Traditional Birth Poetry Of The Igbo, by Professor Sam Uzochukwu; Sam Orient Publishers, Magado Lagos, 2006, pp 134

One of the main concerns of the faithful Igbo scholars is the commitment to fill the gaps in Igbo studies. One of such scholars is Prof. Sam Uzochukwu who has laboured vigorously in the field of oral literature to keep Igbo folklore afloat in this computer age when the old tradition is ‘phasing’ away.

Without his like, a few of our collected folklore could have eluded us. Even though Sam is not the only scholar in the oral literature sphere, he has striven to get it directly from the mouths of the performers to give it a touch of authenticity and originality.
In his book, Traditional Birth Poetry of The Igbo, Uzochukwu leaves no one in doubt that he is on a mission of redemption. There are a few collections of birth poems in diverse publications but in Traditional Birth Poetry of The Igbo, the author has collected and recorded for posterity 80 of such poems.

As such, Traditional Birth Poetry of the Igbo falls into nine parts or sections; including poems about the quest for children, poems linked with pregnancy, poems that are sung immediately a child is born; Omugwo poems (a period when the mother rests, eats nourishing food and abstains from all forms of physical exertions.

Others include poems connected with the birth of 10 children (by one woman for her husband), recitations for child – naming ceremony, lullabies, poems associated with the child’s physical development as well as derogatory poems for children born out of wedlock.

In his introduction (pp 1-15), Sam establishes the cultural background for this type of literature and the high premium the Igbo place on the family lineage through the procreation of children. In this part of the book, the gives a resume of each segment of the write-up. In the parts II & III of the introduction, he goes into the literary criticism of this type of folk poems.

In the outlay of the poems, he juxtaposes the Igbo and the English versions to help out readers who are not adept in the source language of the poems, in this case, Igbo, for better appreciation of the poems.
By this singular contribution, Prof. Uzochukwu has yet added another text to our ever growing literature in the written form, and has saved these poems from going extinct, thus providing cultural materials for posterity yet unborn.

Literature scholars, especially those in oral literature, have cause to jubilate, for Sam has demonstrated that like himself, they too can go into the field to collect other genres of folk poetry or even to outclass him in the collection and publication of this very genre.
The importance of this book cannot be over- emphasized, and is hereby recommended to the school system and the general reading public.