MOI UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE, LINGUISTICS, FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AND FILM

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

FOURTH YEAR SECOND SEMESTER 2024/25

LIT 420: MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

HAND OUT

Course Instructor: Dr JB Okong’o

Cell Phone: 0723610362

E-MAIL: [email protected]

LIT 420 Modern African Poetry Handout – Dr JB Okong’o –

[email protected] 0723 610 362 1
Contents
LECTURE 1: THE NATURE OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY:..........................................................3

LECTURE 2: WEEK TWO: THE PIONEER POETS:...............................................................................4

LECTURE 3: WEEK THREE: NEGRITUDE:...........................................................................................5

LECTURE 4: WEEK FOUR: AFRICAN MODERNIST POETRY -THE IBADAN-NSUKKA SCHOOL:

.................................................................................................................................................................... 8

WEEK 5: LECTURE FIVE: THE POETRY OF DISILLUSIONMENT AND PROTEST.......................11

WEEK 6: LECTURE SIX: THE POETRY OF LIBERATION:................................................................12

LIT 420 Modern African Poetry Handout – Dr JB Okong’o –

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LECTURE 1: THE NATURE OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY:
Critical Question: What are the main features of modern African Poetry?
Poems for Class Study
John Pepper Clark: Abiku
Kofi Anyidoho: My Song

i. Defining Modern African Poetry:

- The poetry of African writers composed during the colonial period and the
contemporary period.
ii. Characteristics of Modern African Poetry:
- Draws from two legacies: the Western and the traditional African oral poetic
traditions:
 Western poetic tradition: developed in Europe and introduced into Africa
during the colonial period, mainly through the formal education introduced
by the colonialists. Characteristics include;
 European language
 Written
 Consistent meter: Fixed rhythms effected through syllabic measures in
the lines, rhyme schemes, alliteration and repetition.
 Imagery, Symbolism, drawn from the European cultural landscape
 Poetic movements belonging to different poetic periods e.g. Classical,
Neoclassical, Romanticism, Modernist , Postmodernist e.t.c
 African Oral Poetic tradition: the poetic tradition indigenous to African
communities.
 African language
 Oral
 Fluid Rhythmic patterns
 Performative elements: Features of Address, Repetition, Lyricism
(lends itself to music).
 Intertextuality (integrates other artistic/literary forms): proverbs,
song, riddle, myth, narrative,
 Pragmatic/functional: message bearing:
teaching/philosophical/informative/moral
 Imagery and Symbolism drawn from the African landscape
LIT 420 Modern African Poetry Handout – Dr JB Okong’o –
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Exercise for Discussion: Identify the features that make John Pepper Clark’s Abiku
and Kofi Anyidoho’s My Song typical of Modern African poetry.

LECTURE 2: WEEK TWO: THE PIONEER POETS:

Critical Question: What are the main features of pioneer African poetry?

Poems for Class Study

Dennis Osadebay: A Song of Hope (1942)

Young Africa’s Plea (1960)
Raphael Ernest Armattoe: Africa
Gladys May Casely-Hayford: Dawn

- Defn: the early poetry written by African poets; during the colonial period.
- Mainly in the 1930s and 40s.
- This was a period of rising national consciousness and increasing agitation
by Africans for liberation from white colonial rule; partly a result of the
development of an elite class of African politicians.
- These early poets were thus deeply involved in the political circumstances of
their time and they were dealing with questions of race, colonial
exploitation, injustice e.t.c. However it is also clear that while they
articulated political concerns, they
- were inwardly struggling with a sense of alienation from their African roots
and almost an acceptance of western supremacy. This sense unconsciously
emerges in their poetry.

