Article Citation: Lawal Rabi'atu (2019). Oral Traditions and Contemporary Nigerian Poetry: An Appraisal of Selected Poems of Tanure Ojaide. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1. ISSN 0794-9316
ORAL TRADITIONS AND CONTEMPORARY
NIGERIAN POETRY: AN APPRAISAL OF SELECTED POEMS OF TANURE OJAIDE
By
Lawal Rabi’atu
Department of English and
Lunguistics
Federal University, Dutse
Abstract
It is a common experience in
contemporary times that African poets foreground their works in the oral
traditional indicators of their ancestral roots which thereafter serves as
resource materials for their creative ethos. Some of the early writers in Africa
sharpened their creative dexterity by translating works into European languages
for instance “Song of Lawino” written by the Ugandan poet Okot p’Bitek was
first published in Acholi Luo and then translated to other languages, including
the English language; while others espouse the African oral traditional source
and express it in European languages; viz English, French or Portuguese. Poets
like Okot P’Bitek, Atukwei John Okai, Pol Ndu, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Birago
Diop and Odia Ofeimun are known for this transfer of African oral tradition
creative dexterity. These poets exploit ideas, songs, proverbial sayings and
wisdom from African oral traditions/culture and express them in English, French
and Portuguese. At this point, one can declare that orature/ oral literature
has reached an advanced stage in which the literariness of the various genres
are analyzed, evaluated and incorporated into the written traditions. While
modern writers employ every stratagem to preserve their oral tradition, they
also tend to appropriate the European medium of expression to suit their
sociopolitical and economic experiences. They do this amazingly by retaining
the vitality of traditional oratory in their works in such a manner that the
piece reads like written orature, such is the case of the Nigerian poet, Tanure
Ojaide.
Introduction
Ojaide is one of the
prominent Nigerian poets writing today. Conceivably, his writing career started
from days of going to school to learn and going home to listen to his
grandmother sing songs and tell tales, myths and legends of the Urhobo people.
His roots run deep into the Delta area. Its culture, oral tradition and
folklore no doubt enrich his poetry. Hence, Ojaide (1996:122) says: “My Delta
years have become touchstone with which I measure the rest of my life. The
streams, the fauna and flora are the symbols I continually tap”. As an
important voice in the new generation of Nigerian poets, Griffiths (1988:28)
has this to say about Ojaide: “Ojaide might be perceived among the traditional
loyal main-streamists whose literary ideology is linear and seldom open to
ambiguities”. Griffiths further adds “Ojaide is an avid promoter of the
generational syndrome and he openly subscribes to the notion that new
generation poets of which he is a self-conscious member, signal a serious
revolutionary desire towards the enterprise of poetry writing in
Nigeria”.
In the case of Ojaide’s
thematic concerns, he preoccupies himself with the plight of the common man and
stresses the need for solidarity of all the masses against their oppressors.
Some critics describe him as one of the forerunners of African writers of the
1980s whose writings support the less privileged and an attack against
violators of political ethos. His collection, The Blood of Peace (1991)
shows that there is so much to be done to bridge the gap between leaders and
their subjects. The struggle he emphasizes cannot be individualized; it has to
be collective. His poetry is a divine mission to transform Nigeria and to
sensitize people about the need for revolution, to move from the present low
social, political and economic standards to a higher one. Ojaide can achieve
this through appropriate utilization of traditional speech rhythms, the use of
myths and local images, allusions and symbols. To this effect, Bamikunle
(1995:81) posits:
Ojaide is like many Nigerian
Poets who have written before him concerning his view on the relationship
between literature and history. Like Okigbo, Soyinka, Okara, his poetry takes
off from desperate search for values to redeem its malaise. The search takes
him to the immediate past in the history of colonialism, and beyond that into
the pre-colonial ancestral history and culture. He differs from Soyinka in his
view of history as recurring cycles of bestiality; Ojaide believes it is
possible to move history forward through progressive regeneration.
