Chapter 10
Kwesi Brew’s Lyricism
Although Kwesi Brew has published major poetic works, including Shadows and Laughter (1968), African Panorama and Other Poems (1981), and Return of No Return (1995), not much critical attention has been paid to his work. The issues which Brew discusses in his verse are varied and universal, and they embody the loss of position or status, a celebration of innocence and the dead ancestors, and a world view dominated by the beautiful and the ugly. It is the hope that, with a more serious attention paid to these issues which this essay examines, the importance of Brew, both as man and poet, will be increasingly recognized.
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I
Kwesi Brew belongs to a group of African poets who are generally considered as the “Modern Poets” in view of the fact that their lyrics postdate the 1930 era.1 Further, while the “pioneer poets” demonstrate simplicity of style, the “modern poets” exhibit intensity and complexity of style. In terms of theme, the “pioneer poets” generally celebrate individual identity, while the “modern poets” focus on a variety of subject matter depending upon the circumstances of the period.
As mentioned earlier, a major theme that features in Kwesi Brew’s verse is the pernicious effects of Western colonialism. However, while his contemporaries like Kofi Awoonor and David Diop treat their subject matter with searing bluntness (e.g., “The Cathedral” and “The Vultures” respectively), Kwesi Brew addresses his theme with a sense of subtlety and indirection--especially in such lyrics as “A Plea for Mercy” and “The Sea Eats our Land”.
In “A Plea for Mercy,” Brew, in a tone of humility and exhortation, appeals to the colonial authorities to listen to the indigenous people’s entreaties:
When our hearts are full of song
And our lips tremble with sadness?
The little firefly vies with the star,
The log-fire with the sun
The water in the calabash
With the mighty Volta ,
But we have come in tattered penury
Begging at the door of the Master
(WAV, p. 41)
The employment here of the word, “Master,” in the last line of the quoted lines above, is interesting: it is a metaphor for the white man who, for a long period of time, subjected the black race to “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” Consequently the black man, by virtue of his lowly status, was expected to address the white man as “Master.”2 The fact that the word is capitalized suggests the high status of the white man in his relationships with the black man.
Brew develops his argument further through a series of logical dialectics. First is his employment of parables, as suggested by his reference to the “cowherd,” the “birds,” and the “peasants.” Thus just as the “cowherd” returns home at the end of the day for rest, just as the “birds” of the air sing in expectation to be rewarded, so also are the indigenous population (“the sons of the land”) expecting a reward-- especially political independence”-- from the colonialists after several years of toil and subservience (“we have come in tattered penury/Begging”). Furthermore, the poet employs images of humility to characterize the indigenous population while employing those connoting awe and reverence for the colonizer (e.g., the “little firefly” vis-à-vis the “star,” and the “water in the calabash” vis-à-vis the “mighty Volta ”).
In “The Sea Eats Our Land,” another lyric piece which discusses the negative effects of Western colonialism, Brew effectively employs the imagery of the sea to characterize the colonizers as agents of moral and cultural decay and depravity.
Here stood our ancestral home:
The crumbling wall marks the spot.
Here a sheep was led to slaughter
To appease the gods and atone
For faults which our destiny
Has blossomed into crimes.
There my cursed father once stood
And shouted to us, his children,
To come back from our play
To our evening meal and sleep.
The clouds were thickening in the red sky
And night had charmed
A black power into the pounding waves.
Here once lay Keta.
Now her golden girls
Erode into the arms
Of strange towns.
(MAP, p. 132)
In this poem the negative impact of the sea, symbol of Western civilization, is pernicious and pervasive. First, the African homeland, symbol of culture and tradition, is vastly destroyed (“The crumbling wall marks the spot”); secondly, the moral code of Keta, the principal village, is seriously called into question as “her golden girls/Erode into the arms/of strange towns;” thirdly, the sense of authority and prestige (“black power”), which the black man once enjoyed during pristine times, has now been diminished or tarnished for ever.
