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Since its inception, Nigerian poetry in English has always been characterized by protest in nature. Beyond its aesthetic scope, it has been critical of socio-political and environmental problems that have bedevilled the nation. This paper is concerned with such literary instrumentalism; the use of poetry by Nigerian writers, living in Nigeria, as an instrument against abuses of human and environmental rights. The theoretical framework that is employed is drawn from the notions of protest writing in Africa and ideas of postcolonial ecocriticism. This will provide a context that brings the fate of humans and nonhumans together under the weight of a failed home government and multinational capitalism in contemporary Nigeria. This study will trace the development of literary and political events in Nigeria, followed by a textual analysis of selected poems. Attention will also be paid to the growth of environmental legislation in Nigeria since the colonial period. This article concludes by arguing that in the absence of an effective or practical legal framework, poetry remains one of the most significant instruments for highlighting the violation of human and environmental rights. As such, the study benefits contemporary scholarship by drawing attention to the social dimension of poetry – and the arts generally – as well as the role literature plays in foregrounding environmental crises in postcolonial societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The versification of Nigerian Civil War poetry which started during and immediately after the civil war in 1970 has continued to resonate in the writings of the Niger Delta poets even in the present twenty first century. In Nigeria as a whole, the pioneers in war poetry include Wole Soyinka, J. P. Clark, Christopher Okigbo and Essie Enekwe. Like the above poets, the poets from the Niger Delta area of Nigeria have also continued to vent their anger on the devastating effects of the war on the people of that region. These poets have shown their sense of history through the documentation of the harrowing and bitter experiences of the casualties of the war which has been aptly described as the ugliest episode in the history of postcolonial Nigeria. Not only that, its literature has been portrayed as the most recurring theme in Nigerian literature. This paper attempts to re-affirm that even in the new millennium, Niger Delta poets have, unabatedly, reminded us of the genocide, rape and torture that greeted the war. The paper also attempts to show that the present prevailing scenarios in that part of the country today, which have resulted into kidnapping, banditry, rape, protests, and all sorts, are echoes of an impending civil war, if not nipped in the bud. The poems of a selected Niger Delta poets: Ebi Yeibo, Hope Eghagha, Ekanpou Enewaridideke and others who write between the year 2000 and the present are used to justify the above. The paper argues that reference to the war and its antecedents is still part of the thematic directions of Nigerian, albeit Niger Delta poetry in the twenty first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically investigated how contemporary Nigerian poets employ nature as a metaphor to signify the dissonant relationship between the people of the Niger-Delta and the Nigerian government on one hand, and the African women and their men on the other hand. The discussion relied on the templates provided in select poems of Ebi Yeibo and Molara Ogundipe-Leslie. The paper employ Critical Discourse Analysis in combination with ecocritical disposition as a launch-pad to query the power balance that exists within the political arena of Nigeria, especially among the economically exploited people of the Niger-Delta. It explores the poets' presentation of the people's sense of disillusionment and disenchantment with the existing sociopolitical order which is unfair to the less privileged group(s), and it actually threatens their survival. The images of barren rivers and imprisoned selves portray the African women, the Niger Deltans and their environment as being under grave danger. After years of hoping and long-suffering, the personae now find themselves as paupers and impoverished by agents of the exploitative dominant paradigm. The deference to superior authority that is typically African thus comes under fatal threat. This paper finally posits that respect for nature and its benevolent resources is the surest way to meaningful and sustainable development on the earth for the benefit of all and sundry. Moreover, it insists on a dialogue of reason instead of self-annihilating violence presently prevalently on both sides while not giving up the possible position of power attainable with psychological liberation of the self from the damning hopelessness that each group's situation portends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are official royal bards at the courts of prominent African paramount rulers who sing in praise of these monarchs. Although it is the exaltation of