QUESTION: Explore the elements that authenticate the “Nigerianness” of characters and

events in selected poems of J. P. Clark’s Casualties and Odia Ofeimun’s The Poet Lied

Understanding the meaning of “Nigerianness” is essential in highlighting the elements of

“Nigerianness” in any literary work. Basically, the word “Nigerianness” is derived via a

morphological process called affixation; it is got from the word “Nigerian” and the suffix

“ness”. While a Nigerian is a native or an inhabitant of (or of being related to) Nigeria (a

country in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea that gained her independence from Britain in

1960), “ness” denotes a quality, state or condition. In this light, “Nigerianness” is the quality,

state or condition of something, someone or somewhere being Nigerian. Thus, when one is

making an inquiry into the elements of “Nigerianness” in any literary work, one is seeking

qualities or features that make such a literary work related to Nigeria. In other word, finding

what characterises such a literary work as a Nigerian literature (the literature that explores

Nigerian life and experiences).

In this essay, the elements of “Nigerianness” of characters and events will be explored using

J. P. Clark’s “Song” and “The Casualties” in his collection of poems, Casualties, and Odia

Ofeimun’s “The Poet Lied in his collection of peoms of the same title. While Clark’s “Song”

is a dirge about the loss of friends and memories, his “The Casualties” shows the direct and

indirect tragic effects of war.

A particular event is common about the three selected poems: they all explore the incidence

of the Nigerian civil War. In the sixties and seventies, the civil war was a major

preoccupation for writers. This war that lasted for about three years (1967-1970) is said to

have cost the lives of over one hundred thousand soldiers and uncountable civilians. It is

important to note that the life of one of the country’s most celebrated poets, Christopher
Okigbo (1932-1967), was lost to the war, and writers like Wole Soyinka were imprisoned for

their efforts to curb the war.

In addition, the war inspired many writers especially those directly involved. These writers

expressed their frustration, anger and memories in various literary genres. For instance,

Elechi Amadi’s Sunset in Biafra (1973) depicts his wartime experience. Other literary works

that capture the happenings and effects of the war include Soyinka’s The Man Died (1972),

Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset at Dawn (1976), Ken Sarowiwa’s Sozaboy (1985), Flora

Nwapa’s Never Again (1976) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

(2007).

J. P. Clark’s “Song” reveals the poet persona’s struggle with the reality of separation and

death. The poet persona laments that he can withstand any form of hardship, but he cannot

withstand the loss of his friends: “I can look the sun in the face/ But the friends that I have

lost/ I dare not look at any (1-3). The poet persona further shares his memories with his

friend, before reasserting that he cannot imagine the separation from or the death – “an ill,

made/ By God or man” (8-9) – of his friends. It is rumoured that Clark wrote this poem to

honour the friendship he had with Chinua Achebe, a fellow renowned writer, before the civil

war, a friendship that was severed for a while. Anyway, it is pertinent to note that such

separations and deaths are a part of the tragic consequences of war. This affirms this poem’s

inference to the Nigerian civil war.

Furthermore, Clark relays a better image and experience of the civil war in “The Casualties”.

Although the war has come and gone, the aftermath and memory, which are the ashes left

after the bonfire, trail everyone. It is in this light that Clark presents categories of the

casualties of the civil war. It has been said that this poem is also an address to Chinua
Achebe: the poet attempts to convince Achebe that even those outside the theatre of the civil

war partake in its tragic experience.

Clark’s proposition reflects from the first line of “The Casualties”. He argues that the cloak of

casualty is not only for those that died during the war: “The casualties are not only those who

died;/ they are well out of it” (1-2). This shows that being a casualty is a traumatic experience

that those who died during the war escaped from; they are forever saved from the physical

and emotional suffering.

The poet persona progresses, proclaiming that “those who are wounded” (3), “those who

have lost/ Persons or property” (5-6), those imprisoned (for instance Wole Soyinka who

wrote The Man Died in his prison cell), those who began the war, and those seeking refuge

from the war are not the only victims of the war. According to the poet persona, “The

casualties are many, and a good number well/ Outside the scenes of ravage and wreck” (18-

19).

