1

COMPILATION OF ELS POEMS SUMMARY 2019/2020 FOR O'24 LAW CLASS AS

COMPILED BY ANYIAM CHRISTIAN.
BEST OF LUCK!

ABIKU BY JP CLARK

The title of J.P. Clark’s poem is a store of meaning for the poem itself since it gives us
understanding of many of the sentences we will encounter in the poem. The word Abiku
is Yoruba for ‘spirit child. It refers to a child who must die and repeatedly be reborn again
and again. So, Clark is talking to one of these Abiku.

The poem opens by Clark sounding a denouncement to this Abiku who probably has just
been reborn, for ‘coming and going these several seasons’ (line 1) to mean that he gets
born, and when the family thinks that he is here to stay, he dies. And he does it several
times so that Clark seems so fed up as to tell him to ‘stay out on the baobab tree’ (line 2).
In Ghanaian cultural tradition and I should suppose same for Nigerian too, the baobab
tree is suspected to be the meeting place of all manner of spirits, witches and wizards
who work at night. This is because the tree is usually huge, grows tall and has thick
shrubbery that gives it a mystical look especially at night. By asking Abiku to stay out on
the baobab tree, Clark is asking him to stay in the spirit world and not be reborn. In the
third line, Clark emphasises this by asking Abiku to ‘follow’ where he pleases his
‘kindred spirits’, which gives a sense that Abiku keeps coming and going from a
community of like-minded spirits. This should be so, as Clark says, if ‘indoors is not
enough’ for Abiku (line 4). Indoors refers to normal life among men when Abiku brings
joy at birth, only to bring sorrow at death soon after.

Clark goes on to explain the modest conditions in which they live, if perhaps that is what
keeps Abiku going away. He confesses that it ‘leaks through the thatch’ (line 5), a roof of
grass and straw used as matting for a poor home built usually of clay, when it rains till
‘floods brim the banks’ (line 6). At night also, bats and owls tear through the eaves (lines
7-8), making sleep difficult. Then when the dry harmattan of the West African dry season
comes, the bamboo support of the house is torn down to make fires on which the poor
fish caught for the household is dried up on the rack (line 9-11). Maybe Abiku keeps
going because he is born into a poor home. Clark makes this excuse and still insists that
Abiku should stay out nevertheless because regardless of how poor they are, the house
is the ‘healthy stock’ (line 12) to many more people who are born and stay, and others
more who ‘reach to the sun’ (line 13). I will translate this reaching to the sun to mean that
they grow up, each growing taller bringing them vertically closer to the sun. Abiku never
stays long enough to grow up.

Clark continues that Abiku should make up his mind, no longer should he ‘bestride the
threshold’ (line 14), meaning he should no longer stay with one foot indoors and the
other out on the baobab tree; an indecision between life and death, this world and the
 2

other, ‘but step in and stay. For good’ (line 15-16). Henceforth, Clark mentions a few
things we will need to understand by understanding the culture of Yoruba.

When an Abiku comes and goes a couple of times, a frustrated family gives the Abiku
scars at birth so that being now made ugly, it will displease the gods and spirits to have
him return to the spirit world. This makes the child stay alive and end the sorrow of the
family that is burdened to bear that child over and over. Clark says that they can see and
‘know the knife scars’ (line 16) running ‘down [his] back and front’ (line 17), ‘like beak of
the sword-fish’ (line 18). They have made their mark on him so that when he has now
been reincarnated with those scars, they recognize him ‘as a bondsman to [their] house’
(line 20), having also ‘both [his] ears, notched’ (line 19). In pastoral communities, cattle
owners use ear brands and notches to indicate which cattle belong to them. These
notches look like huge, coloured earrings on which specific alphabets or even the colour,
serve to identify one man’s cattle from his neighbour’s. Clark says that these very
evident marks are ‘relics of [Abiku’s] first comings’ (line 21). They are not mistaken; they
know him as the one.

Finally, Clark tries to convince Abiku to ‘step in, step in and stay’ (line 22), for the woman
who bears him is now ‘tired’ (line 22) of his many reincarnations and so tired that her
milk now is ‘going sour’ (line 23). This souring only happens to milk that has grown old
and we will assume this to mean that the woman is now growing too old to keep up with
Abiku’s treachery and may no longer have a strong body to bear him. Clark tries to make
it not sound so bad, by saying that it is with this same milk that ‘many more mouths’ (line
23), presumably of those other people who stay and ‘reach to the sun’, have ‘gladden[ed]
the heart (line 23). Which heart? The hearts of the family which have not hurt because
these other people lived on and also the hearts of these ones who lived on to gladden
themselves with the milk of this woman’s breast!
COMPILED BY ANYIAM CHRISTIAN K.