the kings that dominates the bards' production, there are also traces of criticism of the monarchs' unpopular policies and high-handedness. Such critical comments, however, are not easily identifiable because they are often presented in figuratively dense language. Using the court bards in the palace of the Aláàfin of Òyó, a prominent Yorùbá ruler, as a case study, this paper explains how the bards employ poetic skills and diplomacy in discharging this difficult responsibility. It is my claim in this paper that the production of Yorùbá royal bards must be correctly interpreted before it can be meaningfully related to events in the society. While it is true that the material of the poetry might have been taken from common daily occurrences, it has to undergo some form of aesthetic adornment to become poetry. The purpose of this paper is to unmask the bards' tactics of criticizing their patrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tanure Ojaide and Niyi Òsundare are among the foremost politically committed Nigerian poets at present. The overriding concern in virtually all their literary works is commenting on the politics of the season. In Òsundare's words, poetry is "man meaning to man." For Ojaide, a creative writer is not "an airplant" that is not situated in a place. Both writers envision literature should have political message. Thus, in Òsundare's collection The Eye of the Earth (1986) and Tanure Ojaide's Delta Blues & Home Songs (1998) the major aesthetic focus is eco-poetry, which interrogates the politics behind oil exploration in Nigeria as well as its consequences on our environment. Both writers refract this with what Òsundare calls "semantics of terrestiality": i.e. poetry for the earth. Eco-poetry deals with environmental politics and ecological implications of humankind's activities on the planet. Armed with this poetic commitment, both writers unearth commodification of socio-economic relations, environmental/ecological dissonance, leadership malaise and endangered Nigerian environment mediated through (global) capitalism. Both writers maintain that eco-poetry is a platform for upturning environmental justice; and for decrying man's unbridled materialist pursuits. Thus, the preoccupation of this paper is to explore how both poetry collections: The Eye of the Earth and Delta Blues & Home Song interrogate the despicable state of Nigeria's environment as a consequence of global capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remi Raji, one of the loudest and most eloquent political poets in Nigeria today, sees his craft as a means of conveying serious social message to his land. Raji's consummate political theme, which is powered by what he calls "the nationalist imagination," is skillfully explored in his latest volume of poetry, "Lovesong for My Wasteland" (2005), more than in any of his previous collections. Following the tradition of the social commitments of African literature and evolving orature-based aesthetics that marries choreography to poetry (choreopoetry), Raji traces the history of Nigeria, in the symbolic forty-five verses of the volume, exposing the leadership failures and plunder of yesterday and today, and presenting a hope that is predicated on the people's collective stand to build their ravaged land. The business of this paper is therefore the exploration of Raji's political theme in his latest poetic effort to raise his society's consciousness to the collapse of national psyche and to redirect their attention toward a better tomorrow for which they have to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oríkì is a significant panegyric poetry in indigenous Yoruba communities of South-Western Nigeria. The different sub-generic forms which characterize its form, and its obvious ethnographic and anthropological histrionics constitute its thrust and aesthetic peculiarities. This paper sets out to examine Omoboyode Arowa's oríkì performance, explores how she articulates the ethnographic cum-psychosocial knowledge of her environment, and subsequently exploits the same to advantage. It further demonstrates how this, in turn, engenders her re-inscription of self in the performance under reference. Whereas a performer usually recites, sings, or chants a form of oriki, Àrowá's oríkì performance in Èkìtì dialect embraces varieties of oríkì sub-types, giving her performance a more elaborate, and unique quality. Besides, the gender specificity noticeable in Àrowá's performance in which as a woman chanter, she succeeds in negotiating a space for self re-inscribing, thereby qualifying her oriki corpus as one of the highly developed, complex, and most achieving form of oriki performances in indigenous Yoruba. It concludes that, in view of the findings, there is the urgent need for a new vigor and sense of commitment to the study of the oríkì repertoire of individual performer for the purpose of ensuring its survival in a manner that makes its scholarship transcend its present boundaries, thereby making it serve new functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]