Bayonets and the carnage of tongues: The contemporary Nigerian poet speaking truth to power. (March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Diala, Isidore
• Is Part Of: Journal of Commonwealth literature. Volume 52:Number 1(2017)
• Page Start: 116
• Page End: 138
• Publication Date: 2017-03
• Subjects: Contemporary Nigerian poets -- counter-hegemonic discourse -- myth-making -- power -- truth; English literature -- Periodicals; Commonwealth literature (English) -- Periodicals; Littérature anglaise -- Périodiques; 820.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0021989415575800
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9894

Abstract

The paradigmatic antagonistic relationship between the Nigerian poet and the despot in his guise as a military ruler has often been examined in terms of a hegemonic contestation of power between unequal rivals. The military state's typical response to the poet's "truth" with the display of excessive might, often involving the emblematic battering of the poet's tongue by the imposition of silence even in its eternal form of death, entrenches the notion of a powerful antagonist pitted against a weak opponent who nonetheless incarnates the spirit of the masses. A close reading of anti-military Nigerian poetry, however, underscores that the situation was replete with paradoxes: the inability of power to ignore apparent powerlessness; the ultimate triumph of powerlessness over power; and the fascinating replication in the counter-discourse of the (discursive) strategies of the dominant hegemony it battles against. This study highlights these trends in contemporary Nigerian poetry inspired by military despotism by paying particular attention to the work of the "third generation" of Nigerian poets.