Echoes of a Broken Nation in Uche Peter Umez’s Aridity of Feelings (2006) and the Question of National Recovery in Idris Amali’s Efeega, War of Ants (2014)

Citation: Ogbedeto, C.C. & Iwuji, U.O. (2026). Echoes of a Broken Nation in Uche Peter Umez’s Aridity of Feelings (2006) and the Question of National Recovery in Idris Amali’s Efeega, War of Ants (2014). Tasambo Journal of Language, Literature, and Culture, 5(2), 162-170. www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2026.v05i02.018.

ECHOES OF A BROKEN NATION IN UCHE PETER UMEZ’S ARIDITY OF FEELINGS (2006) AND THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL RECOVERY IN IDRIS AMALI’S EFEEGA, WAR OF ANTS (2014)

By

Dr. Chimeziri C. Ogbedeto
Department of Humanities, Federal Polytechnic Nekede
Imo State, Nigeria, chimeziriogbedeto@gmail.com, cogbedeto@fpno.edu.ng, +2348103480313

And

Dr. Ugochukwu Ogechi Iwuji
Department of Humanities, Federal Polytechnic Nekede
Imo State, Nigeria, ugoiwuji@gmail.com, uiwuji@fpno.edu.ng, +2348068781712

Abstract

This study expands epistemic boundaries of critical literature on the social malaise of society. It is a reflection of a typical postcolonial African country as a site of misrule, social crisis, and disillusionment, where pervasive systemic leadership failure has given birth to disconsolate and revolutionary writers who express despair through their art. This study uses literary semiotics to examine the echoes of a broken nation while exploring a pathway for national recovery. The work uses selected poems in Uche Peter Umez’s Aridity of Feelings (2006) and Idris Amali’s Efeega, War of Ants (2014) to illustrate the brutal realities of a broken nation and the path to tread. The study deploys the theory of Reflectionism to interrogate the issues raised in the paper. The Reflectonist theory states that art is a reflection of the society that produced it. The methodology used is close-reading, implicating aspects of the style and theme of the poems. A limited number of poems from each anthology is chosen to suit the textual space of the paper. The findings of the study are hinged on the aesthetics of the poetic art to portray a broken nation and the need to attain national recovery by treading the path of revolution.

Keywords: Artists, Nigerian literature, Reflectionism, Social malaise, Style, Theme.

Introduction

The concept of a broken nation is commonly used in political, sociological and postcolonial studies to illustrate a state enmeshed in bad governance, conflict and systemic injustice. A broken nation may not necessarily be that which is poor or developing, but that whose system undermines national purpose and justice. Fukuyama (2004) explains that a nation becomes broken when the state fails to perform its basic duties of security and provision of basic amenities for its citizens. Achebe (1983) views a broken nation through the lens of leadership failure. He argues that a nation’s ethical foundations collapse when leaders lack moral courage and accountability to govern. Rotberg (2003) conceptualises a broken nation as one that is unable to meet the basic needs of its citizens. This results in weak institutions, ethnic tensions, social disillusionment, deprivation, violence and underdevelopment, making national recovery impossible or difficult.

There have been several scholarly discourses on the concept of a broken nation, the sign of which is failed leadership.  For instance, Kehinde (2010) situates failed leadership within the breakdown of the public sphere in postcolonial Nigeria, using works such as Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, arguing how literature exposes the betrayal of democratic ideals. Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah remains central to literary critiques of leadership failure. Akinwande et al. (2023) and Opara (2023) analyse plays by Ola Rotimi and Femi Osofisan to show how theatrical narratives portray corruption, state violence, and social injustice. Ike and Chinaka (2022) demonstrate how Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah portray leadership failure in both political and domestic spheres. Okafor (2019), Nneke (2020), and Emelone (2025) examine multiple plays to establish a pattern of self-serving leadership and social decay. Literature, thus, becomes a mirror reflecting Nigeria’s leadership crisis across time and space.

