Nigerian Universities Research Topics: Gabriel Okara as a Poet

Chapter 5

Gabriel Okara as a Poet

Gabriel Okara’s overall poetic output, while distinguished, is far from being voluminous or prodigious¹. Yet within his relatively small lyrical corpus, he has been able to address diverse poetic themes encompassing a celebration of the indigenous African culture, colonialism, war, and death. Okara, perhaps more than any other African poet, explores such a wide diversity of poetic themes against a backdrop of a relatively slim lyrical structure. It is Okara’s vast array of poetic subject matter that this chapter sets out to examine and discuss.

Born in 1921 at Bumoundi in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, he early in life showed an ardent interest in writing, particularly lyric poetry. He explains:

I felt the urge to write. I began with poetry because I had read the poem ‘Spring,’ by William Wordsworth, and I was very touched by it because it recalled my childhood experiences in my home village, where we used to go beneath the trees with bamboo bows and arrows and wait for birds to come and perch, and then start shooting. One day there was a very, very beautiful bird and I was fascinated by it; my companion wanted to shoot it but I made some noise and the bird flew away. And so when I read ‘Spring,’ by William Wordsworth, talking about birds and so forth, it really touched me and just things going.²

Okara belongs to the group of poets who are generally categorized as the “modern African poets”³. Other than William Wordsworth, who he acknowledges above, Okara’s writing has echoes of William Blake, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Dylan Thomas, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Robert Brooks. But of profound importance in his work is the preponderant employment of cultural and traditional images, some of which celebrate the virtues of the indigenous lores and customs of his African fatherland.

Examples of Okara’s lyrics which focus on the theme of the indigenous African cultural values include “The Call of the River Nun,” “The Mystic Drum,” and “The Fisherman’s Invocation.” All of these poems have not only been widely anthologized, but they have also been among the most famous and celebrated of Okara’s aesthetic corpus. Of course, Okara has always recognized the significance of his cultural roots and connections, including the African language, as shown from the following interview which he had with Professor G.D. Killam. He Explains:

As a writer who believes in the utilization of African ideas, African philosophy, and African folklore and imagery to the fullest extent possible, I am of the opinion the only way to use them effectively is to translate them almost literally from the African language native to the writer into whatever European language he is using as his medium of expression. I have endeavoured in my words to keep as close as possible to the vernacular expressions. For, from a word, a group of words, a sentence and even a name in any African language, one can glean the social norms, attitudes and values of a people⁴.

“The Call of the River Nun,” which won for Okara the Nigerian Festival of Arts Award in 1953, has its setting at the Udi Hills of Enugu. The poet’s mind radiates between the joys of youthful experience, symbolized by the River Nun, vis-à-vis the cascades and uncertainties of life, symbolized by the “upturned canoe.” For the poet, there is joy and fulfillment in his earlier, youthful life where the River Nun offers hallowed reminiscences. As the poet muses and reflects on the events of his current human situation and possibly the future, he has a foreboding sense of life’s insecurities.

The employment of the words, “span” and “ghost,” suggests diverse images of life and decay -- the ups and downs of life -- which all humans must experience during their mortal existence. This quality endows the poem with a sense of universality. There are other interesting images about the poem. The imagery inherent in the word “River” is illuminating: it echoes all of the rituals and nuances commonly associated with cleansing, libations, mystification, and purification, especially in the traditional African cultural setting.

The word, “Call,” as employed in the poem, is also important: it conjures images of a clarion call to duty or responsibility and of a total submission to the elemental forces of nature, as dictated by God, or as sanctioned by the requirements of traditions and customs of the local culture. Consequently, there is a tone of apprehension, humility and submission in the poem. Finally, the imagery of the canoe plying precariously and precipitously through the river terrain, definitely suggests the contours of the vagaries of life from infancy, to adulthood, and then ultimately through death. The persistent refrain inherent in:

I hear your call

I hear it far away;

I hear it break the circle

------------------------------

I hear your lapping call

I hear it coming through

suggests the immediacy of the river’s call which must be promptly obeyed without hesitation or equivocation. Indeed the river’s call is irresistible, more so as the river itself survives all humanity which, by its very nature, is mortal and ephemeral. A sense of man’s complete surrender to the ineluctable forces of nature -- as symbolized by the torrential river -- permeates the concluding part of the poem.