Again, on Ojaide’s effective
utilization of oral narratives to communicate as the voice of society, Okome
(2002:9) says “Ojaide sets out to write a particular kind of people’s poetry
with a style, tone, theme and temperament that can be understood by all who
care to read his poetry”. Ojaide invites the masses and the intellectual world
to share the woes of his country and ring bells on its human miseries. Hence,
the poet vividly shares his people’s predicaments in their continued social
intercourse with their leaders and polity at large.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework
adopted for this paper is the postcolonial theory. Postcolonialism covers the
writings about the former European colonies before, during and after
independence. The advocates of this theory include Edward Said (Culture and
Imperialism), Spivak Gayatri (In Other Words) and Bill
Ascroft et al (The Empire Writes Back). Postcolonialism condemns
universalism which privileges the European culture over the colonized. The
postcolonial theory also speaks for the oppressed people in the world as
exemplified in Frantz Fanon are The Wretched of the Earth. The
theory is also concerned with the issues of culture, gender (Feminism), class (Marxism)
among others. The aspects of class distinction and class opposition are
relevant to this paper, because, they are the factors that determine the
relationship between the privileged class and the oppressed. Other postcolonial
issues such as bad governance and corruption will be given due consideration.
Analysis of the Selected Poems of Tanuri Ojaide
“The music of pain” is
composed in the form of a song, in which Ojaide yearns for his audience to
listen with rapt attention. The folksong, as an aspect of African oral
tradition, is performed to comment on contemporary social malaise.
Consequently, the song, as adopted by the poet, performs similar functions
within the oral culture from which they are transferred and the social purpose
they are made to serve within the written tradition. The value of songs in
Africa cannot be underestimated, as Osundare (1987:11) declares:
Traditional oral Africa
thrives on the song; every occasion has its lyrics, even trivial incidents
provoke a ballad. There are songs which mark the inexorable cycle of human
existence-birth, puberty, marriage, age, and death. There are songs for
cursing, songs of abuse, songs which wax purple in the King’s palace…The town
crier talks in song… I have seen old people weep in poetry.
Correspondingly, from lines
twenty-two to thirty of “The music of pain”, Ojaide buttresses the importance
of songs to the community. In a dramatic exchange, the oppressors mockingly ask
the persona of the poem “what can songs do?” and the persona
responds by employing a series of metaphoric expressions to project the potency
of songs. Thus, the persona says: (his songs)
They have the bite of
desperate ones!
They are fine-filed machetes
in the hands of the
threatened!
They are a swarm of mystery
bees
haunting robbers of proud
heritage!
My song has captured the
roar of lions
and the jungle mortars of
elephants. (p.2)
In essence, the oppressor
should know that the persona’s song is capable of inciting an uprising; hence
the oppressor is expected to address the needs of the common man or face the
wrath of the society at large. As a committed poet, Ojaide employs song as a
weapon of resentment against hunger, tyranny and the corrupt practices of
military leaders and their cronies. He goes further to remind oppressors in his
song by saying: (he) I do not cry in vain/for the song I sought/the
chorus of resistant cries/ to exonerate the lands scurvy conscience (p.2).
In the same vein, the poet stresses that word of his songs functions as an
armoury in fighting the conscience of overlords who clamped reins upon
jawbones/of upright words (p.2). One views the images of “steel
shafts”, “infantry” and “fine-filed machetes” with which the poet is armed to
penetrate and arouse the conscience of the oppressed to fight and oust corrupt
and oppressive leaders. Furthermore, Ojaide’s deployment of oral songs shows
that he does not ignore his audience, i.e. the people in pain and the
downtrodden. He associates with them and shares their socio-economic and
political experiences. At the end of the poem, the poet reiterates to the
tormentor:
Listen.
A fortyish man does not cry
in vain;
listen to my song
the music of communal pain.
(p.3)
The above lines of the poem
portray Ojaide as a voice of the people, a watchdog who barks and bites at
societal ills to bring about significant changes in the society. Besides, the
pain and worries expressed by the poet reveal that it is not a personal one,
but a reaction to communal troubles.
In “When Soldiers are
Diplomats”, the poet continues to vent his anger on the military and their
allies for being brutal towards the masses. The poem is also a parody of late
Major General Joseph Nanven Garba’s book, “Diplomatic Soldiering” (1987). According
to Narvaez (1977:33), the oral tradition of parody or folk parody has to do
with:
An artistic form of
communication, it is built upon a pre-existing aesthetic structure and that in
this building process the content or meaning of the initial structure is
substantively but not substantially altered, that is, it is altered to the
extent that the former sentiment and significance is still recognizable to the
creator and often to the performer and audience as well.
The poem gives an
account of the 1975 coup. On July 29, 1975, Colonel Garba and several other
middle-ranking army officers led by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammad, overthrew
the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon in a bloodless coup and set
themselves a four-year time table for restoring democracy.