The uniqueness of this study does not lie in its investigation of a broken nation but in its ability to offer a pathway of revolution to put an end to the brutal social menace of a broken nation. It views the concept of a broken nation through the lens of two poetry anthologies, while recommending a possible pathway for national recovery. There is Uche Peter Umez’s Aridity of Feelings (2006), an anthology of poetry that explores the various shades of social injustice and failed leadership plaguing the Nigerian nation. The anthology contains 57 poems that bemoan the grim condition of the poet’s society. Umez is an award-winning contemporary Nigerian poet who has published several creative works, including Dark Through the Delta and Tears in Her Eyes. He is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta. Aridity of Feelings is an ANA-Imo Prize Winner for Poetry, and contains the writer’s hot breath and raw rage on the squalid condition of his people. There is also Idris Amali’s Efeega, War of Ants (2014). Amali is a Nigerian professor of literature who has published several books, including Generals Without War and Back Again: At the Foothills of Greed, anthologies of poetry published by KraftGriot.

The paper is rooted in the theory of reflectionism, which is essentially predicated on Marxist aesthetics. It views literature as a reflection of social realities, especially the material, economic, and class conditions of a given historical period. The theory thrives on the assumption that literary texts do not emerge in isolation but are shaped by the social structures, ideological forces, and historical circumstances surrounding their production.

The major exponent of the reflectionist theory is Georg Lukács, whose Marxist literary criticism emphasises realism as the highest literary mode because it truly reflects social totality. For Lukács (1971), great realist works reveal the objective structures of society, particularly class relations, by portraying typical characters in typical situations. Literature, in this sense, becomes a cognitive tool through which readers can grasp the dynamics of social reality. Lukács rejects subjective forms of writing, arguing that they distort reality by focusing excessively on individual consciousness rather than broader social forces (Királyfalvi, 1975).

Reflectionist theory also maintains a strong nexus between literature and ideology. From this perspective, literary texts inevitably embody the dominant or competing ideologies of their historical moment. While Lukács believed literature could offer a relatively faithful reflection of social reality, later Marxist critics complicated this view. Williams (1977), for example, argues that literature reflects society not mechanically but through cultural mediation, including traditions, conventions, and emergent social values. This modification allows reflectionism to account for contradictions within texts and for the presence of resistant or alternative ideological positions.

A major criticism of early reflectionist theory is its tendency toward determinism, the idea that literature passively mirrors economic structures. Thinkers such as Althusser (1969) challenge this simplistic model by emphasising the relative autonomy of art and ideology. From this revised perspective, literature does not merely copy reality but refracts it through aesthetic forms and structure. This refractive model retains the core insight of reflectionism, that literature is socially grounded, while acknowledging the creative role of the writer (Jameson, 1981).

Despite these debates, the reflectionist theory remains significant because of its emphasis on social critique and realism. By privileging texts that engage with social conditions, inequality, and historical change, the theory offers a powerful framework for analysing novels, drama, and poetry as documents of social experience. Realist works are valued not for photographic accuracy but for their capacity to reveal social contradictions and historical processes beneath everyday appearances (Frye, 1957; Eagleton, 2008). In this way, reflectionism links literary analysis to broader concerns about power, class, and ideology.

Remarkably, the reflectionist theory provides a framework for understanding the relationship between literature and society. By insisting that literature is historically situated and socially meaningful, reflectionism continues to influence Marxist criticism, cultural studies, and realist literary analysis, making it a productive model in literary studies (Barry, 2017; Williams, 1977).

The application of the reflectionist theory on the selected poems in the study will implicate how relevant stylistic elements of imagery, symbol, metaphor and tone, among others, buttress the social inequalities, conflicts and contradictions that define a system plagued by inept leadership. Literature, thus, deploys aesthetic forms to mirror the social conditions of a people in a given period.

Echoes of a Broken Nation and the Path of National Recovery

The paper investigates selected poems from the two anthologies above to explore the echoes of a broken nation and the path of national recovery. “I Sing My Thoughts” is the first poem in Umez’s anthology. It presents an impatient persona, defying odds to make his feelings about the condition of his society known to the world. He is a victim of the injustice perpetrated by evil leadership. The persona introduces himself as a minstrel who is committed to communicating his thoughts through his art:

I sing

I sing my thoughts, which spawn

In my head

And like motley butterflies

Flit across my vision (p. 1)

