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THE UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE I UNIVERSITE DE YAOUNDE I
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of a Postgraduate Teacher’s Diploma (DIPES II) in English
By
EDWIN TEM NJI (BA, ENGLISH)
University of Buea
Supervisor
DIVINE CHE NEBA (PhD) Lecturer
June, 2011
ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE
DEPARTEMENT
D’ANGLAIS
HIGHER TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF
ENGLISH
Obscurantism and the Mythic Dimension of
Christopher Okigbo’s and Bate Besong’s
Selected Poetry
i
ABSTRACT
This work, entitled “Obscurantism and the Mythic Dimension of Christopher Okigbo’s
and Bate Besong’s selected Poetry”, props into the question of obscurity and myth in the
poetry of both authors. The argument raised is that, though writing some four decades apart,
Okigbo and Besong domesticated a poetic tradition comparable to the Western canon as
exemplified in the poetry of W.B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Gerald Manley Hopkins and Ezra Pound.
By employing deliberately elliptical syntax, complex word play and allusions steeped in
Greek, Egyptian, Christian and Hindu myths, both poets have often been considered obscure.
Some allusions in their poetry are anchored in myths that often have supernatural bearings,
which may confirm the poets’ personal obsession with the occult. Using New Historicism, the
work investigates aspects of the poets’ lives and times, the socio-political and cultural aspects
of their countries which invariably helped in shaping their creative impulse. Okigbo’s concern
for the political evolution of Nigeria was so strong that the impact was not only felt in his
militant poetry, but he actually died fighting for Biafra. Besong later died in a car crash, after
spending a career in which he constantly brought to public attention the Anglophone
Cameroon question of marginality. In sum, the study posits that, as against the attacks levied
on both poets, African poetry ought and should be fed by a plurality of creative sentiments.
With respect to the poets’ political views, the work opines that nothing could be more sublime
than for a writer, to play the role of the genuine intellectual, by taking a direct political stance
for collective good. Considering the didactic nature of their poetry, this work equally shows
how some of their poems are teachable to sixth form students.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation has been realized thanks to the varied and invaluable assistance that
I received from several sources, and which I now take the pleasure to acknowledge. Firstly, I
would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Divine Che Neba, for his insightful comments. He was
always willing to give an extra hand. I am equally grateful to all the lecturers of the
Department of English, particularly Dr Charles Teke, for his inspirational comments.
Secondly, my gratitude equally goes to Zumboshi Eric Nsuh, who offered me free
access to his library. I am also profoundly grateful to my parents for their sense of sacrifice;
Moses Nji and Vivian Nji, I am proud that you could come this far!
Thirdly, I am thankful to Fidelis Cheo and his wife, Sylvia Cheo for their enormous
financial assistance. Similarly, I appreciate the financial help that I received from Elvis
Tangwa, Roland Ngwoh Bong, Dieudonné Ndzelen, Oliver Kpwe Fuh, Abinwi Numfor
Muwanki, Doris Nwa Chu, Mrs Esther Biame, Lucas Saam, Simon Nji, Protus Nji and
Betrand Nji. For Yolande Djatsa, who burnt her midnight oil typing this dissertation, I say
thank you.
Finally, for peer criticism and suggestions, I am indebted to Yves Asaah Akum, Roger
Kunowoh, Didymus Douanla Tsangue and Lynda Ekonde Ephosi.
iii
DEDICATION
In
Memory
of
Bate Besong
who, lately,
Danced and joined his ancestors.
iv
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that this research work, “Obscurantism and the Mythic Dimension of
Christopher Okigbo’s and Bate Besong’s selected Poetry”, submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the award of a Postgraduate Teacher’s Diploma (DIPES II), at the Higher
Teacher Training College Yaoundé, was carried out by Edwin Tem Nji.
Supervisor
Divine Che Neba (PhD)
Lecturer, Department of English
E N S, Yaoundé.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... ii
DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................... iii
CERTIFICATION ..................................................................................................................... iv
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE: HISTORICAL SPACE AND THE PROFUNDITY OF AN OBSCURE
MIND ....................................................................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER TWO: THE MYTHIC DIMENSION OF OKIGBO’S AND BESONG’S
POETRY .................................................................................................................................. 40
CHAPTER THREE: AUTHORIAL IDEOLOGY ................................................................... 62
CHAPTER FOUR: THE POETRY OF BATE BESONG AND CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO:
ITS TEACHEABILITY TO SIXTH FORM STUDENTS ...................................................... 80
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 100
WORKS CITED ..................................................................................................................... 104
vi
1
INTRODUCTION
Modern African poetry has been fed, in the course of its development, by many
conflicting claims and views. These views are as varied as the poets scattered around the
geographical span of Africa. The conflicting claims held by some poets and critics have
created some of the controversies in this domain of studies. One of such controversies is the
question of obscurantism. By obscurantism, one is probing into the question of meaning, the
varied artistic influences that have inspired various poets around the continent such as the idea
of using a deliberately difficult style of writing. The question of being deliberately pedantic
has pushed some scholars like D.I Nwoga, into contemplating whether some of those
“difficult” poets could rather be referred to as modern poets in Africa rather than modern
African poets. This is a consequence of the vast western influences that punctuate their poetry
as well as the deliberately cultivated complexity in word play.
Some of the two poets, among many, who have often received the label of obscurantism,
are Christopher Okigbo, a Nigerian poet of the 1960s and Bate Besong, a Cameroonian poet
of the 1990s and 2000s. Besong and Okigbo are poets from two distinct nationalities writing
decades apart. Okigbo captured the plight of the young Nigerian nation in the 1960s after
battling colonialism in his early writing. At independence, the Nigerian nation was greeted by
coups and counter coups, which caused the nation to degenerate into a civil war. Similarly,
moulded within the rigours of Nigerian University life, Besong came back to Cameroon to tell
the world the story of his homeland from the point of view of the Anglophone Community,
which he constantly referred to as a hostage minority. Besong and Okigbo are compared, here,
not only for their unusually similar lives, but equally for the profoundly turgid nature of their
verse.
In stating the problem that this work investigates, one may say that, Bate Besong’s
death, coming some forty years after the death of Christopher Okigbo, one of the most
2
controversial Nigerian poets in living memory, ushered in fresh debates on the essence of
poetry fashioned in a way as to obscure meaning. Okigbo and others like Soyinka and Clark,
often considered the reading of poetry as the exclusive preserve of the initiate. In political life,
Okigbo died fighting for Biafra while Besong became so obsessed with the Anglophone
minority question that every piece of his writing showed traces of it. The lives, works and
deaths of both poets, their unusual tenacity , as well as the profound nature of their imagery,
helped fashion the mythic dimension and obscure nature of their art. Their poetry equally
manifested a touch with the occult, at times too terse for the ordinary reader.
This work, further attempts answers to the following thesis questions. In the midst of
cloudy poetic lines, does the community miss the overall social quest of both poets? Also,
must the poets articulate their ideas in a way as to be understood by all or must seclude
themselves into a class of poet-prophets with limited audiences? With the Okigbo generation
waning and the Niyi Osundare School ushered in, for which Bate Besong is part, one would
have thought that, he, Besong, would opt for a broader audience. Yet he seems historically
situated within the Osundare School that saw poetry as the hawker’s ditty, yet psychologically
entrenched within the Okigbo generation that prided in non communication to the amateur
reader. In this controversy, one is also tempted to ask how the poet should sing his song. What
should be the nature of this song? Should he delve into alien myths? How can their ideologies
be properly comprehended in the midst of these difficulties and how relevant are these poets
to our time especially our secondary and high school students?
To fully grasp the arguments raised, two key words used in this research topic need
to be defined. The words are “Obscurantism” and “Mythology”. The Revised Encyclopaedia
Britannica defines Obscurantism as “the practice of deliberately preventing somebody from
understanding or discovering the meaning of something”. The Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary Terms on the other hand, defines obscurantism, as “that which is hard to
3
understand, not clear, not well understood or difficult to see” (105). It further adds that by
obscurantism, one refers to the art of keeping ideas blurry so as to hide truth. In discussing the
poetry of Okigbo and Besong, one joins, but does not limit the notion of obscurantism, to the
above definition, corroborating D.I. Nwoga’s view, in “Modern African Poetry, The
Domestication of a Tradition” that, “as a result of their addiction to archaisms, the poetry of
the Ibadan/Nssuka poets tends to be craggy, lumpy; full of obstructions and unnecessarily
difficult; simple ideas are often deliberately clothed in esoteric idiom” (42). This research
considers obscurantism as the use of words, metaphors and allusions in a way that makes
understanding difficult. The work shall bring to light some of the sources of obscurity and
myth in the poetry of Besong and Okigbo.
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Terms defines myth as “an ancient story
usually containing religious or magical ideas which may explain natural or historical events”
(109). By “mythic”, an adjective derived from myth, one is referring to that which often
combines magical elements with religious ideas, be they African, Christian or Hindu
religions. Thomas Bullfinch in Bullfinch’s Mythology posits that “mythology is the handmaid
of Literature and Literature is the best ally of virtue and promoter of happiness…without
knowledge of mythology, much of the elegant literature of our language cannot be understood
and appreciated (3). The “mythic” in this work is concerned with the varied religious elements
tinged with magical and even occultist undertones that are evident in the poetry of Okigbo and
Besong.
Before we proceed, it is necessary to have a brief portrait of both authors. Christopher
Okigbo is often considered as one of the finest among the founding fathers of modern African
Poetry. He was born in Ojoto, Nigeria in 1932. He graduated from the University of Ibadan
and worked as a teacher and Librarian before beginning a literary career. He had profound
interest in the social and political evolution of Nigeria, and this was in line with his view that
4
a poet cannot examine his own identity in isolation. Okigbo was very obsessed with the quest
for social justice in Nigeria and the ideals of nationhood expressed not only in the very
charged lines of his verse but equally in his personal commitment to the Biafran secession. In
July 1967, at the outbreak of the civil war in Nigeria, he enlisted in the Biafran army and was
killed in action in August 1967. The grief for the poet soldier and genius, at 33, was
enormous. Sunday Anozie observed that, nothing could be more tragic to the world of African
poetry in English than the death of Christopher Okigbo.The person who, perhaps, captured
that grief at best was Chinua Achebe in a collection of poems he edited in Okigbo’s honour
entitled Don’t Let Him Die.Okigbo’s output was enormous and was realised within a very
short period of time despite his relative youth.
Many are those who consider Bate Besong as the artistic clone of Christopher
Okigbo. He was not only contaminated by the Okigbean disease of very controversial poetic
sentiments, but was indeed, like Okigbo, too impatient with humanity as Linus Asong
observed in a discussion of Besong’s writing on CRTV in March 2009. Besong was born on
May 8th, 1954 at Ikot Ansa, Calabar, Nigeria of Cameroonian parents. He was educated at St
Bedes College Ashing Kom, before moving to Hope Waddell Institute in Calabar;
Universities of Calabar, Ibadan where he took MA and PhD degrees respectively. He was
moulded along the turbulent Nigerian political landscape, acting once as ghost writer to the
executed Poet Soldier, General Maman Vatsa. Back in Cameroon, his artistic fame soared.
The hard economic climate he weathered, fortified him, while the fate of the less fortunate
which he shared, turned him into a philosopher and a student of the human condition.
Disgrace: autobiographical Narcissus was launched the night before his death. The grief for
him was equally enormous. In a collection of poems published in his honour; Their
Champagne Party Will End, Babila Mutia observed in the foreword that, “for a long time to
come, Bate Besong will remain the annoying gadfly that the experiment call Cameroon will
5
always try to brush off its shoulder, but who, persistently will always wait around the corner
compelling the nation to confront its excessive social shit and political garbage” (9). This
critical appraisal of the life of one of the most controversial Anglophone Cameroon artists in
recent times is a testimony of the enormous challenges the poet was ordained to confront, but
which invariably, like all human endeavours, came with a huge prize; the persecution,
humiliation and subsequently, death.
This research has been motivated by the nag for controversy manifested in the lives
and works of both poets. The desire to prop into controversy is always of great academic
fascination. The works of Okigbo and Besong have throughout been shrouded in controversy
and have therefore been variously attacked and praised by some of the leading scholars of our
time. However, much seems not to have been done to place these two poets side by side each
other in order to unravel the sources of their images, their almost similarly troubled lives and
deaths as well as the occultist touch of their works. This study is therefore borne out of the
desire to forge an alliance between two artists of two distinct epochs, with a similarly
profound ideology as well as the mode of poetic expression; so committed to their call to the
point of death yet heavily attacked on grounds of their deliberate controversy.
As far as the aim and scope of this study is concerned, one shall examine Labyrinth
with Path of Thunder and Disgrace: autobiographical Narcissus, paying attention to why the
poets, Besong and Okigbo, opted for a style of writing that many considered evasive and
foreign. The work does not only prop into the recondite nature of their verse, but equally
demonstrates how these poets championed the nationalist struggles in their respective
countries, Nigeria and Cameroon. The study limits itself to the two works cited above, but
references will be made to some substantial literature written not only by both artists but by
other writers and scholars. Disgrace… was launched some hours to the poet’s death while
Path of Thunder, was published post humus alongside the earlier collection, Labyrinth. More
6
than just sheer coincidence, the demise of both artists at very telling moments heightened the
debate on their works. This study therefore brings some of the similarities and differences
between the two poets into focus.
A study of this nature requires that keen attention be paid to the surrounding social and
political climate that gave birth to the works under study as well as aspects of the authors’
lives and time. Given the fluid nature of literary criticism, often that, no literary theory can lay
exclusive claim in espousing the intricate artistic fabric of a work, the ideal is often to settle
for a theory that can best penetrate and lay bare the multiple layers of a given piece of
literature. The theory used in this work is New Historicism. New Historicism starts by
“challenging the long held belief that a text is an autonomous work of art that contains in
itself all the elements necessary to arrive at a supposedly correct interpretation” (130), says
Charles Bressler in Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. The above
statement is rather, the hallmark of New Criticism otherwise referred to as Formalism. This
school of thought, Formalism, with founding fathers and adherents like T.S. Eliot, I.A.
Richards, Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks, emphasises the independence of a work
of art, stressing that it must be analysed independent of extraneous material. To the
Formalists, “a good critic examines a poem’s structure by scrutinizing its poetic elements and
rooting out and showing its inner tensions…bad critics are those who insist upon imposing
extrinsic information upon a text to discover its meaning”(38).
New Historicism on the other hand, is a theory whose development is traceable to
Stephen Greenblatt, who, aptly coined the term in his introduction to the collection of
Renaissance Essays in 1982, as a point of departure from the Old Historicists and in terms of
application very much different from the formalists. With their theoretical hindsight based on
some of the ideas of Michel Foucault; historian, archaeologist and philosopher, followers of
New Historicism such as Catherine Gallagher, Jonathan Dallimore, Jerome McGann and
7
Frank Lentricchia, insist that “societal concerns of the author, of the historical times evident
in the work, and other cultural elements exhibited in the text must be known before we can
derive a valid interpretation” (132). A work of art therefore, the New Historicists argue, is
often a battleground for conflicting ideas among the author, society, customs, institutions and
societal practices. With this understanding, this work shall examine, with some salient
questions in mind, how the cultural environment of Okigbo and Besong invariably create
resonances in their poetry. Has Okigbo then, been a slave to his Igbo customs and traditions
or has his been a radical remaking of myths to suit the cultural climate of his time? On a
similar note, this work ponders, with a New Historicist bent of mind, whether Besong’s fluid
cultural borrowing, is a reflection of the author’s and his society’s quest for socio cultural and
political freedom.
Of great importance, also, is how the New Historicists actually view history. New
Historicism rejects the mimetic view of history, which is, simply looking at a work of art as a
simple reflection of the history of its time. Rather, history and literature are viewed as forms
of discourse. A work of art, New Historicism argues, is like any other form of social discourse
that interacts with its culture to produce meaning. The critics admit that history is necessarily
biased, a point held by Michel Foucault, who argues that, history is not linear, neither is it
teleological. Thus, unlike the Old Historicists, a work must question its own history and not
just parody it. This argument is very important to this study in that one shall examine why
some of Besong’s poems are necessarily at war with Cameroon history in the poet’s quest to
clear his society of bad political indoctrination. This is much in resonance with Okigbo’s
writing, who, as it were, almost rewrote the history of Nigeria by opting for the independence
of Biafra.
It should be observed here that, New Historicism does not dismiss a detailed analysis of
the intricate artistic elements of a work. By examining aspects of the author’s life and time,
8
the social rules and dictates found in a work and the historical environment that shapes it,
New Historicism is in a way strongly advocating a study of a work’s artistic merit in relation
to its relevance to society. That is why employing New Historicism and Formalism may
amount to repetition and theoretical inconsistency.
Having presented the theory used in this work, it is necessary to review some of the
literature so far written on the two poets. The attention that Okigbo and Besong’s works have
received from scholars, media personalities and students has been enormous. There is thus a
number of scholarly articles in journals, reviews in news papers and dissertations based
variously on the works of Okigbo and Besong. In his own words, writing an appraisal of the
kind of attention his work has received, Besong argued in “Bate Besong on Bate Besong” that
My work is aggressively revolutionary, using imagistic patterns of a
symbolic imprimatur, dramatising topical political issues and thereby
seeking to expose the corruption, oppression and incompetence of a
post colonial prependal neo-colonial structure. I am an inveterate
experimenter with language. I will always deal with the internal
conflict between forces of good and evil in settings borrowed from
history and myth. (2/4)
Besong’s statement is a summation of the kind of treatment his work has received and is
equally an appraisal of his creative philosophy which helps to shade some light on the cloudy
nature of his art.
In almost every scholarly endeavour, where his work is at the centre of attention, the
notion of obscurity, at times evasiveness and unnecessary grandiloquence always slips in. In
his article “Bate Besong, is his Poetry Too Difficult for Cameroonian?” Shadrach
Ambanasom writes:
9
Bate Besong is the most paradoxical Anglophone Cameroon writer
today in the sense that his work attracts and repels readers the same
time. While his themes entice readers, his style alienates them, an
erudite iconoclast with an exceptional range of vocabulary power.
(92)
Ambanasom, a scholar on Besong, acknowledges the poet’s cumbersome and jazzy style, his
ideas are often littered around the bookish corridor of words, yet very compelling and warm
in the way he has chosen to give voice to those on the margin risking their lives on daily basis
to give meaning to their existence.Ambanasom’s article , however, does not touch on the last
book Besong published, that is Disgrace…, neither does he place Besong side by side with
Okigbo, exposing the sources of their imagery. This study intends to fill this gap.