Other negative images of the poem, especially the “faults,” the “cursed father,” the “crimes,” the “pounding waves,” the “red sky” and the “clouds…thickening” completely highlight the state of insecurity, devastation and hopelessness foreshowed by Western colonialism. Furthermore, the traditional objects of love and adoration, including the ‘father,” the “gods,” the “sheep,” and “our destiny” are now only relics of their glorious past.
If we focus more closely on the “Sea,” the poem’s principal symbol, we also discover the various ways in which it suggests the phenomenon of evil: it is the destroyer of the home, the culture, and the moral fiber of society. Brew decides to employ the image of the sea because he knows that if it decides to move against anything-- whether it is the individual or the society-- nothing can stop its innate force of destructiveness.
Similarly, the “Land” upon which the “Sea” focuses its attention, symbolizes everything of value in the human calculus: our civilization, culture, prosperity, and identity. That the “Sea” would move against our most important human asset is unfortunate. As a poetic metaphor, the “Sea” is particularly effective: it symbolizes the fearful nature of Western colonialism for its vigorous, ferocious, and merciless attack of our cherished values. True, the “Sea” is the ideogram, the devouring nemesis of nature.
Finally, the state of chaos and instability induced by Western colonialism is further suggested by the poem’s jagged or uneven stanzaic structure: for example, stanza one contains six lines, stanza two consists of seven lines, while stanza three has four lines. Furthermore, while in the previous poem discussed Kwesi Brew can only mutter or ask for a simple prayer, that is, “A plea for Mercy,” in the “Sea Eats Our Land” there is a subdued tone of submission to the collective forces of nature and the circumstances dictated by it.
II
If we turn to Brew’s treatment of the theme of the ancestral places and traditions, we find examples in such lyrics as “Ancestral Faces,” “A Sandal on the Head,” and “The Dry Season”. In these poems there is a conscious desire to celebrate or glorify the gods, the dead ancestors, or the virtues of the indigenous African cultural traditions. Ceremonies, rites and rituals are sometimes also gracefully celebrated or glorified.
In the poem, “Ancestral Faces,” Kwesi Brew discusses the behavior of the dead ancestors who sneak into the household in order to monitor whether or not the living are acting in accordance with the established traditions. As the last lines of the poem make clear, “They saw us/And Said: They have not changed’!” This statement suggests that, in the eyes of the dead ancestors, the living have not “changed” from their iniquitous ways (a fact suggested by the exclamation mark that concludes the statement).
According to the African cultural mythos, the dead ancestors possess “words of wisdom” (SAP, p. 134), and they understand the past, the present, and the future. They also are expected to protect the living against harm as well as cater to their respective needs and interests. Therefore, any sacrifices or ceremonies offered or performed in their honor, it is believed, should yield rich dividends.
The poem’s title, “Ancestral Faces,” has its resonance and it is interesting: it suggests the presence of the dead ancestors in the affairs of the living; also, their activities can be seen or felt everywhere. Furthermore, the poem recalls some of Senghor’s exhortative lyrics which are tinged with nostalgia and their appeals to the ancestral dead (e.g., “In Memoriam,” “Visit” and “The Dead”).
Brew’s love and reverence for the African cultural traditions is evident from the sense of frustration and regret which he apparently feels for the state of neglect of previously revered objects: for example, there is “rust or, the ancient state-swords;” the “bald pate/of their reverent heads” are now exposed without any cover; and there is a lackluster treatment of things that should be treated with seriousness and sincerity: “They could not silence the drums,/The fibre of their souls and ours/The drums that whisper to us behind the black sinewy hands” (SAP, p. 134).
In “A Sandal on the Head,” Brew similarly expresses his adoration and love for the ideals of the ancestral dead, but which have now been cast away or neglected or left in a situation of what Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier perhaps would have characterized as “the desecration of holy land.”3 The title of the poem is suggestive of its theme: for instance, the sandal, which is traditionally won on the foot, is now worn on the head-- a clear sign that culture and tradition have been jettisoned or turned upside-down.
Other images of the poem confirm the solemn and steady denigration of cultural values: “The broken bones cannot be made whole,” “The crippled and the tired heaped out of the way,” and the “ant hills” are now “half-eaten by termites.” Furthermore, the “gods” and the “old,” the guardian spirits of the land, have lost their bearing.