ABIKU BY WOLE SOYINKA

THEMES:

1. Theme of supremacy of Abiku - the poem attributes lots of powers to Abiku. In the
poem Abiku is boasting that not even the traditional rites meant to stop him from dying
and being reborn can actually stop him. That is the meaning of 'in vain your bangles cast
charmed circles at my feet'
2. Theme of Arrogance- Abiku is boastful and arrogant. He does not care about how
people feel when he keeps coming and dying. He does not even pity the mother who is
suffering.
 3

3. Theme of Helplessness : everyone especially the mother is helpless as Abiku torments

them. There's nothing they could do to stop Abiku, as all effort fails.
4. Theme of Belief in the supernatural - the belief that it is the same child that dies that is
being born, shows the belief in another world outside this. That this life is more than just
the physical. That before people are born they are somewhere, and when they die they go
somewhere. Hence production of a child goes beyond the union of the sperm and egg.

POETIC DEVICES:

1. Paradox: a contradictory statement which has hidden truth. eg 'calling for the first and
the repeated time'
2. Rhetorical question: a question that suggests its own answer. Eg 'must I weep for
goats and cowries'
Diction: the diction is simple

TONE: BOASTFUL

Mood: the boastful tone creates a mood of Oppression in the reader

Structure/Form: quatrain. This means each stanza has four lines. Although there is no
particular end rhyme, the lines produces a rhythm as one reads.

THE ABIKU PHENOMENON: REALITY OR MYTH?

“Our country is an Abiku country. Like the spirit child, it keeps coming and going. One
day it will decide to remain. It will become strong.” This quote by Ben Okri sets the stage
for the discussion of Abiku phenomenon. According to Okri the Abiku spirit children
have come to stay because they no longer torment the society as a socio-cultural pariah.
I was born and grew up in the East of Nigeria, and as a child the phenomenon of Abiku
was so strong in all cultures of Nigeria that the society was mentally lost in the belief
before the advent of Christian religion and colonialism. Because of the societal belief,
several scholars, like Nobel Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Ben Okri, Chinua Achebe,
Toni Morrison, have written literatures that portrayed a culture dominated by belief in
Abiku. These writers through their writing not only showcased their love and belief in a
culture that is rich in mythology, but also expressed cultural nationalism for their
distaste for colonialism. Today, Abiku has become a source of inquisition among the
academia, traditionalists and religionists who now debunk the myth. The Abiku
 4

phenomenon is a belief in a culture whereby children go through premature unending

cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths through reincarnation by the same mothers after few
months or years of birth – a belief reverend and idolized in pre-colonial Nigeria, and
worshipped by agonized mothers whose children were tagged Abiku. The Abiku
phenomenon drew its strength in a society that beliefs in existence of spirits and
reincarnation as intricate component of human life. Abiku belief subjected mothers to
pain and sorrow as they watch their children go through torment of death. It is more
sorrowful as mothers thought of another cycle of pain of birth of another child that might
be tagged Abiku, which Chinua Achebe observes in “African Religious Beliefs in Literary
Imagination” that “life does not end with death.” The death of children believed to be
Abiku is the agony of mothers that another child would come that might be same. In their
agony, mixed with hope that their child might live if only the Abiku goddess desired,
mothers lighted midnight lamps in prayers to the goddess for their child to stay. Men and
women across the cream of Nigerian society today, including traditionalists, religionists
and academia, are still lost in fantasy of Abiku phenomenon: they ask whether Abiku is
myth or real. The thesis shades light on the past and views the present with realism in
contrast to a belief that was rooted in a culture that once manipulated the psyche of
Nigerians for decades until the first half of the twentieth century when the belief seems
silenced or deleted in the cultural lexicons.