In his book entitled Bate Besong or The Symbol of Anglophone Hope, George Ngwane
unravels some of the mystery behind Besong’s verse, joining the numerous voices that
consider him obscure. He intimates that
Bate Besong’s vehicle of communication has been regarded as sheer
obscurantism. He has been accused of writing for the intelligentsia
and not for the common man that he professes to defend…he has
been contaminated by the Hopkins’ disease involving a combination
of atrocious punctuations and blurred images .This is also seen in
Christopher Okigbo’s Path of Thunder and Wole Soyinka’s Idanre.
(21)
One can notice from the above observation that, Ngwane places Besong with such big names
as Soyinka and Okigbo, the founding fathers of modern African Poetry. These early poets
10
were obsessed with what was prevalent in European poetry in the early part of the 19th
century so much so that they took up artists such as W .B. Yeats, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot as
their points of reference. Therefore, the writing of Okigbo, suggests the huge influence of
Yeats, Pound and Eliot. Consequently, after taking degrees from Nigerian Universities,
Besong in turn came under the influence of Soyinka and Okigbo, all students on Yeats and
Pound, and subsequently saw them as models despite the storm of attacks that African poetry
was not yet ripe to use Yeats and Pound as models with great profit. Besong would later argue
that he adopted the writing styles of these early poets as strength so that he would not
degenerate into a writer of pot boilers. Ngwane goes a bit further to cite some of the sources
of Besong’s obscurity, in order to give focus to the amateur reader. He posits:
You must be current with historical events, abreast of socio political
trends His symbols are deeply rooted in social changes. His images
range from distant civilizations, his metaphors are local, his tone at
times is sexual and myths are traditional like the Emanya Nkpe. (21)
From this observation, one notices that the load on the reader is as much as that of the creative
artist himself, so that any amateur reader is doomed to frustration each time he or she picks up
Besong’s poetry.Ngwane’s study is however not based on Besong and Okigbo in comparative
terms, neither is his analysis on Disgrace…, which is what this study does.
When Besong launched Disgrace in 2007, he died the following day. The reviews of
his works were enormous. Azore Opio of The Post Newspaper captioned a compelling title in
his honour, “Farewell, Master of Obscurantism” in which he concluded that, “Bate Besong
lived out his life as a great warrior, he confirmed this by his triumphs and suffering, in verse,”
(6/12). Still, in his memory, a collection of poems entitled Their Champagne Will End was
published in his honour. In the foreword, Babila Mutia exclaimed that Besong was
11
“frightfully prophetic in the last poem in Disgrace in which he wrote that… ‘the night is
over’” (9), suggesting a prophecy of his own impending demise.
Sammy Beban Chumbow, in the same vein, equally espouses the idea that “some say
Bate Besong’s style is difficult to access. So it has been said of Wole Soyinka and other world
class Nobel Prize writers. So what good thing ever comes easily in life?” (Disgrace, xi).
Chumbow had clearly placed Besong on the same pedestal with leading world artists like
Soyinka and in the case of this study, Okigbo. It is this argument that this work intends to
continue, that Besong was the Cameroonian equivalent of Christopher Okigbo.
Talking about Okigbo, the following paragraphs attest to the huge impact that his
poetry created at the dawn of modern African Poetry. He gained the reputation of a master
craftsman, one who more than any of his contemporaries, captured the struggle of the young
Nigerian nation in the hands of colonial agents, up to post independence Nigeria, with its
coups and counter coups and the resultant civil war. Yet his style of writing remained a night
mare. D.S. Isevbaye, in “Okigbo’s Portrait of the Artist as a Sunbird: A reading of
Heavensgate”, notes:
This view of the poems as an impenetrable territory has been
encouraged by reports of Okigbo’s early view of poetry as a type
of cult from which the uninitiated is excluded…and by cautious
critical explications in which the critic and the reader are
unmasked as intruders. (1)
While it is true that Izevbaye’s article acknowledges that Okigbo’s poetry is unnecessarily
turgid; for he even quotes Okigbo to have bragged that “ I don’t write my poetry for non
poets” (4), he does not ex-ray the sources of Okigbo’s inspiration. He attempts rather a
systematic analysis of the creative journey of the poet, from the poet prodigal on exile right
through to the return to the Idoto shrine.
12
According to Isevbaye, the publication of Labyrinth with Path of Thunder in 1971,
accompanied by the author’s word of introduction, helped to “clear some of the paths to his
poetic experience and has probably helped to arrest the growing tendency to regard the
experience as something unavailable to the reader”(7). Isevbaye does not cite some of the
sources that make Okigbo’s poetry obscure; he equally does not include the Path of Thunder
section in his study. This study seeks to extend into that direction.
Similarly, Romanus Egudu’s “The Defence of Culture in the Poetry of Christopher
Okigbo”, breaks down Okigbo’s poetic philosophy into stages, namely: “The Suppression of
Indigenous Religion”, “Anti Catholicism”, “Religious Revival” and “Literary Struggle”. In
each of these stages, he succinctly captures Okigbo’s poetic concern, his distaste for Western
religion and his ability to switch from Christian to Pagan myths, at the “Literary Struggle”
stage, Egudu submits:
His Poetry is generally difficult and sometimes obscure. He, Okigbo
Said that, my Limits was influenced by everything and
everybody…it is Surprising how many lines of the Limits I am no
sure are mine and yet do not know whose lines they were. (24)
According to Egudu, Okigbo would not have found a better way to express the African and
Nigerian predicament than by resorting to the vague form of poetic expression. He puts it that:
“It is the irresistible pressure of experience under which the poet was being crushed that has
ultimately melted the frozen waters of his soul and released the stream of his songs” (26).
Okigbo had profound love for controversy and at times creative haughtiness to the
point of constantly bragging that his intellect towered above that of ordinary men and women.
Yet, this may be true in some degree as seen in the complexity of almost all of his poetry, so
that each time scholars attacked his works; it was followed by a rebuff from the poet so strong
as to let him reject a poetry prize at a conference in Senegal in 1966.
13
Donatus I. Nwoga.is also an Okigbo scholar. Nwoga undertakes a study of the
emergence and growth of Modern African Poetry. In his article, “Modern African Poetry: The
Domestication of a Tradition,” Nwoga starts by arguing that “…by Modern African Poetry, I
am referring to the work which is being written in the language derived from the colonial
experience (33). One of the founding fathers of Modern African Poetry; he acknowledges, is
Christopher Okigbo. Conscious of the wave of attacks poured on the latter by the Chinweizui
School of scholars, Nwoga posits that “…one acknowledges that the attempt to decree one
type of African Poetry is premature and inelastic and would do great harm to the growth of
the activity (44). This means that, African poetry should be fertilised by a plurality of views
and divergence in creative impulse. Consequently, rather than have all poets follow the same
cannon of language “simplicity”, African poetry should rather grow out of the synthesis of
diverse creative climates. It is on this grounds that he submits that
….of all the major poets, however, it would appear that Christopher
Okigbo has been the most influential on the other poets. In spite of
the difficulties of his poetry, he has fired many imaginations…at
least 30 poems by 20 poets have been written in his memory. His
echoes and images have been parodied and copied; his lyric
cadences have been reproduced. (47)
Here, Nwoga essentially examines the conflicting claims held by various scholars on what
should authentically be considered the true mark of African poetry. His study thus embraces
works by other African poets like Gabriel Okara and Wole Soyinka. This is different from this
study in that, one is rather examining how the questions of obscurantism and myth have been
received by two poets writing decades apart, Okigbo and Besong.
In yet another of his articles, “Obscurity and Commitment in Modern African
Poetry”, Nwoga argues about the role of the poet in his community. He intimates that
14
The challenge is two fold, that the poet through his art, contributes
to the total of the national, nay human, cultural and therefore
spiritual growth and that his use of language should not be such
that his contribution is unavailable to his community. (28)
Nwoga is very careful in his analysis, he acknowledges the profound role of the poet to his
community and conscious of this load, the poet should write in a way as to be understood by a
cross section of the people.Nwoga does not pour invectives on poets who decide to withdraw
into the world of literary solitude, neither does he praise them; he challenges them to strike a
fair balance between art for art sake and art for commitment. Tackling the problem of
obscurity on Okigbo’s verse, he writes, “there is no doubt that part of Okigbo’s early poetry
overdo the obscurity; the abstract language, private imagery, super sophisticated word
ordering lead to a lack of communication one feels sympathy for those who quarrel with
it”(26). The above scholar does not just “quarrel” with Okigbo’s verse, he offers explanation
to some of the sources of obscurity and concludes that, “…obscurity of itself is not a virtue, it
is a game played on the reader by a smart seeker of fame” (37).
Whether or not Okigbo was a smart seeker of fame is beside the point, for his
obsession with the Nigerian experience became too much of a burden that he would not
perhaps have found a better outlet to vent his crusading spirit rather than withdraw into the
controversial aura of the poet dictator. Nwoga does not study the Path of Thunder collection,
poems influenced by the impending war for Biafran independence. This study shall be in line
with Nwoga’s scholarly bent but shall go a step further by including Path of Thunder in
comparison with Besong’s Disgrace. The two poets under study were unique in many
respects and shared so much creative sentiments so that at their deaths, collections of poems
were published in their honour: Don’t Let Him Die in the case of Okigbo and Their
Champagne Party will End in the case of Besong. This study thus brings the controversial
15
artists into focus. This gives a clear cut difference between this work and the aforementioned
critics.
This work operates on the premise that Okigbo’s and Besong’s obscurantist mode of
poetic expression and the mythic bent of their art help dredge up fully the burdens of their
respective world views. In the beauty of their obscure verse lies the revolutionary power of
their ideas so strong as to compel the poets to risk death for what they stood for.Okigbo and
Besong are inspired by different socio political and economic experiences, yet they share
almost the same poetic sentiments and are therefore very peculiar poets.
As far as the structure is concerned, this dissertation has four chapters including a
General Introduction and a General Conclusion. The introduction situates the poets in
historical and social context, reviews the literature so far written on them and then establishes
the main focus of the work. Chapter One is entitled, “Historical Space: A Profundity of an
Obscure Mind”. It examines the question of why the poets opted for an unconventional
approach in writing; that is, why they opted for the obscurantist mode of expression. Chapter
Two is entitled, “The Mythic Dimension of Besong’s and Okigbo’s Poetry”. The chapter
examines the poets’ ability to fuse Western, Hindu, Pagan and Christian myths, so strong as to
suggest a touch with the occult, leaving their poetry often too difficult for the amateur reader.
Chapter Three is the “Authorial Ideology”. Apart from helping to reveal some of the hidden
sources of the obscure nature of the poets, it brings to the limelight the various political
ideologies the writers stood for. Chapter Four is entitled, “The Poetry of Okigbo and Besong:
Its Teacheability to Sixth Form Students”. The chapter examines some of the challenges in
teaching the poetry of Okigbo and Besong to high school learners, and the various means that
could be employed to ease the activity. The General Conclusion summarises the major
arguments raised in the work, brings out findings and recommendations, and suggests a
possible area for future research.
16
17
CHAPTER ONE
HISTORICAL SPACE AND THE PROFUNDITY OF AN OBSCURE MIND
Having introduced both poets, as writers operating within two nationalities and epochs, this
chapter properly situates them within distinct historical contexts. This is crucial to the
understanding of the cultural, political and economic consciousness that both poets
championed. This chapter equally examines how their poetry is a cultural and political
statement on the fractured history and distorted contours of their peoples’ lives. The chapter
will also bring to limelight the poets’ genius and artistic prowess, often exemplified in the
term obscurantism. One shall probe into some of the sources and references that the poets
make, and which tend to render their writing often too difficult for the amateur reader.
To be sure, a poet is neither a historian nor a chronicler. A poet, like any great writer
of genius, is one with a great insight into human nature, one who has created an image for
himself to see or feel for others what they may sometimes not be able to see and feel. The
poet therefore, claims the position of a prophet. It is a position that Okigbo claims when he
puts it in Labyrinths that
Screen your bedchamber thoughts
With sun glasses
Who could jump your eyes?
Your mind window,
And I said
The prophet, only the poet
And he said: Logistics
18
(Which is what poetry is). (8-9)
From the above assertion, one can realise that the secret behind a poet’s divination lies in his
sensitivity to register accurately the fragmented and grotesque masquerade of human life.
Seen in this light, and as clearly observed by some of the leading writers of our time, a poet
cannot be separated from the historical realities of his time. Nigeria and Cameroon history,
like that of Africa at large, has provided the material inspiration for Christopher Okigbo and
Bate Besong.
Talking about Nigeria, much of her literature bears the stamp, to a great extent, of
its colonial history, independence struggle as well as post independence, with the turbulent
political wave that ensued. Colonised by the British, Nigeria was subsequently divided into
three regions for administrative purposes; these were the East, West and Northern regions.
She subsequently got independence, after much struggle against the British, in 1960. The
history of Nigeria and Africa as a whole, particularly of cultural imperialism, has been
documented by some of Nigeria’s finest writers like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, J.P.
Clark and Christopher Okigbo. After independence, the euphoria was short-lived because the
art of government as practiced by the neo colonial elite was clannish, myopic and tragically
misguided. What better way of capturing this than by using the Rain and House metaphor as
Achebe succinctly does in A Man of the People? He states:
The trouble with our new nation was that non of us had
been indoors to be able to say, to hell with it. We had all
been in the rain until yesterday. Then a handful of us, the
smart and lucky and hardly ever the best, had scrambled
for the one shelter our former rulers left and taken over
it and barricaded themselves in. (37)
19
The image in the above declaration is of a band of marauding neo colonial politicians,
synonymous with a gang of fascist leaders, who have held the entire nation ransom, hijacking
its wealth, constantly reminding the people, who are in the rain, to stay calm and not bring
down the polity with hasty arguments and revolutionary sentiments. The hegemony reigns just
for a while. A coup sweeps over the ship of state and chief Nanga, that all encompassing
political gangster in A Man of the People, is arrested trying to escape disguised like a
fisherman. Achebe’s A Man of the People is highly praised for its prophetic ending, given that
the book was not just an assessment of post independence Nigeria, but equally , a prophesy of
the July 1966 coup which subsequently degenerated into a civil war.
Talking about the Nigerian civil war, which constitutes a great source of inspiration for
Okigbo’s Path of Thunder, one would realise that the turbulence of the war quickly spread as
a result of the balkanised nature of the country. When Muslim army units staged a coup in
1966, Yakobu Gowon, a Christian, who enjoyed wide support, was appointed to head a
Federal Military Government (FMG). While the FMG tried convening a Constituent
Assembly to ensure a smooth return to civilian rule, the violence increased and Igbos in the
North were massacred. They began moving back home in what was termed a mass exodus.
The Eastern Region answered back by massacring Northerners, thus a counter exodus of
Northerners began. Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu, a Governor of the Eastern Region, came
under severe pressure from eastern leaders to declare greater autonomy for the East
consequent on the ferocious attacks on Igbos.Various attempts were made to pacify the Igbos,
and sometime in May 26, 1966, Gowon made plans to abolish the regions and re-divide the
country into twelve states. Ojokwu answered the Federal decree “with the declaration of the
Independent State of Biafra named after the Bight of Biafra” (4/10).
When the Federal Government failed to restore order in the wake of heightened
Biafran propaganda, war erupted and dragged on until 1969, when Ojokwu surrendered and
20
called for a ceasefire. In 1970, Biafran resistance collapsed and Ojokwu fled to Ivory Coast
while the Eastern Region submitted to the federal government in Lagos.
The brief picture above, of the Nigerian civil war does not suggest that all of
Okigbo’s poetry is based on this politically charged period, though much of it is on it, but for
a poet to become too obsessed with the idea of shaping the political life of his country, to the
extent of dying at the war front is not something to be dismissed lightly.Ali Mazrui observes
this when he brings Okigbo for trial, in the literary sense of the word, in The Trial of
Christopher Okigbo. Here, the dead poet is tried on two counts, first, for compromising the
national integrity of Nigeria, second, for putting politics first and poetry last. His poetry,
Okigbo’s, will be studied as that which was largely informed by his nationalistic militancy
with an overriding genius, developed not just because of his classical education and wide
scholarship, but equally because of his genius and profound mind.
As far as Cameroon’s political history is concerned, emphasise here will be on the
English speaking section, the former Southern Cameroons, which can by no means be
separated from Bate Besong’s creative itinerary. In the introduction to the Emanya Npke
Collected Poems, the second part of Disgrace, Besong quotes Vaclav Havel to have quipped,
“Whoever fears to look his own past in the face must necessarily fear what is to come. Lies
cannot save us from lies” (42).The bicultural state of Cameroon, made up of French and
English speaking Cameroonians is a consequence of its colonial past following the dual
tutelage of the allied powers, Britain and France, exercised during the trusteeship years. The
English speaking section owes some historical ties to the Eastern region of Nigeria. Victor
Julius Ngoh puts it in Cameroon: From a Federal to a Unitary State, 1961-1972 that, “for
administrative convenience, the British ruled British Cameroon as a part of Nigeria”(1).
Political evolution subsequently culminated in the gaining of independence for British
Cameroon, on the 1st of October, 1961 as opposed to the French section that had earlier
21
gained independence on the 1st of January, 1960. What ensued subsequently was an
amalgamation of the two distinct parts and a declaration of the unitary state; hence the name
moved from the Federal Republic to the United Republic of Cameroon.Presisendent Paul Biya
would later change the name to the Republic of Cameroon.
Much of the literature of the English speaking section , often tagged the literature of the
hunchback, bears testimony to the long drawn out question of marginality, and in some
quarters, of a secessionist agenda, synonymous with the Biafran experience. The question that
often puzzles some is who the Anglophone Cameroonian really is: is it anyone that speaks
English, or one whose roots are traceable to the former Southern Cameroons?