My river’s calling too!

Its ceaseless flow impels

my foundering canoe down

its inevitable course

And each dying year

brings near the sea-bird call,

the final call that

stills the crested waves

and breaks in two the curtain

of silence of my upturned canoe

O incomprehensible God!

Shall my pilot be

my inborn stars to that

final call to Thee

O my river’s complex course?

There are many interesting things about the lines above. First, the river serves as a nexus through which the poet gleans or perceives his own life. Further, the repetitive use of exclamation marks, symbolized by “o” and “my,” not only personalizes the poet’s experience, but it enhances the indigenous vistas and the traditionalism which the poem embodies. Finally, the poem’s archetypal metaphors -- suggested by the “dying years,” the river’s “ceaseless flow,” the “inborn stars,” and the “river’s complex course” -- certainly contribute to the poem’s existential continuum and paradoxes.

“The Mystic Drum” presents images of a ritualistic culture where, for example, ghosts, spirits, the dead ancestors, the natural and the supernatural, commingle and intermingle. There is, in this poem, a poignant dramatization of a bizarre world order where cultural images and symbols -- including folktales, song and dance, myths and lullabies -- predominate on a continuum. The overall picture presented in the poem recalls images of what S.O. Mezu associates with the activities of the “parambulatory bards” in African literature. He writes:

On certain occasions -- the Yam Festival for instance, the village bard leads the dancing group with incantations. His songs are poetic in composition and are filled with refrains. The tonal nature of some of these languages add more rhythm and pulse to the recitations, while the drum in the background provides the necessary mood and atmosphere… In the villages, dances are held periodically and most of the tunes are some form or other of poetry. In the evening when children gather to listen to stories, fairy tales and yarns from the grandmother and mother, such tales are usually interspersed with rhymes, lyrics and choruses. Everyone takes part in the recitation. Those who do not know the words, hum the tune; people clap and there is a happy union of music, harmony and poetry⁵.

The poem’s title, especially the word “mystic,” easily suggests the poem’s cultural orientation. So also are the images contained in the “drum,” a traditional musical instrument; the tree is , a symbol of where and when offerings are conducted; “the fishes” and “the river god” are traditionally objects of religious and fetish worship. Collectively, all of these images not only enhance the poem’s cultural base, but they energize its lyricism.

In terms of style, the poem is a narrative, in which Okara recalls the mysticism of the indigenous drum and the profound effect which it has on him. Further, the poem contains the employment of supernatural and spiritual object and phenomena (like the “roots sprouting from her feet and leaves growing on her head”); there is also the use of repetition as a refrain (like the expression, “But standing behind a tree” which is repeated thrice, as is the expression, “she only smiled with a shake of her head”). All of these aesthetic images and metaphors add color and intensity to the poem’s dramatic effect.

Although “The Fisherman’s Invocation” has been unfairly criticized⁶, I believe it is one of Okara’s best and most successful poems. The poem is metaphysical in its imagery and it challenges the sophisticated reader to skim deeper than the mere surface interpretation in order to comprehend its full range of meaning.

Some of the reasons for the criticism has to do with poet’s so-called aloofness, the poem’s turgidity and its illogical lyrical structure. In this poem, Okara unfolds the ancient mystery surrounding the Ijaw cultural mythos of the Back and the Front, with the former symbolizing the various past while the latter symbolizes contemporary doubts and cynicism. All the criticisms leveled against “The Fisherman’s Invocation” are, indeed, unconvincing. Firstly, the poet has the obligation to address issues and concerns in consonance with the dictates of his inner conscience and convictions in order to lend credibility and authenticity to his work. Secondly, the so-called turgidity of the poem’s diction, no less than the aloofness and “anonymity” of the poet -- even if they exist -- tie in with T.S. Eliot’s principle of the “impersonality” of the poet. Finally, the poet, more than anyone else, has the unique obligation to discuss the indigenous matrix of his own people and their culture as he considers appropriate.