In those decades of innocence, mark of identification becomes prevalent among Abiku

children. At death a mark is placed on the body of Abiku children, mainly on the face,
breast, or somewhere visible for people to recognize them as spirit children if eventually
they return in rebirth to life. In spite of this, according to Toni Morrison, “At the core is a
deadly parent-child struggle for power. The parent hopes that, with communal support,
the Abiku child, willful, unruly, and different in outlook, will choose to remain in the world
of the living, deferring death and movement to the other place” (“From Past”). The Abiku
children were seen as abnormal children and the society tended to involuntarily isolate
them, resultantly they withdrew from peers who never wanted to play with them. Though
discomforted about the unnerving isolation, the society imposed inhuman rituals to force
the Abiku children to make a choice either to live a normal life like any other children, or
go back to Abiku kingdom never to return in rebirth. The first two stanzas of Wole
Soyinka’s poem, “Abiku” throw light on the importance and sacredness that Abiku
children were held in those dark years; listen to the Abiku bragged:

In vain your bangles cast

Charmed circles at my feet
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And repeated time.

Must I weep for goats and cowries

For palm oil and sprinkled ask?
 5

Yams do not sprout amulets

To earth Abiku’s limbs. (“Abiku”)

Parents were at mercy of Abiku children who bragged to return to the spirit kingdom if
not pampered, hence they boasted with pride. It was this kind of boast by Abiku children
that makes the phenomenon to remain an inquisition today in the minds of many people
who want to explore and understand the issues shrouded in a culture that was held so
close to heart for centuries across Nigeria. As Chidi Maduka in “African Religious Beliefs
in Literary Imagination: Ogbanje and Abiku in Chinua Achebe, J. P. Clark and Wole
Soyinka” explains thus:

Because of this binding pact with fellow companions in the spirit world, the abiku child,
even though it is implored by its parents and community to remain alive, refuses to do so
and, at the first opportunity, returns to the spirit world. This recurrent cycle of birth,
death, and rebirth involves not only the abiku but its parents as well and especially the
mother who undergoes immense pain and suffering each time her child is born, knowing
that she will lose it again to its spirit companions. In an attempt to break this cycle, the
parents of the abiku child, with the help of priests, diviners, or the village
doctor/herbalist, perform rituals to sever the relationship between the abiku and its
kindred spirits. In order to do that, they have to find the spirit tokens that bind the abiku
to the spirit world and destroy them. These rituals also include making scars on the body
of the dead child, refusing to provide it with decent burial, and in some cases mutilating
the body of the dead abiku.

I will share this personal experience to drive to heart that this barbaric ritual truly existed
in pre-colonial Nigeria: When we were growing up my sister in her teen was so beautiful
that she was carried away by her beauty and indulged in teen exuberance. Though, she
was neither queer in behavior nor character, yet she was tagged Abiku because like most
children she chose to go out when she wanted and stayed out at night, and this became
a concern to my parents. I remembered one particular day my mother took her to a
native medicine man to find out if she was Abiku. Ridiculous, the medicine man tagged
her Abiku after some divinations. As she grew older the teenage exuberance
disappeared, but the stigma of being tagged Abiku silently devastated her psyche like
many children wrongly tagged. My sister lives till today as a proof that Abiku is a mere
psycho manipulation of a culture that took advantage of an ignorant society. In like
manner, the Abiku phenomenon could be intrinsically linked to the same dilemma of
agony that twin children suffered in the same culture in the same dark years by throwing
them in evil forests to die because they were seen as evil children with a curse to the
community. This barbarism, like the Abiku children, was the fate of many harmless
innocent children who were born, but could not live to see their eighth day of
circumcision, or first or second or third birthday. These cultural manipulations of the
innocents were stopped and eradicated by the advent of Christian religion that proved
 6

the belief wrong and devilish. As socio-cultural modernity sweeps across Nigerian
society, and reinforced by growing wave of religious faith and spread of modern
education, doubt is cast on Abiku phenomenon which has subjected the society to
cultural bondage. It is in recognition of this doubt that I question the reality of Abiku.

Some writers believe that Abiku is a cult where children gather to decide among them
who, when and whom to return. According to the belief, the number of years a child lived
to die depended on the oath taken in allegiance to membership of Abiku cult in the spirit
kingdom before he or she returned again to the agonized mother. When one juxtaposes
the pre-colonial thinking to the present day realism doubt is cast more on the ignorance
of the society at the time in history. When a child is suspected to be Abiku the parents
took the child to a native medicine man or herbalist for divination of the child’s fate, so
was the case of my sister. In effort to make the child live the child was persuaded by the
medicine man to spot where the object of his or her oath was buried. It is a ritual
performed by the medicine man and paid by the child’s parents to make the child stay
alive. For the society, it was the end of a cycle of torment if the Abiku child could choose
to stay; stubborn ones might choose not.

