Description
ABSTRACT
This essay studies how oral performance constitutes the core poetic style employed by Niyi Osundare to project social commitment and vision in Songs of the Marketplace. It discusses how the poet’s deployment of oral performance makes his poetry more accessible to a larger audience than those of his predecessors. The pervasive theme of moral degeneration remains a serious concern in the selected poems. Like the oral traditional performance, Osundare employs rich Yoruba oral literary devices in a way that is unique. His poetic style has a clearly defined concept and role of concentizing the masses toward revolutionary consciousness. The poem is central to the depiction of the polemics of governance and politics in Nigerian society. In a way, the poem raises hope of redemption from the decadent situation that has eaten deep into the fabric of social existence.
INTRODUCTION
The emergent poets are the second generation of Nigerian writers namely Tanure Ojaide, Niyi Osundare, Odia Ofeimun whose poetry immersed in the Marxist critical tradition. Marxist insurrection in Nigerian creative practice emerged from the late 1970s. The Marxist-oriented poetry is preoccupied with the criticism of the oppressive systems, the identification of the people responsible for the failure of nation building as well as the promotion of an alternative system perceived to be liberating. Emmanuel (2007, p.85) posits that:
There is that type of literature by which the writer rebels against societal values. He is the one that is sensitive to what is going on around him; one who wants a better deal for everybody. This is the kind of literature that becomes an instrument for social transformation. Its basic aim is to awaken the revolutionary consciousness in the majority of group of the society who are oppressed, exploited and deprived of good social living condition.
Several critics have attempted to give emergent revolutionary writers a brand name. For instance, Aliyu-Ibrahim(2012,p.125) posits that Akinwale (1993) refers to it as ‘protest’. Gbilekaa (1997) calls it ‘radical’ while Ododo (2004) adopts the term “re-creative”. The high point of difference between the works of the earlier and emergent poets is the adoption of a new poetic style and revolutionary ideology. Ojaide cited in Okunoye 2004, p.3) states clearly that:
Modern African poetic aesthetics are unique in possessing a repertory of authentic African features. This authenticity manifests itself in the use of concrete images derived from the fauna and flora, proverbs, indigenous rhythms, verbal tropes and concepts of space and time to establish a poetic form. The mere fact that foreign languages are used could occasionally create discord in discourse but modern African poetry attempts to reflect indigenous rhythms. In fact, an authentic African world forms the backdrop of modern African poetry.
This paper studies the poetic style and vision of nation-building in Niyi Osundare’s Song of the Marketplace. The essay focuses on the specific way in which cultural production like poetry has contributed to the understanding of the problem of governance in the post-independent Nigerian nation. In the field of African literature, interrogation of this nexus has come to be known as radical aesthetics. Songs of the Marketplace addresses a wide range of issues bothering on corruption, poverty and administrative ineptitude. Osundare’s poetic style is ideologically infused with the materialistic perspective of society as argued by Karl Marx. The social relevance of Songs of the Marketplace to the society as a mirror of political and economic sterility and the call for social redemption cannot be over- emphasized. This is why Osundare (2009, p.115) affirms that:
Literature is part of the structure of the society; it may simply record the kind of society the writer knows- its values, problems, structure, events, e.t.c or it may attack this very society and its present evils. Literature more often embodies the writer’s evaluation of his work or illuminates its possibilities.
Osundare’s postulation shows how sensitive literature is to the society, not only in employing poetry for depicting happenings but also as an advocate of social change and nation building. The emergence of modern African poets with a new poetic revolution presents a dramatic departure from the Euro-Modernist Nigerian poetry of the first generation. The emergent African poetry champions a poetic innovation within the framework of what has been described as alternative poetic tradition. Stylistically, the adaptation of local language and traditional speech pattern are distinguishing characteristics of the poetry. Niyi Osundare in particular strives for an effective way of projecting African poetic visions and African realities. Ojaide affirms this when he posits that “unlike in the 1960s when the poets were culturally obsessed, nature-oriented and universal, today, old and young poets are addressing their national issues more aggressively than before. In their desire to effect changes, they use the nation state as their starting point. (Okunoye, 2008 P.4)
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The paper adopts Marxist theory as a theoretical approach. As a utilitarian perspective of literature and society, Marxist ideology identifies social and economic factors in the conceptualization of the relationship between the bourgeois and the proletariat. Marxist philosophy upholds that a capitalist society perpetuates oppression of the less privileged class. The Marxist critic thus reacts to the various strata of social and moral decadence. The theory criticizes the political and economic deprivation and promotes the need for social change through revolution. Marxism is grounded in dialectical materialism that stresses economic survival of the competing classes. Karl Marx defines materialism as the struggle between bourgeoisies and proletariats as the mover of social change (Raji,1999 p.200). Marxism believes that the historical development of society is an aftermath of the changing mode of socio-economic productions. The struggle between the two indentified classes engenders social stratification. Shapiro defines social stratification as a process or system by which groups of people are classified into a hierarchical social structure.
