March 21 every year is known as World Poetry Day. Designated by the United Nations to mark and celebrate poets and their works all over the world, the PEN International in its responsibilities to take writers to the highest level, has therefore taken it upon itself to embellish the celebration to suit the norms and sentiments of poets. PEN is an acronym for Poets, Editors, Playwrights, Essayists and Novelists. It also encompasses all other writers, including journalists, composers, arrangers and more. For this, and more, the celebration is usually a moment to bring all writers together to dance, perform, recite, read, renew and reinterate the essence of literary endeavours; ideas, name it.
In Nigeria, the celebration was marked with pomp and pageantry. At the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Epe, Lagos, where it was celebrated, the atmosphere was truly agog. PEN Nigeria chapter, spearheaded by Folu Agoi, its president, left no stone unturned to ensure the day was a memorable one. The cozy ambiance of the school was indeed apt. The students were in high spirits to welcome and honour and incubate ideas to prosper poetry.
They began with open mic shows where those who had topics to render did so. They sang, they danced, they performed, in Yoruba and English giving poetry a real place of honour. Visitors were awed watching the English students and other students from allied departments showcase quality stuffs with high zests of eagerness. Their love for poetry was unbridled and brought to the fore by the opportunity offered by the World Poetry Day.
With the theme: What poetry is: what poetry is not, and dedicated to the late Professor Pius Adesanmi who lost his life in an Ethiopian aircraft some weeks back, poets set the ball rolling. In attendance were notable Nigerian writers in the persons of R. C Ofodile, Folu Agoi, Tunji Sotimirin, Steve Adamaroye, Busola Kolade, Ralph-Akintan-Ralph, Ralph Tatagatha, Dagger Tolar and others. The school auditorium was filled to the full. The Dramatic and Creative Arts students of the school performed a play to honour Adesanmi. Their performance hinged on the afterlife as the spirit of Adesanmi was invoked onto the stage in form of a masked person. He hovered within the stage, angry, hostile, forlorn, unhappy. The artistes pleaded, chanted, sang, begging him to return. The spirit boomed, hauled and never relented. It was sorrowful; it was harrowing, too late to make him return to the living. As he did so, the drums beat, the dirge sounded, penetrating the foyers of the hall.
Yet Agoi in his speech, enlogised poetry as the mother of literature, creativity generally. He said: “Poetry often is the least understood of the literary genres in Africa. This is a world-wide celebration organized by UNESCO. It is so designated to honour poetry and give more insight into these ingredients that make poetry deeper than the rest. Poetry helps to project our lives and ensure that humanity gets it right. It is indeed the oldest form of literature”, he opined. PEN was formed in 1921 in England.
Ofodile, a poet, actor, novelist, playwright and essayist, read from some of his notable works Coming all the way from Onitsha, Anambra State, he noted that writing embodies life. He commended the students for their enthusiasm towards literature and literary matters. He read a poem on the sentiments of Christopher Columbus who was a renowned slave merchant in Africa, and world-over. He reminded the gathering that Columbus sailed round the world ensuring that the trade in Africans was a worthy preoccupation. Africans were debased, caricatured and rendered homeless and useless. But Fredrick Douglas, a Black American came out later to re-infuse confidence in the Africans of his time. He corrected all those erroneous impressions against the Black race and that set a new era for Africans in America and in the New World. He narrowed his poetry gaze on Lagos where the old buildings brought into place by returnee Brazilians have been left to deteriorate. “The British care for their antics: their historical institutions. Here in Nigeria it is the opposite”, he bemoaned, shaking his head disdainfully. He was obviously piqued.
Sotimirin; a lecturer in the Creative Arts Department of the University of Lagos, was a bit more practical in his presentation. Creating meanings and ideas from the words placed on the walls of the auditorium, he formed poems with them. When he read some of it, the audience cheered and clamoured. Sotimirin is a one-man stage artiste and it was an apt time for him to depict his trade on stage. “These words are instructive”, he began. “If you love the written words so much, as soon as you enter here, they will capture your attention. They did so to me. They are the words that will encourage you to learn more, read more and know more. Don’t stop learning, for learning makes you a stronger person”, he admonished the students who equally applauded him.
Tolar, the secretary of PEN Nigeria was in his usual element when he mesmerised the people with his revolutionary poems. An author of many poetry collections, Tolar dwelt more on his new collections titled Black Maria. He lampooned injustice, tribalism, bad leadership and all. He referred to Malcolm X, a Black American revolutionary leader who stirred the consciousness of the people.
He began by quoting phrases from Peter Touch, Fela, Bob Marley and some revolutionary singers who have moved the global scene with their evocative songs and lyrics and compositions and stage antics. Thus, Tolar bestrode the stage with poetic lines that made the students to yell, yearn and cheer. Tolar dwelt on inflation, greed and more. He took it further – “schools are in dire state of disrepair; there are no standards to improve what we have for the younger ones. There is destitution everywhere. Beggars litter the streets; to find food to eat is a huge task in our clime”. He went on and on to deliver those lines in Yoruba, referring to the snatching of election ballot boxes by hoodlums. “Does that sound good?”, he asked an obviously charged audience.
The Provost of College Dr. Olajide Onibon, represented by the Dean of School of Languages Tunde Odeseye charged the students to shun cultism. “This is the type of organization you should aspire to join”, he told them. “Cultism is bad; it will only lead you to perdition. It will destroy you and render your lives completely useless and hopeless. So desist from it; run away from it. Instead come to PEN, develop yourselves and be useful not only to yourself but to the whole community”.
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