The influence of education, medical research, Christian religion and societal awareness
were responsible for radical shift from the Abiku belief and the stigmatization that
imprisoned the rational thinking of the society. Before the European civilization that
swept away most inhuman cultures, Nigerian society was so much attached to negative
cultural beliefs like the killing of twin children and the belief in Abiku phenomenon
because of high illiteracy among Nigerians. The society was pushed to accept verbatim
without question a culture that brainwashed to kill, or even forsake one of its own, which
Abiku, like the killing of twins, was a case in focus. With education, medical research and
spread of Christian religion people began to see what could be a mistaken symptom of
psycho manipulation as it is evident today that infant mortality is no longer linked to
Abiku but on other medical issues, though the belief is still insignificantly held by few
traditionalists.

Abiku is an oral belief of a culture that is not subjected to scientific analysis and
empirical evidence. What could have besieged the pre-colonial Nigerian society could
have been an undiscovered medical ailment that could not be medically or scientifically
explained which caused the premature death of many children. It is widely believed that
the cause of premature death in some children before the prevalence of medical
research, otherwise called infant mortality, could have been sickle cell anemia (“Sickle
Cell History”). Again, this cast doubt on the belief that had besieged and caused so much
 7

emotional and psychological trauma in Nigerian society in the past. I believe the society
has come to the realization that Abiku phenomenon was a psycho-cultural manipulation
engineered by traditional custodians of culture who worshipped idols and shrines, and
native medicine men who maintained these idols and shrines that was predominant in
pre-colonial Nigeria. Besides, the Abiku myth has been laid open, and there is no more
literary thrill by cultural nationalist writers who rattled and confused the society more
with the power of their literary prowess in attempt to portray a culture that took
advantage of societal ignorance in education, medicine, science and Christian religion to
manipulation the peoples thinking and reasoning by reinforcement of belief in existence
of spirits, reincarnation and portray of world view culture. Like any other cultural
phenomenon that has been unsubstantiated empirically, Abiku remains a vague belief
anchored on mythology that is no longer relevant not only in modern Nigerian culture,
but in world view. Unlike Okri says, our country is no longer an Abiku country, because
it has become stronger without the belief in Abiku phenomenon, as the last stanza of my
poem questions thus:

Could Abiku belief be real?

Is it socio-cultural psyche exploit?

Sustained over time, I doubt;

Could it be myth, yes, I’ve no doubt;

Abiku mythology disappears in time,

Swept away by socio-religious wave,

A wave of socio-cultural modernity

Relatively matched with religiosity;

I live ‘cause ‘am not Abiku;

SUMMARY:

The poem is about the concept of the child that dies while still only a child, then gets
reborn by the mother only for the child to die again. It is believed that it is the late child
that comes back to life. This belief cuts accross Africa. The Yoruba people calls this child
'Abiku'. In some cases a cut is usually made on the child. So when he/she is reborn the
mark of the cut will still be found on his/her body where he/she has been cut. That is a
 8

confirmation that it is the same child that is dying and is being reborn. J.P Clark also
wrote a poem on this issue with the same title.

The Comparative Analyses of Two Poems

Abiku, according to the custom and the primitive perspective of most Africans, is a child
that is possessed with evil spirit and can torment the mother with the painful experience
of persistent death and birth.Abiku,I quote Shakespeare's "Turtles and Phoenix, has a
"Single nature’s double name Neither two nor one was call’d.
Reason, in itself confounded". The strong beliefs in the mystery of Abiku has spread
almost through out African continent.
If we read through the two poems aloud,we will understand the differences in the tone
and the attitude of the two poems,on the same theme I.e the torments of Abiku and the
bitter experience to the parents. The first poem is presented in the First Person I.e the
abiku makes statements about itself. While Pepper Clark recreat the experience of the
victim,abiku. The subjects and the tones,apart from the title and parallel theme, are
obviously different.
If we read the first Abiku carefully,you will probably imagine the Abiku thumbing its chest
in a vain and boastful manner. It says:

In vains your bangles cast

Charmed circles at my feet
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And repeated time....................

There are other lines that confirm Abiku boasting of itself through the various eulogues.
It says:

I am the squirrel teeth,cracked

The riddle of the palm. Remember
This and dig me deeper still into
The god's swollen foot.