Geroge Nyamdi, in a political pamphlet, Whether Winning…Whether Losing, observes that:
Francophone and Anglophone as qualifiers are not linguistic. They
have to do with roots….an Anglophone is not any Cameroonian
who speaks English but that Cameroonian Whose roots are planted
in, or traceable to that part of Cameroon West of the
Mongo…British Southern Cameroons. (4)
Bate Besong’s revolutionary itinerary, bears the scars of the history he often considers
distorted, the consequence of which is a cultural holocaust unleashed by the French on the
English speaking section. It is not strange then, when, in his study of the poetry of Simon Mol
and Kangsen Feka Wakai entitled, “Introducing Simon Mol and Kangsen Feka Wakai”,
Besong observes:
Anglophone Cameroon Poetry, just as its dramaturgy and prose
fiction counterparts, is a product of two distinct socio aesthetic
forces: the received traditionalists aesthetics and the aesthetics over
determined by the nuances of reunification. (1/10)
22
Much as Okigbo and Besong’s works cannot be fossilised within the Biafran and Anglophone
Cameroon experiences, much of their psychological burdens were borne out of their peoples’
experiences, a question linked up to the whole notion of national consciousness. Thus, while it
is true that African history, culture and politics have given voice to Okigbo and Besong, the
Biafran and Anglophone Cameroon situation has given them focus.
Granted that history creates much of the foundation for the poet, one will however note
that, poetry, by its very nature, is a genre in which ideas are often clothed in profoundly turgid
images and at times, syntactic infelicities. Thus the reader is often challenged to an
intellectually charged climate to balance meaning with aesthetics, here lies the question of
obscurity as against simplicity. Poets are indeed the rarest of gifted men, says John Lord in
The Beacons Light of History. He adds:
Poets are the great artists of language. They even create language,
they are the ornaments of Literature… they are the sages whose
sayings are treasured up and quoted from age to age because of
the inspiration given to them, an insight into the mysteries of the
soul and the secrets of life…very few are born in a generation.
(12)
John Lord’s description, of “true” poets and their poetry, is at the very heart of controversy,
and this is very much a function of the western literary cannon; for he so succinctly quotes the
ancients: Homer, Virgil and Dante, who, as a result of their unusually gifted mode of
expression, helped in raising their countries from the torpor of their times. Could these
“ornaments of language” mean something different to the African, whose literary experience
is borne of a very charged context? Or will language ornamentation be taken to such degree as
to hide rather than highlight the main thrust of our poets? This is the charge that has been
brought, most often than not, against Okigbo and Besong.
23
The African Literary and poetic experience is borne out of the colonial experience
itself. Some of the founding fathers of Modern African poetry, from Nigeria and other home
grown universities in Africa, studied classics, and so their poetry, often blended traditional
African folkloric elements with distant allusions from western concepts. So strong was this
ideological debate that African poetry has often been classified into what some call
“generations” depending not only on ideological preoccupation, but on the aesthetic
sensibilities of the poets. Thus, Soyinka and Okigbo are often classed in the same generation,
for in their poetry; one finds great influences of Hopkins, Pound and Eliot. Whereas some
minds argued that African poetry, thanks to the kind of writing propounded by the Okigbo
school, could now rub shoulders with western classics, others, notably, Eldred Jones, quoted
in D.I. Nwoga’s article “Obscurity and Commitment in Modern African Poetry”, agued,
Not that I think anyone can stipulate how African Poetry can
be written, but conscious that, we are writing, primarily I
hope, for an African audience, should African poets not be a
little choosy about the models they adopt in English writing?
African poetry is not yet ready to use a person like Pound as
a model with great profit. (37)
Eldred Jones’ view is an antithesis to the Okigbo School of poetry, given that, to Jones,
African poets ought, and should be the immediate flag bearers of their people’s woes, and this
should be done in a way as not to divorce the creative self from the tragedy of the African
experience. Niyi Osundare would later advance this argument, voicing his concern against the
Okigbo type of poetry which he felt, greatly put many off the reading of poetry. Propounding
his definition of poetry, and what many consider typical of third generation poetry, Osundare
writes in Songs of the Market Place:
24
“Poetry Is”
Not the esoteric whisper
Of an excluding tongue
Not a clap trap
For a wondering audience
Not a learned quiz
Entombed in Greco roman lore
Poetry Is
The hawker’s ditty
Poetry Is
What the soft wind
Musics to the dancing leaf
Poetry is
Man
Meaning
To
Man.
This is the manifesto of what some scholars think, should be typical of third generation poets.
To them, poetry should cease to be the sole preserve of the highly educated, in other words, it
should not just be the business of the “talented tenth”, to borrow from Marcus Garvey. While
Okigbo is a poet of the second generation, with the trademark of an obscure and an allusive
writer, Bate Besong, historically speaking, is a poet of the third generation. One would then
25
think that he would adhere to the Osundare conception, yet his creative sentiments are deeply
rooted in the Okigbean epoch, so that he has often been accused of being infected by the
“Hopkins’s disease”. In Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus, he offers his own definition
of poetry. According to him
“Poetry Is”
Epicurean manners of the masses
Poetry is
Hear my prayer.
Poetry is
Soyinka not Hitler
Peace now not Hiroshima
Nyerere not Marshall Amin
Poetry is
Not the gulag
Poetry is Jua
Voice of Anglophone Universe. (108)
Besong’s case is a juxtaposition of the forces of good and evil, personified by symbols like
“Nyerere”, “Marshal Amin”, “Gulag”, “Jua”, and the “Anglophone Universe”. He does not
offer a clear cut definition, but argues instead that a poet must choose to give voice to
consecrated sentiments such as truth, honesty and steadfastness, or crash into the ephemeral
business of hero worship at the expense of truth. The masses must be at the nerve centre of the
poet’s business, but the language the poet must use, in order to meet directly the “epicurean
26
manner” of the masses is where he has often attracted controversy, causing many to label him
an escapist and obscurantist writer.
If one examines Okigbo’s poetry, from Heavensgate to Path of Thunder, one will
notice that it is one long epic representing the various stages in the poet’s poetic
consciousness, as well as the cultural and historical evolution of Nigeria. In Heavensgate,
notably in “The Passage”, Okigbo starts a journey, symbolic of the cultural estrangement and
the subsequent nag to be readmitted into the “idoto” priesthood, which represents indigenous
culture. He writes in “The Passage”, the first poem in Heavensgate that, “before you mother
/idoto/naked I stand/before your watery presence/a prodigal” (3). This is the departure point in
his creative journey. It marks the beginning of a tortuous journey in the poet prodigal’s long
search of a mythical past epitomised by the great “mother idoto”. Okigbo writes in the
introductory word that “…the long and tortuous passage to the shrine of the long juju of the
Aro, Igbos may perhaps best be described as a labyrinth” (xiv).
The prodigal, having been cut off from his roots, must now submit, as a penitent
figure, to the ordeal of waiting in front of the idoto shrine. This psychological journey takes
him through the “Initiation” stage where he is inflicted with “scar of the crucifix/over the
breast/by red blade inflicted”(06).This is a fortification process, wherefrom, the persona
journeys through the mystical worlds of “Haragin”, and “Kepkanly” before forging a link
with the sea goddess at the “Watermaid”. By making such references to his childhood heroes,
“Kepkanly” and “Haragin”, the poet is in a way showcasing his obscure mind, challenging the
reader to investigate the personalities whose mystical force he weaves into a poetic locus that
tends to obscure the logical flow of the pilgrimage he is recounting. Okigbo’s journey of
initiation and subsequent return to traditional forms of worship is clearly symbolised by the
“Newcomer”. Here, the poet considers himself to have gone through the initiation ritual and is
27
now a new comer. At “The time for Worship”, the poet mixes Christian speech with that of
pagan occult practice. This is a source of Okigbo’s obscurantism. He remarks:
Softly sing the bells of exile
The angelus
Softly sings my guardian angel
Anna of the panel oblongs
Protect me from them fucking angels;
My sand house and bones. (17)
Here, Okigbo considers himself fresh enough to seek union with mother idoto. Yet, this is not
entirely complete. The scholar who has scored high in bringing to light the complexities in
Okigbo’s verse, is D.S Isevbaye.In his article, “Okigbo’s Portrait of the Artist as a Sunbird: A
Reading of Heavensgate”, Isevbaye admits that the poetry of Okigbo remains genuinely
difficult. In the course of espousing the aspects that make Okigbo’s poetry obscure, Isevbaye
quotes the varied Greek and ancient Roman references that are found in his poetry and
observes quite strongly that the poet lures his readers into “the world of religion, poetry and
sex” (7).This confirms largely, the argument of obscurantism, often advanced by scholars and
students on Okigbo.
On a similar note, in “The Defence of Culture in Okigbo’s Poetry”, Romanus Egudu,
clearly shows that Okigbo’s anger, exemplified in the solemn but radical undertones of
“Limits” and “Distances”, is directed at the cultural imperialists who orchestrated the death of
indigenous customs. In “Limits VII”, he quotes Okigbo,
…for he ate the lion
And was within the corpse
28
and to the cross came pilgrims
past the village orchard where
Flanagan
preached the Pope’s message
to where the drowning nuns suspired. (24)
These are symbols of cultural and religious imperialism; the pilgrims, “Flanagan”, descended
on the totems of the people’s worship and destroyed it. In expressing this religious carnage
and its totality of effect on the people, Egudu observes that Okigbo prided in the obscure;
often controversial in anything he said or wrote. He once observed, as Egudu remarks that,
“my Limits was influenced by everything and by everybody…it is surprising how many lines
of the Limits I am not sure are mine and yet do not know whose lines they were (23).
This quotation underscores the poet’s personal claim to have been a man of super human
wit, traversing ancient cultures like the Egyptian civilisation, meandering through the
Mesopotamian biblical times, before abandoning the reader at the doorsteps of modern
Christian values. This is a manifestation of the notion of obscurantism; this is so because the
poet places on the reader a severe strain, often challenging him/her to be armed with the same
breath of experience like the poet, to be able to decode his message. Egudu finally concludes
that, “It is the irresistible pressure of experience under which the poet was being crushed that
has ultimately melted the frozen waters of his soul and released the stream of his Songs” (28).
The pedantic journey towards cultural revival is concluded in the poems in Distances. Here,
the poet asserts that “I was the sole witness to my/homecoming” (27). In other words, he has
gone through the rite of passage and initiation and is now at the threshold of idoto, the
ultimate homecoming which he celebrates in the following words:
29
I have fed out of the drum
I have drunk out of the cymbal
I have entered your bridal
Chamber; and lo
I am the sole witness to my homecoming. (60)
This is the final point of reversion, a reversion that could in some degree be synonymous with
Achebe’s confirmation in “Colonialist Criticism”, in which, in the face of cynical attacks
against African culture, he argues that, the point will be for everyone to bring his/her harvest
to the rich world cultural market so that the world could choose. In the course of trying to
rework his cultural past, Okigbo has done so in a way that some argue, still indebts him to
the western tradition; yet he has largely demonstrated versatile scholarship, verifiable in the
distant allusions and his ability to blend topical issues with a fluid and charming language.
Having dealt extensively with cultural issues, subsequent political life in Nigeria
compelled the poet to deal squarely with the issues of the time. It is very much in line with
some of the arguments often raised by Bate Besong. For with the latter, one meets a poet
obsessed with the idea of social justice, corruption soaked within the challenges of a bi-
cultural nation. It is at this level, that one may say Besong rubs shoulders, so conveniently
with Christopher Okigbo both at the level of national consciousness, aesthetic sensibility and
obscurantism. In the poems in Silences, such as “Lament of the Silent Sisters” and “Lament of
the Drums”, Okigbo turns his back on the cultural and political imperialists and deals squarely
with the new elite whom he argued had pinioned the state like game to be hunted and eaten. In
“Lament of the Silent Sisters II,” Okigbo sounds a very pathetic note of wanton neglect. He
remarks:
30
Crier: they struck him in the ear they struck him in the eye
They picked his bones for scavenging:
Chorus: and there will be a continual going to the well;
Until they smash their calabashes. (40)
The above lines are a symbol of the Nigerian oil wells whose proceeds provocatively found
their way into the hands of a few. It is equally argued that “Lament of the Silent Sisters” was
influenced by the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first President of the Congo. In
“Lament of the Drums”, Okigbo becomes much more radical, contemplating the thunder
motif as a symbol of the inevitable cataclysm that awaits the nation and its looters. He
expresses his frustration and militancy in the following words:
LION HEARTED Cedar Forest, gonads for our thunder
Even if you are far away, we invoke you
Liquid messengers of blood
Like urgent telegrams. (45)
But the direction to take in order to get out of the political impasse is where the problem lies,
for the “robbers will strip us of our tendons” (47). The robbers in this case are the politicians
who have violently raped the young nation, leaving the poet to wail in the following words
“The wailing is for the field of men/ For the barren wedded ones/For perishing children (50).
The cry for the beloved nation is the same theme taken up by Bate Besong.The poems in
Disgrace are divided into two sections, the Emanya Npke poems and the autobiographical
narcissus poems. In one of the poems in Emanya Nkpe, “Just Above Cameroon”, dedicated to
the fine Cameroonian novelist, Mongo Beti Eza Boto, Besong lays bare some of the
contradictions of the Cameroonian nation. He posits:
31
For I, too have exhumed the cadaverous past
Long
Worn its glorified ostrich mask
And poured
The rubble
Of its narcissistic muse. (44)
In struggling to lay bare the “cadaverous past”, Besong admits the web of controversy that he
has so far ensnared himself in. He submits:
On my masquerader head
Have built:
Poetries canaans
In obscurities which led
To the labyrinth of my own inertia
(all that gone with the wind now). (45)
Besong knows the kind of load that he has so far borne on his “masquerader head”, and often
so, like his muse Okigbo, has borne this load in “obscurities”. Now this: he claims all that is
gone with the wind, yet this is not entirely true. Ambanasom observes in “Bate Besong: Is his
Poetry too Difficult for Cameroonians”? “…he has not done any imaginative writing of
significance outside the modernist mode” (97). Here, Ambanasom underscores the challenges
readers of Besong’s poetry often face.
Whether taken individually or collectively, most of Besong’s poems in Disgrace are
a sweeping kaleidoscope of the Cameroonian and African political experience, ethnic politics
32
and hero worship at the sacrifice of truth and justice. Espousing the idea of raucous greed at
the detriment of social equality, Besong insists in “Their Champagne Party will End” that
Indeed they have sworn fealty to their Masonic lodges
And to each to bankrupt our national coffers
The curse on the heads of the corrupt banditti
But surely, their champagne party will end. (90)
The champagne party is the metaphor for national greed and wanton corruption sanctioned
within national circles. His poetry cannot be wholly understood and appreciated without
recourse to the former southern Cameroons. In “Requiem for the Sycophantic Omenologist
remembering Sangho P.M. Kale, Nndek S.A.George”, the poet pays tribute to the unsung
heroes of Anglophone Cameroon and ends, in his characteristic manner, with a call for order
through a radical stance. He maintains that
Now is the time Compatriots
To pull off his iron mask
At once
And expose His Excellency
The wooden tiger
For
Their centenary has fallen
Its branches are on fire, for
Its trunks will soon be in hell
The members will soon be on fire. (97)
33
The last four lines of this poem are very much synonymous to Okigbo’s “Elegy for Slit
Drum”, in which he, like Besong here, defiantly presents a smouldering inferno waiting to
consume a corrupt lot and cleanse the society of the filth of humanity. In probing into the
question of Anglophone marginality; George Nyamndi, admits in his article “Seeing the thing
Clearly: Monga’s Poetic Vision of South Africa” that, “apartheid is indeed everywhere…this
is so when in a country bona fide citizens are classed into settlers and children of the
soil”(103).Though Nyamndi’s article is on apartheid South Africa, he argues that this system
is indeed synonymous to the Cameroonian saga, especially that, some citizens are considered
“subversives”, who must not pose any questions about the state of the union, a union forged at
Foumban on very clear terms. Talking about this union, of French and English Cameroon,
Besong observes in an article “Welcome, Governor Eyeya Zanga”, that
The foundation on which the Cameroonian federation was built in
1961, was a power arrangement contoured to deal with a
sociologically complex polity as presented in our multi ethnic
linguistic and cultural diversities. It was a type of national integration
that recognised the two separate but equal parts and the central
government in Amadou Ahidjo’s Yaoundé as mutually coordinate and
not as subordinate one to another. (1/6)
Here, Besong’s tentacles are on the national equation, a thing he died so aggressively
defending. However, his poetry cannot be completely fossilised within the door steps of
Anglophone Cameroon life. In poems like “After an Impeachment”, “For Capitaine Thomas
Sankara”, “April 1984”, the poet is concerned with the African democratic experience notably
in Burkina Faso and Nigeria in which he mourns the fate of Thomas Sankara, often thought to
have been killed with French conspiracy. In the course of laying bare all these contradictions,
seen in the Cameroonian experience, Besong’s style of writing has very much resembled that
34
of Okigbo. He writes, often with complex syllogisms, idioms borne of his own coinage, so
strong on the reader that the temptation more often, is to consider him obscure.
In examining some of the aspects that credit the poet as an oracle or shaman, one
would notice that, at the concluding phases of their lives, Okigbo, like Besong, became very
impatient with humanity, thinning down the strong artistic fibre of their poetry in preference
to direct political statements. In Path of Thunder, one finds a poet who has come to terms with
his own mortality and therefore increasingly vibrant. Path of Thunder contains poems like
“Thunder can Break”, “Elegy for the Wind”, “Come Thunder”, “Elegy for Alto”. Whether
taken individually or collectively, the poems prophesy war. The thunder motif is a symbol of
the violent coup of 1966 that struck like thunder, and subsequently caused the country to
degenerate into a civil war. In “Thunder can break”, Okigbo celebrates the coup in the
following words:
This day belongs to the miracle of thunder;
Iron has carried the forum
With token gestures: Thunder has spoken,
Left no signatures. (63)
Constantly impatient with the trend of the political machinery, he prepares to stake his own
life. He submits that, “thunder can break, earth, bind me fast/obduracy, the disease of
/elephant (63). The elephant in this case is a symbol of the politicians whom he considers as
obdurate, a reflection of the Tafawa Balewa years in office, in which, instead of ministering to
the people, the politicians behaved as though the art of government was some form of circus
show. In “Hurrah for Thunder”, the impatience with the political system is intense and his
involvement more than ever before in making direct political statements about the
uncertainties of the future is more erudite. He quips:
35
Today for tomorrow, today becomes yesterday
How many million promises can fill a basket…?
If I don’t learn to shut my mouth, I’ll soon go to hell
I, Okigbo, town crier, together with my iron bell. (67)
The countless number of promises is much reminiscent of the art of government practiced by
the neo colonial elite, a thing Achebe condemns in Anthills of the Savannah; a novel in which
he creates a modern Christopher Okigbo personified in Chris Oriko, who struggles to revive
the embattled lives of the citizens of Kangan, much against the will of His Excellency Sam.