In the indigenous African culture, people regard the father, or the king or anyone else in power and authority as the “Master”. In this poem, the poet laments the fact that the “Master,” the ancestral guardian, has completely lost his physical and moral authority.
The Master of the House cracked the whip
In the realm of laughter and light,
And mopped his brow with a silken cloth
It is only the gods who know
Why the bones were broken;
It’s only the old who know why
The goats skip homeward at evening
And the master of the House
Now Master of Rags
Stays behind on the rocks
To rummage in the rubbish heap
For cast-away morsels of power!
(SAP, p. 133)
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The state of affairs described in the above lines is one of resignation, submission and of finality: things can no longer be redeemed or salvaged. The glory and the authority and the majesty of the past now recede into piquant memory4. Culture and tradition and authority have been cast into the dustbin of history. It recalls the words of William Wordsworth, “The things which I have seen I now can see no more.”5
III
Kwesi Brew’s treatment of the theme of nature encompasses disparate subjects and motifs, including death, the sordid, the ugly, and the beautiful. We find all of these elements in two of his lyrics, namely, “The Executioner’s Dream” and “The Dry Season.” Through these poems Brew effectively discusses the immortality, the limitations, the resonances and the dissonances immanent in the universe of nature.
In “The Executioner’s Dream,” Brew discusses various aspects of nature. The word “Executioner,” which highlights the poem’s title, is precise, foreboding and easily conjures up images of death or the dying. As we read through the poem, we perceive or observe the fiery onslaught of death on natural objects and phenomena, epitomized in the “horrors of human sacrifice,” the “agonies of tortured men,” and the “nights and nights of pain.” Perhaps very few poems in the African literary canon-- I believe-- can compare with this lyric in terms of the macabre scene of death which it describes.
Other images and metaphors emphasize the poem’s eerie tone of catastrophe or despair: “Glittering, wet, and sickening,” the “surf-boats splintered the waves,” the “wicked sappor/Gazing at you with hot imploring eyes,” the “blood-bright bougainvilleas,” and “a dull onyx set in a crown of thorns.” There is enough fear and terror embedded in these lines to intimidate the brave and the powerful. Furthermore, the repetitive employment of the first person pronoun “I,” is illuminating and compelling:
I dreamt I saw an eye, a pretty eye,
…………………………………………….
I did not know you were dead
……………………………………..
I saw the rainbow in your eyes
……………………………………….
I saw sitting hand in hand with melancholy
(SAP, p. 130)
Moreover, it does not only suggest the protagonist’s personal involvement in the universal scheme of creation, it also highlights the fact that in any human drama-- whether good or bad-- what affects the individual affects all of humanity.
Unlike the poems we have discussed thus far in this essay-- where the stanzaic structures are zigzag or irregular-- in “The Dry Season” we have a perfectly organized lyric with equal stanzaic structure containing six lines each:
The year is withering; the wind
Blows down the leaves;
Men stand under eaves
And overhear the secrets
Of the cold dry wind,
Of the half-bare trees.
The grasses are tall and tinted,
Straw-gold hues of dryness,
And the contradicting awryness
Of the dusty roads a-scatter
With the pools of colourful leaves,
With ghosts of the dreaming year.
And soon, soon the fires,
The fires will begin to burn,
The hawk will flutter and turn
On its wings and swoop for the mouse,
The dogs will run for the hare,
The hare for its little life.
(SAP, p. 129)
If there is any poem in African lyricism that has beauty, truth, wit, style, and charm-- all combined-- it is “The Dry Season.” Organized into three stanzas, with each one consisting of six lines, the entire poem runs through eighteen lines altogether. What first arrests the reader’s interest in the poem is its realism: its picturesque, descriptive structure, which accurately and vividly captures the dry season, one of the two primary seasons in tropical Africa , which generally begins from the month of October and ends around April of the following year.
