to Marxism is class struggle, capitalism, oppression, revolution for social change symbiotic relationship between form and content, that is the two go together but none is independent of the other.

1.2 Amali as a Social Critic.

In his collection Back Again: At the Foothills of Greed the poet presents facets and slices of experiences that depict the human condition in contemporary Nigerian society. He does this with an intensity of diction and impressive texture that aptly capture the depth of his emotion about his society. That explains the poet knowledge of his society’s historical realities and this is in keeping with Ngugi in Home Coming (1972, p. 19) when he opines that “a writer does not write in a vacuum, he draws his inspiration from the socio-political, economic and historical realities of his society”. The poet is very much in touch with his Nigerian society. Another critic Bate Besong Ɗ1993ɗ in his “ literature in the seasons of the Diaspora: Note to the Anglophone Cameroonian writer” content that “ A writer who has no sense of history is like a sparrow without wings…in fact, a writer without a sense of history is the Aesopian lion devoid of claws and teeth.” In this paper we discover that the poet have peeped into the history of Nigerian society in order to repair and bring to order the blunders of the past through his poems. Amuta (1989, p. 64) in his “The theory of African literature”, asserts that “the particular social experiences of different nations provide the source of inspiration for the literature and performance of individual writers”. This paper sets out to show that Idris Amali drew inspiration from the historical realities of Nigeria to write his poems. The discussions of this paper are done under the following three thematic clusters: corruption, power abuse and conscientisation.

1.3 Corruption.

Corruption is a social ill posing a serious menace and threat to the corporate existence and the development of Nigeria. It has been of great concern to various leaders and government in Nigeria. As far back as (Fonlon, 1982 cited in Ndubueze) second republic president declared that “what worries me more than anything among our problem is that of moral decadence in our country, lack of dedication to duty, dishonesty and all such vices.” The advanced learners Dictionary define corruption as “Dishonest or illegal behavior especially of people in authority, it also sees corruption as the act of making somebody change from moral to immoral standard of behavior’. In the collection under this study, the poet depicts the dehumanization of human psyche which hamper the welfare of the Nigerian citizens and the progress of the nation. As a result, his poetic vision indict the perpetrators of such afflictions ie the superstructures and their ilk who occupy positions of responsibility, yet fail abysmally to live up to society’s expectations. His poetic visions are exhibited in the poem titled “ Back Again: At the Foothills of Greed”, the poet lament on the way how corruption gets into the root of Nigerian society, the mood express here is horrendous thus:

We are back again at the foothills of greed

Where the greedy pray daily

To the Almighty

To prey upon the weak

To float on the corrupt ocean of contract boom

To aid the wings to perch upon high throne

(Amali, 2012, p. 100).

The poet bemoans how the superstructures continue to swim in the luxury and wealth while the base languishes in abject poverty. That explain how egocentric, selfish and self-centered our political leaders are today. In yet another stanza of the same poem, the poet bespeaks:

We are back again

At another full moon of “chop and chop”

When the chased eagle and vultures

Have perch on low shrubs

But with their surgical talons poised

To further empty our starved bowels.

(Amali, 2012, p. 100)

The attitude of the bourgeoisie is expressed here, their exploitative tendencies and their greed nature. “Eagles” and “vultures” symbolizes the superstructures. Marxist philosophy stipulates that, characters in a literary work are symbolic and do not stand in isolation, hence the above stanza. The poem is divided into two parts, in the first part of it, the poet keeps lamenting while in the second part he keeps regretting the poet said:

This is the land

Where we turban the evil in the arena

Meant for the righteous

Bandaged the mouth of their heir-apparent

In a blind carnival that enslaves our future.

(Amali, 2012, p. 100)

The lines suggest that, Nigeria is a country wherein “ cheats”, and “ greed” in pretense, hide under the evils they have committed by taking a honorary titles meant for the righteous people, and divert the linage to continued their own way. Another lines continued thus:

This is the land

Where we deck the commanders

Of night and daylight raiders

With red caps fitted with wild feathers

And anchor their treacherous wrist

With elephant tusk and beads

Meant for men of honor

As we erect statues and plagues to immortalizes them.