The foregoing excerpt presents an image of a minstrel under the influence of the muse. Thoughts build up in the mind and inspirations converge in the heart seeking a release. The complementarity of the muse and minstrel has been explored in Tanure Ojaide’s The Beauty I Have Seen (2010), where “When the muse gives the minstrel a nod/The minstrel smiles, swaggers” (p. 5). This shows that the minstrel may not be able to withstand the pressure of the inspiration given by the muse hence he “swaggers”. In another poem of the collection, Ojaide clarifies that “When the muse gives the minstrel a nod/no bead ever competes with his diamond” (p. 9). The excerpt alludes to the power and beauty of the muse in birthing a sublime art. According to Ojaide, the sublimity of the product of the muse towers above the diamond. Thus, when Uche Peter Umez’s persona states that his thoughts are “like motley butterflies/flit across my vision,” he implies that he has no control over his muse. The simile in line 4 reinforces the overarching power of the muse. It is the strength of the muse that motivates him to further declare his message in spite of distractions:

These thoughts I sing, though

My voice lacks charms

The mellifluous appeal

Of a eulogist

A sycophant

A palace bard (p. 1)

The persona is determined to let out his thoughts despite some seeming contradictions. For instance, he laments the lack of charm in his voice. The use of “charm” and “mellifluous” is metaphorical, and represents the floweriness associated with art. The persona is not concerned with the charm and appeal of his voice because he may not need it. He associates it with a lower form of art practised by “eulogists”, “sycophants” and “a palace bard,” since his message does not thrive in pleasing any audience.

Having overcome the distraction of using his art to sing the praise of his country’s leadership, the persona is then faced with the temptation of commercialising his art: “and someone suggested/I sing for gain” (p. 1). This is an allusion to the trials faced by writers who deploy their muse for epicurean purposes. The suggestion to sing for gain connotes a descent into ignominy. The voice further prods the persona to make his verses “frothy and scented” (p. 1) to “titillate/the greed-toothed hearts of crooks/on our hallowed stools” (p.1). The muse does not inspire an art that is pleasing to everyone, hence the persona resists the allure of channelling it to please self-serving leaders as symbolised by “greed-toothed hearts of crooks”. The foregoing presents a serious metaphor that characterises the leadership of the persona’s country as greedy and crooked. A greedy leader is a corrupt one who spares no resources in his act of embezzlement. A “greedy-toothed” leader cannot supervise the growth and development of a nation because they only cart away the resources meant for developmental purposes. It is an irony that the people who occupy the “hallowed stool” of government are “crooks” who are “greed-toothed”. This is a similar metaphor used by Adeoti (2005, p. 33) in describing a society governed by a kleptomaniac leadership. In his poem “Ambush”, Adeoti describes his society thus:

The land is a giant whale

That swallows the sinker

With hook, line and bait

Aborting dreams of a good catch (p. 33)

The foregoing contains metaphors that cast gruesome images of a misled country. The country is equated to a big whale that devours its prey. In this case, the land metaphorically devours its citizens by making them hopeless, unable to achieve anything. They could only nurse dreams, but cannot actualise them because the land is a “giant whale” that aborts dreams. Thus, the people not only suffer in this type of country, but also remain unhappy. A land that swallows dreams is one governed by “greedy-toothed crooks” as inferred by Umez (2006, p.1). They are the leaders who purloin the common wealth of the people without developing the basic infrastructure that supports development and guarantees wealth. If these leaders are greedy-toothed, Adeoti sees them as “sabre-toothed tiger/that cries deep in the glade” in his “Ambush.” This is a more direct metaphor characterising bad leaders as carnivorous animals ready to devour their victims. The innocent people of their country are their victims.

In the end, Umez’s persona shows courage by releasing the muse-inspired message: “But I choose to sing/to sing in pain/for the hunger-gnawed bowels” (p.1). The persona’s song is elegiac – rendered to lament the poverty and hunger in the land as orchestrated by greedy and crooked leaders. He chooses to be the tribune of the masses who may lead a protest against the leaders. “The hunger-gnawed bowels” is a metaphor that alludes to the multidimensional poverty of the land of the persona – a land yearning for true leadership.

