REVIEWS The disenchantment of the Marxist poet

A review of ‘Back Again at the Foothills of Greed’ Author: Idris Amali Genre: Poetry Publishers: Kraftgriots,

Ibadan, 2012 Reviewer: Akwu Sunday

Victor

Areader who is used to Idris Amali’s poetry would undoubtedly realize the absence of anger, and radical temper in the collection, Back Again at the Foothills of Greed. The reason could be that the era we are in isn’t a military one or perhaps, the poet is gradually moving from his youthful Marxian social vision to a liberal humanist one. Whatever the reason may be, it is lucid that, the poet in this collection speaks with a tonality of detachment. However, with the rise of democracy in Nigeria, greed and avarice once again took centre stage. The Twenty First Century which was tagged The Magic Year by Jerry Agada in his collection of poems, has become an extension of the old polluted and rotten system. It therefore means that, Nigeria is back again, albeit in a new century to the doldrums.

The poetry collection is dedicated to a special group of people whom the poet is sympathetic to their hopeless and jejune condition and they are the subaltern class and the hoi polloi; the socioeconomically exploited and politically oppressed and marginalized. The collection was further dedicated to ‘those whose salaries are owed/And never to be paid even in their hungry graves.’ To ‘those deprived of their rights/By the official tour, allowances…’ (5) and above all, ‘To those pupils whose school paths/Have overgrown into elephant grass.’ The reason why their paths are overgrown by grasses is, their ‘teachers languish of salary arrears/Growing into pyramid peaks across the land.’ (6). The collection is further split into seven sections. They are subtitled in the following order: ‘Prelude,’ ‘Let them Die,’ ‘Strings of Emotion,’ ‘Lineage of Rage,’ ‘Abodes,’ ‘Tower of Neglect,’ and ‘Back Again.’

The first poem, ‘Poet,’ is a criticism of who a poet is, his function culturally and socially and above all, it is a diatribe against the earlier poetic tradition in Nigeria. The poet’s eyes have to be ‘telescopic,’ so he can view the world and he must have ‘vision’ by means of which he can ‘predict success and doom.’ The poet must also be psychologically endowed so as to be able to ‘see the heart of darkness of human heart.’ But poetry must not ‘manifest’ itself in ‘alienated logs of confusion acknowledged/No plastic child of Soyinka’s plastic delirium.’ This diatribe against Soyinka and other bourgeois African humanists was initiated by Chinweizu et al in the early 70s through 80s in scholarly publications such as Towards the Decolonization of African Literature and “Prodigals, Come Home.”

Nigeria was caught in a Civil War from 1967 1970. Those who witnessed the war could testify to its crudity. The war has deepened the lacuna between the south and the north and the major tribes in the country. In the poem, ‘Peace Forgotten,’ the recent tension and agitation for the emancipation of the defunct Biafra is reminisced upon. The poet, a distant observer noted that, what began ‘as cannons of threats and rhetoric transformed/ Into cannons of smoke and fireworks at dusk.’ The more the poet looks, the more what he sees becomes a ‘darkening’ ‘vision.’ ‘Children rushed amidst rains of bullets/ From unseen encroaching foes/ As window panes and frames shattered/And water pipes ejected into fountain flows’ (22). This is a troubling vision reminiscence of Christopher Okigbo’s ‘Path of Thunder.’

The poetry collection touched upon diverse themes which include religion and hypocrisy, ‘Easter Friday,’ ‘Eclipse,’ ‘Let us’ is a poem that admonishes man to listen to the teachings of the religious leaders: ‘Listen to the Imam/Listen to his raining and haunting words/Piling like healing magna’ (42). While poems like ‘My dear Harrison,’ ‘Otukpo meeting’ ‘Ancestors,’ ‘Minstrels,’ and ‘Songs of war,’ ‘National service,’ ‘This earth,’ ‘The mentors,’ ‘The professor,’ touch upon friendship, death and occupation, ambition and dreamsfulfillment, and service to humanity.

The poet Idris Amali is a master wordsmith. His power over the English language is manifests itself in the imagery he created. Every line of his poetry speaks volume. There is a perfect solemnization of form and content. However, in this collection, the poet appears disillusioned, observant. The militancy which revealed itself in Generals without War is nowhere to be found in Back Again at the Foothills of Greed. The poet laments, whimpers and his shrill voice lacks that revolutionary fire needed to incite action. Nevertheless, it is clear that we are in a new dispensation, perhaps, democracy is gradually encroaching into the metallic temper of the poet’s voice or perhaps, old age is making the poet’s vision shift from that of a socialist realist to that of a critical realist.