Not My Business
1. Look at and think about the context
of the poem
2. Make notes on the context and the
poet
3. Look at the meaning of the poem as
a whole
Where is Nigeria?
Nigeria lies between the
equator and the Tropic of
Cancer. Therefore, its
average temperatures
are between 12°C and
40°C
Population is over 90 million
There are 250 different ethnic
groups who suffer from the
same ethnic tensions as
anywhere else in the world
• In 1993, the Nigerian
military annulled a free
and fair general election
and seized control of the
government.
So what was Nigeria in the 1990’s like
for someone like Niyi Osundare?
Two young men plead for mercy
on a Lagos street following the
Coup.
From that time until
recently, Gen. Sani
Abacha, the regime's
leader, ruled Nigeria.
He was a cruel dictator.
Life under Abacha
Child
Imprisoned 7,000 people
without charge.
Soldiers
Imprisoned the winner
of the 1993 election
and several
journalists.
Military on
the streets
Allegedly provided military
support and security for Royal
Dutch/Shell's environmentally
destructive oil operations in
Nigeria.
Treason was
Executedeasy
anti-to commit
Shell activist
and writer Ken
Saro-Wiwa and
eight others in
1995.
Niyi Osundare, Poetry and Nigeria
• Niyi Osundare, who was born in Nigeria in
1947 and is currently a professor of English
literature at the university of New Orleans, is
considered the greatest living Nigerian poet.
•The Nigerian government has a reputation for
harsh and unjust treatment of its opponents of
which Niyi was one.
•Yoruba was the region that Osundare lived
in. It is is the South-West of Nigeria
Niyi Osundare, Poetry and Nigeria
The Yoruba believe that a Word is extremely
useful but also extremely risky. You have to think
before you speak. The moment you utter a Word
is like breaking an egg. You can’t put the pieces
of an egg back together again
It is a sentiment the Nigerian government
under the dictatorship of general Abacha
wholeheartedly agreed with. In the
Abacha years, writing poetry was
considered a dangerous activity, as
Osundare found out himself.
Niyi Osundare, Poetry and Nigeria
With the kind of poetry I write, I can never be the
dictator’s friend. So I got a knock on the door at
two in the morning a couple of times. A couple of
my students at the university of Ibadan had
become informers; a few even came to my class
wired. And when I was reading abroad, someone
trailed me from city to city. At home, my letters
were frequently being intercepted.
Osundare has written on the execution, in 1995, of the writer Ken SaroWiwa, and the unlawful imprisonment of journalists. Subsequently he was
visited by security agents and asked to explain the phrases in his poetry.
Niyi Osundare, Poetry and Nigeria
‘I survived all those dictators by hiding behind my
words. I used animal images, the hyena
representing the dictator, for instance, and the
antelope the people.’
There is also no choice for the African poet or
writer but to be political
You cannot keep quiet about the situation… in Africa.
When you wake up and there is no running water… no
food on the table, no hospital for the sick, no peace of
mind; when the image of the ruler you see everywhere
is that of a dictator with a gun in his hand… then there is
no other way than to write about this, in an attempt to
change the situation for the better
Poetry and Literature in Africa
In the West, art has become entertainment,
mostly. In Africa people see art as a
weapon in the battle for liberation. The
writer in modern Africa is treated like the
priest and warrior in traditional society.
We see poetry as entertainment but traditionally it
is a voice to oppose the bad and celebrate the
good in the world.
Now read the poem
• What is it about?
• In each of the first three stanzas lines 1-4
tell a story.
• In pairs: summarise in your books what
has happened to Akanni, Danladi and
Chinwe