Even though North American
folklorists such as C. Grant Loomis (1958), George Monteiro (1964), and Jan
Brunvand (1968) “have often noted the existence of traditional parodies, they
have been reluctant to consider such items “Folk parodies”. Whatever the above
scholars’ argument, the fact remains that there exist traditional parodies.
Ojaide as a poet can foreground “When Soldiers are Diplomats” within the
folkloric parody to satirize and ridicule Joseph Nanven Garba’s “Diplomatic
Soldiering.”
As usual, Ojaide adopts
communal voice in his poems; “When Soldiers are Diplomats” is no different. The
beginning of the poem is an outright warning to the audience watching Ojaide’s
performance. The persona warns that though soldiers might appear or pretend to
be innocent and harmless; they are still dangerous and reckless, thus:
The persona implies that
despite the soldiers’ presence, they are capable of deceit, brutality, violence
and are cunning when it comes to looting funds. The persona further castigates
the military for appointing authoritarian generals as diplomats; the general
might dress diplomatically and speak excellently but the bedbug doesn’t
care/ for the taste of your blood (p.4). The deceptive nature of the
diplomatic soldier is also captured as:
you will never see the
leopard’s fangs in the dark
you will never trace the
rain flushed blood trail to a den
you will never catch the
slayer by his invisible hand. (p.4)
Also, the poet
stresses the parasitic and iniquitous nature of soldiers with the symbol of an
insect, the bedbug, thus, And the bedbug, that snug cannibal,/ doesn’t
care for the rank of blood…(p.5). In the last stanza of the poem, the poet
makes it clear to his audience that appointing a soldier as a diplomat does not
change his nature:
But put a savage in a suite,
Know him by his blood-tinted
teeth
You will always know the
whore
Pacing the globe in a
plaited gown
Selling smiles, lip-cheap
wares
There is a heartless joke to
learn
From the fortune-seeking
trade:
Diplomatic soldiering (p.5)
The mockery in the poem is
further felt when the persona says, what a double subjection/to savage
sophisticraft/ of diplomatic soldiering (p.4). Ojaide’s use of symbols
and images of violence is an effective weapon in castigating violators of human
ethics (the soldiers) as it is in stirring the masses to struggle against and
destroy the oppressor. As Mowah (2002:31) observes , “the poet’s persona
changes from one image to another and in the process allows us an insight into
the various shades of the poet’s emotional involvement in the quest for change
and progress for human society” Therefore, the poet’s argument is that
meaningful development will only take place when justice is entrenched.
Ojaide adopts the Urhobo
folkloric parody or communal performance, as well as its folktales, proverbs,
songs and music. It is a known fact that songs and music are important aspects
of the lives of Africans. Hence, Osadebe (1949:154):
We sing when we fight, we
sing when we work,
we sing when we love, we
sing when we hate,
we sing when a child is
born, we sing when death
takes a toll
Above all, songs and music
are used to report and comment on current affairs. They are also used in
propaganda, and political pressure to mould an opinion; be it public or that of
an individual. Apart from using musical instruments, there is intonation of
songs which gives its rendition musicality. Nwagbara and Ahadzie (2016:92)
posits that: “music - its diverse signification, distant representations and
creative appropriations - captures an overriding aspect of human intellectual
and philosophical pontificating, positioning it at nexus of imagination and
art”. For this reason, in African tradition, a representation of music has
multiple dimensions, realizations and scope with assigned distinct meanings,
codifications and implications. This codification and implication represent
varied interpretations and applications. They represent happiness and joy,
soothing of human weaknesses, sorrow, tragedy or pain. For instance, melodic
tones of a dirge and praise poetry are different; from the tone, one can
differentiate praise poetry from a dirge. Thus, music/melody from the aesthetic
perspective and as a means of codification expressively yields a variety of
different articulation form, and from a literary perspective, music is used as
a metaphor for actualizing beauty of thought, giving impetus to the imagination
as well as buttressing meaning and message. Assuredly, one can say Ojaide creatively
engages in the use of music in “What poets do our leaders read” (p.6) to
establish a kind of distinction in his poetic art and as a significant artefact
for meaning-making.