The poet persona includes “the emissaries of rift” (20) among the categories of casualties. It

is said that during the civil war, ambassadors, mainly intellectuals, were sent out to get

supports from foreign countries. While the Biafra found favour among French speaking

countries like France and Ivory Coast, Nigeria found favour among English speaking

countries. It is these ambassadors that the poet persona refer to “the emissaries of rift” and

“wandering minstrels” (24). These ambassadors “haunt abroad” (21) and “do not see the

funeral piles/ At home eating up the forests” (22-23); they aim to “draw the world/ Into a

dance with rites it does not know” (25-26).

In addition, the poet persona confesses that everyone is a casualty of the war:

We fall,
 All casualties of the war

Because we cannot hear each other speak,

Because eyes have ceased to see the face from the crowd,

Because whether we know or

Do not know the extent of wrong on all sides,

We are characters now other than before

The war began. (30-37)

The poet’s claim that “we are characters” (36) resounds the popular words of William

Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…” This

affirms that everyone is either directly or indirectly linked to the war: “We are characters now

other than before/ The war began, the stay-at-home unsettled/ By taxes and rumours, the

looters for office/ And wares, fearful everyday the owners may return” (36-39). Everyone is a

character in the tragic event of the civil war: “We are all casualties” (40).

Interestingly, Odia Ofeimun seems to oppose Clark’s perception of the civil war. Ofeimun,

whose poems are often characterised by a coalescence of emotional commitment and political

intensity, lambastes the writer’s (particularly the poet’s) conduct, which was more

observatory instead of participatory, during the civil war. He argues that the poet should not

just be an observer “when his country was dipped like a dishrag/ in the blood of her own

children” (5-6). The poet persona in the first part of this poem condemns the poet’s distance

from the realities of the war. This distancing makes the poet “the poets of snapshots” (38)

with “a quack of visions” (39). In a way, it seems Ofeimun questions the honesty of Clark,

when he (Clark) refers to himself as a casualty of a war he did not partake in.
Buttressing on his counter-argument, the poet persona reminds the poet in the second part of

the poem that “He was not a guerrilla fighter” (1), instead the poet “asked this much: to be

left alone/ to celebrate what his skin was too thick/ to absorb” (23-25).

In the third part of the poem, where the poet persona mentions the condemned poet’s interest

in “colourless, snippety, thumps of items/ about friends who died, comrades slain/ in the

frenzied billows of civil strife” (11-13), it can be argued that he is making a reference to

Clark’s “Song”. The poem ends in the fourth page where poet person continues his

accusation of the dishonesty and inauthenticity of the poet. According to him, “the poet lied,

he lied hard.”

It is important to note that aside the events captured in these poems, one obvious factor that

confers a sense of “Nigerianness” to these poems is the biographical background of the

poets, who are both Nigeria: while Clark hails from the Ijaw community, Ofeimun hails from

the Edo community. Since a Nigerian literature is written by a Nigerian, these poems are

Nigerian poems.

Nwagbara (2010:67) writes that “the poem presents a communicative context in which

interaction is created and made possible because there is a speaker (perhaps, the poet-

persona) who communicates a certain piece of information which in itself entails the

performance of some actions.” In this light, the poets may be seen as characters

communicating their perceptions of an event, the Nigerian Civil War. Ngugi (1972: XII)

argues that “Literature does not grow or develop in a vacuum; it is given impetus, shape, and

direction and of concern by the social, political and economic focus in a particular society.”

His argument is evident in the three poems explored in this essay.

 Work Cited

 Clark, J.P. Casualties. London: Longman Press, 1970.

 Nwagbara, Austin Uzoma. “Rhetorical Creations, Poetic Actions: A Speech Acts

Analysis of Niyi Osundare’s “Poetry Is” and Tanure Ojaide’s “The Fate of Vultures.”

Discourses and Interactions in Language and Literature. Ed. Nwagbara, Austin

Uzoma. Lagos: Pumark, 2010.

 Ofeimun, Odia. The Poet Lied. London: Longman, 1980.

 Wa Thiong’ o, Ngugi. Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature,

Culture and Politics. London: Heinemann, 1972

 William Shakespeare. BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2015. 13 September 2015.

http://www.brainyquote.com/qoutes/quotes/w/willamsha166828.html