Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English by Sule E. Egya TERMS of USE The African Humanities Program has made this electronic version of the book available on the NISC website for free download to use in research or private study. It may not be re- posted on book or other digital repositories that allow systematic sharing or download. For any commercial or other uses please contact the publishers, NISC (Pty) Ltd. Print copies of this book and other titles in the African Humanities Series are available through the African Books Collective. © African Humanities Program Dedication Fondly for: Anyalewa Emmanuella, Oyigwu Desmond and Egya Nelson. Love, love, and more love. About the Series The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd*. 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The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa. *early titles in the series was published by Unisa Press, but the publishing rights to the entire series are now vested in NISC AHP Editorial Board Members as at January 2019 AHP Series Editors: Professor Adigun Agbaje*, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa Consultant: Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology) Board Members: 1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa) 2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program) 3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies) 4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies) 5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory) 6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy) 7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History) 8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies) 9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology) 10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics) 11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology) *replaced Professor Kwesi Yankah, Cental Univerity College, Ghana, co-editor from 2013–2016 Published in this series Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema, 2014 Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014 Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English, 2014 Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe, 2016 Pascah Mungwini, Indigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights, 2017 Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2017 Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse, 2018 Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: the making of an organic intellectual, 2018 Romanus Aboh, Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel, 2018 Bernard Matolino, Consensus as Democracy in Africa, 2018 Babajide Ololajulo, Unshared Identity: Posthumous paternity in a contemporary Yoruba community, 2018 Nation, Power and Dissidence in Third-Generation Nigerian Poetry in English Sule E. Egya Originally published in 2014 by Unisa Press, South Africa under ISBN: 978-1-86888-759-0 This ditione published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za NISC first edition, rstfi impression 2019 Publication © African Humanities Program 2014, 2019 Text © Sele E. Egya 2014, 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-920033-44-6 (print) ISBN: 978-1-920033-45-3 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-920033-46-0 (ePub) Project Editor: Tshegofatso Sehlodimela Book Designer: Monica Martins-Schuld Copy Editor: Shakira Hoosain Typesetting: Monica Martins-Schuld Indexer: Tanya Barben The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition.  Contents Acknowledgements ix Chapter One Introduction 1 Chapter Two The Question of Generation 13 Literary Tradition, Influence, Anxiety Chapter Three Poetics and Subjectivity: Making Poetry Serve Humanity 36 Afam Akeh: This is Poetry as She Breathes Abubakar Othman: Wordsworth Lied Chapter Four Dissident Dirge: Elegy Against the Oppressor 63 Olu Oguibe: I am Bound to this Land by Blood Chiedu Ezeanah: I Saw Generals Hack the Tracks with Convulsive Steel Chapter Five Myth and Materialism: Deploying Myth against the Myth of Power 83 Maik Nwosu: I am Taunted by Covenants of Misery Onookome Okome: Everything Smells of the Death of Dawn Chapter Six Feminist Act: Feminising the Struggle Against the Oppressor 105 Toyin Adewale: In this Land we Love with Pain Unoma Azuah: I will Defy the Rage of the Rain and Erode No More vii  Chapter Seven Eco-Human Engagement: Facing the Oppressor over the Niger Delta 129 Nnimmo Bassey: Of Burst Bellies and Pipes Ogaga Ifowodo: Oil is My Curse Chapter Eight Conclusion: Exile and the Trope of Dispersal 152 Works Cited 158 Index 169 viii Acknowledgements The manuscript for this publication was prepared with the support of the African Humanities Program fellowship, established by the American Council of Learned Societies and supported financially by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. I remain grateful. I am also grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, which gave me funding which enabled me to stay at the Institute of Asian and African Studies in the period between 2009 and 2011, where I developed most of the ideas contained in this book. Parts of this research have appeared as articles in the following journals with these titles: ‘Historicity, Power, Dissidence: The Third-Generation Poetry and Military Oppression in Nigeria’ in African Affairs, 111.444 (2012): 424–441; ‘Eco-Human Engagement in Recent Nigerian Poetry in English’ in Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 48 (2012): 1–12; ‘Poetry as Dialogue: A Reading of Recent Anglophone Nigerian Poetry’ in E-Cerdernos CES, 12 (2011): 75–92; ‘The Aesthetic of Rage in Recent Nigerian Poetry in English: Olu Oguibe and Ifowodo Ogaga’ in Matatu: Journal of African Culture and Society, 39.2 (2011): 99–114; ‘Imagining Beast: A Critique of the Images of Oppressor in Recent Nigerian Poetry in English’ in Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 46.2 (June 2011): 345–358; ‘Art and Outrage: A Critical Survey of Recent Nigerian Poetry in English’ in Research in African Literatures, 42.1 (Spring 2011): 49–67. During the course of this research, I have interacted productively with the following scholars: Prof. Flora Veit-Wild, Prof. Susanne Gerhmann, Prof. Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger, Prof. Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Prof. Babatunde Ayeleru, and Prof. Kolawole Gyoyega. I am grateful to them for their contributions. My sincere thanks to the AHP team, especially Barbara for her prompt response and encouragement; and to my editors at the Unisa