The elegiac tone of Umez’s art continues in “For Her, For Me” where the persona chooses to show courage in communicating his muse-inspired thoughts to the world. In this verse, the persona directs his poetic attention to one citizen – a typical victim of evil leadership buffeted by despair and poverty. The poem opens with a paradox: “is a melodious song of pain/my life” (p. 2). A song of pain cannot possibly be melodious, yet the persona sees it as so since it reflects the true condition of his people. The pain in the country is a sordid reality of maladministration. It is also a by-product of the injustice in the land. The pain causes the citizens to weep:  “her tears are flowing hot lava/my land” (p. 20). She may not have eaten anything since there is abject poverty in the land. There is a hyperbole in the representation that she releases “hot tears”, reinforcing the intensity of her cries and wails.

The poem further uses lively images to portray the tone of pain and angst in the poem: “nostalgia itches my eyes, woe yeasts in me/ I am home to despair” (p. 2). The nostalgic feeling that “itches” the persona’s eyes may be born out of the recollection of the good old days of justice and genuine leadership. The persona’s eyes hurt him, having cried more than necessary from the pain of battling a living crisis in the country. There is the imagery of a sick and itchy body groaning under despair. The noun “woe” is personified as a symbol of depressive sickness that overwhelms the body. There is the metaphor of being “home to despair” (p. 2), indicating how the society has become a “killer” of dreams owing to poor leadership. The persona may be a young aspiring graduate who is not able to continue his education due to financial constraints. The metaphor of despair further bespeaks the condition of the youth who have great ambitions in life, but have given in to despair.

The poem further uses negative symbols to depict the social condition of the persona’s country: “hunger roosts here, poverty breeds there/ she is home to tyranny” (p. 2). The twin symbols of hunger and poverty are closely related, manifesting as effects of leadership failure and injustice in the country of the persona. Hunger and poverty, essentially, exist where there is no equitable distribution of resources. It leads to a state of hopelessness, pain and agony.  A tyrant runs a corrupt and unjust society and does not brook opposition, hence cannot gauge the pulse of the nation.

There is a tone of hopelessness and despair that runs through the poem. The persona gives in to despair at the end of the verse. He admits thus: “I and my land are entwined /in one long poetry of agony” (p. 2). The persona may have accepted defeat due to the pervasive hunger and poverty in the land. His dreams in life may have been dampened by the weariness of hunger and poverty. Thus, he sees himself as a victim who would not be isolated from the woes of his land.

The motif of victimhood also runs in “Man, Earth & World, “a three-stanza poem of nine lines which expresses utter hopelessness at the fate of living in a world that is trapped in despair and the evil machinations of man. He makes a deductive argument, implicating tripartite factors in the universe. First, he argues that the world is a victim of the construction of the human mind: “the world/mouse in a maze/ensnared in Babbage’s brainchild” (p. 3). The use of Babbage is a classical allusion to the 19^th-century scientist and inventor, Charles Babbage. The foregoing excerpt suggests that the world is a victim of man’s craftsmanship and invention. Thus, if the invention turns negative, the world suffers a sordid fate.

The poet’s persona indicts the leadership of a country which creates victims. For instance, he views the earth as “violated & victimised /on the precipice” (p.3). The earth is a metaphor for the persona’s society which has been ensnared in evil leadership. As a result, the people of the country are “violated & victimized”, two strong adjectives that symbolise denial, deprivation and domination. The citizens are dominated by mindless tyrants. They become victims of a tragic fate in their country. The fact that the innocent citizens are “on the precipice” (p. 3) points to the dangerous condition they find themselves. Being on the precipice casts an imagery of precariousness, slipperiness and vulnerability which may lead to destruction and death.

The persona concludes the poem with the same tone of despair as the beginning. The motif and tone of victimhood is escalated in the third stanza of the poem, portraying a sense of nothingness in the verse. The persona sees “man” as a “delirious dreamer” and a “pawn of destruction” (p. 3). The world therefore makes no sense since man is indeed is held captive, and eventually destroyed by evil leadership. He only becomes a “delirious dreamer,” a metaphor for an ensnared persona doomed to a tragic fate.