The radical wing of Marxist critic emerged in Nigerian critical practice in the 1970s. The literary critics operating within the Ibadan/Ife axis namely, Biodun Jeyifo, Femi Osofisan, G.G Darah, Niyi Osundare, Ropo Sekoni were prominent. In the submission of Okunoye (2008, p.192), the ground-breaking essay of Omafume Onoge (1965) entitled The Crisis of Consciousness in Modern African Literatureprovides inspiration for modern poets in their campaign against the vices of social and economic contradictions. Ngara’s (1990) Ideology and Form in African poetry and Udenta’s (1976) Arts, Ideology and Social Commitment in African poetry are also among the few studies of African poetry in the Marxist tradition. Chidi Amuta’s (1989) The Theory of African Literature is another enviable follow up. The Marxist analysis of African literature emphasizes the historical and social conditions which have given rise to African literature.
OSUNDARE’S STYLE AND SOCIAL VISION
The style of Osundare’s poetry can well be understood in the context of oral performance. The poet, through oral medium, adopts a creative process in which performance constitutes his major style. In this way, the audience is actively involved both in the creative process and actual performance. Oral narrative performance is a form of communication in which the performer and audience share a social discourse. Sekoni (2003, p.140) identifies three broad components of oral performance as “captivation of the audience, retention of audience and the transfer of cognitive experience to the audience”. These components are interwoven and none can suffice in isolation. The success of performance is determined by the degree to which the oral performer reflects the outlook and expectations of the audience through the identified components.
In performance, the narrator uses his voice and body movement to convey message. Osundare adopts the style of oral performance for the specific purpose of diverting the attention of the audience from their private thoughts to the apprehension of images with which he hopes to express his concern for happenings in the nation. The poet’s skillful use of language and effective manipulation of oral performance will definitely attract the attention of the audience. The narrator will need to sustain his audience’s attention throughout the performance. Osundare depicts the relationship between traditional (oral form) and modern poetry (written form) in the context of commitment to revolutionary action. His radical dimension to African poetry can be contextualized in its relevance to culture and society. Poetically, Osundare reflects his concern with the socio-economic woes in Nigeria. He employs novel styles and imageries that create avenue for expressiveness and social transformation. His poetry deploys suitable metaphors to describe the unnatural relationship between the rich and the poor.
According to Nachafiya (2008, p4) “Osundare pioneers a campaign against obscurantism by writing Songs of the Marketplace to propagate and celebrate what many critics came to believe was an over-asserted and unrealistic leap. The void, so seemingly created at kenosis in this context, gives Osundare the leverage to employ a befitting poetic medium to join the emerging new voices in poetry”. His interest in an innovative poetic style is well defined in his choice of language and style. The collection redefines poetry as
a life spring…
Which gathers timbre
The more throats it plucks
Harbingers of action
The more mind it stirs (1)
His choice of language is deliberately aimed at rejecting the obscurity of the earlier Nigerian poetry and creates wider accessibility for audience. The persona maintains that:
Poem is
No oracles kernel
For sole philosopher’s stone
Poetry
Is
Man
Meaning
Man (1-2)
This stanza is a further indication of Osundare’s aspiration to break language barriers in poetic rendition. Through language simplification, he moves modern African poetry from royal court to the parlance of common men. Songs of the Marketplace reflects the image of a market arena where the poet can reach out to a majority of down trodden individuals who gather for buying and selling activities. In the marketplace, the crowd is large so messages are easily spread. The poet deliberately jettisons the usual royal arena for rendering songs but chooses the marketplace. A poem of similar thematic preoccupation in Village Voices thus reads:
My words will not lie like eunuch wind
Fluttering leaves in a barren forest
My words will climb the tree of wisdom
Feed multitudes with fruits of thought
And plant the earth with potent seeds for
I have woken up this morning with a song in my throat
the chorus echoes across the world. (p.2)
The poet seeks to create awareness by conscientizing the multitude of the voiceless masses. The above stanza sets to mobilize the people towards expediting the process of redemption. Since the categories of people who patronize the marketplace are the down trodden; those who suffer the brunt of socio-political vices, the market becomes the appropriate avenue for creating revolutionary awareness. Rather than promote the powerful warlord, the persona targets the consciousness of the poor whose revolutionary instinct the poetry is intended to ignite. The poet insists that:
Poetry is
The hawker’s ditty
The eloquence of the song
The lyric of the marketplace
The luminous ray
On the grass’s morning dew (p.13)
The stanza explains the duty which the poet sets for himself on behalf of his community. He renders himself as the voice for the voiceless. There are obvious deployments of poetic elements that express the predicaments of the poor in the collections such as “Udoji”, “Excursion”, “Siren” “University Congregation” as well as “Reflection” among others. For instance “Excursion” is a poetic irony for the adventure that the persona undertakes. It renders an account of different places where life means different things to different individuals. The poem is full of image of diseases, poverty, deprivation and want that are symbolic features of life and existence in Nigeria. Osundare sets out to re-define Africa poetry in term of revolutionary posture. As a result of his concern for man in the society, he advocates for the masses that are dominated and oppressed by political leaders. He writes to promote the interest of the teeming alienated and oppressed members of his society through a revolutionary poetry that could awaken their consciousness. He seeks to mobilize the numerous voiceless have-nots to the desired social transformation.
Osundare employs a series of novel poetic style to communicate his vision of social change. He employs oral narrative laced copiously with Yoruba syntax. Musicality across rhythm is a prominent feature of his poetic compositions. This musicality, according to Nachafiya (2008, p8):
…informs the poetic features of verbal, structural repetitions and parallelisms. Osundare in his own special way imbibes what some critics called the ‘Agisymban’ stylistic feature which is a characteristic of sound and drums, dancing feet and melody of tone.
His thematic preoccupations are of great relevance to the post-independence African states, particularly Nigeria, where the social fabric of the nation has been weakened by massive corruption and moral ineptitude. The poet sets for himself the task of re-awakening the consciousness of the poor. His poetry expresses the need for social equity in our nation. This is tandem with what Emmanuel (2007, p107) further refers to as ‘social advocacy’. By this, he refers to the works in which the writer’s social vision is preoccupied with the welfare of the common masses and with struggling against social ills. Delap (2010, p3) argues “that the ability of leading Nigerian poets like Osundare to attract audience through public performance has become significant at a time when Nigeria’s political and economic morass has sidelined intellectuals and the academic community”. Interestingly, Osundare emerges as a touch-bearer of the new generation of Nigerian poets undeterred by the many obstacles they face. The ideological warfare between the poet and the rulers were open demonstrations of the inefficiency of independence in Nigeria. Biodun Jeyifo (1988, p316) while justifying Osundare’s revolutionary instinct posits that:
You will thus read in Osundare’s volume sometimes humorous, often searing, and occasionally bitter and satirical but always vivid and metaphorically arresting evocations of episodes from our recent history and upheavals, triumphs and defeats of our struggles in Nigeria and other lands. You will encounter celebrations of defenders of the oppressed and the scourge and terror of the oppressors. Above everything else, the justification of the will to revolution in Osundare’s poetry is based on a rigorous, sustained solicitude for one of the world’s oldest producers: the peasant, those who till the soil and their quasi-mystical ties to the earth.
The political system in a capitalist society engenders instability. There is an ever-widening gap between those who wallow in affluence and others contending with abject poverty. There is also a total neglect of vital public infrastructural base, scientific and technological development as well as an apparent flouting of codes of ethical conduct. Hence, Osundare’s Songs of the Marketplace lends voice to this debasing scenario. His poetry is vociferous in its recommending the alternative of socialist transformation of society and the rejection of international monopoly capital created by capitalist economy. In a poem of similar thematic concern “Olowo Debate Talaka” in Songs of the Season, Osundare catalogues the various classes of the deprived and ranges of afflictions in Nigerian society. It decries the unhealthy relationship between the rich and the poor. The poem reads:
Olowo: Call me hyena, call me leopard
Call me the bloodiest in a tribe
Of monster beasts;
But this I know;
A leopard labours hard for his daily prey;
I work hard for every Kobo in my bank.