No where in Okigbo’s poetry is he more prophetic than in “Elegy for Alto”. He mourns
POLITICIANS are back in giant steps…
THE ROBBERS descend on us to strip us of our laughter…
O mother earth, unbind me; let this be
My last testament; let this be
The ram’s hidden wish to the sword’s
Secret prayer to the scabbard. (71)
True to his words, Okigbo complemented his poetry with blood, like a ram taken for slaughter
for the sake of nationhood. It is unfortunate, that, six weeks into the war, the poet was killed.
Path of Thunder therefore, is by its very nature and time of composition, different
from the early poetry of Okigbo, given that in dealing with the tensions of the time, he no
longer sought refuge in aesthetics that were too enigmatic and obscure. His images are picked
from the troubled scenes of animal jungle power, the thunder motif and subsequently the
blood letting, all in a bid to deliver the burden of national consciousness for a poet who had
barely turned 33.
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Besong’s fate, especially the last days of his existence is much a similitude to
Okigbo’s experience. Disgrace is essentially, an attack on what he calls zombie
administrators, an attack on backsliding by fellow University Professors, a thing that derided
the very essence of a University as a place of learning and scholarship, free from political
bickering. Some of the poems in Part I are “The Foolishness of Trusting in Tribal Gods”,
“Post Mortem Intellectual”, “The Playwright and the Campus Giants”, and “Elegy for Two
Students Assassinated on Campus”. It would be recalled that the 2005 nation wide University
strike actions led to the formation of the Governor Abouem a Tchoyi commission. While at
the University of Buea, Besong was one of those chosen to pacify students. Yet, this let to
witch hunting and his subsequent persecution as a lecturer sell out. Thus a poem like “Elegy
for Two Students Assassinated on Campus” was defiantly written in honour of the students
fell by bullets amidst the carnage of the student up rising. He insists:
Without doubt, academics
Have now obtained a well
Deserved recognition
As ogres
And mutants of terror
Politbureau matriarchs will not always have the last laugh. (188)
It is this open discontent with the University hierarchy, expressed in the provocative tributes
he wrote for “student martyrs” that earned him hate and suspicion. Yet he did not waiver,
convinced in his view that, a University exist for the benefit of its academia, and not the other
way round. Therefore, in “The Mouths of Liars will be Shut”, Besong is in open combat with
an administration that sustains itself through hearsay and betrayal. He adopts an aura of
37
speech much like the biblical Jeremiah, and curses a woman for bringing untold victimisation
to a poet who struggled to work in an institution with a non sectarian mind. He asserts:
You are doomed,
And you have brought this upon yourself
What you have done to others will be done to your children and
Grand children to the third and fourth
Generation. (10)
This is much like Soyinka, who, in “Malediction”, curses a woman in the strongest terms
possible, her crime: celebrating at the murder of her fellow countrymen! The idiom used in
both Besong and Soyinka’s satirical pieces, is mournful yet apocalyptic to whoever glories at
the sight of human suffering and degradation.
Besong rages on, condemning what he considers as occult worship in the University
milieu as in “The Foolishness of Trusting in Tribal Gods”, showing what the University
Professor worth the salt should be, as in “The Professor”. The question looms: could Bate
Besong, the poet prophet, have visualised that in the confrontational battle to right the wrongs
of a system that he too, as it were, was doomed to fall amidst the carnage? His trade mark
style of obscurantism was greatly watered down in the 16 autobiographical poems as he
himself observes in the explanatory notes at the end of Disgrace:
…was the poet going to hide behind aesthetics that were enigmatic
and indirect? Answer: one turns to populist poetry to reach a
broader audience…one no longer sought refuge behind camouflage
writing. Absolutely right. (118)
38
In the desire to reach a broader audience, he was not destined to the see the next day after the
book launch. He himself fleetingly prophesied in the last poem, “The Night is Over”:
O, After so much crush of stamens
In the brain
I have passed this way, gathering
In, the angst
But O! Alas
The night has sunk level with the earth, gradually, it lowers out of sight
Dawn
The nightly round of our esoteria is over. (45)
The night was indeed over! The poet was crushed at dawn in a car crash. In the foreword to
Their Champagne Party Will End, a collection of poems published in Besong’s honour,
Babila Mutia writes: “Bate Besong was chillingly prophetic in the last poem in the collection
‘The Night is Over’; he died in sparks…just like the poem prophesied” (7).
Here lies one of the major similarities between Besong and Okigbo especially in
terms of their literary careers and painful exits from the world stage, dripping with blood,
each having fleetingly prophesied his death. Their poetry was mired in the obscurantist mode;
the complex words, the unusual coinages borne of their genius and wide scholarship, the
ability to combine the ancient and the modern, the absurd and the logical, the Christian and
the pagan, the local and the cosmic, the ordinary and the metaphysical all put together to
make their poetry difficult and obscure. Yet at the close of their lives, more than tasty for a
broader audience, considering the hot political climate of the time, both poets highly toned
39
down their mode of expression, with the view to redressing through the poetic medium, the
folly that their societies had sunk into.
This chapter has presented the creative evolution of both Besong and Okigbo, all of
them products of societies caught in disturbing transitions: the civil war, the struggle for
Biafran secession, the Anglophone Cameroon dilemma, the University of Buea insurrections
all put together to produce very radical poets who sought to give voice to consecrated
sentiments against a background of collective pain. However, they got caught in the web of an
ostrich mentality, proud to dare amateur readers of poetry, and so considered by some as
escapist and obscure poets. Some of the sources of this obscurity have been explained in this
chapter. The next chapter props into the mythological perspective of their poetry, suggesting
that apart from borrowing from the surrealist tradition, both poets displayed a touch with the
occult, making their poetry difficult for the ordinary reader.
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CHAPTER TWO
THE MYTHIC DIMENSION OF OKIGBO’S AND BESONG’S POETRY
Scholarship on the poetry of Okigbo and Besong has often demonstrated the presence of a
vast intellectual culture that dominates their works. A product of many years of national
discontent and a student of the classics, Okigbo’s writing shows a huge influence of various
mythic traditions such as African, Christian and classical myths. This is very much so, for a
poet fashioned within the ranks of the modernist tradition much like T.S. Eliot, Gerald
Manley Hopkins and Ezra Pound. With the modernist mythological abstractions in vogue
then; verifiable in the occult presence of Yeats’ and Eliot’s poetry – Okigbo’s mentors, and
with the huge impact of the surrealist movement, Okigbo’s poetry displays a mix of the
subconscious in surrealist terms: “seeking order through disorder or reality through illusion”
(4/10). To this understanding, namely that the surrealists believed in the mystical mix of
poetry, art and the occult, joining Socrates in his view that poets had to be out of their minds
to be truly divinely inspired, one finds that Okigbo often mythically combines the role of the
poet and the oracle, to become a prophet and diviner, indicating his own brevity of existence
and the impending cataclysm for a nation. Therefore, in the study of Okigbo’s poetry in this
chapter, one shall demonstrate that like T.S Eliot, he showed a spiritual quest, taking his
reader into the realm of spiritual myths and into his spiritual self, combining this with
Christian ritual language, a thing that earned him this fascinating critical appraisal by Chinua
Achebe: “For while other poets wrote good poems, Okigbo conjured up for us an amazing,
haunting poetic firmament of a wild and violent beauty” (4/6).
On a similar note, Bate Besong emerged from Nigerian universities as a product of a
culturally vibrant environment. He came under the influence of Wole Soyinka and took up the
41
poetry of Okigbo as a point of reference. That is perhaps why Kikefomo Mbulai observes in
“Satire and Historicity in the Poetry of Bate Besong” that, Bate Besong was a “fervent
admirer of Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka whose influence can be seen in poems like “For
W.S” and “After Mandela’s Earth”, Besong was to equally fall under the spell of Ogun, the
promethean hero in Yoruba Pantheon, one of whose attributes is the shielding of orphans
(141). Talking of Wole Soyinka’s mythological power, the impact of which has largely
fertilised Besong’s poetry, Joel Adedeji in “Aesthetics of Soyinka’s Theatre”, argues:
Yoruba folklore feeds Soyinka’s spiritual needs and artistic vision.
In nearly all of Soyinka’s major plays…the presence or appearance
of three important Yoruba gods can be apprehended or discerned in
their explicit imagistic representations as human beings or in
their implicit symbols as surrogates. These three gods are Obatala,
Ogun and Esu. (107)
This observation explains Soyinka’s eloquent exploration of myths, especially in the Yoruba
cosmology, which he ordains as mythical and magical forces to guide his creative spirit.
Emerging as a non-conformist modernist poet of almost the same measure like Yeats
and Eliot, and like Soyinka above, Besong was later to adopt and experiment with various
myths and gods such as Obasinjom, Mfam, Ogun and the Emanya Nkpe at times mixing this
with the language of ancient Hebrew prophets, with an established frame of mind that he was
fighting not only an ivory tower oligarchy but an established cult of “free masons” (Disgrace
2007).This chapter also examines the various sources of mythological influences in the poetry
of Besong and Okigbo, notably traditional and Christian myths, showing how these mix and
condense to create a language and an experience far too tortuous for the reader. In these
mythical references lie some of the power of their obscurity and equally a haunting display of
their power of prophecy.
42
Talking about myths, one of the scholars of modernism, who has done work on how
myths have formed strong grounds in modern poetry, is John Nkemngong Nkengasong. In his
book W.B Yeats and T. S Eliot: Myths and poetics of modernism, Nkengasong writes:
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) and Thomas Stearns Eliot (1885-
1965) are two giants of the twentieth century whose quest for ideal
reality culminated in poetry which could be considered as highly
complex and allusive…They make allusions to a great variety of
primitive, occidental and oriental myths and symbols using abrupt
contrasts and counter suggestions. (10)
This is the centre piece of the philosophy that largely informs modernist poetry of the type
Yeats, Eliot, Pound and Hopkins wrote and which Okigbo and Besong subsequently took as a
model. Of Yeats, Nkengasong further remarks: “He also saw the need to make his vision more
profound so he got involved in occult studies and magic” (19). There is much evidence to
argue, equally, that Okigbo was not a mere copy cat, struggling to be a modern Yeats,
inebriated by his grandiloquent bluff, rather he showed a great mind that suggested a
meddling with the occult, often believing at times that he was the very reincarnation of his
grandfather father, Ijejiofor of the Oto family, who provided the priesthood to the shrine of
the deity Idoto, the cornerstone of his creative reference. Yet, a son of a Christian convert,
Okigbo was later to fuse his poetry with the mythical touch of Christian ritual practice.
From the outset of Okigbo’s poetry, that is, Heavensgate, he takes the reader into the
mythic world of the traditional goddess Idoto. He writes: “Before you mother Idoto / naked I
stand; before your watery presence, a prodigal” (6). At this level, he surrenders himself to the
legendary power of the Idoto goddess eulogising the “oil bean”, the “tortoise” and the
“python” which are totems for her worship. Ali Mazrui, in The Trial of Christopher Okigbo
43
recognises the central role that Igbo mythology occupies in the world view of Okigbo’s poetry
when he remarks that, “Idoto was the goddess of Okigbo’s community in Ijoto with her shrine
beside a sacred river…the oil bean had an intricate sacred symbolism” (53). Firm in his view
that he was powered by a force beyond the ordinary eye, Okigbo began to wound his way into
a local mythological journey in the form of a traditional pilgrimage that was also symbolic of
the continent’s much needed return to her cultural roots after the wanton cultural imperialism
perpetrated by the colonialists. Having established the central importance of the Idoto goddess
at Heavensgate, Okigbo then uses incantatory language of a praise singer variously referring
to the goddess as the “Oblong – headed Lioness” (“Siren Limits”), “Anna at the knobs of the
panel oblong” (“The Passage”) and finally invoking the spirit of the goddess to protect him.
He writes:
Time for worship:
Anna of the Panel oblongs
Protect me
From them fucking angels. (Newcomer, 17)
From the above observation, one notices that the Idoto mythology is employed not for its
own sake. In using the goddess as a personal symbol, elevating it to a saviour, it emerges as a
force representing the protection of indigenous cultures and religions from westernization.
Heavensgate thus marked his return to the African part of his heritage and self renewal before
the goddess of the earth, Idoto.
Elsewhere, as in “Limits V”, the poet takes the reader not only to the powerful marine
influences of the goddess but to ancient Egyptian folklore and Mesopotamia civilization. He
states:
44
Oblong headed Lioness
No shield is proof against her
Wound me, o sea weed.
When you have finished
And done up my stitches
Wake me near the alter
And this poem will be finished…. (24)
One wound have expected the poet to talk of waking him at the shrine. Yet he talks of an
“alter”, a word synonymous with Christian ritual worship. But the point he underscores here
is the limitless power of the goddess who seems to be carrying out a surgical operation on the
pilgrim – initiate, to ensure that he is clean enough for acceptance into the shrine. Displaying
a very rich scholarly bent, Okigbo lures the reader into the mythical universe of the Egyptian
pharaohs and their ancient mamelukes. He intimates: “On an empty sarcophagus / hewn out of
alabaster / a branch of fennel on an / empty sarcophagus” (28). Using a footnote, he remarks
that the sarcophagus represents the “body of one of the Egyptian Pharaohs which is said to
have metamorphosed into a fennel branch” (28). This instance, like many others,
demonstrates the wide intellectual presence of Okigbo’s poetry establishing him as one of the
grandmasters in the art of modern African poetry.
As a mark of honour for one of the pioneer visionaries in African poetry, he was
awarded first prize in poetry at a Conference in African writing in Senegal in 1966 but
rejected it on grounds that no such thing existed as Negro Arts. He had once asserted, as Ali
Mazrui observes, that: “There is no African Literature. There is good writing and bad writing,
that’s all” (The Trial..., 70). So, rather than accept the prize offered him, “…his answer had
45
once again the aggressive fanaticism of the paramount Universalist. He had proclaimed.
‘There is no such thing as Negro Art’ ” (70).
This is typical of the aura of controversy that often surrounded the talented young
poet. The African myths in his poetry, whether those borrowed from Igbo cosmology or
Ancient Egyptian civilization, showed his attachment and unwavering struggle for African
nationalism, yet he refused the concept of negritude on grounds that it was a romantic pursuit
of the mystique of Blackness. He would definitely have been at odds with Molefi Kete Asante
who argues in Afrocentricity that
On another level, somewhat related is the idea of negritude
expounded by African writers trying to explicate the peculiar
dimensions of the African personality. With negritude…we get
another indication of how the rise of Black spirits will interact with
Africans. (70)
What seems rather fascinating, whether all African scholars settle for, or reject the concept of
negritude, is the fact that most of the early African writers, consciously or unconsciously,
were in search of a union with their being, and by consequence, established a mode of writing
that showed signs of a mythical reunion with their roots. This is what Okigbo largely does in
his early poems, namely: “Distances” and “Limits”.
In his later poetry, however, particularly that concerned with Nigerian post
independence trauma, he abandons the local myths drawn from his immediate cultural
environment and opts for a more militant approach. He explores the thunder motif in almost
the same manner like T. S Eliot. Nkengasong examines this aspect of the thunder motif in
Eliot’s poetry as a borrowing from Oriental myths. He indicates that “Eliot uses Oriental
Myths in “What the thunder Said”, using Hindu concepts of “Da, Datta, Dayadvam” which
means ‘give”, ‘sympathise’ and ‘control” (23). An ardent admirer of Eliot, this mythical
46
concept of the power of thunder to sort out perpetrators of evil and punish them is explored. It
is believed, in most cultures in Africa, that thunder possesses the mythical power of justice
and has been extensively used in some communities to exorcise it of those who perpetuate
evil with impunity. The Path of Thunder poems are “Poems prophesying war” Here the poet
starts by enacting the horrifying power of Thunder. In “Thunder Can Break”, he shows that
thunder certainly does not break innocents; it breaks the nation looters whose obituary he
writes in the following highly charged words: “Bring them out we say, bring them out/faces
and hands and feet – Lo your hostages/Thunder can break – Earth, bind me fast” (63).
The nation looters, the “elephants” have all been taken hostage by thunder and
lumped together in the same cage, waiting for the people’s jungle power to be exercised.
Continuing with almost the same fiery frame of mind, the poet again celebrates the coming of
thunder in “Hurrah for thunder” (67). Here, he does not only show the futility of the art of
government as practised by the neo colonial elite, he makes prophetic statements that
foreshadow his impending fall amidst the carnage. He quips:
Today – for tomorrow, today becomes yesterday.
How many million promises can ever fill a basket?
If I don’t learn to shut my mouth, I’ll soon go to hell
I, Okigbo, town-crier, together with my iron bell. (67)
He had become the self-declared “town-crier” with his “iron-bell” haranguing and warning
the blood-thirsty Politicians that the time of reckoning was rife. “Elegy for Alto” is the last
poem under the collection Path of Thunder. The poem is widely read today as the poet’s “last
testament” embodying his own prophecy as a sacrificial lamb for human freedom. He wrote
this of the politicians before concluding with the prophecy of his own impending death:
47
The ROBBERS are here in black sudden steps…
POLITICIANS are back in giant hidden steps…
The ROBBERS descend on us to strip us of our laughter…
O mother earth, unbind me; let this be
My last testament let this be
The ram’s hidden wish to the sword’s
Secret prayer to the scabbard. (72)
The fact that the poet aggressively capitalises words like “ROBBERS”,
“POLITICIANS”, shows his distaste for their acts against the nation. The Nigerian crisis had
indeed come to a head by 1966 with the massacre of thousands of Igbos in the North. Living
in Ibadan then, Okigbo relocated to Eastern Nigeria to await the outcome of events and with
the declaration of the independent state of Biafra on May 30, 1967, full scale war ensued. The
poet immediately joined the new state’s army as a major and was killed at the Nsuka front in
1967. Ali Mazrui, as a moving tribute to him, enacted a post humus trial of him on the
following count: “Okigbo gave his life to the concept of Biafra…that was a mortal concept,
transient to his inner being. No great artist has the right to carry patriotism to the extent of
destroying his creative potential; Okigbo subordinated the interests of generations of Africans
to the needs of a collection of Igbos at an isolated moment in historical time (41). Whether
right or wrong in his political and military options, Okigbo’s verse is widely enjoyed for its
local mythological essence, but in the Path of Thunder Poems, he showed signs of
indebtedness to Eliot’s exploration of Oriental concepts of thunder. Yet this is used in an
African cosmological sense to fish out the “ROBBERS”, masquerading as politicians, and
bring them to book. As noted earlier, Okigbo was the son of a Catholic convert, which may
explain why his poetry equally has a touch of ancient Christian myths.