Uche Peter Umez furthers his art of lamentation in “Grind”, a nine-line verse which emphasises the fate of a people under a corrupt leadership. They are weighed down by poverty and agony. They are also condemned to bear the burden of a corrupt leadership:

Shades of grim days etch agony

On motley faces of kindred

Mired in poverty

Of a rich land

Tied to this grind of life

The millstones

Round their necks

Parching their thirst

Signifies their destiny (p. 5)

The poem is replete with gory images and negative symbols of the hardship in the land. The first line of the poem indicates the numerousness of the grim days – times of intense hardship and peril where they endure agonies of different shades. Bad leadership brings agonies onto the land because of poor choices made in governance. The agony can manifest in the form of poverty as seen in line 3; when people are poor, they face deprivation and trauma.

There is irony in line 4 describing the land as a “rich land/mired in poverty.” This is a clear allusion that the Nigerian nation is rich in human and natural resources, yet has a large section of its citizenry as multidimensionally poor. The rich land has been rendered wretched by greedy leaders. The land seems accursed by the greed of leaders because it is tied to the “grind of life”, where citizens are condemned to bear the weight of poor leadership. For instance, there are “millstones hung around their necks”, causing them to writhe in pain and agony. The millstones are metaphors of heavy taxation, inflation, insecurity and high cost of living to which poor citizens are subjected.

A broken nation has been likened to an AIDS victim who becomes a shadow of herself with time. This is typically presented by Umez in “Broken”. At the centre of the narrative poem is an AIDS victim rendered languid and hopeless by the dreaded virus. She now sees her life as mere “fragments within/a memory” (p. 10), a metaphor for history. The fragments alluded to in the poem contain both the positives and negatives of life, which have become a tragic memory. The victim also sees life as “a sprinkling of shards” since life does not hold out much time for her. The metaphor of shards is symbolic of a person at the precipice of her last days.

A broken nation may have once been beautiful like the persona of Umez’s “Broken” who was “once/ beautiful to behold.”  A nation is made beautiful by the right choices made by its leadership. These choices are usually made with the citizens being at the centre of all considerations. Impediments surrounding the dreams of an egalitarian nation are removed by genuine leaders. These obstacles are the social ills ailing the country. The AIDS patient in the poem loses her beauty because her immune system can no longer combat invading ailments. A country loses its beauty when it lacks an internal control mechanism or basic structure to combat issues challenging its social stability. A broken nation is unable to manage its successes and glory days. The AIDS victim in the poem only remembers her days of frolicking with “men of red-hot loins”, when her “laughter/echoed with the euphoria of wine in my belly” (p. 10). The foregoing typifies a period of glory mismanaged and undermined.

The metaphor of a broken nation is further illustrated as an AIDS victim who becomes a “lone shadow faded by dusk” (p. 10). It indicates a nation at the throes of collapse. Essentially, a broken nation, may almost be an impossible phenomenon to be redeem. Fukuyama (2004) avers that the path of national recovery may be difficult for a broken nation.  However, a broken nation may one day revive itself if people commit to purging the land of the filth of evil leadership ravaging it. This may entail their embarking on a guided revolution to reclaim their country from doomed leadership. Some writers have deployed revolutionary aesthetics in their art, identifying it as a missing link in the pursuit of social justice and freedom.

Revolutionary aesthetics is “nothing but the truthful artistic response to social reality in a revolutionary form” (Udenta, 1993, p. 22). It will also remain relevant because there is an ever- widening hiatus in the dialectics of class stratification in Nigeria occasioned by inept and insensitive leadership. Idris Amali’s Efeega, War of Ants (2014) is a typical poetry work that imbibes the ideals of revolutionary aesthetics.

In “Dedication,” for instance, Amali seeks to rouse broken nations to action. He deploys the aesthetics of revolution to inspire beleaguered masses to be instruments of revolution and national recovery:

Must we turn to be lineages of cowardice

And watch and wait until our last breath

Must we not call with stone voices and clubs

Into the face of the Chief of the state

Who in this carnival decorates

These filthy necks with envious gold

In this organized competitive looting race

Of who looted the largest (p.5)

There is always a point of climax in the level of trot perpetrated in a social sphere before there is a revolutionary trend. The land, having polluted by “great fertile filth” and “huge mountains of filth,” with state actors turning into legion of looters, the land becomes ripe for a revolutionary whirlwind. In the excerpt above, the persona utilising the literary tool of rhetorical question calls his compatriots to rise against the leader of the state, “Chief of state.” He does not see why the people would not go against the state’s leader with “stone voices and clubs” to end the reign of terror. It is infuriating that at a period of economic woes, the Chief of State wears “envious gold”, symbolising insensitivity of leadership. There is the use of antithesis in the verse in the sense that while the ruling class thrives in inexplicable opulence, the people are left to rot in abject poverty.