- Characteristics of Pioneer African Poetry:

 drew from/framed upon western poetic traditions; especially the Victorian
Romantic tradition: several aspects include
 Fixed metrical form (consistent rhythm)
 Rhyme Scheme
 Images and symbols from European cultural and ecological landscape
LIT 420 Modern African Poetry Handout – Dr JB Okong’o –
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  An almost romantic vision of life
 A universal sense rather than a vision committed to the real struggles of
their African communities
 Some of these poets actually demonstrate a growth in consciousness and
their later poetry deliberately breaks away from the European poetic
tradition and escapism from the real issues confronting their communities

- Dennis Chukude Osadebay (1911-1994): Nigerian Poet, Lawyer and

Politician. Began to write and publish poetry while studying law in Britain
during the mid 1940s. On his return to Nigeria, he established his law
practice before joining the nationalist movement in the 1950s. He would
later become the pioneer premier of the Midwestern Region in 1963 after
independence.
- Raphael Grail Armattoe (1913-1953): Ghanaian Scientist, Poet and
Politician. He studied medicine in Germany and France, and later
established a practice as a medical doctor before returning to Ghana to
participate in the Nationalist movement in the late 1940s.
- May Casely-Hayford: Sierra Leonean poet.

Exercise for Discussion: Analyse three poems, describing the concerns and the
features that conform to pioneer African poetry.

LECTURE 3: WEEK THREE: NEGRITUDE:

Critical Question: Discuss the manifestations of Negritudist philosophy in
African poetry.

Poems for Class Study

From Leopold Sedar Senghor’s
i) Chants D’Ombre (1945)
Prayer to theMasks
Night in Sine
I Will Pronounce Your Name
ii) Èthiopiques (1956)
New York
iii) Nocturnes (1961)
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 Elegy of Midnight
iv) Poèmès (1973)
Elegy of the Circumcised

From Birago Diop’s

i) (Pub in Senghor’s Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poesie Negre et
Malgache) (1948)
Breath
ii) Leurres et Luers (1960)
Vanity
From David Diop’s Coups de Pilon (1956)
Africa
Waves
Times

- Negritude was a political, philosophical and aesthetic movement which was

founded by African émigrés in France led by the Martinique poet and
politician Aimé Fernand David Cesairé (1913-2008) and the Senegalise (also
poet and politician) Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) in the 1930s and
40s. This movement was a response to white racist ideology and colonial
exploitation, and aimed to affirm the superiority of the African;
 As a philosophical movement it defined the unique nature and value
of the African world view distinguishing it from the Western
emphasis on objective logic, empirical evidence, and science. This
largely secular view of life is different from the African perspective
which is holistic: combining the spiritual, with the intellectual, the
physical and the emotional. The African perspective is thus more
humane and balanced than the European one.
 As a political movement it aimed at empowering the African by
providing him with a positive view of him/herself: it is then only by
developing self confidence and pride in himself/herself can he
confront his oppressor and begin the process of liberation. This
process means deconstructing racist stereotypes of the African and

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 reaffirming the beauty/greatness of African culture, civilization and
ideology.
 As an aesthetic movement the aim was to use poetry to celebrate
Africanity (being African in all its senses) by deconstructing western
stereotypes of Africa and showing the beauty, the greatness and
meaningfulness of African life. This sense of Africanness/blackness
was celebrated in both the content and the form of the poem. In other
words the Negritudists believed that it was necessary to break away
from European traditions of poetry and to adopt African traditions as
part of the process of reaffirming African glory/greatness.
- Characteristics of Negritude poetry include:
 Symbolism and imagery drawn from the African cultural and
ecological landscape
 A deconstruction of Western stereotypes of Africa mainly by
inverting these stereotypes to represent positive values: thus if the
Europeans say ‘black is ugly’ the Negritudist pronounces that ‘black
is beautiful’
 Writing of French while maintaining African poetic traditions
 Infusing words from African languages into the poem to give it an
African sense/flavor
 Integrating past, present and future within the poem in order to
capture the African sense of time as opposed to the European one
 Exploring the link between the spiritual, intellectual, physical and
emotional realms in African ethos.
 A fluid rhythm
 Intertextuality
 Performative elements: features of address, repetition, sometimes an
indication that the poem is being performed to music
 Didactism

- Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906 – 2001): Senegalese poet, teacher and

politician. Together with Aime Cesaire (a politician from Martinque) he
established the Negritude Movement in the 1940s. Led the nationalist

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 movement in Senegal and led it to independence from France in 1960 , and
thus became the founding president of the nation.
- Birago Diop (1906 -2001): Senegalese poet, story writer and Veterinary
Surgeon. He joined the Negritudist movement while on scholarship in
France. He later became the first Senegalese ambassador to Tunisia in 1961.
- David Diop (1927-1960): Senegalese poet and academic. Was born and
raised in France by his immigrant Parents but late went to Senegal to work
there. He was very critical of colonialism and while being a negritudist he
became a proponent of a more abrasive and confrontational brand of
negritude that deferred from Senghor’s idealist approach.