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Opinion is divided about the essence of Christian myths in the poetry of Okigbo and
this in itself is fundamental to the understanding of his divided personality and creative
philosophy. He had noted that “A poet writes poetry and once a work is published, it becomes
public property. It’s left to whoever reads it to decide whether it’s African poetry or English”
(4/8). With this frame of mind, while some scholars adamantly argue that the poet’s use of
traditional myths is to suggest profound hatred for Christian myths, others think that he had
foreseen, like Achebe in Arrow of God, that a selective blend of indigenous and foreign
religions was inevitable. It suffices then to quote the conflicting opinions of two leading
Nigerian scholars, Romanus Egudu and Wole Ogundele. In “The Defence of Culture in the
Poetry of Christopher Okigbo”, Egudu writes in African Literature Today: “Christopher
Okigbo’s reaction to the Christianity that has suppressed his home religion and its gods is that
of contempt and sharp criticism” (17). On the other hand, argues Ogundele in “From the
Labyrinth to the Temple: The structure of Okigbo’s Religious Experience”:
Okigbo’s poetry…demonstrates in the process that all religions,
indigenous or foreign, collective or personal, have a common structure
or experience, that religious experience can be synonymous with
aesthetic experience and too that the language of religion can also be
the language of poetry. (58)
The statement is very important in that it recognises the uniqueness of each religion and more
so, that the ritual and mythical language of religion can indeed be the language of poetry.
Okigbo is adept at often twisting this aspect of Christian mythology with the language of the
local cult of Idoto.
Right from the introductory word to Labyrinths, the poet writes that “The
progression through, “Limits” and “ Distances” is like telling the beats of a rosary (xiv). He
establishes the fact that he is on a local pilgrimage to seek union with his roots but must “tell
49
the beats of a rosary” in the course of the penitent journey. This is synonymous with the
Christian concept of repentance often preceded by the telling of the rosary. From this point
throughout, one is constantly brought to the presence of Christian mythical practices. After
the departure point at Heavensgate, the poet persona passes though a crypt labyrinth before
forging a union with his goddess at the “ Newcommer”, but the language used here is one that
is reminiscent of Christian form of worship. He states: “Softly sing the bells of exile/the
angelus/ softy sings my guardian angel (16). Moving a little forward, the poet in his
characteristic controversial manner, dismisses the angels and invokes the spirit of his goddess
in the following words:
Anna of the panel oblongs
protect me
From them fucking angels
Protect me
My sand house and bones. (17)
Whatever the case, the poet at one point or the other, finds succour in Christian myths. “The
angelus” quoted above is a typical Catholic prayer usually said at midday or midnight to
remind faithfuls of the mystique of the annunciation and conception of the Holy Virgin Mary.
Yet, that the poet immediately contradicts the redemptive power of the “angelus”, the
“guardian angel”, dismissing them as “fucking angels” in preference of “Ana of the Panel
oblongs”, lends credit to the view he held, that a writer is free to draw images from varied
sources to avoid being tagged with a single cannon of judgement.
Elsewhere, after establishing the concomitant presence of an alien religion spreading
very fast as seen in “John the Baptist /preaching the gambit (“Limits, vi”), the poet then falls
back on the Babylonian experience of captivity to underscore the frightful fate that awaits his
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community. He states: “For we sense with dog-nose a Babylonian capture/ the martyrdom/
Blended into that chaliced vintage” (46). In Christendom, martyrs are those who give their
lives for their strong religious views. One may then say that rather than just make reference to
Christian values, Okigbo is actually in the process of myth making, blending the abstract and
the real, creating order through disorder, mixing the language of Catholicism as inherited
from his family in Ojoto with the occult language of the Idoto priesthood. Towards the end of
Labyrinths, the Pilgrims are in progress and whether or not they are traditional or Christian
pilgrims, is exactly one of the sources of controversy and obscurity. The poet writes:
In the scattered line of pilgrims bound for shibboleth
In the scattered line of pilgrims from Dan to Beersheba
Prophets martyrs lunatics
Like the long stride of the evening. (22)
It is important to note the kind of personalities that mix in this journey to “shibboleth” or
“Beersheba”. They are prophets, martyrs and lunatics. These Christian symbols are so
intricately mixed with traditional myths that they become dominant rites akin to traditional
African religion. The scattered sources that inform Okigbo’s poetry are summed up in the
following statement by Ali Mazrui:
Okigbo himself had acknowledged his debt to a variety of literatures
and cultures, from classical times to the present day, in English, Latin,
Greek...if these sources have become assimilated into an integral
whole, it is difficult to sort them out, to know where the Babylonian
influence ends and the classical starts. (71)
This statement speaks much about the divided allegiances in his poetry, validating the point
that he often claimed, that he was a “universalist” and not merely an Igbo or an African poet
51
but a modern writer experimenting with all cultures and mythologies as seen in the analysis
above. As noted earlier, Besong later got fascinated by the craft of Okigbo; his love for
abstract concepts as well as the musical qualities of his poetry so that in his own poetry, he
often demonstrates the influence of the former. The second part of this chapter examines this
aspect
Besong’s intellectual, cultural and scholarly experience prepared him for a versatile
experimentation with different forms of folklore and myths. Born of the Kenyang ethnic
group in Cameroon, but educated in Nigerian Universities during the hay days of Soyinka’s
influence, Besong received enough fortification that later saw him adopting warrior gods like
Obasinjom, Mfam, Emanya Nkpe and Soyinka’s Ogun in a mythical sense to engage in a
battle with the Cameroonian political class whom he believed are powered by the cult of free
masons (Disgrace, “State of the Union” 80-81, and “Their champagne Party will End” (88-
89). In an article, entitled “Post Re-Unification Anglophone Exile Poetry: Introducing Simon
Mol and Kangsen Feka Wakai”, Besong indicates that “Poetry then, is the way in which the
myth maker relates to the political and economic conditions of his society as a means of
communicating shared experiences” (1/6). With this in mind, he was actually in the business
of myth making not for its sake but as a means of communicating “shared experiences” with a
community that he considered to have fallen into apathy and whose history, due to political
affiliations, had been “politically doctored” (Mbulai, 9) in order to perpetuate their continued
suffering. However, towards the end of his life, he became much more profound and
impatient, switching to a Biblical aura of speech much like Hebrew prophets, sounding a
discordant note to wicked persons and coming to terms with his mortality. Traditional myths
shall be examined before the Christian influences.
In most of his creative works, the Obasinjom traditional cult has often been elected as
a mythical force to bring order and justice to the deprived and persecuted. Thought to have
52
originated from the Cross River area of Nigeria and Cameroon, the Obasinjom is reputed to
identify witches and wizards and strip them of evil. That is why in the very first poem in
Disgrace, “The Foolishness of trusting in tribal gods,” Besong goes berserk with a self styled
evil genius, who, particularly at the University of Buea, stifled creativity, suppressed dissident
voices and reduced the administration to a clique of occult members worshiping “tribal gods,”
using the following items for worship: “internal organs/of the warthog/the liver and two
kidneys with fat / on them”, these are sacrificed to the “tribal adders” (3). The poet moves on
to mourn his fate in the following words: “My daughters have endured the suffering that/
should have been mine the pain that I should have borne (3). Yet, he recognises the futility of
the effort of trusting in gods made with human hands which invariably are plastic in nature
and worthless in value. He indicates this in the following words: “they who / had hired a
goldsmith to make a god / of a murderer” (3). These gods, he thinks, will never attain the
sublimity and strength of the Obasinjom war lord. He states:
How can you say you have not defiled yourself?
They are not Obasinjom warriors, who
clothe themselves with the strong
desire to set things right
and to punish and avenge the wrongs
that the people suffer .(5)
The poem states the vast contrast between lesser deities, often with malevolent powers whose
desire is to continuously persecute the just; as against the Obasinjom warrior whose sublime
quality lies in avenging “the wrongs /that the people suffer (5).
Confident in his own cult supremacy, the poet warns the evil doer that “You can
do absolutely / nothing / A stooge has no / honour. / He lives in constant disgrace” (8). These
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are very strong words of foreboding reminiscent of the perilous times within which they were
written. Coming at the hills of the University of Buea heated crisis of 2005, the Governor
Aboeum A Tchoyi Commission was to consider the poet “righteous” enough to pacify
students on rampage, a thing that later back fired leading to his persecution and witch hunt.
The poet then found succour in the Obasinjom deity, empowering it to dismantle a huge
occultic mafia within the academy so that “playwrights / and scholars will possess / this
campus /and enjoy intellectual prosperity and Peace” (“The playwright and he campus
Giants,”15). The same temper and word choice run throughout the other poems in the
collection. Besong had earlier remarked that at a time when direct expression was needed, the
poet no longer sought “refuge behind aesthetics that were enigmatic and indirect” (118),
rather the language became synonymous with a mythology, at times the languor that spoke of
the writer’s confrontation with a politically partisan administration. In the poem “The Mouths
of Liars will be shut”, for example, he adopts a style of cursing that reminds one of Soyinka’s
“Malediction”, a piece that curses a woman for rejoicing at the massacre of her follow
countrymen. In “The Mouths…” as seen elsewhere too, he considers that the University
administrators under whom he worked, found fortification through the “worship of fortune –
tellers / and excelled in necromancy to control events” (9). Consequently, such perpetrators
of evil are reminded of the perilous times that lie ahead. He warns:
You are doomed,
and you have brought this upon yourself
What you have done to others will be done to your
Children, and
Grand-children to the third and fourth
Generations. (9)
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This is a very dark prophecy that foreshadows misery to the successive generations of an
administrator; like original sin, the children and grand children will live to atone for the
casualties inflicted on others by their forebears. In such climates, warns the seer, the “strength
of wotolo astrologers” (11) will be insignificant to the people-power, when Obasinjom would
have done justice for them. Mbulai, in this line, espouses Besong’s views, when he says “he
later became very versatile in his last days as he sensed his own closed world collapsing,
going berserk under mammonite pressures, so in his vision to bring sanity to a society
wallowing in obscurity, one gets the echoes of Yoruba Mythology, of the spell of Ogun, the
promethean hero in Yoruba pantheon one of whose attributes is the shielding of orphans”
(141).
Besong’s traditional myths as noted before, are scattered along the corridors of his
versatile cultural experience, himself alleged to be a disciple of some metaphysical cosmic
force among the Kenyang people, and which he considered to be righteous, he would use this
to vent his crusading sprint against worshipers of malevolent gods and fortune tellers whose
words and prophecy are of no consequence. It is in this light that in poems like
“Appointments in UB” and “Confidence placed in the Party comes to nothing” that the poet is
on an exorcising mission, in a mythical sense, challenging the academia to stand up and make
right choices. In the former poem, for example, he warns “lecturers, whose/rheumy psyche
still bear the scars of occult cannibalism” (22). In the latter poem, he vents his anger at those
who claim to be “fortified, by / the intercession of futurologists, at the champagne / party of
chronic carnivores, in the firmament of power” (27). This is the kind of fierce spirit that
guides most of the sixteen auto-biographical narcissus poems; poems that speak of
persecution and victimization in an environment that should be guided by free thought, non
partisan politics and intellectual prosperity. In trying to purge this kind of society of its
inclemencies, Besong resorted to traditional myths borrowed from his cultural background.
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The Emnaya-Nkpe collected poems on the other hand, are different in that their
setting, by way of geography and time, is not narrowed down to the confines of the
University. Some of the poems, having earlier been published in Just Above Cameroon,
speak, as the title suggests, of the kleptocratic inclemencies of the political elite on the
Cameroonian people. To break through this kind of labyrinth, he fortifies himself, in line with
Eunice Ngong Kum’s view in her article “Revolutionary Aesthetics in Dramaturgy”, that, a
writer is “prophet, philosopher and patriot” (44). Besong again empowers himself with the
mythology of the Emanya – Nkpe cult. This cult is believed to be a Leopard-like secret
society open only to men and is in charged of law and order in society. With this kind of
fortification, the poet begins to challenge the “free masons”, a cult that many think is part of a
large clique of an epicurean class of insensitive politicians to the hew and cry of the citizenry.
In “Their Champagne Party Will End”, for instance, the poet states:
Indeed, they have sworn fealty to their Masonic lodges
and to each to bankrupt our national coffers.
So that they’ll take it upon themselves, for reasons
best known to themselves to speak the folklore of their free-masonry
(they barricade / themselves on the coast).
Their champagne party will end. (89)
The quotation speaks of Besong’s prophetic bent of mind, always contemplating and
predicting trouble for looters of state coffers. Mbulai has rightly argued that this poem is
“peopled by insensitive, sadistic and corrupt banditti and their hapless, suffering citizens,
watching their oil wealth sponged to feed metropolitan neo colonial coffers” (134). This
statement is indeed a great summation, but what is worthy of note too is Besong’s
consciousness of occult practice as one of the apparatus for political gansterism. Enacted
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during the bitter days of economic trauma, the opposite of what was the bloated flatulence of
ill gotten wealth starched in foreign banks, the poet-prophet could not but challenge the “free-
masonry” that even Mephistopheles found an end despite the obsession of his intellect;
consequently, their champagne party will end! So strong is this prophecy that the poem would
later become the title of a collection of poems in Besong’s honour, Their Champagne Party
Will End!
The same frame of mind is seen in poems like “The Party’s Over” and “Requiem for a
sycophantic Omenologist.” In the latter poem, Mbulai argues that it shows the naïve optimism
of the poet following President Ahidjo’s resignation on November 4th, 1982, and adds that
“…with hindsight now we can rightly qualify as misplaced the shrill optimism in the advent
of a new dawn that was not destined to be” (135). Read differently, though, one still finds the
poet’s scepticism with the over jubilant masses during President Ahidjo’s power transition
and warns that:
The neon-suburbia of free-masons
where; they embrace their ouran-outangspell
of an alliance.
To the Euro-Reagnite transnational
Chancelleries
which sensor our coasts. (92)
Despite this sense of foreboding, the poet like many, initially expressed his happiness that
“the shah had to flee ( 92), that is, the prolonged stay of the first president of Cameroon, in
power, and the subsequent transition came as a welcome relief to many. But the “neon-
suburbia of free-masons” is again brought in for exorcism.
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In the former poem, that is, “Requiem for a sycophantic Omenologist,” almost
the same idea is raised, but with the profounder indictment of the political actors of
Anglophone Cameroon who “sold” their compatriots for pieces of silver. Mbulai once again
indicates that the poem speaks of the “infamous political trajectory of Solomon Tandeng
Muna, who rightly or wrongly, was perceived by Cameroonians West of the Margo as having
colluded with Ahidjo in dismantling the state of West-Cameroon …” (127). The poet, states:
Compatriots, the hour has come for the surrogate Omenologist of the
Macabre Imam hired from the West of River Mongo.
He is to disappear soon into his voodoo mask.
Here is the time compatriots: As he jumps into his free mason.
To pull off his iron mask at once…. (97)
As a footnote, this poem is dedicated to P.M. Kale, S.A George whom he considers unsung
heroes of West Cameroon, but he is once again at war with “Omenologists”, “free masons”
and those who wear “voodoo masks” to strip the people of their rightful place in the
historiography of the Cameroonian nation. It is the mythical power of the Emanya-Nkpe,
Mfam, Ogun and Obasinjom that come to his aid in this daunting mission.
Not withstanding his fluid exploration of traditional myths, Besong still extensively
blends these with Christian myths making his poetry somewhat difficult to tie down to single
cannon. Like his muse Okigbo, Besong at times found succour in the word of scripture so
strong that he would assume the aura of ancient Biblical prophets speaking out in the
wilderness of suffering against collective pain. Bernard Fonlon, had rightly argued in The
Genuine Intellectual that,
…a maker of great literature thanks to his scientific and
philosophical bent of mind becomes a seer…into the illusive
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future, a light in the darkness of his days urging men towards
right and rewarding achievement and rich fulfilment, or warning
society should the need arise against impending cataclysm. (132-
133)
Besong’s Disgrace, is essentially fashioned in this philosophy, warning society, in the
same tone and diction of Jeremiah, the ancient Hebrew prophet, who, powered by God, spent
his time struggling to get Israel out of “impending cataclysm”. This perhaps explains why
Mbulai argues that Besong’s prophetic power manifested itself from the very early moments
in his work, “which would towards the closing days of his life, develop into a mature,
profounder trait, even colouring his work in terms of its apocalyptic vision and his debt to the
gnomic idiom and imagery of the grand tradition of Hebrew prophecy (133). Jeremiah was
obsessed, with his community’s perversion and their worship of fortune tellers ignoring the
Almighty God. In almost the same manner, Besong speaks with much bewilderment of “The
Foolishness of Trusting in Tribal gods”. Just like what is enacted in Jeremiah 2: 23-24, that
“How can you say, I have not defiled myself after the Baals…?” Besong poses a similar
question to an administrator – cum - fortune teller worshiper, that “how / can you say you
have not defiled / yourself? (“The foolishness…” (5)). These are thoughts borne of frustration
and disillusionment. But rather than just maintain the cadence of Biblical language, the poet
lapses into the self righteous Obasinjom cult as an ultimate way to salvation.
The style of cursing that the poet adopts in a poem like “The mouths of liars will be
shut” is nothing short of ancient Hebrew myths and cultures. Provoked by the callous
exhibition of human indifference to suffering and neglect, Soyinka’s “Malediction” would not
have been better when the poet states:
What you have done to others will be done to your children
and grand-children
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to the third and fourth generation.
Your ears will be dead to the Oboso and motion de
Soutien to son Excellence
Le Président Biya et Madame Chantal Biya à. (9)
While it is true that the poet had sensed his own close world collapsing and would therefore
adopt the tone and hew of Hebrew seers, it is equally true that the allusions and some
expressions are contemporaneous to the time and mode of composition. A system that
sustains itself through ceaseless “motion de soutiens”, calculated character assassination, the
poet argues that his aesthetic power, must be adequately toned down to capture the temper of
the moment.
In “Collaborator”, the compositional strategy still speaks of Biblical warnings, that has
let Mbulai, once more to intimate that
“…One gets the final impression of a confectioning of
aesthetic influences whose provenance is to be traced to the
combination of impatience and lament in the tone of the
grand prophets of the Hebrew tradition to the themes of
compassion and magnanimity central to the evangelium of
the New Testament”.(140)
Talking of compassion as the milk of human kindness, or the lack of it, the poet writes the
following moving lines: “You cannot offer mercy or give help to widows and orphans. /You
cannot restore sight to the blind or save anyone in distress (7). These lines still reveal
Besong’s mix of religions and cultures; firm in his view about God’s supreme power and a
Catholic at that, he would still fall back on Ogun, one of whose qualities is the shielding of
orphans and consolation of widows.