When we compare these with the "Abiku" of J.P Clark where though it is not the abiku
spirit is speaking, the pain and anguish caused by the Abiku child is evident and contrast
with the boastful arrogan of the errant Abiku in Soyinka's poem. The speaker introduces
his speech with pleading tone couple with persuasion that:

Coming and going these several season

Do stay out on the baobab tree
Follow where you please your kindred spirits
In indoors is not enough for you.
 9

The personal reasons with the Abiku,conceding certain inadequacies!

"True it leaks through the thatch

When flood brims the banks"

But it goes on to persuade the spirit pointing out that in spite of these,others have
stayed,it too,should:

But no longer then bestride the threshold

But step in and stay
For good............................

Take note, also, that the last three lines which brings out pain and weariness occasioned
by the errant abiku.

With careful analysis of the two poems we will understand the difference in tone and
attitude.

Finally, I want to postulate that two poems may have the same title and themes, however,
if we study with concentrated attention and careful juxtaposition, we will understand the
striking features that differentiate them.

The Analysis of Wole Soyinka's Abiku

In the last two lines of the first stanza of the poem, the Abiku says:

I am Abiku calling for the first,

And the repeated times.

The word "call",according to the "New Edition" of "Logman Dictionary",signpost seven,

is to " stop at a house or other place for a short time...". Therefore, if we apply the
dictionary definition to the statement above, we will understand the Abiku child's cryptic
and meaning in the connotative perspective, as it reveals that the Abiku enjoys
tormenting the parents with its persistent death and birth. In fact,the revelation in the first
stanza, "in vain the bangle cast charmed at my feet",registered the feelings deeply and
also reveals the effort of the parents to sustain the Abiku child and its eventual futility,as
the abiku child his cunning, " the squirrel teeth,cracked the palm riddles"
Abiku child seems to have mastered the parents' ability and foibles so that it used the
supremacy of the extraordinary power and exceptional intelligence to play on the latter of
his parents : when you pour libations,each finger points me near The way I came.

At a point, there is a shift of tone, that if it is actually detected,it will arouse the feeling of
sympathy in us, from the boasting Abiku child to the lamenting parents who expresses
serious concern over the futility of their efforts,when the parent says: Must I weep for
goats and cowries
 10

For palm oil and the sprinkled ash Yams do not sprout in amulets
To earth abiku limbs.

The remorseless and heartless Abiku child's expression shows that it enjoys his bitter
death through the following revelation:dig me deeper still into
The god's swollen foot
Once and the repeated time.

The question,I supposed,at a certain point, that we would asked ourselves is ' where
does this mythical Abiku comes from?" To whet that appetite, the Abiku postulate its
origin :The way I came, where
The ground is wet with mourning
White dew suckles flesh-birds
Evening befriend the spider,trapping
Flies in wind-froths. That is a very mysterious place where curious events occur.
The Abiku makes it clearer that the parent's mourning is like a "killing cry" that does not
revive him. In addition to the evil effects, he "sucks the oil From lamps", as the imagery
may suggests, to put everything in darkness,or better still, the mother in ignorance. So
while the mother cries bitterly, it,Abiku,in the form of "suppliant snake coiled on the
doorstep". Now, the question is, why does the speaker consider snake as the most
suitable imagery in the context and not any other organism. I think the snake
symbolically represents the remorseless, heartless and cruel personality of the Abiku,
and it reveals how it successfully outwits is parent by plunging them into a full gloomy
state.
This poem,is a very difficult and powerful poem that brings out the beauty of African
imagery and promote African culture. It is full of aphorism,paradoxical expression and
also enriched with rish and deep metaphor.

I would have taken the painstaking effort to review the other Abiku,but since I've already
almost critically explained some difficult imagery and other elements during the
comparative analysis,I hope it will not pose much difficulties any longer to you or even a
literary novice.

HEAVENSGATE BY CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO

COMPILED BY ANYIAM CHRISTIAN (O'24 LAW CLASS MEMBER)
BEST OF LUCK!
The publication of heavensgate by Christopher Okigbo marked his initiation return to the
African cultural heritage and the deeply-felt personal rebirth with the goddess of his
tradition called Idoto. As used in ‘Overture poem’ Idoto is a mother goddess of the village
stream in the poet’s hometown known as Ojoto, in eastern Nigeria. The oilbean is part of
the mangrove ecology in this river town which was one of the emblems being worshiped
by the river goddess Idoto. The poet discloses his religious and metaphysical experience
 11

by bringing out family beliefs into the poems. His vision for the spiritual quest led the
poet to classical myths and the writing of melodic modes.