“What poets do our leaders
read” is a poem abound with elements of musical symbolism and imagery used by
the poet to give further details and meanings to his philosophy for crying out
for the downtrodden. The second stanza reads thus:
Do not mince my heart-sprung
words
do not mint lores of
salvation
from the blood smacked and
bone-decked thrones,
do not drown the howls of
patients
with samba of guests (p.6)
The words “heart-strung
words”, mint lores”, “the blood smacked”, “howls” and “samba of guests” suggest
the feelings, notions and impression of musicality upon which the philosophy of
the poet is embedded, and this represents the agony of the masses. Below is
also another excerpt from the fourth stanza of the poem in which musicality and
its artistic quintessence are used:
When they hear a
rib-relaxing sigh,
a grief-dispelling chant,
they kicked the air,
demon-possessed
and need blood to still
their spasms
you can hear infallible
words
from foaming mouths… (p.6-7)
The phrase “grief-dispelling
chants” captures and communicates insincerity, deceit, pretence,
double-standards and eccentricity of military dictatorship and the civilian
leadership. In the same poem, Ojaide indicts leaders for their unsympathetic
and appalling styles of leadership. The poet expresses disapproval over
tyranny, ridiculous witch-hunting of political opponents and at the same time
castigates the crop for being insensitive to pains and deprivation of their
subjects, thus:
What headgears do they wear
that their ears do not show
in the picture
what strings do top ones
hold
that they always dangle
sideways,
ever staying with the people
in the court of fanfare, who
cares
for the glowing steeple of
earth’s breast
or the swathing blue of the
sky’s divine sheet (p.6)
The poet further queries
leaders on factors that influence their kind of brutal leadership which thrives
on the agony of the ruled characterized by wailing and groaning. This is what
is implied in, they kicked the air, demon-passed/ and need blood to
still their spasms./ you can hear infallible words (p.6). The welfare
of the people does not matter to them because the leaders only listen to:
Perjurers of the words
drummers of bloated drums
carriers of offensive
sacrifice;
fanners of vanities.
And their own doubles, the
likes
Sellers of tatters.
And with their giant
strides,
You can see why
Small heads are so full of
themselves.
But no more ask me:
What poets do our leaders
read? (p.7)
Of course, the sound of a
bloated drum gives out a distorted sound. Thus the leaders are surrounded by
sycophants who applaud their atrocities and never intimate them about the
sufferings of the masses. The poet’s message to the people is to resist all acts
of injustice against them, for that is the only blueprint for progress.
Also, an obsessive
commitment to social justice and detestation of tyrants (political leaders)
abounds in “The Fate of Vultures”. Ojaide invokes and pleads to Aridon,
the god of memory in Urhobo mythology, with supernatural powers to make the
recovery of stolen public wealth possible. The invocation by the poet to his
guardian god is also to intervene in Nigeria during the Second Republic
(1979-1983) to avert the hardship experienced by Nigerians through echoing
gross maladministration and plundering of public funds at all levels of the
then democratic administration. Images in the poem are stacked with insular
density, representing a powerful plea for accountability of public money from
politicians who have gone hopelessly out of control:
O Aridon, bring back my
wealth
from rogue-vaults;
legendary witness to comings
and goings,
memory god, my mentor,
blaze an ash-trail to the
hands
that buried mountains in
their bowels,
lifted crates of cash into
their closets (p.11)
Thus, he implores Aridon to
reduce to ashes and destroy the hands that stole the stupendous wealth of the
public for their personal use. The second stanza of the poem further castigates
the military leaders of treasury looting even when they boast of redeeming the
nation from predators of public funds leaving “misery in their wake” and
replacing freedom with tyranny.
The poet in the third stanza
speaks to his audience as he recounts in reminiscent terms the feeding on
carcasses by “vultures”. Thus:
You can tell
when one believes freedom is
a windfall
and fans himself with
flamboyance.
The chief and his council, a
flock of flukes
gambolling in the veins of
fortune.
Range chickens, they consume
and scatter…
They ran for a pocket-lift
in the corridors of power
and shared contracts at
cabals…
the record production and
sales
fuelled the adolescent
bonfire of fathers (p.11)
The few corrupt individuals
as “cabals” have imposed repressive economic domination on the people. They
allocate contracts to themselves; fill their vaults with illegitimate funds and
destroy coffers of public funds akin to the destruction caused by cyclones. In
the present democratic dispensation, (The Fourth Republic) corruption and
mismanagement of public funds have massively tripled to an unimaginable point.
The Nigerian nation desperately needs God’s divine intervention for its
sustenance.
