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Mma and other Poems: At First Look
by Joseph A. Ushie
Some people have encysted themselves
in the misconception that the greatness of a poem is the inverse of
its level of difficulty, which arises commonly from the preference
 either of
foreign or obscurantist imagery, Hyper-idiosyncratic violation of
syntax, or of a less commonly used synonym. To such people, the less
readily accessible to readers a poem is, the more it qualifies as
poetry. But much as all poems must not be readily accessible to all
categories of readers, it is not mandatory that poetry be difficult
for all or most of the readers.
Modern written African poetry
has a double heritage-pre-colonial and Western. As in most post-
colonial situations, the tilt of our writing should be more towards
the pre-colonial African literary heritage as manifested in the
song, dirge, folktale, elegy, panegyric or riddle. Essentially, such
art was meant for the whole community rather than for a few
initiates. Besides, it was didactic. Yet as a song or tale, it
necessarily must delight by its aesthetic finesse, and entertain.
These qualities are the hallmarks of Etiowo's maiden poetry.
Part of the collection's success lies in the poetess's ability to
turn what would otherwise be considered the ordinary experiences of
our daily existence into great verse, on the one hand, and her
presenting in an innocuous manner the most vexatious issues of our
contemporary physical world, on the other. Poems such as "Bended
Knees", "Friends" and "Thank You" illustrate the former point while
"The Change", "Stolen Inheritance" and "Normal Unrighteousness"
exemplify the latter.
In addition to this quality, there is a
conscious reflection of the poetess's African cultural environment
in the poetry, which earns the work its identity as a unique African
voice. And, on the whole, the collection's style is admirably
simple, though by no means simplistic.
In view of all these
successes of the collection, I do invite all lovers of great
literary art into the "classroom" of Mma, and assure them that they
will be sufficiently "taught" and
entertained. |