(Amali, 2012, p. 100)

The lines above suggest that, those on the corridors of power are treacherously honored at the detriment of the righteous people and through this they continued their evil act. Marxist talks about historical materialism. This is a period in history when everybody is engaged in amassing wealth. In this period, the rich continued exploit poor while the poor continued to languish in poverty. In another poem titled “To our tormentors”, the poet hope that the day of reckoning must surely come he posits:

God will

Come down

One of this days

On this hills

To melt all to

Sea beds

(Amali, 2012, p. 80)

The above stanza is in keeping with Marxist tenets, that bad leaders should be ousted from power through revolution. The revolution can be bloody or cool blooded revolution. In the case of the poet under this study, he suggests the latter as the eyes of proletariat are watching God. Marx predicts that someday for sure the proletariat will seizes power from the superstructures and establish a classless society.

1.4 Power Abuse.

Mis-used of power of power is a facular phenomenon in African context. Political leaders abuse offices at the Centre of leadership. Mismanagement and abuse of power by the political leadership in Nigeria which the poet under this study thinks are vicious and malicious. As such apart from negotiating for an alternative socio-political system in which there will be social justice the poet cleverly denounce such a system in his poems. The poems reflect concrete reality of a people fighting for freedom and social justice that have been denied them. The images utilized in the poems as demonstrated in this article, bespeak of abuse of power. In his poem titled “ the wind decide”, the poet expressed metaphorically his feeling of the destructive tendencies of the upper class who carefully manipulate the fate of the base to their interest, he lament

The wind decide to come

Uprooting our trees and roots of life

Tearing roofs apart and with his mighty axe

Beheading trees of life

(Amali, 2012, p. 23).

The word “ wind” suggest change for the better, the destiny of the common people and when change come, it come with so many forces like destructions which suggest removing all bad manners and attitudes for good ones and the root of life may suggest revolutionary.

In another poem titled “ God no longer kills” , Amali lament on the misused of power of power by our political leaders he decried thus,

Let the rivers, the streams, the oceans, the gods RISE!

Into brigades, squadrons

To face our brothers and sisters of loot

And sweet-coated cannon of promises

Has our God fail us?

(Amali, 2012, p. 34).

In yet another poem titled “ our people” the poet Amali complain on the exploitative nature of our political leaders and the ways they scheme politics and abuse power to suits their interest, he lament thus:

Other;

Sit at the apex and middle of our wealth

Sipping us pale, trembling on us

While we like mendicants beneath struggle for

Light

Beg for what is ours. (Amali, 2012, p. 42)

1.5 Conscientisation

Conscientisation, is a term that is derived from the Portuguese word “conscietizacao” meaning learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions and to make action against the oppressive elements of reality. Freire (1970, p. 17), argued that the rising of the social consciousness can lead to social discontent and even anarchy. In this paper, we use the term to denote learning to perceive the ongoing social order in our contemporary societies. In view of this, we submit that change can only be achieved in our society if there is awareness. To change our society we need strong and agile persons to carry on our cause Ngugi (1981, p. 5-6) submit to have change we need “positive heroes from among the workers, positive heroes who would embody the spirit of struggle and resistance against exploitation and naked robbery by the national bourgeoisie and its global allied”. Since Idris Amali is conscious of change and equality in his societies for the interest of the common man, his poetry become vital. Poetry in its general sense is a viable means of effecting awareness among people in any society. As seen from this light, it is therefore one of the contentions of this paper that, the virtues of literature is its change that is hidden behind entertainment. Thus, this section examines the role of poetry in conscientisation process of the society from which it emanates.

The concept of conscientisation which lead to social consciousness finds expression in the following poems by the poets in this research.

1.6 Conclusion.

Conclusively, it is important to restate the hypothetical contention of this paper. The paper sets out to demonstrate that the failure that bedeviled the Nigerian political, social and economic system has resulted in anger and insecurity. Amali in his poetic vision utilizes imagery and expressions that bespeak of the condemnation of this exploitation and injustice.

Drawing largely from the-Marxist artistic paradigm, this paper underscores that the poetic vision of this poet is to explore and capture the reality in Nigerian society stand. Thus this study reveals that the poetry have made abuse of power, conscientisation its main themes to overcome the predicament that have bedeviled the Nigerian society.

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