Exercise for Class Discussion: Identify the main features and concerns of
Negritudist poetry drawing examples from the poetry of Senghor, Birago
Diop and David Diop.

LECTURE 4: WEEK FOUR: AFRICAN MODERNIST POETRY -THE

IBADAN-NSUKKA SCHOOL:

Critical Question: Outline and account for the main elements in the modernist
poetry of the Ibadan-Nsukka School
Poems for Class Study
From Wole Soyinka’s Idanre and Other Poems (1967)
Death in the Dawn
I Think it Rains
Seasons
From Christopher Okigbo’s: Labyrinths with Path of Thunder (1971: Published
Posthumously)
The Passage
Path of Thunder

- Also referred to as the modernist school of modern African poetry because

they were influenced by the modernist movement in Europe and America of
the 1910s-1950s
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 - Poets of this school were alumni of Ibadan and Nsukka Universities in
Nigeria. They included Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo and John Pepper
Clark.
- At one level they aimed to produce a poetry that reflected the complex
nature of the African world in the modern dispensation: complex because the
contemporary African is a product of the African heritage and Western
heritage (a consequence of colonialism). In this situation we cannot wish
away the influence of colonialism and modernization.
- However, what the African has done is to integrate modernity into his
African world thereby “Africanizing modernity”: Modernist African poetry
is therefore a project in demonstrating the ways in which modernity can be
looked at from an African perspective. This project is achieved through the
vision and form of their poetry.
- Because they were writing poetry in a modern environment albeit in Africa,
they preferred to draw from the modernist European poetic tradition in their
writing. The features of this European tradition are as follows:
 In Europe this movement developed as a reaction to the changes that
were taking place as a result of intensive capitalism, extensive
industrialization and a more technologized society. The consequence
was a highly urbanized and materialistic society. The aim of
modernist poets was to critique this society by indicating the negative
consequences such as increased alienation and inhumanity.
 Their poetry broke away from earlier traditions of European poetry
through the following:
 Writing in free verse (no longer adopting a rhyme scheme)
 Using a discursive voice ( introducing dialogues and monologues in their
poetry thereby giving an indication of a multiplicity of voices): to reflect
the complexity of meaning making; to provide a sense of objectivity; to
indicate the dissonance and confusion of modern society; to indicate
how we often think and speak; to puzzle the reader
 A conversational sense: by including features of address: to capture the
natural rhythms of speech thereby giving a real rather than artificial
sense (the formal language of poetry is often artificial)

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  Fragmentation: a sense of a break in the flow of the poem by introducing
seemingly a new idea/discourse/voice in the middle of the poem: the reader
is forced to make sense by finding associations between the different parts of
the poem: to indicate the complex manner in which we usually think -
we rarely think in a straight line; to reflect the fragmentation of the self
modern life; to force the reader to think and tease out meaning
 Intertextuality: allusions to other texts in European literature and other
knowledge areas e.g. philosophy, history, religion e.t.c and mythology: as
well as texts drawn from other cultures e.g. from Asia: to reflect the
globalised nature of modern life; to force the reader to make cross
references;
 Dense network of symbols and images, some of which are private: to make
the reader thinks through the poem
 At the end of it all the modernist poets aimed at creating a cerebral poem
that would force the reader to think rather than merely feel and be
entertained. Poetry was meant to make us think and also to make the reader
actively involved in teasing out the meaning of the poem. Some of the
features indicated above were also meant to achieve these intellectuality e.g.
plural voices, a dense network of symbols and images, intertextuality,
fragmentation.

- Modernist African poetry therefore has the following characteristics:

 In terms of vision: the aim is to show how African society has
Africanized modern life. Looks at modern life from an African
perspective.
 Sets out to create a cerebral poem that forces the reader to think/tease
out the meaning. This includes the use of plural voices, fragmentary
form, intertextuality and a dense network of symbols and images
 Adopts elements drawn from the African oral poetic tradition:
performative features, a fluid rhythm, intertextuality,
images/symbols from the African landscape.