Focusing our discussion on these two poems ‘overture’ and ‘sacrifice’ It is clear that the
genre or the form of these poems are lyrical panegyrics. Lyrical, because the persona is
basically trying to express his feelings and attitudes towards his religious and
metaphysical experience in his life. On the other hand, it is Panegyrics because the
persona is trying to appease the gods and the metaphysical or spiritual emotions of his
African tradition. Much as we belong to the society, we cannot run away from certain
facts in Okigbo’s poems in Heavensgate. There is much tenderness in evocation of the
poet’s physical environment, family relations and the religious denomination. These
three factors dominate in Okigbo’s Heavensgate. The poems read;

OVERTURE SACRIFICE
Before you, mother Idoto, Thundering drums and cannons
naked I stand, in palm grove:
before your watery presence, the spirit is in ascent.
a prodigal,
I have visited,
Leaning on an oilbean, on palm beam imprinted
lost in your legend…… my pentagon-

under your power wait I I have visited the prodigal….

on bear foot,
watchman for the watchword
at heavens gate; In palm grove
Long drums and cannons:
out of the depths my cry the spirit in the ascent.
give ear and hearken.

In these two poems, the persona is an adult who uses compact language not for the
masses. The setting is within the structure of ritual experience in which various
influences were brought into a mantic (belief) confrontation with one another within the
mystical experience.

Christopher Okigbo’s poems in Heavensgate reflects his autobiographical experience in

religious and spiritual realms. The persona in ‘Sacrifice’ poem, abandoned his ancestral
spirits and was just on the crossroad between modern and traditional beliefs. His
reaching to sacrifice point shows that he was carrying a religious culture of doubtful
morality. The persona was passing through a literally journey of self discovery. This is
similar to what was happening in the forty to sixties when many Africans were raising
questions about who they were and to which domains they belonged to in Africa. Many
artists during that time including the persona in sacrifice poem found their answers in
cultural lines which had opened up amongst the African communities in the years of
 12

black renaissance thereby, shedding the yolk of colonialism. The prodigal’s pursuit of his
identity especially the symbolic terrain is defined by the Christian cosmology or
Christian ethics and moral theology. Sacrifice poem is clearly a
religious-cum-metaphysical experience of the persona as he respects the spiritual realms
of existence. He realized that one becomes a person only by virtue of proper fit between
the pre-natal vowel and the over-arching destiny uniting the succession of ancestors that
constitutes the family tree. We can see that the persona is in an act of submission as he
begins his ritual cleansing and self-dedication to the guiding spirits of his tradition.

Thundering drums and Cannons

in palm grove:
the spirit is in ascent.

De-de Vries (1974) explained the symbols in this poem in the following way;

“Thunder is the voice of the supreme deity (god like) expressing

his anger, assent(agreement to proposal) or proclamation. page 466”
“Drum is a sacrificing altar, mediator between heaven and earth.
It also symbolizes the dispenser of evil spirits. Also symbolizes
ecstasy for religious and fertility purposes page 149”
“Palm (tree) can symbolize gods, victory and elevation. Palm may
also be referring to the hand touching the shrines, page 356”
“Grove is associated with religious, primitive worship of vegetative
nature and also associated with nymphs or goddesses, page 229”
“Cannon symbolizes heavy voice from the high authority beyond
human reasoning”.

“Thundering drums and cannons”(Sacrifice: verse one) suggests that the Guiding spirits
are angry with the persona who is at the drum or sacrificing altar before these spirits.
The use of palm grove in verse two is meant to demonstrate that the gods being talked
about here are nymphs associated with religious primitive of worshiping vegetative
nature. Nevertheless, from the title of the poem ‘sacrifice’ itself, it is noted that the
persona is in an act of submission or self-dedication to the guiding spirits of his tradition
and that, this sacrifice is being done on the sacrificing alter or to the mediator between
the earth and heaven. The persona is uttering these words while his five fingers (“my
pentagon” verse 6 sacrifice) of the hand are touching (imprinted line 5) the guiding
spirits on the alter where the sacrifice is being done. The ‘palm beam’ is referring to the
religious shrines of primitive worship of vegetative nature as he say

