THIRD-GENERATION NIGERIAN POETRY AND REVOLTING IMAGERY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF OGAGA IFOWODO’S HOMELAND AND OTHER POEMS

Abstract

The third-generation poetry has been the most socio-politically conscious in modern Nigerian poetry, a fact that underscores the symbiotic nature of the relationship between art and society. The poetry had attained efflorescence during one of the most socially challenging and politically turbulent times in the history of the country, specifically, the despotic years of military rule. As a poet and a social activist, Ogaga Ifowodo’s poetry evinces concerns with the realities of this milieu. In this article, using selected poems from his debut poetry collection, Homeland and Other Poems, I admit that Ifowodo shares the vision of gloom which characterises the poetry of this period and his generational group of poets. However, I go on to argue that his versification in the collection is different from others’ versification in terms of his deployment of imagery to project the vision. Relying on postcolonial insights on the critical concept of otherness, complemented by literariness of formalism, I show how his imagery drips with revulsion in what appears intended as a damning commentary on the social standing of Nigerians, especially of leaders who lived in the era of military dictatorship.