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When Besong died suddenly on March 8, 2007, newspaper reviews spoke of his power
of prophecy and his unlimited exploitation of Biblical truths which he put to the service of his
art and community. The Post Newspaper of March 2007, for example, captioned such titles
like: “Bate Besong: The Man, His ideas, His vision and His Life” by Babila Mutia, “Bate
Besong: Jeremiah in Cameroon” by Innocent Futcha “Farewell Master of Obscurantism” by
Azore Opio. Most of these articles at one point or the other recognised the “obscure” power of
his expression, his mix of Christian and pagan language and his ability to foreshadow his end
like he wrote in “Mamfe, this Time Tomorrow”, pondering on his imminent transition home:
These…
Seem to be weeping:
“Mamfe, why was this, why this was so?”
Come home my Darling
Mamfe, this time tomorrow. (106)
Mamfe is Besong’s home town. Eulogising his hometown here and mourning her fate, the
poet prophetically submits his mortal self to Mamfe, contemplating the hour mourners will be
in grief as the writer finally transits to his final resting place.
To conclude this chapter, it suffices then to quote once more from Nkengasong’s
exploration of myths in the Poetry of Yeats and Eliot. He writes: “Yeats uses Biblical and
Irish myths but where he attempts a more profound vision into the unknown, he discards all
that is, and all that has been, to concentrate on his creations (139). Myths have the power of
taking one into the metaphysical, the supernatural so that the ordinary reader usually stands in
awe and bewilderment. Okigbo refused to be “stereotyped” on a single canon as an African
poet; itself the bane of controversy, arguing rather, as it were, that he was a Universalist. His
African myths speak of his touch with traditional Igbo cults, yet his mixing of Christian
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language and exploration of the thunder motif, like Eliot, established him as one of the most
controversial poets in recent times. Besong was equally to fall into this mystique, this time not
discarding the existence of African Literature, but showing his obsession with injustice in all
forms. He would adopt the mythology of Ogun, Mfam, and Obasinjom with the view to
dismantling the “free masons” and ardent worshippers of “futurologists” in his community. At
the close of his life however, he found succour, more than ever before, with the word of
scripture and mode of expression of Hebrew seers. The next chapter then props into their
vision; was Okigbo right fighting for Biafra at the detriment of art? Was Besong equally a
secessionist as some considered him? The next chapter examines these aspects.
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CHAPTER THREE
AUTHORIAL IDEOLOGY
Most literary historians, scholars and writers often argue that some of the best literary works
are written from a background of collective social pain and at times political intolerance. In
such climates, argue such scholars, the writer is often actively aroused to operate not only as a
chronicler of his/her time but to assume the role of a socio-political path finder, trying to give
focus and hope to the people in whose behalf he / she writes. Wole Soyinka is very firm in
this view. Ali Mazrui in The Trial, commenting on Soyinka, asserts:
Where the writer in his own community can no longer function as
conscience, he must recognise that his choice lies between denying
himself totally or withdrawing to the position of chronicler and post
mortem surgeon…the writer has often functioned in his society as
the voice of vision in his own time. (89)
In viewing the role of the writer/poet as adumbrated by Soyinka, one is then going to situate
Okigbo’s and Besong’s much contested and debated poetic and “military” visions borne out
of their almost uncompromising views that a poet must not only be a master of his craft but
should stake his own life for mankind’s ultimate salvation.
It is true that the whole body of Okigbo’s poetry is an elaborate epic that captures
the heady days of colonial influence through the post independence mafia of the Tafawa
Balewa and the General Ironsi’s years in office before culminating with the civil war. But the
great burden of his consciousness lies within the confines of the Igbo world view within the
Nigerian nation; their unprecedented genocidal slaughter that troubled most men of
conscience, the consequence of which was the declaration of the independent state of Biafra.
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Therefore, in studying the ideology of Okigbo in this chapter, one shall examine his earlier
poetic assemblage that spoke of his unwavering view of a unified brotherhood and a unified
nation that unfortunately was raped by the looters for office. This is seen in the poems in
Silences. However, this vision for a unified nation began to wane when the “Cain” brothers in
Nigeria began a ferocious attempt at Igbo annihilation. Okigbo was radicalised; his poetry
was then charged with blood and the artist himself was fell by bullets fighting for Biafra. This
is one of the controversies raised in this chapter, namely, as Mazrui argues, that no artist has
the right to carry patriotism beyond the conceivable constraints of his art.
On a similar note, much like Soyinka’s fiery rebuttal, Besong had argued in 1993, in
his keynote address titled: “Literature in the Season of the Diaspora: Notes to the Anglophone
Cameroon Writer”, that
True, the power of the writer is not always strong enough to change
the political and social situation of his time but his art can become a
fighting Literature, he can write works which are artistically profound
and politically correct. He can write works of indictment…which show
how his world is or could be. (35)
Besong’s mind, much like his art, was constantly a “fighting” one. It may be no exaggeration
if one posits that, much as Besong was obsessed by injustice elsewhere in Africa, as in
Nigeria, his academic abode, his world view was largely centred on the Anglophone
Cameroon question in Cameroon. When he once quipped that “I can sell Cameroon for less
than Asomou’s whisky, so I will not say I am a nationalist as such, for I am definitely a
patriot of the Southern Cameroons, not “La Republique”(2/6), many are those who easily got
carried away and stigmatised him with subversive secessionist politics. This is the second
controversy raised in this chapter. That is to say, the Cameroonian political experience as
transmuted in Besong’s poetic vision often carries with it the overall controversy of the
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Cameroonian nation taking into consideration the two culturally distinct entities: English and
French Cameroon. The Biafran situation is also very much similar and it is a subject treated
by many scholars.
Ali Mazrui’s book, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo which throws light to some of the
central arguments raised in this chapter, is a very controversial and intriguing piece of
literature. Okigbo is tried in the “Hereafter” but the book is nothing short of an extensive
evaluation of the poet’s creative vision. Mazrui initially recognises the fact that
Okigbo had inner commitment to the concept of one Nigeria, but until
1966 his disenchantment with events in Nigeria was the
disenchantment of a Nigerian rather than an Igbo. But the Northern
Massacres of May and September had been profoundly disturbing to
many an Igbo intellectual. (125)
This view is made in connection and as a repellent to those who considered Okigbo’s poetry
to have been tragically guided by a sectarian and tribal Igbo consciousness. In corroboration,
Osita Ebiem, in his article entitled “Biafra: Why Okigbo went to War”, indicates from the
outset that “…When Okigbo refused to accept the Poetry Prize in Dakar 1966, it was because
for him, there should be one world standard with which to measure every art as well as the
other areas of human endeavours. So he would not have his works stratified into any narrow
field of Black or Negro art” (4/9). When one reads the poetry of Okigbo that greeted the dawn
of Nigerian independence, one is indeed in the presence of a “Supreme Universalist” (The
Trial 128), one so bothered with the collective struggle of Nigerians of all tribal and regional
lineages to dismantle the bloated flatulence and indolence of those in high office who mocked
the very ideals of the common wealth. Perhaps, a few references to Silences is germane to
buttressing this claim.
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Silences is divided into two sections: “Lament of the Silent Sisters” and “Lament of
the Drums”. In the former, the sisters mourn and lament the fate of the young nation. The
diction, images and allusions in the poem show that it is about the various crises which
characterised the politics of Nigeria’s first Republic which culminated in the first coup let by
the Majors in January 1966. The sisters lament in the following word: “Crier: They struck him
in the ear they struck him in the eye/ they picked his bones for scavenging” (40).
The “him” in question above is the personification of the young nation that has been
struck by greedy politicians. In the midst of this national greed, the poet begins to conjure
images of thunder that could possibly blow the looters off the rails. No doubt, he poses the
question: “And how does one say No in thunder?” (43). In “Laments of the Drums IV”, the
poet is as mournful as usual, but it is that kind of mournfulness that is informed by a radical
bent of mind whereby he begins to sense military action as a means to free the nation from the
socio political imbroglio. Contemplating the nation to have been caught in a cul de sac, the
writer states: “And to the Distant – how shall we go/ The robbers will strip us of our
thunder…” (49).The robbers in question have left the children of Nigeria in ruins. The
following images confirm this view:
The wailing is for the field of men:
For the barren wedded ones;
for the perishing children…
The wailing is for the Great River.
Her pot-bellied watchers
Despoil her…. (50)
The “silent sisters”, much like the “drums,” lament inconsolably for the Great River, Nigeria
which has been despoiled by the men in office. The drums do not sing of peace or feasting but
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of war and death, a thing contemporaneous to the mode of the nation following the run up to
the coup that ousted Tafawa Balewa, quickly followed by a counter coup that equally bloodily
ousted General Ironsi from office.
It is important to note the kind of plural society that is Nigeria, whereby political issues
needed to be carefully handled by men of great vision. Mazrui has indicated that rather than a
blessing, the pluralism was more of a curse. He writes: “Nigeria came into being: Islam, Euro
Christianity and indigenous traditions struggled to forge a new personality in single nation”
(143). Therefore, any outright form of regional politics was but a time bomb that could arouse
general disillusionment. Since “every work of art is the fulfilment of a prophecy for every
work of art is the conversion of an idea into an image” (144), it would be seen that Okigbo’s
Silences was but the fulfilment of the prophecy of an embattled nation struggling to contain a
sociologically complex polity in the midst of unimaginable looting of state coffers. Achebe
had equally predicted trouble for the nation in A Man of the People when he strongly
observed that “After seven years of lethargy, any action seemed welcome and desirable; the
country was ripe and impatient to shed in violent exercise the lazy folds of flappy skin and fat
it had put on in the greedy years of indolence (100).
Much in resonance with the above view, “the fighting that broke out… lit a tinder of
discontent in the land (Achebe, 143), and so the Nigerian nation erupted into a paroxysm of
ethnic discontent and genocidal cleansing, which equally warranted a fierce change of mood
in Okigbo’s creative images and his irresistible involvement in the war of secession
championed by the Biafrans. This is one of the controversies of modern times. The question
many have posed is this: is there a boundary between the artist / poet, his art and the society
from where he/she emerges? Okigbo invariably married the three aspects especially in the
poems prophesying war, that is, Path of Thunder. The images and word choice in the Path of
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Thunder collection speak largely of blood shed. He so happily welcomes this in the poem
“Come thunder”. He states:
Now that the triumphant march has entered the last street
Corners,
Remember o dancers, the thunder among the clouds…
The smell of blood already floats in the lavender-mist of
the afternoon
The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors
of power (66).
In the midst of this disenchantment, the nation is then reduced to a jungle where there is a free
for all display of cannibalistic power: “The snake says to the squirrel / I will swallow you / the
mangoose says to the/ snake / I will mangle you / the elephant says to the mongoose/ I will
strangle you” (70). Was the poet then going to stay aloof from the hot issues of his time by
withdrawing into the limbo of simply documenting the tragedy of the time? Okigbo, firm in
his view that any attempt to divorce the artist from society amounted to a problematic surgical
operation, fleetingly made a statement that in some way, amounted to a threnody of grief for
the young poet. In “Elegy for Alto” he had stated: “O mother earth, unbind me/ let this be/my
last testament… (71). Whether Okigbo committed a blunder to have sided in military action
with the Biafrans as a means of consolidating his poetic convictions has been hotly debated.
Mazrui also argues that
A writer in Africa…needed to be socially committed if he was to
be universally engaged. Social commitment must not be confused
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with social conformity. A writer could be committed by opposing
the folly of his government or the intolerance of society. (89)
Seen in this light, Okigbo simply did not find any dichotomy between the artist and his vision
for the collective brotherhood of mankind. He was not a bloody tribalist, in order to be
“universally engaged,” he had to make a choice between the mundane and the sublime,
between mere poetic rhetoric and the fight for equality. Osita Ebiem, argued that “from the
month of May 1966, Okigbo watched with utmost dismay and disbelief as the Nigerian
government and all her citizens started out to kill every Igbo on sight and all those in hiding
in their bid to cleanse the Nigerian society of every trace of all Igbo People” (6/9).
The practical life of Okigbo; his marriage to a Northerner, his rejection of what he
considered a racially judged prize for his poetry spoke of his universal love for the human
race in general and his country in particular. But Ebiem’s observation above, necessitated a
volte face that some still consider today to be an error in judgment. As late as September 18th,
2010, speaking on the BBC as moderator for the International Playwriting competition, Wole
Soyinka, in his characteristic controversial manner still affirmed the position he held forty
years ago against his government for her policies towards the Igbo thereby reaffirming his
support for Biafra.
As noted before, Okigbo has come under a fierce boot of attacks for siding with a
group of persons fighting against a unified nation which in a way largely compromised his
earlier poetic stance. One of such persons who has brought the poet under the critical lenses of
artistic cross examination is Mazrui. As the title of his book suggests, The Trial of
Christopher Okigbo, the latter tries Okigbo on the count that he had subordinated the ideal of
Nigeria to the vision of Biafra and that he had decided that he was an Igbo first and an artist
second. Mazrui’s charge has the implication that the art of a great artist, of Okigbo’s
magnitude, usually transcends, or should transcend tribal loyalty, that is why on a very formal
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note; he challenges Okigbo in the following words: “Okigbo gave his life to the concept of
Biafra, that was a mortal concept, transient to his inner being. The art of the great poet on the
other hand, carries the seeds of immortality” (41). Okigbo was caught in a web of paradoxical
claims. By “refusing the prize fellow black people offered him, he was refusing to mix art
with nationalism. However, this same young man…later put on a uniform, helped himself to a
gun and engaged in a fratricidal war (The Trial, 70). The question still looms, was Okigbo’s
rejection of the prize for poetry a mark for his distaste for art and nationalism or a nagging
desire to establish a universal cannon for the judgment of art? By actively engaging himself in
the establishment of publishing houses, constantly warning his society of the dangers of
ethnic politics such as exemplified in Path of Thunder, Okigbo was then a nationalist at best.
His actions were in no way a romantic pursuit of fame for the sake of it.
Osita Ebiem is in a way, very fiercely critical of Mazrui’s seemingly contemptuous
comments on Okigbo’s actions. Ebiem writes that
Now, do we still hear Ali Mazrui and all the other lazy and careless
commentators who would never know the colour of freedom and
justice when they see it, pull up their chairs and cover their faces in
the most polluted veils of ignorance and bigotry and call to
judgement the meaning and efficacy of Okigbo’s self sacrifice? (8/9)
To Ebiem, Okigbo’s involvement in the war was in a bid to complete the “Biafran long poem
of liberty, justice, equality and prosperity for all” (9/9). His statement seems to corroborate
Soyinka’s view during the heady days of the struggle, that “Poets have lately taken to gun
running and others are accused of holding up radio stations. It is time for the poet to respond
to this essence of himself (The Trial, 90).
Like Okigbo, Soyinka had indeed responded to the “essence of himself” as a poet who
must speak up against injustice when other men stay docile, when in 1966 he testified against
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his government for her policies against the Igbos. In Before our very Eyes: Tribute to Wole
Soyinka, a book that celebrates Soyinka’s Nobel Prize, Olumuyiwa Awe, in his tribute entitled
“Before My Very Eyes”, states:
By the time of the second coup in July 1966, Wole told me that he had
arrived from the Eastern Region the day before the coup… After
Yakobu Gowon became Head of State as a result of the July 1966
Coup, Wole was incarcerated. (77)
Soyinka’s incarceration was consequent on his ability to bear bold testimony against injustice;
much like is manifested in his militant poetic vision. He is not of Igbo origin; otherwise he
would have fallen under the same accusation such as some have subjected Okigbo that he was
acting within the dictates of tribal moral obligations.
It could be argued then that, Okigbo’s poetic vision is very much a symbolic reflection
of the crisis of an individual and that of a community and a nation in general. Rather than
lazily remain a “post mortem surgeon”, the poet moved on to be a prophet, a “town crier”,
ready to “go to hell,” with his iron bell, urging the earth to “unbind” him so that, his
community could be free. So, much of the onerocritic symbols in his poetry speak largely of
the tragic options he had to take for after all, “by attempting to save his people, the Igbo,
Okigbo was in a profound sense also attempting to save his people’s enemies” (The Trial,
89).
On the other side of the coin is Besong’s much debated political millitantism which to a
large extent may be said to condense within the doorsteps of the Anglophone Cameroon
question before subsequently sprouting to other issues of national justice, the African political
experience and the essence of higher education. Much has been discussed about the
Anglophone experience, by sociologists, particularly Francis Nyamjoh, historians such as
Victor Ngoh, V G Fanso and literary men of all fortes. That Biafra fought to leave Nigeria
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was a consequence of some historical blackout, the question then is whether or not Besong’s
poetic vision has equally been in resonance with secession or has his been a questioning of
state policies that are aimed at cultural annihilation? Sometime in 2006, Besong wrote an
article titled “Welcome, Governor Eyeya Zanga” in which he insisted that
The foundation on which the Cameroonian Federation was built in 1961
was a power arrangement contoured to deal with a sociologically
complex polity as presented by our multi ethnic, linguistic and cultural
diversities. It was a kind of national integration that recognised the two
separate but equal parts and the central government in Amadou
Ahidjo’s Yaoundé as mutually coordinate and not as subordinate one to
the other. (1/6)
This statement is much in conformity with the kind of poetic and even dramatic philosophy
that Besong has throughout championed in his writing. In establishing his creative modus
operandi, he had earlier opted for a stance that would later bring him into conflict with state
security agents. In his keynote address “Literature in the Season of the Diaspora...” he insisted
that the poet “must be the visionary of living truth” (31) and so must never compromise with
the essence of truth and equality for all Cameroonians. On the Anglophone Cameroon
question, he declared:
The landscape of the three decades has ruthlessly shown up all our
political and economic illusion under the guise of the bicultural
character of the two unifying parts (Literature in the Season of the
Diaspora). (33)
In contemplating the way out of the deep rooted problem, the poet sounded mournful when he
remarked that “the agony of the Anglophone Cameroon question is, compounded by the
endless uncertainty as to whether there will ever be an end to it” (34). The question one may
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ask, is, what is Besong’s problem with being an Anglophone in Cameroon as reflected in his
poetry? Perhaps, reference to some of the poems in Disgrace will throw some light to this
question.
