By Henry Akubuiro
For two days, the iconic bard lent his name to more veneration among lovers of knowledge and the word. From the Merit House Complex, Maitama, Abuja, where it all began on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, to the next day, Thursday, at Silverbird Cinema Centre, Abuja, celebrated Nigerian poet, Prof Niyi Osundare, 75, made words breathe. Many caught the exciting bug, as well.
All turned out for Prof Niyi Osundare’s presentation of the 2022 Nigerian National Merit (NNOW) Laureate’s Lecture as the latest recipient of the coveted national honour last Wednesday. His constituency, the literary community, was well represented at the gathering by Professors Femi Osofisan, Olu Obafemi and Sunnie Ododo. So were writers from the Abuja literary circles, including former ANA president, Mallam Denja Abdullahi; BUK scholar, Dr. Ismaila Bala; witty bard and Osundare’s ex student, Chiedu Ezeanah; writer and ThisDay columnist, Ike Okonta; spoken word maestro, Dike Uche Chukwumerije; dramatist, Jerry Adesowo; “Nigeria Prize for Literature runner-up Su’eddie Vershima Agema, to mention a few. Prof Mabel Evwierhoma and cerebral bard, James Eze, were some of the faces that came from outside the FCT.
Present also were Prof Shekarau Yakubu, Chairman, NNMA Governing Board; Prof William Qurix, Vice Chancellor, Bingham University, Abuja; Femi Adesina, SA to the President on Media and Publicity, who represented the Presidency; Ibiere Robert, who represented the Chairman of the occasion, Senator George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs. The legendary Cyril Stober of NTA News, who functioned as the master of ceremony, read the citation of the celebrant to usher him to the grand podium.
Lest we forget, the Nigerian National Merit Award was established in 1979, with the responsibility to identify and assess candidates for the meritorious award of Nigerian National Merit, based on their outstanding contributions to national development in science, medicine, engineering/technology, and humanities. For the NNMA, sustained promotion of merit holds the key to continuous innovations and inventions by the people towards economic progress, the advancement of mankind and sustenance of knowledge in society. So far, 79 distinguished Nigerians, who had been adjudged to have made outstanding contributions to the academic, intellectual and professional development of Nigeria and the world, have been honoured.
In the epoch-making lecture by Prof. Osundare entitled “Poetry and the Human Voice”, the poet examines the marriage of the word and the ear, oral tradition and its traducers, the impossible death of the spoken word, as well as the impact of technology. Besides, Prof Osundare appraised poetry and the inevitability of utterance and the digital delight that comes with screening poetry,
He noted that, the first half of 20th century, scholarship in oral literature registered an almost comparable achievement, though it suffered a setback through the revolutionary revisionism which came with the triumphal postculturalism that gripped the last quarter of the century, with its emphasis on “textuality” and scant attention on orality.
The traducers of orality, like Lucien Kevy-Bruhl, Franz Boas, Levi Strauss and Jack Goody, quoted the poet laureate, operated within a rigid Manichean framework which trapped humanity in dichotomous categorisation of opposites. But he declared that spoken word had come to stay in the contemporary world.
The award winning poet, who grew up in an oral culture, also came from “a feeling, thinking, creating, imagining culture which values the power and potential of literacy without for once losing sight of the fact that the human mind came before the book, the spoken word before the written symbol, and that the relationship between these sets is that of mutual enrichment, not of exclusive replacement or Manichean antagonism.”
For him, “a good poem soon outgrows its enforced habitation, steps beyond the flat silence of the paper confinement and walks straight into the universe of sound and sense through the tunnel of the larynx and throbbing highway of the human mouth. The voice came before the verse, the song before the sonnet, the Muse before the music.. Every successful poem affects hauntingly, alluringly.”
If black poetry has not completely erased the gap between poetry and song, he contends that it has succeeded considerably in narrowing that gap. Today, more and more of modern African poetry, he reckoned, was bursting through the prison of the scripted page, insisting on being chanted by the mouth and “read” with the ear.
Prof Osundare affirmed that the last two decades had witnessed a rejuvenation of interest in oral poetry and the aesthetics of performance: “Poetry Grand Slams are on the rise; the ranks of advocates (and acolytes) of the Spoken Word are swelling; raps keep churning out new rhymes. The ‘hip hop’ generation is not just dancing, gyrating bunch; it is also taking the Spoken Word to new exciting heights. In our part of the world, the Spoken Word revolution is alive and loud, especially on university campuses and urban public squares.”