I have visited,
on palm beam imprinted
my pentagon-
 13

In stanza three which says “I have visited, the prodigal…….” suggests that the persona
never followed his tradition actively in the sense of offering sacrifices and the poet’s
anagnorisis came in a little bit late and we see the intimations of the poet’s new
consciousness by realizing that he cannot do without them. And therefore, he decided to
confess and offer the sacrifices as demanded by the tradition. Because of this
negligence, the guiding spirits are angry with him and we see this from the first line in
the poem “thundering drums and cannons”. But because the persona has been restored
by the effort made to revisit the shrines, the grove (nymphs) have elevated him or her to
the original state. This is shown in the first and last stanza as the verse say ‘the spirit is
in ascent’ reflecting that he is subsequently transformed into an initiatory essences and
charged to begin a new life. The restoration of this prodigal persona in ‘sacrifice poem’
can be backed up by the initial words of the author in his daily life experience. In 1967,
the year Okigbo was to die in the Nigerian civil war, Okigbo told Whitelaw in an interview
that:

I do not feel that as a Christian I have been uprooted from my own

village gods. We have a goddess and a god in our family, our ancestral
gods. And though I do not worship these actively, in the sense of offering
them periodic sacrifices, I still feel that they are the people protecting me
(quoted by maja-peace in Okigbo’s ‘collected poems’ published in 1989)

This interview can be regarded as confessional statement to the tutelary spirits of the
African homeland from which his experience is based. He remains conscious of the
subliminal element in his being that protects and saves his prodigal life. Now in this
poem he is only asking the spirits (“Mother Idoto”) to pardon and restore him. The
interview itself reflects the religious-cum-metaphysical experience of the poet Identity in
relation to “overture” and “Sacrifice”.

In ‘overture’ the Persona is more like reciting or chanting from the rituals of Idoto, a river
goddess of the author’s village. This incantation is intruding readers of this poem into
the persona’s cultural and religious experience. From the first two stanzas, readers can
tell that the persona is in complete submission at a sacred place as he says ‘naked I
stand, before your watery presence’ and that a secrete culture is being practiced because
the images used tells us that; this poem is a translation from the oral praises of mother
Idoto and its occasion composition was during the worship of mother Idoto. In1989, an
edition book of Christopher Okigbo was published by Paul Theroux and Adewale
Maja-peace entitled ‘Collected Poems’. The images in heavensgate from this book
reflected that; ‘Idoto is the goddess of the village stream in the poet’s hometown Ojoto,
in eastern Nigeria; the oilbean is part of the mangrove ecology in this riverine town and it
is one of the emblems of Idoto’s worship.

“Before you, Mother Idoto” (overture: Verse one) suggests that the persona is addressing
a female figure that is superior in nature. Line two affirms the compliance or the complete
submission of the persona to the omniscient spiritual figure.
 14

The images in ‘Overture’ clearly show that the poem is a reflection of religious and
metaphysical experience of the persona. In addition, the persona chose ‘water’ as an
image because that’s where the river goddess Idoto is found. The oilbean in the fifth line
of ‘overture’ justifies the mangrove ecology of Idoto’s emblem worship. These images
are not found in the Elizabethan period and therefore, the author Christopher Okigbo can
be regarded as a metaphysical poet. In Overture, Okigbo begins by finding himself before
the watery presence of Idoto. He is naked, a supplicate offering himself as a sacrifice to
his own poetic impulse. From these explanations, Dathone wrote in ‘black Orpheus’:
“Okigbo’s poetry in Heavensgate is about the evolution of a personal religion and his
spiritual experience”.

In the last stanza of ‘overture’, Watchman suggests that the persona is a man and
Heavensgate is an experience to his life. The persona is in complete submission to the
guiding spirits as he say “under your power wait I on bare foot” and basically pleading
for acceptance as the last verse says ‘give ear and hearken’ to mean please listen to me.
‘Overture’ is closely related to ‘sacrifice’ in the sense that the persona in both poems
intends to construct a spiritual sanctuary to accommodate the most cherished affinities,
his most deep-seated instincts and sensibilities. The essence of all this is that as the
persona takes the literally journey of self-discovery through a wide range of people and
tongues, he will have attained a sense of his complex personality by means of a guiding
beacon which he can fairly claim to be his own. The persona in these poems wrestles
with residual images of religious aspects as they learn to transcend the endeavors to find
themselves.