- Wole Soyinka (1934-): Nigerian Poet, Playwright, Novelist, literary critic,

political activist and academic. He became the first African to win the Nobel

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 prize for literature in 1986. His works explore the postcolonial African
world through the lenses of the Yoruba cultural world view. He integrates
this with an extensive knowledge of world literatures and cultures.
- Christopher Okigbo (1932-1967): Nigerian Poet, Literary Editor and
University Nigerian. Widely considered as one of modern Africa’s most
gifted poets. His early poetry under the title Labyrinths shows an extensive
entrenchment in modernist writing even though the poet protagonist is
engaged in a quest for a new identity. His later poetry titled Path of Thunder,
demonstrates a mature poet who has finally discovered his African voice and
draws deeply from his oral poetic tradition. In this later collection he
becomes a public poet who addresses social concerns – he warns Nigerians
that the new nation is headed for a civil war based on the divisive voices and
chest thumping of the political class. Unfortunately his life was cut short
while in action at the war front in Nsukka (in 1967) during the Nigerian civil
war of 1967-1970. His poems were published posthumously in the collection
Labyrinths and Path of Thunder (1971).

Exercise for Class discussion: Identify the features of African modernist poetry
drawing examples from the poetry of Soyinka and Okigbo.

WEEK 5: LECTURE FIVE: THE POETRY OF DISILLUSIONMENT AND

PROTEST
From Jack Mapanje’s Of Chameleons and Gods (1981)
Kabula Curio – Shop
Song of Chickens
A Marching Litany to Our Matyrs
Glory Be to Chingwe’s Hole
From Stella Nyanzi’s No Roses From My Mouth - Poems From Prison (2020)
Free Captives
Poem 41: Now that He is President
Justice Delayed
A Jigger as Big as the Pearl

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African writing after independence depicts a sense of disillusionment with the
political class and the development of protest against the abuses of the State. These
critical voices employ satire as the means with which to expose the ills of the
ruling regime. Political satire is there for a common genre in the African poetry
from the 1960s to date, and is marked by humour, irony/sarcasm, exaggeration
and symbolic expression.

- Jack Mapanje (1944-): poet, critic and literary scholar who was tortured and
detained for criticizing the then Kamuzu Banda regime in Malawi through
his poetry. He later went to exile in Britain where he has remained since. His
poetry is a satire against the excesses of the post independent state in Africa
(Malawi) which has betrayed the nation.

- Stella Nyanzi (1974 -): Ugandan Poet, Human Rights Activist, Medical
Anthropologist and Researcher. She has had several run-ins with the
Museveni Government for her abrasive criticism of its excesses. She is
currently in exile in Germany. Her poetry are satires against the dictatorial
regime in Uganda

Exercise for Class discussion: Identify the main features of satire, referring to
poems by Jack Mapanje and Stella Nyanzi.

WEEK 6: LECTURE SIX: THE POETRY OF LIBERATION:

Critical Question: Discuss the content and form of protest African poetry
Poems for Class Study
From Margaret Dickinson’s When Bullets Begin to Flower:
José Craveirinha: Mamana Saquina
Antonio Jacinto: Letter from a Contract Worker
The People Went to War
Jorge Rebelo: A Militant’s Poem

Liberation Poetry of Lusophone Africa:

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 - The Portuguese were reluctant to grant independence to their African
colonies and thus were only forced to do so through militant/violent
struggles by the African subjects of these countries
- Poetry was employed as an effective means of
 Mobilization
 Conscientization
 Motivation
 Exposing to the international world the situation in these countries and
the communicating the objective of the militant struggles
 Recording and preserving the history of these struggles
- Poems were collected under the anthology When Bullets Begin to Flower by
Margaret Dickinson.
- The form and style of these poems that facilitate the above aims:
 accessible language
 repetition
 alliteration
 emotive language
 vivid description
 short
 parable and allegory
 Imagery and Symbolism

LIT 420 Modern African Poetry Handout – Dr JB Okong’o –

[email protected] 0723 610 362 13