Talaka: Hard work! Hard work!
The lazy hobby-horse of the rawdy rich!
Hard work! Hard work!
The insufferable drudgery of loafing barons
Hard work! Hard work!
The suffocating sweat of chilling Benzes
Hard work! Hard work
The toilsome junnkets in London and Yokohama
Hard work! Hard work!
In busy beds, and rivers of champagne
Hard work! Hard work!
Of absentee barons and surrogate fortunes
Hard work! Hard work!
Monkey dey work, baboon de chop
Money man, how many hands do you have ?
How many heads stand on your neck?
The dialogue between the rich and the poor in the above stanza clearly illustrates the heartless attitude of the privileged class of elites in a society where a few bandits found themselves in a position of power and amass illicit wealth to the detriment of public welfare. Stylistically, the poem uses repetition of phrases, lines and structures to reinforce the lyrical tone of the song. Rhetorical questions are some of the devices employed in the last two lines of the second stanza to produce the desired meanings. This is what Ezenewa-Ohaeto refers to as “cinematic Presentation of the sights and sounds of people and places who are not use to fashion lyrics of joy but that of pain (1998, p156).
Osundare uses breath-space pauses found in oral performance to heavily descend on visionless leadership in “Udoji” which the poet uses as a topical allusion to the pay-increase of Nigerian workers in 1975. The persona seems to opine that the pay produced inflation that sets the country on the path of economic meltdown. Songs of the Marketplace catalogues the predicament of children and women who continue to wallow in abject penury despite the abundant resources in the nation. In a similar poetic form, the persona sings about the group of women who scavenge for food on garbage can. The stanza reads thus:
In city fringes pregnant women
rummage garbage leaps for
The rotting remnants of city tables
above, hawks and vultures hovering for their turn. (16)
This stanza is an indication that through selfishness and illicit wealth acquisition, the ruling class reduces her citizens to penury and abject poverty. The choice of language here reflects the deplorable condition that people found themselves as a result of the recklessness of their leaders. Osundare, like other socialist poets of his generation, believes that the situation can be remedied through a process of conscientization and eventual collective struggle. To him, this should be the poet’s artistic ideological commitment in a society that is socially and economically stratified. In an interview he granted to Weekend Concord, he maintains that:
At the personal and public level, I see a lot of problems around and I’ve always seen some kind of ray of light at the end of the tunnel. What I say is, if we have gone through 500 years of dehumanization and we are still here, there is no reason we shouldn’t pull ourselves up and leap into the 21st century. (p.18)
Osundare is a poet whose rhythm of his poetry is languorous and pedestrian. His poetry uses African aesthetic immanent in his Yoruba culture such as African percussion like flute and drum to enact an avant-garde literature of socio-cultural and political commitment. He is a poet who aesthetically transforms written poetry to oral performance with participatory audience drawn from among the down-trodden masses; and in the process, words, music, setting and message transform to collectively conscientize and revolutionize the people for social redemption. His poetry is nothing but radical both in content and form using one to complement the other. In the hand of Osundare, there is a remarkable manipulation of new aesthetic in poetry which concerns the use of language or diction, thematic perception and form. Osundare’s poetic revolution marks him as a representative voice of this class of Marxist-Socialist writers. He leads the group in his commitment to liberating the Nigerian society and at the same time demystifying the task of interpreting poetry. His style and the themes tend to address the socio-political and economic adversity of our nation
CONCLUSION
This essay studies the poetic style of Niyi Osundare’s Song of the Marketplace. It reveals how the poet seeks to re-orient a novel trend in modern African poetry and engage many forces of oppression. The theme of exploitation runs through all the collections. The poems vividly depict the socio-economic issues in Nigeria by deploying appropriate images which translate to how politics is being used to entrench poverty and enrich a cabal. The relevance of poetry in re-moulding the mindsets of any group of people has been well explored by Niyi Osundare. Through alternative poetic style, he aptly re-visits the foundation of our nation and vividly depicts the failure of the post-independence regimes. His poetry also depicts the predicament of the less privileged members of the society. Osundare is guided by a critical sense of social responsibility. This predisposition is identifiable in his ideological perspective as made apparent in his poetry.