In conclusion, “Overture” and “Sacrifice” in Heavensgate initially expressed the poets

complete abandonment to the goddess Idoto. It is a rite of passage in which the poet is
completely enthroned by the goddess and gives himself passionately, humbly and
completely to her as a prodigal son who has repented and finally decide to come home.
The persona is naked before Idoto. He is lost in her legend and this verse is found in both
overture and sacrifice showing how repentant and submissive the persona is in the heart
before the guiding spirits. These poems review the Christianity and the traditional
religions in the persona’s life and these are the religious-cum-metaphysical experiences
obtained in these two poems. The ideas raised in these poems are similar to those
happening in the Catholic Church like Praising Mary who is believed to be the mother of
God. The persona also brings the theme of destruction of African religions by the
European Christian missionaries. The persona employs what Eliot called the mythical
method which involves abandoning logical metaphysical composition and using myth
and indirect references to relate traditional religions and modern Christianity. Although
Okigbo’s poems in Heavensgate ‘Overture’ and ‘Sacrifice’ are complex and dense,
containing references of his traditional culture and metaphysical experience, they remind
Africans on the importance of their religious faith in ritual and spiritual realms. Okigbo
would be criticized internationally in ‘Overture’ and ‘sacrifice’ for using some symbols
which are not internationally recognized. There are some symbols specific to his
tradition and knowing them would require someone to visit his world. In “overture” and
 15

“sacrifice” the persona is requesting for pardon from the guiding spirits. By so doing,
they have disclosed their cultural beliefs and the various misadventures of the prodigal
life. By ideology, these two poems attempt to explore the configuration of religious and
metaphysical experience of Africans urging the spirits of their ancestors to continue to
proclaim themselves even within the language that seek mantic cadenza (brilliant
prophetic passage) of an African sensibility and ancestral outlook as both poems touch
the theme of religiosity and metaphysical experiences of the persona.

PIANO AND DRUMS

GABRIEL OKARA ( COMPILED BY ANYIAM CHRISTIAN O'24 LAW CLASS MEMBER)

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM, THE PIANO AND THE DRUMS

STANZA ONE

In this stanza, the poetic persona speaks of the sound of the jungle drum. This sound of
drum he feels is mystical, that is, there are so many supernatural things that comes with
it. The sound of the drum to him, creates agility, strength and quickness of action. This
can be seen from lines 3 to 4 as he runs into imagination to the primordial time picturing
what this sound would do to the jungle residents:

“… Speaking of

Primal youth and the beginning

I see the panther ready to pounce

The leopard snarling about to leap

And the hunters crouch with spears poised”

All is action and natural. The poetic persona with a straight use of imagery and
comprehensible words draws the readers’ attention to the fact that everything about this
sound is in their natural states using words like, “riverside, jungle, raw, fresh,” names of
animal in the jungle – natural habitat, and the last line of the stanza speaking of a hunter
with spear ready to strike and hunt.

Everything about this stanza depicts the freshness of nature and life as of the old.
 16

STANZA TWO

Once again, the poetic persona remembers of years back when he was still an infant in
his mother’s laps suckling her breast (lines 9 to 11). Suddenly, he is walking the paths of
the village with no new ideas of a way of life different from the one he is born into:

“At once I’m walking simple

Paths with no innovations,

Rugged, fashioned with the naked

Warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts

In green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.”

STANZA THREE

Then, here in stanza three, reality changed as the poetic persona came in contact with a
different sound from a faraway land:

“Then I hear a wailing piano

Solo speaking of complex ways in

Tear-furrowed concerto;

Of far-away lands”

The change in the sound came with a different instrument other than African native drum,
and it also produces a sound that is different with so many musical technicalitieswhich
the poetic persona expresses with musical dictions in words like, “concerto, diminuendo,
crescendo.” He deploys them to emphasize the difficulty in understanding this new
sound
 17

“… but lost in the labyrinth

Of its complexities…”

Consequently, in the last four lines, the poetic persona laments on the level of confusion
the new sound brings when it mixes with the drums:

“And I lost in the morning mist

Of an age at a riverside keep

Wandering in the mystic rhythm

Of jungle drums and the concerto”

Anyiam Christian wishes you exam success in your forthcoming exams.

You can reach me on Whatsapp: 08060370812 or email anyiamkelechukwu@gmail.com.
I don't plan for you to fail!
I see potentials in you! Utilize it.