The subject matter of most of the Emanya Nkpe poems in Disgrace speak largely of
Besong’s vociferous attack and his agony over what he considers a complete obliteration of
Anglophone Cameroon legendary heroes while those who displayed “quisling characters” are
pedestaled. Equally, the poet speaks against the concept of national integration as it is
fashioned rather at cultural assimilation and brainwashing of Anglophones. In “The Grain of
Bobe Ngum Jua” for example, just like in “Requiem for a Sycophantic Omenologist”,
Besong’s poetic symbols dredge up the very foundation of the union between the two
Cameroons while paying tribute to the heroes who stood for the preservation of the English
Speaking value systems. In the “Grain…” for example, the poet writes:
When Bobe Augustine Ngum Jua died
The iguanas of our Cameroon history books
Who were left behind
Emerged from their prehistoric slime:
Crying Bobe’s fame. (102)
There could be nothing wrong with historians documenting “Bobe’s fame”, but the poet, just
like Mbulai has observed, is unusually critical of such historians who, due to political
affiliations, concentrate rather hypocritically in fanning such sentimental history that suggest
that Anglophone Cameroonians were worst off associating with Nigeria and should now
unquestionably accept those who saved them from the jaws of the Igbos! Mbulai writes:
We see Besong’s confrontation with history, affecting a revisonary
detour on our much doctored historiography which in chronicling our
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march in time sought, on the grounds of political ideology, to
obliterate the authentic heroes who sacrificed their lives in the national
cause while pedestaling those who had danced to the tune of the
colonial masters. (131)
The Anglophone Cameroonians who stood for the preservation of the Anglophone value
system are the likes of Jua, S.A George, P. M Kale but most have remained in obscurity. It is
on this grounds that the poet argues that they should be given their rightful position on the
pages of history.
On the contrary, the sycophants, who sided with the neo-colonialists are
paradoxically celebrated in history, but mocked by the poet in a poem like “Requiem for a
sycophantic Omenologist”. The poet considers the “sycophant” to be the
Omenologist of the macabre Imam
Hired from the West of river Mongo
Daylight robbery for the
Tottering quisling proxies. (97)
Mindful that a “quisling” is that unpardonable person who teams up with an occupying force
to betray his homeland, the poet is perhaps right in calling on his fellow comrades that the
time is rife to unmask the “wooden tiger”, who “colluded with Ahidjo in dismantling the state
of West Cameroon” (Mulai, 134).The scholar considers that the “quisling” in question is S.T
Muna, who, unfortunately today is one of the heroes in history books while Ngum Jua
remains in obscurity. Muna had tragically contributed to the tragedy that Fonlon had earlier
prophesied when he wrote in an article “We Will Make it or Mar” in ABBIA that
In three years of unification, Sundry uses and institutions, thanks to
articles five and six of the Federal Constitution have now come from
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the East into the West. Furthermore, in West Cameroon, they now
drive on the right, the franc has replaced the sterling as legal tender,
the school year has now been stream lined to fit that of the East and
the Metric system has now been replaced by the unwieldy British
measures….With African values moribund, with John Bulism weak
and in danger of being smothered, we will all be French in two
generations or three. (11-12)
These are words spoken more than three decades ago and they today have bearings in the day
to day life of Anglophone Cameroon. Besong has often insisted that the concept of national
integration is a skilfully designed web of cultural, political and economic dwarfing of the
essence of the Anglophone being. A poem such as “Just Above Cameroon” is very much a
questioning of the contradictions of the Cameroonian historiography. Dedicating the poem to
the controversial “Son of the Betis”, Mongo Beti Eza Boto, the man who would later be
considered an enemy in the house, dreaded by the regime in power, Besong writes:
Your history huts are made
Of wild flower and sycamore a steel fort, defying.
Stop, Inquirer, look back and wonder…
I, too, have imprinted a century’s dark decade
You speak to history, to the exile’s lonely
Sigh…. .(43)
History is much often the departure point for most creative artists, like Achebe says, it is
important to trace where the rain starts on one. Conscious of this, Besong still pays tribute to
Mongo Beti, the novelist who in 1987, at the Association of Nigerian Authors Conference in
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Nigeria, delivered a Keynote address, quoted in Cameroon Life of May 1991, in which he
argued:
Anglophones are victims of Biya. Do you know that it is thanks to the
recent publication of the confidential report by the World Bank that
Cameroonians now have a rough idea of the amount of petroleum
extracted from their soil annually?….the dictatorship forces the people
to keep quiet. (21)
With this kind of dark testimony coming from East of the Mongo, there is credence in
affirming most of the views Besong has often held to ridicule in his poetic arsenal while
trying to make Cameroon a land of equality, fairness and genuine democracy.
Talking of democracy, it may not be wrong in arguing that it is thanks to the
English speaking section that the ice of monolithic power were broken in Cameroon with the
launching of the S.D.F party. In its wake, came death and blood letting. That is why in a poem
like “Ntarikon Massacre 1990” (after blood River Day) the poet mourns that
The blood is still fresh
on the slaps,
the morgues are wet
for those whose
tomorrows
are now shards of broken
glass. (59)
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Writing about the general disillusionment that set in in the 1990s, following the spate of
violence and the clamour for economic revival, history scholar Dze-Ngwa in “Youth and
Politics in Cameroon from colonial to Post colonial Periods: A historical Perspective”, writes:
Since the opening of political space in Cameroon since 1990s, some
youth activists have boycotted February 11th and May 20th
Celebrations and frequently attempted to hoist the federation, the
United Nations or the Southern Cameroon’s flags, attempts that have
been brutally challenged by the security forces. No matter the side of
the political divide, these youth have contributed in the political
evolution of Cameroon. (35)
The youth in question are typical of those “whose/tomorrows / are now shards of broken /
glass”. They are those who get disillusioned with the nature of things, much like what the
Igbo’s in Nigeria saw to be a calculated form of cleansing and then decided to seek refuge
beyond the frontiers. The Anglophone Cameroon Youth are those whose fate Besong mourns
in a poem like “After Mandela’s Earth”. He posits: “a litre of petrol / costs more than / a litre
of my Anglophone Cameroon/ blood” (73). Moving ahead, he mourns the fate of a young
Anglophone kid murdered in Buea. He states: “A Splotch/ of blood across his face, Wilson!
(74). These are symbols that speak of his discontent for a system that flourishes in intolerance,
which has carefully schemed up a policy of systemically eroding the values of the
Anglophone system under the guise of national integration.
But the question one may pose again, is that, is Besong’s poetic temper then in support
of the Biafran styled experience of secession like some have argued? Edward Ako, in
“Nationalism in Recent Anglophone Literature”, intimates that “It is ironical that Bate Besong
whose world address focused on Anglophone separation quoted Goethe several times whereas
Goethe is the champion of welt Literature; what unites rather than what separates” (22). From
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Ako’s observation, one would think that Besong’s poetic vision is essentially on “Anglophone
separation” as he puts it. This essay differs with his opinion. When for example, Amiri
Baraka, that icon of the Black Arts Movement in 1960 America, appealed to the American
conscience by articulating and stressing the rhetoric of the “Black Nation”, he was in no way
advocating a nation within a nation, neither was he joining the futile pursuit of Garvey’s back
to Africa Movement. On the contrary, as stated in “Black Art”, he wanted “poems that kill”,
he wanted a society that must break the barriers of injustice while maintaining the universe of
the African American. There is much, in poetic symbolic power, that Bate Besong shares with
Baraka. That he partly defines his poetry as “Anglophone Universe” (Disgrace, 108) may not
mean that he wants a separate utopic universe for this community. He may be suggesting that
in all aspects of national life, and in the special constituent of the English section, fairness of
political, economic, social and cultural endeavours should be seen to flourish. So strong is this
commitment that Eunice Ngongkum has corroborated by saying that “Bate Besong is also
concerned with the way history affects the Anglophone Cameroonian in his special position
as an underprivileged minority in post independence Cameroon” ( 180).
But like Emmanuel Fru Doh has observed in his article, “Anglophone Cameroon
Literature: Is there any such Thing?”, that, to narrow Anglophone Literature to the question of
marginality is to make it look still-born, Besong’s artistic images do not entirely lie on the
Anglophone Cameroon question. Were it so, one may not have found poems like the
autobiographical narcissus poems that speak much about the essence of higher education and
the apparent failure of the intellectual class to redeem the nation. Were it so, then Besong
would not be concerned with the fate of other nations like Burkina Faso, Nigeria and South
Africa as seen in poems like “ For Osagyefo Thomas Sankara” (70) “Facsimile of a Jackal”
(91).
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This chapter has been concerned with the symbolic essence of the poetry of Okigbo
and Besong. In the oneric symbology of their poetic landscape lie the main concerns of the
poets. Whether clouded in obscure images, distant allusions or abrupt contrast; whether
hidden in the universe of ancient, Christian and traditional myths, the poets, to a very large
extent, have been the visionaries of living truth. With Okigbo, his vision for a unified Nigeria
where equality in the midst of pluralism would reign remained unshakable right up to 1966.
By late 1966, such an opinion waned and a volte face became an imperative. The poet opted
for secession, which was not to be realised, at least for now. On a similar note, with only
patchy differences as to historical documents, the English speaking section in Cameroon has
often fleetingly compared their fate to Biafra so that “…Fon Gorji Dinka, a prominent
Anglophone lawyer and traditional ruler, was arrested because he had distributed a pamphlet
declaring the Biya government unconstitutional and asked that the former Southern
Cameroons become independent and rebaptised as the “Republic of Ambazonia” (Nkwi, “The
Anglophone problem” in Cameroon: From a Federal to a Unitary State: 1961-1972. Besong
has been radicalised by this trend of events so that his political ideology has often largely
been to get the Anglophones out of a system where they have been mired, sometimes with the
complicity of their fellow Anglophones whom the poet warns will not “escape the Karmic
consequences of their quisling character” (Cameroon life, May 1991). However Besong is
equally still concerned with the democratic experience of other African states. Conscious of
the great importance these poets have been to their communities and nations, contrary to
Plato’s view that poets often showed distortion of the values of the commonwealth, the next
chapter of this essay demonstrates that the ideas of Okigbo and Besong are adaptable for
teaching in Cameroonian secondary and high schools. If values of nationhood, honesty when
faced with collective wealth, integrity when in position of power, fairness when armed with
instruments of state; must be built in the new generation of students, then Besong and
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Okigbo’s poetry are actually worth teaching. That is why the next chapter examines how
some of their poems could be taught to sixth form students.
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CHAPTER FOUR
THE POETRY OF BATE BESONG AND CHRISTOPHER OKIG BO:
ITS TEACHEABILITY TO SIXTH FORM STUDENTS
H.L.B. Moody, writing in The Teaching of Literature With Special Reference to Developing
Countries, observes quite strongly that “The teaching of poetry in developing countries
presents special difficulties and many teachers are inclined to avoid it as long as they can”
(27). Moody moves on to enumerate some of the problems with poetry that remain a
nightmare to some teachers and students. The language apparatus, he observes, makes poetry
scary and complex. This complexity is noticeable at the very high degree of complex-word
play and the unusually “distorted” syntactic system often employed.
Another very disturbing aspect that Moody observes is the idea that poets often regard
themselves as extraordinary men writing for an extra ordinary audience. Moody states that,
“…Poets have traditionally regarded themselves as prophets and oracles, who deliver
important truths, though often in indirect or puzzling terms” (28). This is largely true because
Christopher Okigbo once said at a literary conference, that, he was not writing his poetry for
non-poets. In a similar vein, Bate Besong has often referred to himself as a troubadour. For
him, to render lines turgid is often considered a mark of true mastery of the business of poetry
and a confirmation of the gift of prophecy, for prophets are wont to speak in an indirect way.
Another very important aspect is that “during the present century, there has been a
considerable cult of obscurity; this does not always make for easy comprehension” (Moody,
29). Critics have considered Okigbo to be one of the founding fathers of the tradition of
obscurantism in African poetry. He once argued that a poet never sets out to communicate
meaning but to share an experience. Coming decades after him, Besong inherited and created
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for himself a poetic tradition that generated much debate among scholars especially
Ambanasom, whose article, “Bate Besong: Is his poetry too difficult for Cameroonians,”
presents the complexities in Besong’s poetry.
Not withstanding some challenges, the poetry of Besong and Okigbo are very much
teachable to the sixth form and a variety of ways could be employed to facilitate students’
understanding of the poems. As a case in point, two poems have been selected for study,
respectively taken from Besong’s Disgrace and Okigbo’s Labyrinths… The poems in question
are “Requiem for the sycophantic Omenologist” (remembering Songho P.M Kale, Nndek S.A.
George) and “Elegy for Slit Drum” (with rattle accompaniment).
“Requiem for the sycophantic Omenologist”
(Remembering Songho P.M. Kale, Ndek S.A.
George).
Compatriots
The hour has come
For the surrogate
Omenologist of the Macabre Imam
Hired from the West of river Mungo
Methuselah, he prophesies loudest,
On the immortal parliament of their apple cart;
A twenty five-year-made
In camp Mbopi reunification-wonder
The time has come as the hatchet man hurries,
To the gehena alone, come on and see
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He is to disappear soon into his voodoo mask,
Here is the time compatriots
As he jumbs into his free mason
Buba…
Before Methuselah concocts some final elixir
Pronounces a ninety-nine point nine percent
Daylight robbery for the
To tottering quisling proxies
Now is the time comrades
To pull off his iron mask
At once.
$ expose his Excellency.
The wooden tiger!
For:
Their centenary has fallen
Its branches are on fire for:
Its trunks will soon be in hell
The members will soon be on fire
Since
The party has gone to jail
Its profiteers will get no bail. Bate Besong
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“Elegy for slit-drum”
(With rattle accompaniment)
CONDOLENCES…from our swollen lips laden with condolences:
The mythmaker accompanies us
The rattles are here with us
Condolences from our split-tongue of the split drum condolences.
One tongue full of fire
One tongue full of stone
Condolences for the twin lips of our drum parted in condolences.
The panther has delivered a hare
The hare is beginning to leap
The panther has delivered a hare
The panther is about to pounce
Condolences already in flight under the burden of this century
Parliament has gone on leave
The members are now on bail
Parliament is now on sale
The voters are lying in wait
Condolences to caress the swollen-cyclists of bleeding mourners
The cabinet has gone to hell
The timbers are now on fire
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The cabinet that sold itself
Ministers are now in goal
Christopher Okigbo.
The two poems above do not in anyway claim to be a representative picture of the
entire poetry of Okigbo and Besong but they are very important in representing some of the
central issues that the two poets championed in their lives. In this light, it would be very
important to arm students with some of the values inherent in both poems as discussed below.
One of the major aspects seen in these poems is the idea of nationhood. Students of the
sixth form should be trained through the medium of poetry, to take pride in national issues
and values. This pride can only be built if the true historical evolution of their country is made
known to them with all the inherent contradictions that always mar the course of human
history but out of which a good future could be built. For example, Cameroon is a product of
the amalgamation of the former East and West Cameroons. Some scholars and writers,
including Besong, often feel that some key politicians in the former West Cameroon betrayed
the people of this region. Some of these politicians are S.T. Muna and to some extent, John
Ngu Foncha. That is why, in a poem such as the aforementioned; Besong refers to the
politician as “quisling proxies,” a quisling being someone who teams up with an occupying
force to betray his country. It will be good for young Cameroonians to have this critical view
of their country as this will arm them better to understand the bicultural construct of the
nation.
In the same vein, challenges of the Nigerian nation could be seen in Okigbo’s “Elegy
for Slit Drum”. A man of Igbo origin, a section highly traumatised within the Nigerian nation,
Okigbo wrote poetry that reflected this trauma as seen in the numerous “condolences” that he
uses in the poem. He would later opt for the secession of the Igbo’s to create the state of
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Biafra; himself going to the warfront. Students will learn here that questions of national
justice, if denied, could erupt into ethnic paroxysm as seen in the Nigerian case. This makes
the above poems very important for students of the sixth form.
Another aspect is the idea of corruption and political inertia which both poets
adamantly condemn and therefore very important for students, the next generations of
scholars and statesmen. In Besong’s “Requiem…”, for example, the idea of socio political
corruption, exemplified through such expressions as “Daylight robbery”, “the party has gone
to jail”, help to illustrate the poet’s distaste for injustice in all forms. It is almost the same line
of thought held by Okigbo in the poem above. Two lines that best capture this rage are:
“Parliament has gone on leave/The members are now on bail” (97). Mocking parliament here
is in a way mocking the entire leadership for its flatulence and inertia; stories were often told
of the excessive greed of Nigeria’s political elite at the dawn of independence, who adorned
themselves in resplendent robes while the majority of the people wallowed in slums. High
school students need to examine some of the sound moral values that these poets stand for.
When Plato, for example, developed hatred for poets, as persons who misrepresented the
ideas of his ideal commonwealth, he did not foresee the coming into existence of corrupt
governments. Were he alive today, his views would definitely be different.
Besong and Okigbo have been credited for their extensive inventive power when it
comes to the ornament of language. Their ability to place words in extraordinary manner
makes their poetry fresh and original. The two poems chosen above end with the following
provocative words: “Their centenary has fallen/its trunks will soon be in hell”, (Disgrace, 97),
“ The cabinet has gone to hell/the timbers are now on fire” (Path of Thunder 105).
The last lines of these poems are remarkable for their apocalyptic prophecy and the similarity
in the image and symbolic landscape. For Okigbo, the “Cabinet has gone to hell”, while the
“Ministers are in goal”. For Besong, “the party / has gone to jail/ its profiteers will get no
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bail”. These are all strong images that suggest the doom of a corrupt lot and therefore a very
fascinating and interesting aspect to introduce to young learners of the sixth form. Granted
however that the language of Besong and Okigbo has been considered obscure, so too has
some pedagogues decried the falling standard of the power of expression in our learners.
Students need to be jostled out of slumber through the introduction of the kind of poetry that
stretches their language a bit further. Having explained how important the poetry of Besong
and Okigbo could be to young learners in the sixth form, it is now important to demonstrate
how these two selected poems could be taught. The example may then be used in teaching
other poems by the same authors should the relevant authorities consider including them in
the curriculum.
The first step may be to pre-empt the difficulties the students may face in understanding
the poems. Here, they are likely to face problems with getting the meanings of individual
words as used in context such as: “Tottering quisling proxies, Macabre Imam, mythmaker”.