Colonialism swept through the African continent like a wild hurricane which could hardly be stopped or contained. Being the brain-child of the “Scramble for Africa” of 1884, of which many European countries participated, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium, colonialism led to the exploitation of Africa both materially and in human terms⁷. Consequently, several African poets reacted swiftly to European colonialism in what they perceived as an ugly phenomenon: some scurrilously, some mildly, while others shared a via media Okara belongs to the second category of these poets.

Okara’s poetry which satirizes European colonialism includes “Piano and Drums” and “The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down.” In “Piano and Drums” Okara praises the indigenous African culture, while railing against the European civilization through the imagery of the word “piano” (as contrasted with the “drum”).

When at break of day at a riverside

I hear jungle drums telegraphing

the mystic rhythm, urgent, raw

like bleeding flesh, speaking of

primal youth and the beginning,

I see the panther ready to pounce,

the leopard snarling about to leap

and the hunter crouch with spears poised;

And my blood ripples, turns torrent,

topples the years and at once I’m

in my mother’s laps a suckling;

at once I’m walking simple

paths with no innovations,

rugged, fashioned with the naked

warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts

in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing

Then I hear a wailing piano

solo speaking of complex ways

in fear-furrowed concerto;

of far away lands

and new horizons with

coaxing diminuendo, counter point,

crescendo. But lost in the labyrinth

of its complexities, it ends in the middle

of a phrase at a dagger point.

And I lost in the morning mist

of an age at a riverside keep

wandering in the mystic rhythm

of jungle drums and the concerto.

In the above poem, Okara employs specific images to characterize the indigenous African culture and their impact on his psychological consciousness. These images include the “jungle drums,” “telegraphing,” “mystic rhythm” and the “primal youth and the beginning.” Others are the “panther,” the “leopard,” the “hunter crouch” and the “spears poised”.

In the traditional African cultural setting, the drums are used for music and dancing and for celebrations and festivities. They are also employed for communication purposes as well as for special announcement of events, whether sad or joyful. The images, “telegraphing,” “mystic drums” and the “primal youth and the beginning” -- all echo the simplicity or the ethereal quality traditionally associated with the agrarian African cultural setting. Further, the animal vis-à-vis the hunting images suggested by the leopard, the panther, the hunter, and the spears poised leave no one in doubt as to Okara’s profound fascination with his African cultural background setting. In contrast to the indigenous African culture, is Okara’s depiction of Western colonialism, symbolized by the word “piano,” a musical instrument whose mystic phenomenon is suggested by “complex ways,” “fear-furrowed concerto” and the “labyrinth.” These images collectively capture the hopelessness and the sense of indirection which the piano and, by implication, the Western civilization symbolizes.

Of particular importance to a thorough understanding of the poem’s thematic structure is the poet’s deliberate employment of the word, “wailing,” to describe the piano. Wailing connotes an unpleasant, irritating and annoying or plaintive cry. The deliberate employment of the word “wailing” not only suggests the unacceptability of Western colonialism, but also it highlights its crudity as well. Without the employment of this word, the tone of the indigenous African cultural setting and, by implication, that of European colonialism, would have been viewed on an equal basis or pari passu.

Also of importance are the haunting classical metaphors of the “dagger point” and the “coaxing diminuendo, counter point/crescendo” which are suggestive of a world ruined by confusion, violence, chaos, plunder and exploitation. Just as the first two stanzas of the poem celebrate the virtues associated with the domestic drums, so also do the last two stanzas highlight the pernicious effects of the piano and, by implication, European colonialism and imperialism.

Okara’s castigation of Western colonialism in “The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down” is more strident and scurrilous than in “Piano and Drums”. In this poem, a very damning imagery -- which centers on how the colonialist predators are destroyed in their exploitative behavior -- is employed to highlight the ironic contrast between the indigenous African culture and the Western adventurism:

Then I dreamed a dream

in my dead sleep. But I dreamed

not of earth dying and elms a vigil

keeping. I dreamed of birds, black

birds flying in my inside, nesting

and hatching on oil palms bearing suns

for fruits and with roots denting the

uprooter’s spades. And I dreamed the

uprooters tired and limp, leaning on my roots –

their abandoned roots –

and the oil palms gave them each a sun.

