Book Review...

Book Title: The New African Poetry: An Anthology

Author: Tanure Ojaide

Publisher: Other Lynne Rienner Publishers

This provocative yet unsatisfying anthology presents what the editors call a ""Third Generation"" of African poets, those who came of age after their nations' independence. Of 62 poets from 23 countries, a plurality write in English; others appear in translation from Arabic, Portugese and French. Some now live in America and Europe; few enjoy reputations outside Africa. (One exception is Malawi's Jack Mapanje.)

Some readers will scan this volume looking for news about daily life, culture and politics in these writers' states and landscapes.

Other readers will seek original, interesting poems, in familiar or entirely unfamiliar genres and forms. Both kinds of readers will find some gems and many more letdowns. A Cape Verdean poet hopes ""to read my revelries before they fade behind twilight clouds""; a writer from Ghana promises his enemies, ""on wings of flames we'll rise... and rain rumours of blood/ upon their festive dreams.""

Zindzi Mandela (daughter of Nelson) has four poems here: one begins ""There's an unknown river in Soweto/ some say it flows with blood/others say it flows with tears."" Both editors include their own poetry: Sallah's twopage ""Television as God"" explains that ""In America television is a god/ Therapeutic to ailing hearts."" Many poems protest deprivation, violence and misgovernment; they may be understood as contributions to political struggles, but the frequent clich s make them hard to enjoy. Mapanje's bitterly fluent, detail-conscious work stands among the volume's highlights.

Other bright spots come from Musaemura Zimunya, whose anecdotes detail everyday need in Zimbabwe; from Sierra Leone's fiercely compelling Syl Cheney-Coker; and from Ghanian Kojo Laing, whose oration-cum-satire ""I Am the Freshly Dead Husband"" converts a funeral into a mordant sexual apocalypse. A book of those four poets' work would be something to treasure.