Another possible problem may be the difficulty in understanding the metaphorical and
symbolic meaning of words. For example, Besong talks of an “Excellency …who is to jump
into a free-mason buba” (97). While Okigbo talks of a rare and impossible biological
occurrence namely, “The panther has delivered a hare” (107). These are confusables to
students. Understanding the poets’ attitude and responding to their themes is another possible
source of difficulty. Who for example, is that “Excellency” who must be “unmasked” in
Besong’s Poem and why? What then has the ancient “Methuselah” got to do with the
“Excellency” in question? As for Okigbo, one wonders what slit drums have got to do with
“Condolences”, Panthers delivering hares and the parliament finally going to jail. Once the
teacher has noted these difficulties, he now can adopt the following strategies to ease
understanding.
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The teacher may start by presenting two pictures to students for discussion, as a pre-
reading activity. On Besong’s poem, the picture may be a portrait of some of the politicians of
former West Cameroon such as J.N. Foncha, S.T Muna and Ngum Jua. The students may then
discuss their roles in the evolution of the former Southern Cameroon. On Okigbo’s poem, a
portrait of a man beating a drum at a funeral in a typical African fashion may set the right
mood to grasp the meaning of the numerous “Condolences” and the feeling of loss that run
through the poem. Students are free here to give many shades of opinion as suggested by the
pictures in question.
Having discussed these pictures for say 10 minutes, the teacher may then give a brief
historical background that may ease the understanding of the poems. For example, in the case
of Besong’s poem, he may say:
Succeeding John Ngu Foncha as KNDP Prime Minister of West
Cameroon, when the latter moved over to Yaoundé as Vice-
President of the Federation, Jua was unceremoniously sacked by
Ahidjo in 1966…Incidentally, Muna, the object of Besong’s Satire in
“Requiem” was appointed to succeed Jua. Muna would later move to
Yaoundé to succeed Foncha as Vice-President. Muna would later be
denigrated in the popular imagination and history of the Southern
Cameroon’s while Jua even to this day is hailed as one of the last
defenders of these people’s rights and their vision for the nation.
(Mbulai, 2008)
As for Okigbo’s poem, the teacher may briefly present the difficulties the Igbos faced in the
Nigerian Federation as Ali Mazrui rightly observes that
Okigbo had inner commitment to the concept of one Nigeria, but until
1966, his disenchantment with events in Nigeria was the
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disenchantment of a Nigeria rather than an Igbo. But the Northern
Massacres of May and September had been profoundly disturbing to
many an Igbo intellectual (The Trial, 125).
These historical comments may be read or explained to students in order to loosen up and
situate their minds within the socio-historical and political environments of the poets’ time.
The next step could be to present the poems to the students. The teacher may use the
following words: “we are now going to read the poems together, “Requiem for a sycophantic
Omenologist” by Bate Besong and “Elegy for slit Drum” by Christopher Okigbo.When the
students must have read these poems, the teacher may then give some brief information about
the authors. For example, of Besong, he may say:
- Besong was born of Cameroonian parents in Nigeria
- He was educated in Nigerian Universities, before coming back to work in Cameroon.
- He became renowned for his outspoken nature and numerous academic publications
one of which is Disgrace: autobiographical Narcissus.
- He was particularly critical of the idea of national integration which he saw as a means
to “annex” the former West Cameroon.
- He died in 2007.
Of Christopher Okigbo, the teacher may state the following brief biographical information.
- Okigbo was born and educated in Nigeria
- He started writing poetry at a fairly young age expressing his distaste for colonialism.
- He gained world recognition for his originality in writing.
- After the 1966 coups in Nigeria his style of writing changed, he sensed war, reason
why he wrote Path of Thunder: Poems Prophesying War.
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- He joined the Biafran army fighting for secession and was killed at the Nsuka front.
Having given students these brief highlights of the authors’ lives, the teacher may then
pose a few questions that may lead the students to guessing the possible subject matter of the
poems. He/she may ask such question as: Could Bate Besong be talking about political
intrigue? Could the “quisling proxies” and the “Excellency the wooden tiger” be his subject of
attack or veneration? Why is Okigbo paying tribute to a “slit drum,” yet the whole poem is
about “condolences”? These questions may be clues that could lead to meaning. The students’
responses will give direction to the teacher to determine whether the subject matter has been
grasped, failure which the teacher may bring out some possible clusters of words and images
that are likely to obscure meaning. Some of these clusters may be as follows; drawing from
Besong and Okigbo respectively:
- Omenologist of the macabre Imam / Hired from West of River Mungo
- His Excellency the wooden tiger
- Their centenary has fallen.
- Condolences from our split-tongue of the split drum
These statements highlight some of the main images in the poems as well as the
poets’ subjects of ridicule. From Besong’s poem, one notices that the person under attack was
“hired from West of the Mungo, a “wooden tiger” who at the end, like his partners in crime,
finally “goes to hell”. In Okigbo’s case, “Condolences” punctuate the entire atmosphere
creating a feeling of bewilderment, compounded by an absurd anomaly of one species of an
animal giving birth to a different kind. This absurd atmosphere finally ends with the entire
“Cabinet going to hell”. These quotations, well explained to students, may lead them to
determine the subject matter of the poems. Last but not the least “While reading” activity
could be for the teacher to provide some critical opinions of the poems made by scholars.
90
These statements, while not pretending to be the absolute interpretation of the poems, may
greatly help students to form their own independent judgements. For example, of Besong’s
poem, the teacher may state:
Requiem for a sycophantic Omenologist”, is apparently inspired by the
lack-lustre and infamous political trajectory of Salomon Tadeng Muna
who rightly or wrongly, was perceived by many Cameroonians West
of the River Mungo as having colluded with Ahidjo in dismantling the
state of West Cameroon through the 20th May 1972
Referendum….(Mbulai,2008)
As far as Okigbo’s poem is concerned, the teacher may state the following critical position
held by Osita Ebiem:
Path of Thunder is a series of poems prophesying war and letting the
conflict between art and life, and the charged political climate of the
day to bubble over. This conflict, in “Elegy for Slit Drum”, soars up to
an explosive point as seen in the intensification and repetition of the
thunder motif. The resulting debris is captured in: “parliament has
gone on leave; the cabinet has gone to hell…. (4/9)
These are very interesting critical opinions, if well discussed with students, in addition to the
discussion of the cluster of words, the poets’ lives and time; the learners are likely to form
independent views of the poems. To consolidate this new acquired knowledge and as a post-
reading activity, the teacher may then urge the learners to practice the following: Discuss the
values and world views expressed in the poems showing whether they agree or disagree with
them. Students may do language work, that is, pick out and try to use words in other contexts.
Students may equally be asked to read other poems by the same author .This may help expand
91
the students’ knowledge about the two authors under study. This could be presented in the
form of a lesson plan as demonstrated below.
Lesson Plan on Besong’s “Requiem for a Sycophantic Omenologist” and Okigbo’s “ Elegy
for Slit-Drum”
Student teacher : Edwin Tem Nji
Teacher Trainer : Dr Divine Che Neba
School : LBA
Class : Lower Sixth Arts
Subject : Literature in English
Lesson : Poetry
Topic : Appreciation of Besong’s “Requiem for a Sycophantic
Omenologist” and Okigbo’s “Elegy for Slit Drum”
Duration : 110 Minutes
Date : 20th June, 2011
92
Previous knowledge : Students already have some knowledge about the nature of poetry, the turgidity and allusive nature of its
language but may find it difficult to understand and appropriate these aspects to Besong’s and Okigbo’s poetry
because of their rather too complex nature.
Objectives : By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
-Identify some of the complex elements in both poems and consequently grasp the subject matter of the poems
-Analyse the poems showing how the images and metaphors enhance artistic beauty.
-Demonstrate through their analysis how both poems are similar or different.
Textbook (source of poems) : Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus, Labyrinths with Path of Thunder
Reference : The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary
Teaching Aid : Pictures on charts
Stages Subject matter Teacher’s Activity Students’ Activity Rationale Duration
Introduction -List the names of some of the leading Nigerian
and Cameroonian poets you know
-Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo J.P. Clark,
Odia Ofcimun, Bate Besong Ghalia
-Teacher poses
questions to students
orally.
-Teacher writes names
-Students respond to
teacher’s questions
-Students list names of
some of the poets they
-To situate students
within the context of
Cameroonian and
Nigerian poetry
20 Mins
93
Gwangwa’a etc
-Right, Bate Besong and Christopher Okigbo,
do you know anything about them?
-Okigbo was born in 1932 in Nigeria while
Besong was born in 1953 in Nigeria of
Cameroonian Parents
-Now, look at these 2 pictures on the board,
picture 1 about some of the leading politicians
of former West Cameroon and picture 2 of a
man beating a drum at a funeral.
-What can you say about each of the pictures?
of some of the poets
students may have
given.
-Teacher puts up
pictures on the board.
know.
-Students help teacher to
put up pictures
-Students give their
opinions about the
pictures.
-To help localise the
students within the world
views of Okigbo and
Besong.
-To use pictures as the
departure point for the
analysis of both poems
Presentation -Announce the lesson and write the title of the
lesson on the board.
Brief discussion of some of the historical
realities that might have inspired the Poets.
Example, Some Anglophone Cameroonians
-Teacher asks questions
about historical
realities of the poets’
time.
-Teacher discusses this
-Students respond to
teacher’s questions
-Students discuss history
with teacher.
-Students read poems
-Historical information
enables students to
situate the poems within
a socio political and
historical context.
30 Mins
94
have argued, that after the Foumban
constitutional conference they felt cheated and
their situation was compromised by Politicians
like J.N. Foncha, S.T. Muna as opposed to Jua
who defended the people. Most Anglophone
writing shows this dissatisfaction.
-Igbo people of the Eastern Region of Nigeria
were killed en mass after the coup of 1966,
they felt threatened and Ojokwu declared the
state of Biafra as a mark of secession which let
to war. Nigerian Poetry written at this time
showed this discontent.
-We will now read/study the two poems,
Besong’s “Requiem for a Sycophantic
Omenologist” and Okigbo’s “Elegy for slit
Drum”.
history with students
-Teacher then presents
poems on the board
presented to them -To enable the students
to read the poems as
independent artistic
creations
95
The poems are as follows:
1) “Requiem for a Sycophantic
Omenologist”
Compatriots
The hour has come
For the surrogate omenologist of the Macabre
Imam
Hired from West of River Mungo….
Their centenary has fallen.
Its branches are on fire. For:
Its trunks will soon be in hell
The members will soon be on fire, since:
The party has gone to jail
Its profiteers get no bail
2) “Elegy for slit Drum”
Condolences from our swollen lips…
96
The myth maker accompanies us
The rattles are here with us.
The cabinet has gone to hell
The timber is now on fire
The cabinet that sold itself
Ministers are now in goal.
Practice -Brief discussion of the Poets lives to see if it
relates to the points of view of their poems.
Example
-Besong was educated in Nigeria but came
back to Cameroon.
-He made a name as a poet and dramatist, an
outspoken dissident, critical of the
Cameroonian leadership.
-He died in 2007.
Similarly:
-Teacher in
collaboration with
students discusses the
poets’ lives and
political views.
-Teacher helps students
to bring out some
statements that point to
the political concerns
of both poems.
-Students give
information they may
know about the authors.
-Students bring out
political statements that
point to the subject
matter.
-Students discuss the
images and metaphors
that may help unravel the
-To enable students to
relate the poets’ political
views to the possible
subject matter of the
poems
-To enable them to
develop their own
analysis by picking out
images and metaphors
that ease the
30 mins
97
-Okigbo was born and educated in his
homeland, Nigeria.
-He made a name for his unique style of poetry.
-He was very critical of the Nigerian Post
independent leadership and died fighting for
Biafra.
Relating poets political views to images like
“quisling proxies”, “His Excellency the
wooden Tiger, “Condolences from our Split-
tongue”, the cabinet has gone to hell” found in
both poems.
-Practical discussion of some of the clusters of
images, metaphors and syntactic construction
as they relate to subject matter.
Example:
“The wooden Tiger, Omenologist of the
-Teacher helps students
to high light some
images and metaphors
that may help them to
discover the subject
matter of both poems.
hidden meanings behind
some words.
understanding of the
subject matter
98
Macabre Imam, Parliament has gone to hell
The Panther has delivered a hare
The cabinet has gone to hell
The members get no bail
-Presentation of some critical opinions on both
poems.
Example:
“Requiem” is apparently inspired by the lack-
lustre and infamous political trajectory of S.T
Muna…”
“Elegy…”is one of the poems prophesying war,
it shows the conflict between art and life and
the charged political climate of the day…”
Evaluation
Discussing the world views of the poets
whether they square with the students’ views or
not. For example:
-Teacher asks
controversial questions
for students to give
-Students give views on
questions asked.
-To build student’s
independent critical
opinions on the poems
25 mins
99
-Would Anglophone Cameroonians have been
better off today without politicians like S.T.
Muna or J.N. Foncha?
-Was Muna really a “quisling”?
-Was Okigbo right in prophesying trouble and
joining in the struggle?
conflicting views.
studied
-To help students
increase vocabulary
power through sentence
construction.
Assignment
Read two other poems, one by Besong and
other by Okigbo: “Their champagne party will
End” and “Hurrah for Thunder”. Analyse both
poems
Teachers writes
assignment on the
board
Students copy assignment To consolidate students’
understanding and
analysis of poems
following procedure
used in previous class
5 mins
100
CONCLUSION
This work set out to examine the notion of obscurantism and mythology in the selected
poetry of Bate Besong and Christopher Okigbo.The question of obscurity became topical at
the birth of modern African poetry especially in the 1960s and 1970s, given that some of the
great poets who helped to project the African artistic image, did so in a way that rendered
their poetry rather too difficult. Some of these poets are Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka
and to an extent, J.P. Clark. Their poetry displayed so much indebtedness to the western
literary cannon that some scholars, notably, D.I. Nwoga , argued that rather than call the poets
modern African poets, the temptation will be to call them, modern poets in Africa.
However, with the emergence of the Niyi Osundare School, coming after the death of
Christopher Okigbo, a new aesthetic climate was brought into African Poetry. Osundare
argued that poetry should rather be the hawker’s ditty, that is, it should be a song to be
understood by all the potential buyers, the masses. This was contrary to the type of poetic
sentiment earlier initiated and perpetuated by Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka. The
controversy, therefore, that this work has raised is that, though historically situated within
what many consider to be the third generation epoch of poets, who, as it were, mostly adhere
to the Osundare philosophy, Bate Besong’s poetry has very much been radically different
from the Osundare conception; he is rather a similitude to Okigbo and Soyinka. In placing the
two poets, Besong and Okigbo, side by side, this work has shown the sources some of their
images, their own concept of a “true” poet and his role to his community.
In the course of trying to unravel the sources of their obscure verse, the work has
equally examined the mythological component of their poetry. By myth here, the concern has
been with the way in which traditional and ancient Christian believes have been put in the
service of their poetry. For Okigbo, by borrowing from the local cult of the Idoto priesthood,
switching to Western, Hindu, Christian and Egyptian myths, he has demonstrated the versatile
101
nature of the poet and to some degree; his fervent believe that “true” poets must have a touch
with the supernatural in order to be truly divinely inspired. For Besong, by ordaining the
Obasinjom as his artistic guide, he has often considered himself morally right to fight an
epicurean class of politicians, whom he believes are “free masons” and necromancers, and
who, largely, have betrayed the ideals of the commonwealth.
This study employed the New Historicist approach to literary criticism. More than
any other approach, this theory enabled one to examine the authors, their historical
environments in relation to the political, cultural and socio economic situation of their time.
This has helped to shed light on some of the ideological concerns of the poets. For example,
in Okigbo’s poetry, it is evident that up to about 1963, he would not commit himself to direct
political statements in his poetry. But with the events of 1966; the coups, the corruption and
flatulence of politicians in high places, sharply contrasted with the penury of the masses, the
ethnic cleansing and subsequently the war, Okigbo’s views changed and an artistic volte face
became imperative. This may explain why in the Path of Thunder poems, he is
uncompromisingly radical, rejecting the politicians and finally committing himself, in real
life, to physical combat, but dying tragically in its wake. With almost the same frame of mind,
Besong rejected the version of Anglophone Cameroon history often told by some sentimental
and politically partisan historians. In his quest to use poetry as a medium for political
consciousness, he reinvests vigour into the version of history that celebrates Anglophone
Cameroon heroes like Augustine Ngum Jua; S.A. George, while rejecting the “quislings”,
whom he considers to have sold out to the machinations of the Ahidjo government.
It is for the above reason that Chapter Three of this work is entitled Authorial
Ideology. It examined the question of being a “Biafran” or an Anglophone Cameroonian
within the world views of the poets. In this chapter, one has examined the controversies
behind the poets’ actions; for Okigbo; going to war to fight for secession, for Besong,
102
preaching an ideology that some considered amounted to inciting the population to demand
secession. It is on this basis, that, this work has argued that Besong and Okigbo share many
similarities, if not by way of their radical lives and blood soaked deaths; if not by way of their
obscure mode of poetic expression; at least then, by way of their ideological commitment on
behalf of the minorities in their countries: Eastern Nigerians and former Southern
Cameroonians respectively.
Including some of the poems of these two poets in the high school curriculum
could also be a welcome initiative. It is on such basis that the last chapter has shown how two
poems by both authors could be taught to sixth form students. The poems are important for
their intrinsic and aesthetic values. They may also go a long way in helping students build
interest in national issues, fight corruption, for these, among others, are some of the ideas
handled in both poems.
Considering that much scholarly work has been done respectively on both
poets, this study’s contribution to literature is that, both poets have been placed side by side
each other, unravelling some of the sources of their obscure verse which, to an extent, is
informed by a similar creative experience. By standing up against the troubled political
climate of their time, both poets gave fresh impetus to the political history of their countries.
The study also claims, like no non before, that both artists probably worshiped the occult, firm
in their views that only such a “fortified” mind could bring order to their societies wallowing
in despair.
It is for the aforementioned reason that this study suggests that for possible future
research purposes, it may be necessary to expand on the poets’ ardent obsession with the
occult manifested both in terms of language use and the sources of their references. This work
has not exhaustively dealt with this subject. Both poets so conveniently blended ancient and
modern, Christian and pagan concepts; at times considering themselves to have been powered
103
by metaphysical forces ordained to bring order to a chaotic world. It may be good to
exhaustively analyse this dimension of their poetry.
104
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Dissertation
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(Unpub), DPIES II Dissertation, Department of English, ENS Yaoundé. 1988.