Also of interest are the poem’s descriptive details. For example, we notice the concrete activity of every aspect of nature in its crispness and clarity: “The fires will begin to burn/The hawk will flutter and turn/… The dogs will run for the hare/The hare for its little life” (SAP, p. 129).
The poem has other interesting qualities, including its appeal to some of our senses: Sight (e.g., “the grasses are tall and tinted,” line 7); hearing (e.g., “overhear the secrets,” line 4); smell (e.g., “the fires will begin to burn,” line 14); feeling (e.g., “the cold dry wind, line 5). The overall effect of this device is that it endows the poem’s subject matter with both a technical and an emotional range and vitality.
Professor D.I. Nwoga says that the theme of this poem centers on death.6 That is true, but the poem also conveys other truths: there is also the celebration of life and renewal, as exemplified, for example, in the imagery contained in “tinted,” “flutter,” “colourful leaves,” and the “dreaming year.”
The poem contains other appeals. It is extremely fascinating in its descriptive quality,7 which is full of vividness, clarity, and charm. I must add that nothing compares with this lyric in the whole range of African verse in terms of its descriptive, topographical detail and lucidity, except perhaps David Rubadiri’s “An African Thunderstorm.” In this poem Brew completely establishes himself as a “nature poet,” who is able to scrutinize it against a backdrop of the challenges of human life.
There is a lot to gain from Kwesi Brew’s poetic art. Apart from the themes which he explores-- especially Western colonialism, the indigenous African cultural traditions, and the world of nature-- he explores diverse poetic and rhetorical strategies including alliteration, assonance, and repetition in order to give scope and depth to his work. His poetry contains everything: the ugly, the bizarre, the beautiful and the spectacular. And of course we find man, animals, the birds, and other natural creatures-- all registering their eternal presence or performing their unique roles.
1. D.I. Nwoga, West African Verse (London: Longman, 1976), p. 142, distinguishes between two categories of African poets, that is, those he calls “pioneer poets” whose verse predates the 1930s, and those he classifies as the “modern poets,” that is, those whose verse postdates the 1930’s. Further citations from this volume will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as WAV, followed by the page number(s). Similarly, all citations from A Selection of African Poetry, edited by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (Burnt Mill, Harlow, UK: Longman, 1976), will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as SAP, followed by the page number(s).
2. For a divergent reading of this poem, see The Heritage of African Poetry: An Anthology of Oral and Written Poetry, ed. Isidore Okpewho (Burnt Mill, Harlow, England: Longman Group, 1985), p. 236. Okpewho thinks that the poem’s “Master” alludes to “the image of prodigal sons who, after being away so long, have returned home to be reconciled with a tradition that they had apparently turned their backs on. They now kneel before the shrine of their ancestors and beg for forgiveness and reacceptance.”
3. Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, Modern Poetry from Africa (Middlesex England: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 22.
4. K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, A Selection of African Poetry, p. 134, believe that this poem was composed during the period of Kwame Nkrumah’s “overthrow” from power.
5. William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” Master Poems of the English Language, ed. Oscar Williams (New York: Washington Square Press, 1952), p. 260.
6. D.I. Nwoga, West African Verse, p. 165.
7. As Chris Kwame Awuya interestingly notes, “Brew’s poetry always shows a careful rhythm and control.” See Chris Kwame Awuya, in The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Vol. 1, eds. Eugene Benson and L.W. Connolly (New York: Routledge, 1994), p.151.
Works Cited
Awaya, Chris Kwame. “Kwesi Brew.” The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Vol. 1, eds. Eugene Benson and L.W. Connoly. New York
Moore, G. and Beier, Ulli. Modern Poetry From Africa Middlesex , England
Nwoga, D.I. West African Verse. London
Okpewho, Isidore. The Heritage of African Poetry: An Anthology of Oral and Written Poetry. Burnt Mill, Harlow , England
Senanu, K.E. and T. Vincent. A Selection of African Poetry. Burnt Mill, Harlow , United Kingdom
Wordsworth, William. “Ode Intimidations of Immorality From Recollections of Early Childhood”. Master Poems of the English Language, ed. Oscar Williams. New York Washington Square
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