Performances, conversation with the bard
If the NNMA lecture was intellectually stimulating, the soiree at Silverbird Cinema was electrifying. Moments before he was interrogated by Salamatu Duke, the moderator, aided by Su’eddie Agema and Ocho Africa, the University of New Orleans scholar was livid with excitement, as a group of young and seasoned spoken word poets performed poem after poem.
Some of the poets who took to the stage included Chiedu Ezeanah, Nathaniel Soonest, KJ Umoru, Abass Sulaiman, Loveth Liberty, Pachela Chukwuma, Bash Amuneni, Ocho Africa, Carl Terver, Sulleiman Zamani, Iveren Ayade, Hussain Zagaru, among others.
Mallam Denja Abdullahi, in his tribute, traced Osundare’s influence on his poetry and support in academics to his university days when he inspired him to write a BA thesis as an undergraduate at the University of Ilorin, which contributed in making him the best graduating student of his class.
Dike Chukwumerije, in his remarks, said he was held spellbound by Prof Osundare’s eulogisation of spoken word poetry, a rare endorsement from a legend, was unprecedented, given that poets were not as recognised as prose writers and playwrights. He also said Prof. Osundare had been a major influence on contemporary Nigerian poets like him, a genre that had taken him places, though he studied law.
Prof Osundare acknowledged the influence of late Chris Okigbo on his poetry, a genius he said wasn’t easy to deconstruct easily. “If it hadn’t been for Chris Okigbo, I wouldn’t have been a poet today,” he said in the presence of grinning Okigbo’s daughter, Oby Okigbo, who was part of the over 100 literati audience that also included Dr. Ismaila Bala, Ike Okonta, Dr. Mahmud Dzukogi, to mention a few.
Recalling how poetry saved him during the Hurricane Katrina in 2015,
Prof Osundare said, when he lost everything, including his identity, it was photocopies of his profiles on the back of his books from an American library by a concerned American that earned him and his family some recognition when they were stranded at a camp meant for survivors of Hurricane Katrina in the US.
Decades before that, poetry had also saved him when he was brutally attacked at the University of Ibadan, which partially affected his memory. By stringing words together, though he was advised against that by the doctor, his memory gradually returned.
He, however, lamented that Nigeria, at the moment, wasn’t a country, emphasising on building a unified nation by all. Addressing the “Japa” generation, who were leaving the country in droves, Prof. Osundare said there was no place like home, as he has experienced both worlds, stressing that the spiritual essence and “something Indigenous” could only be found at home. “The diaspora kills,” he echoed. He also commended spoken word and its spontaneity.
The In-Conversation series was a collaboration by Sevhage Books with the Abuja Literary Society, Konya Shamsrumi, Benue Book and Arts Festival, Sound on the Spot Art, Afrika Writes, Engaging Borders, Photo CarreFour and Rock Solid Pixels, among others.
“With this, we have also relaunched our SEVHAGE Festival!” said Su’eddie Agema, who masterminded the programme, at the end of the event.
Speaking to The Sun Literary Review thereafter, Chiedu Ezeanah described Professor Osundare as the quintessential African bard worthy of celebrations: “If you look at all the living African poets now, Prof Osundare is up there by sheer hard work. He is not just prolific but highly cerebral. His works speak for him everywhere he goes. If there is a Nigerian writer now everybody is looking forward to being crowned a Nobel laureate in literature, you don’t need to look any further. PROF Osundare thoroughly deserves it.”
Prof Osundare, aside from being a leading African poet, is a dramatist, linguist, and literary critic. Born in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, his poetry is influenced by the oral poetry of his Yoruba culture, which he mixes with other poetic traditions of the world, including African American, Latin American, Asian, and European.
He is a champion of free speech and his creative and critical writings are closely associated with political activism, decolonisation, black internationalism, and the environment. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Poetry Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Tchicaya U Tam’si Poetry Prize, the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize (twice), the Noma Award, the Fonlon/Nichols Prize for his “excellence in literary creativity combined with significant contributions to Human Rights in Africa.” Prof Osundare, who, in 2014, was given a National Order of Merit, is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans, USA.