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The Literary Desk · Review · Issue 13

Mark Leech reviews African poetry: Ojaide, p'Bitek and Anyidoho

Mark Leech · Tanure Ojaide · Okot p'Bitek · Taban lo Liyong · Kofi Anyidoho

Mark Leech reviews three books of African poetry that were distributed in Britain by African Books Collective. All three, he suggests, combine anger and celebration, and he reads each on those terms.

Tanure Ojaide's Delta Blues & Other Songs (Kraft Books, £10.95) gathers poems written under General Abacha's rule in Nigeria. Leech sees the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 as the book's shadow: some poems rail against it, others praise the writer, and others carry on his protest on behalf of the Niger Delta against oil companies and local tyrants. He values the moments when Ojaide's work moves beyond protest into affirmation, although he admits that the message sometimes takes over.

Okot p'Bitek's The Defence of Lawino (Fountain Publishing, £10.95) is presented in Taban lo Liyong's translation from Acholi. The poem consists of fourteen submissions by a woman answering her husband, who has turned toward European ways and looks down on her. Leech finds the translation literal and at times lumpy, yet he praises Lawino as a funny, intelligent and spirited speaker, with a husband who is far from hopeless. The review calls it great writing with a point about holding on to one's culture.

Kofi Anyidoho's PraiseSong for TheLand (Sub-Saharan Publishing, £20.95) comes with a CD. Leech explains that the odd capitals and word breaks make sense once the recording is heard, since the poems are set among Ewe music and based on dirge forms. He finds the middle of the book sags with elegies, but argues that the price should not deter readers. The review ends with a short note on Leech, a translator of Anglo-Saxon verse.

Work
Delta Blues & Other Songs; The Defence of Lawino; PraiseSong for TheLand
Author
Tanure Ojaide; Okot p'Bitek; Kofi Anyidoho
Publisher
Kraft Books; Fountain Publishing; Sub-Saharan Publishing

Poems in this selection

  • Immortal Grief
  • Journeying
  • The Prisoner
  • Memory & Vision
  • Twilight Blues

It's expensive, but it's brilliant.

Mark Leech, The Wolf, issue 13

this is the work of one of the greatest African poets

Mark Leech, The Wolf, issue 13
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