But on their palms

they balanced the blinding orbs

and frowned with schism on their

brows – for the sun reached not

the brightness of gold!

The images – “denting the/uprooter’s spades,” the “uprooters tired and limp,” “their abandoned roots,” “frowned with schism on their/brows,” the “sun reached not/the brightness of gold” -- accurately illustrate the failure of the Western colonialist adventure. In this poem, Okara, much like Blake in “The Chimney Sweeper,” is a philosophical poet who foresees a future state where colonialism and its vestiges will forever be cast into the dismal pit of oblivion.

III

Although Okara did not participate in the armed military fighting during the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War, he did have deep sympathies for the Biafran cause partly because of the circumstances of the period.⁸ Consequently, he wrote about the war both to castigate it as well as to highlight the evil phenomenon which war engenders. Okara’s poetry which discusses the war and its aftermath includes “Suddenly the Air Cracks,” and “Moon in the Bucket.”

“Suddenly the Air Cracks” runs through seven stanzas of unequal lengths. The poem is descriptive, and the events described in the narrative center on the military bombardment of an un-named city from all directions, with all kinds of assault weapons fully deployed: LMGs jets, rockets, etc. The catastrophe unleased on the populace, including “children,” “men and women,” “boys and girls,” is indescribable: everything is awash with violence, and with twittering and “cracking sound,” so much so that there is no-where to hide.

The poem’s narrative structure is swift and urgent, with very little use of punctuation marks, but it is suffused with extensive employment of figurative language: e.g., repetition, as in “blaming gunners/praising gunners;” onomatopoeia, as in the “air cracks/with striking cracking rockets,” alliteration, as in “bullets flashing fire;” and assonance, as in “ack-ack flacks” and “hugging gutters.”

The political landscape is crisis-laden with “mangled/bodies stacked in the morgue.” Yet the poet, through his deft artistry, is able to counterbalance the structural narrative so effectively that peace and harmony prevail in the end:

Things soon simmer to normal

hum and rhythm as danger passes

and the streets are peopled

with strolling men and women

boys and girls on various errands

walking talking laughing smiling.

The poem’s didacticism is apparent: after rainfall comes sunshine and vice versa. The Nigerian Civil war, which lasted for almost three years (1967-1970), wreaked so much havoc in humans, material resources and goodwill that brothers turned against their brothers, sons against their parents and so forth. This is the perennial truism about war. However, time and space heal wounds. Prophetically, today, there is peace and concord among all and sundry in the land. Without the above redeeming lines, the poem would have lost much of its vitality and greatness. Furthermore, by bringing together all of humanity during a time of crisis--that is, children, men and women, boys and girls -- the poet brings into our consciousness our common bond and destiny.

The lyric, “Moon in the Bucket,” re-enacts the perennial theme that war does no good, nor is it a respecter of people, places and things. The repetitive employment of the word “look,” which features six times in the poem, not only suggests the poet’s aversion to war, but it shows his growing sense of doubt and apprehension at the looming approach of war:

Look!

Look out there

in the bucket

the rusty bucket

with water unclean

Look!

A luminous plate is floating –

The moon dancing to the gentle night wind

Look! All you who shout across the wall

with a million hates. Look at the dancing moon

It is peace unsoiled by the murk

and dirt of this bucket war.

Other images of the poem which illustrate the problems afflicting the nation include the “murk,” the “dirt,” the “rusty bucket,” and the “water unclean.” Indeed, the reference, “a million hates,” suggests that the cause of the war could range form anything to everything, including corruption, nepotism, ethnicity, tribalism, greed, and illiteracy -- the same socio-political reality which is afflicting Nigeria today.

The poem’s two principal images are: the moon, which is an object of love and harmony; and the “bucket,” which ordinarily is an object for collecting or preserving water, but when qualified by the adjective “rusty” it connotes disaster or futility. In this poem Okara is exhorting his countrymen to focus on the good things which unite them, as symbolized by the moon, and not on the negative ones that divide people, as suggested by the “rusty bucket” and the “water unclean”.