There is an adequate
manifestation of language in the “The fate of vultures” to ease communication
with the audience, Ojaide puns names of Shehu Shagari and Alex Ekweme as
“Shamgari” and “Alexius” as leaders who deny ordinary people their stable food
“gari”. The two leaders busied themselves with investing a huge amount of money
in building houses in Abuja, the emerging new capital of Nigeria at the expense
of the needs of the ordinary man. The poet further says:
the gasping eagle, shorn of
proud feathers
sand-ridden, mumbles its own
dirge
gazing at the Iroko
it can no longer ascend…
(p.12)
The above lines by the poet
symbolize the downfall of the eagle which is on the emblem of Nigerian coat of
arms. The eagle simply gazes at the iroko tree and gasps for
breath. This is because it is choked by atrocities committed by its guardians,
and thus, the entire nation is paralyzed. The poet ends the poem on a scornful
note by indicting the plundering political officials as well as their military
counterparts and cabals for being clogs in the wheels of progress and
development. This is what is reflected in the following:
Pity the fate of flash
millionaires.
If they are not hurled into
jail, they live
in the prisonhouses of their
crimes and wives
and when they die, of
course, only their kind
shower praises on vultures.
(p.12)
Finally, Ojaide equates the
corrupt, self-gratifying Nigerian politicians with “vultures,” a biological
symbol that is both ominous and sinister, a contextually relevant symbol
implying both the disappearance of “life” and appearance of political “carcass.”
Ironically, there is withering away of classical public service, where the
pursuit of public funds is perceived not only as individually wise but
selfishly gratifying and remunerative. This has given birth to the stench of
sinister force-private greed.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ojaide
through his use of Urhobo oral traditions has explored and satirized national
leadership, corruption and the post-colonial disillusionment in his society.
The poet also expressed his dismay and anger over how leaders conduct the affairs
of the nation. The poems also establish Ojaide’s concern for his society and
the oppressed. He urges the leaders to redirect the Nigerian nation to the path
of growth and development.
References
Ashcroft, B., Gareth G, and Helen,
T. (1989). The Empire Writes Back: Theory
and Practice in Postcolonial Literature. London: Routledge.
Bamikunle, A. (1995). “The
Development of Niyi Osundare’s Poetry: A Survey of Themes and Technique.” Research in African Literature 20
(pp121-137).
Brunvand, J. H. (1968). The Syudy of Folklore. New York:Norton.
Fanon, F. ( 1963). The Wretched of the Earth. New York:
Grove Press.
Gayatri, S. (1987). In Others Words: Essay in Cultural Politics.
London: Routledge.
Grant, C. (1958). “Mary had a
Parody: A Rhyme of childhood in Folk Tradition” Journal of Western Folklore 17 (pp 45-51).
Griffith, M. W. (1988). “Image and
Ideology: The Political Consciousness of the Alter-Native Tradition Poetry”.
Unpublished M.A Thesis Department of English, University of Ibadan.
Monteiro, G. (1964). “Parodies of
Scripture, Prayer and Hymn”. Journal of
American Folklore, 77 (pp.45-52).
Mowha, U. (2002) “Spiraling Visions
and Labyrinthine Images: Tanuri Ojaide’s Children
of Iroko and Labyrinths of the Delta” in O.Okome (ed) Writing the Homland: The Poetry and Poetics of Tanure Ojaide.
Bayreuth: African Studies Series, (pp.31-50).
Narvaez. P. (1977). “The Folk
Parodist”.Canadian Folk MusicJournal
5 (p.32).
Ojaide, T. (1996). Poetic Imagination in Black Africa; Essays
on African Poetry. NC Academic Press.
Ojaide, T. (1990). The Fate of Vultures and Other Poems.
Ibadan: Malthouse Press.
Ojaide, T. (1991). The Blood of Peace and Other Poems. Oxford:Heinemann.
Okome, O.(200). The Parliament of Idiots:Tyrst of the Sinators. Ibadan: Kraftbooks.
Osadebay. D. et al (1949). “West
African Voices” African Affairs (pp
151-158).
Osundare, N. (1987). “Bard of the
Tabloid Platform: A Personal Experience of Newspaper Poetry in Nigeria in S.
Arnold and A.Niecki (eds). Culture and
Development in Africa. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press.
Said, E. (1994). Culture and
Imperialism. New York: Vintage
The official website of the DEGEL Jounal is https://www.degeljournal.com
0 Comments