There is a repudiation of the misconception of leadership in developing countries as leaders “organized competitive looting race/ Of who looted the largest.” It is further disheartening that the leader of the state “conscripts men and women” and arms them with “arsenals of looting strikes.” Impliedly, these leaders appoint ministers, commissioners, advisers and assistants to aid in the organised state fraud.

The literary artist, writes Onuekwusi (2013, p.9) “is imbued with a talent to observe, contemplate and aesthetically express experience in words.” The poem “Dedication” is the voice of an artist who is passionate about the grim condition of his countrymen and is willing to use art as an instrument of change. Nwachukwu-Agbada (2008, p.7) in the same vein views literature as an instrument of liberation. In the third stanza of Dedication, the artist practically calls on his countrymen who are victims of misrule to rescue their land, a heritage from the Creator:

To these patriots without arms

Of impending wars without arms]

That will rise now and tomorrow brazenly

From the clans and lineages of armless warriors

To rescue from this light-fist rhetoric of greed

Of our great land created great by God (p.6)

The tone of the stanza is that of optimism. The poet’s persona acknowledges the limitation of his compatriots in the fight as they do not have arms. Yet, he hopes that in these clans of armless warriors would rise men who would rescue the land from greedy rulers. He describes the land as one “created great” by God, which needs to reassert its greatness when rescued from the fists of looters of the common patrimony. He also hopes that someday the “warriors without arms” would be “decorated by men without filth” after they must have conquered the “warriors with arms,” so described as “trampling elephants,” “thieving elephants,” “thieving looters” and “legion of looters, among others. These are the men described at the latter part of the poem as pitching “wars against ants.” The battle line is therefore drawn between armed warriors (looters) and armless warriors (impoverished patriots of the land).

The voice of the artist is optimistic that at the end of the impending war, the armless warriors would salvage their land from the filth and pollution brought upon it by armed looters. The poet dedicates his poetry to the people (warriors without arms), the victims of betrayal and misrule, with blind optimism that they shall rise with one voice and strength to rout “trampling elephants” of their land.

The sordid realities of the land are further reflected in the poem, “Rise”, where the poet’s persona like a revolutionary urges his countrymen to rise and resist their corrupt leaders, who are determined to continue in their looting spree. There is an air of persuasion in his voice as he exclaims:

Let’s rise brother and sisters

With one solid voice

Stone voices in concrete minds

Resolved to regain our stolen rights

To feed upon our commonwealth (p.11)

The metaphor of “rise” in the above excerpt points to a people hitherto content with their tragic situation. They may have obviously resigned to their fate and expressed powerlessness in their condition. The poet’s speaker makes a timely wake-up call to the people to brace up and take their fate into their hands. Another metaphorical underpinning in the verb “rise” points to a people hitherto asleep when there was no reason to do so. The first line of the poem is an entreaty on both genders to wake up, symbolising unity and inclusivity of purpose.

Conclusion

The concept of a broken nation as explored in this paper is one with stark social injustice, systemic failures, failed or unavailable basic amenities. A broken nation has citizens who are alienated from their land. Literature reflects the social condition of a people in time and space. Thus, the theory of relectionism provides a relevant framework to explore Umez’s Aridity of Feelings and Amali’s Efeega, War of Ants, texts that serve as the lens through which a typical broken nation can be viewed. The reflectionist theory provides a framework for understanding the relationship between literature and society. By insisting that literature is historically situated and socially meaningful, reflectionism continues to influence Marxist criticism, cultural studies, and realist literary analysis, making it a productive model in literary studies. The uniqueness of this paper does not lie in the portrayal of the social inequalities and grim conditions of a broken nation, but in offering a pathway of national recovery. Thus, a broken country may someday witness a revolution as the beleaguered citizens may be pushed to regroup and resist the purveyors of ruin at the helm of affairs. Revolution may appear as the only path to effect a change or achieve national recovery.

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