The allusion, “a million hates,” is interesting. It suggests the fact that the problems confronting the country could range from anything to everything, including corruption, greed, nepotism, tribalism, hypocrisy, ethnicity, and illiteracy. Also interesting is the employment of the word “wall,” which recalls Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall,” where the metaphor suggests the barrier which destroys good neighborliness, or the obstacle which militate against human understanding and communication. In other words, Okara, in this poem, is urging his countrymen to be spirited or be guided by those enabling qualities which promote the spirit of unity, peace, love, courage, human understanding, and patriotism.

Okara’s verse which discusses the theme of death includes “New Year’s Eve Midnight,” “One Night at Victoria Beach,” and “The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down.” In these lyrics Okara demonstrates the fact that all things in nature -- including animate and inanimate objects – are subject to the forces of time or mutability.

The poem, “New Year’s Eve Midnight,” which recalls Dr. Samuel Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes, discusses how each dying year ushers in a new season of hope and optimism, but which soon degenerates into a period imperiled by inexplicable human failure or despondency.

Now the bells are tolling –

A year is dead.

And my heart is slowly beating

the Nunc Dimittis

to all my hopes and mute

yearnings of a year

and ghosts hover round

dream beyond dream.

Dream beyond dream

Mingling with the dying

bell-sounds fading

into memories

like rain drops

falling into a river.

And now the bells are chiming –

A year is born.

And my heart-bell is ringing

In a dawn.

But it’s shrouded things I see

dimly stride

on heart-canopied paths

to a riverside.

Several images highlight the death motif of this poem, including “tolling bell,” “Nunc Dimittis,” the “dying bell sounds fading,” the “bells are chiming,” and the “heart canopied paths.” In employing these images Okara not only seeks to highlight the sinuous ways through which death comes about, he also illustrates the mysterious phenomenon of death.

The death motif which Okara exploits in the last two poems is different from the death theme which he discusses in “Suddenly the Air Cracks” and the “Moon in the Bucket.” While in the first two poems death comes unexpectedly and tempestuously through a violent military confrontation, in “New Year Eve’s Midnight” we are presented with an ineluctable phenomenon of death.

The poem’s first two stanzas echo an ominous note of despair, death or decay. There is a sense of sadness, sorrow, and ennui as things seem to move vertically and horizontally, in a kind of “steep and plunge,” where “ghosts,” “hopes,” “dream” and “memories” play themselves out intermittently and interchangeably.

But in the poem’s last stanza, we have a mixture of life and death, with each stirring humanity squarely in the face. For life, we have images of a “year is born,” the “dawn” and the “bells are chiming;” for death, we have images of “shrouded,” “dimly stride” and the “heart canopied paths” -- images which collectively dramatize the vagaries of life and the inevitability of death.

Okara employs diverse poetic strategies to illuminate the complex phenomenon of death: for example, through his employment of metaphor, as when death and life are seen as a river which forms the nexus of human experience; and through use of Biblical allusions, as when he speaks of the “Nunc Dimittis,” which is associated with Simeon in the Christian liturgy (Luke 11, 29-32). The death motif is explored further in “One Night at Victoria Beach,” where animate and inanimate objects -- including the “Aladuras,” the “dead fishermen long dead with bones rolling,” and the “four dead cowries shining like stars” -- hobnob with one another in the un-ending circle of life and death.

They pray, the Aladuras pray

to what only hearts can see while dead

fishermen long dead with bones rolling

nibbled clean by nibbling fishes, follow

four dead cowries shining stars,

into deep sea where fishes sit in judgments;

and living fishermen in dark huts

sit around dim lights with Babalawo

throwing their souls in four cowries

on sand, trying to see tomorrow

Still, they pray, the Aladuras pray

to what only hearts can see behind

the curling waves and the sea, the stars

and the subduing unanimity of the sky

and their white bones beneath the sand

And standing dead on dead sands

I felt my knees touch living sands –

But the rushing wind killed the budding words

What can we now say conclusively about Okara and his poetic art? First, that he explores a wide panorama of poetic themes, including the celebration of the indigenous African culture, colonialism, war, and death. Okara’s treatment of the indigenous theme shows his sense of love and reverence for his people, no less than his sense of nostalgia and rootedness in what he considers germane or appropriate for his physical and psychological well-being.

Okara’s treatment of the theme of western colonialism, on the other hand, is characterized by a feeling of regret and disappointment, especially by what he perceives as European exploitation of Africa and its people. For example, while he appreciates the beauty and the virtue of the “drums,” symbol of the indigenous African culture, he resents the discordant tone of the “wailing piano,” symbol of Western colonialism and imperialism.

For Okara, military confrontation is cataclysmic and unacceptable. For this reason, he sees nothing good but resentment and condemnation for the atrocities which war brings to organized society. Consequently, images like “rusty,” the “water unclean,” the “air cracks,” the “thick black smoke,” and the “mangled/bodies stacked in the morgue” are employed to characterize the unfortunate phenomenon of war.

Finally, in his treatment of the theme of death, Okara shows vividly that there is nothing that strikes fear in the human heart than the thought of death. Death is no respecter of people, places, and things (whether animate or inanimate). Consequently, in his treatment of this theme, he demonstrates a sense of poignancy, restraint, and compassion. The beauty of all of the above is the fact that Okara is able to employ diverse aesthetic skills -- including alliteration, assonance, repetition, and Biblical allusions -- in order to bring his message pointedly home to his audience.

Notes

1. Okara has published to date one volume of poetry, titled The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978).

2. See “Dem-Say”, Interview wirth Eight Nigerian Writers, ed. Bernth Lindfors (Austin: Occassional Publications, University of Texas Press 1974), p. 41.

3. In his book, West African Verse: An Anthology (Edinburgh: Longman Group, 1967), p. 23, Donatus Ibe Nwoga lists the following authors as “Modern Poets”: Abioseh Nicol, Gabriel Okara, Kwesi Brew, Frank Kobina Parkes, Christopher Okigbo, John Pepper Clark, Wole Soyinka, Lenrie Peters, George Awoonor Williams, Mbella Sonne Dipopo, Michael J.C. Echeruo, Okogbule Wonodi.

4. See Gabriel Okara, “African Speech…English Words,” in African Writers on African Writing, ed. G.D. Killam (London: Heinemann, 1978), p. 137.

5. S. Okechukwu Mezu, “The Origins of African Poetry,” Journal of the New African Literature and the Arts, Fall 1966, 16-17.

6. See, for example: Ken Goodwin, Understanding African Poetry (Edinburgh and Melbourne: Heinemann (1982), pp. 148-149. Goodwin cites J.P. Clark (in his The Example of Shakespeare, p. 55) and K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (in their A Selection of African Poetry p. 48) as authors who have sharply criticized “The Fisherman’s Invocation.” For a positive analysis of the poem, however, see Donatus Ibe Nwoga, ed., West African Verse: An Anthology (Edinburgh: Longman, 1976) pp. 161-162.

7. For a comprehensive account of Western exploitation of Africa, see Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Abuja, Lagos: Panaf Publishing, Inc., 1972).

8. For Example, Okara worked with the Biafran Ministry of Education during the Nigerian Civil War, and, at one time, traveled abroad with Achebe to express support for the Biafran position.

Works Cited

Goodwin, Ken. Understanding African Poetry. Edinburgh and Melbourne: Heinemann, 1982.

Killam, G.D. African Writers on African Writing. London: Heinemann, 1978.

Lindfors, Bernth. Dem-Say, Interview with Eight Nigerian Writers. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974.

Mezu, Okechukwu S. “The Origin of African Poetry”. Journal of the New African Literature and the Arts (Fall 1976), 16-17.

Nwoga, Donatus. West African Verse: An Anthology: Edinburgh: Longman, 1976.

Okara, Gabriel, “African Speech… English Words” in African Writers on African Writing, ed G.D. Killam: London, Heinemann, 1978. “The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down,” “Piano and Drums,” “The Mystic Drum,” “Spirit of the Wind,” “One Night at Victoria Beach,” in Modern Poetry from Africa, eds. Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1976.

Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Abuja: Pana Publishing, Inc., 1972.

Sananu, K. and Vincent, T. A Selection of African Poetry. London: Longman, 1978.

Gabriel Okara as a Poet

3 comments: