Of a Poet and His Society: A Review of Denja Abdullahi’s Abuja Nunyi (This is Abuja)
Obodo (Country, City, Town, Ancestral Village) (2018-2019) by Njideka Akunyili Crosby
By Ibrahim Nureni
Denja Abdullahi’s Abuja Nunyi (This is Abuja) (2008) is a pictographic collection of poems that guardedly surveys the nooks and crannies of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The poetry volume encapsulates Abuja in its cultural alertness and descriptions of Nigeria’s dysfunctional disposition. The collection is conceived in forty-one poems segmented into six sections: “Welcome Song,” “Native Songs,” “Songs on the Lips of Modern Abuja,” “Songs the City taught Me,” “Songs of the Future,” and “Farewell Song.” Through each section, the reader is steered into some salient socio-cultural and political issues such as corruption and cultural embracement, amongst others.
In the poem “City Gate,” the philosophical mien of the poet is best captured, as he metaphorically hails the “visitor” and “wayfarers” with allusions to their inputs in the cultural and socio-political system of Nigeria. The poem is wound up with an optimistic tenor that “this city could be different” if only the villagers, visitors, wayfarers, political figures along with other stakeholders can be highly productive with a keen heart to serve the people.
The early poems in the collection are concerned with cultural venerations in the countrified scenery of Abuja. The poem “Gbagyi Woman” espouses the agrarian symbol of the villages by presenting an image of a woman whose cultural belief accords her head as the majestic part of the physique, and as such, the hassle of heavy loads rests on the woman’s shoulder. The poet intones:
She carries yams, firewood
And the burden of the race
On her frail shoulder,
Careful not to taint her sacred head (24).
Another relatable poem that emphasizes African norms is “Gbagyi Dancers” in the section “Native Song.” Here, the poet gets his poetic voice from the Alter-Native poetry tradition by illustrating the rhythmic drums of Africa that are accompanied with dances in a conservative Gbagyi community. The poet, Abdullahi, ergo displays his poetic romance for Gbagyi dancers and by extension, African dancers.
“Bend from the waist down
Catch the dance before it touches the floor,
Sway the elbows back and forth
Tilt the head and smile broadly,
Lift up the black and indigo wear
Swing in circle to the rhythm of the drums.
Shot nagode!
Appreciate the Gbagyi dancers” (28).
In the section “Songs on the Lips of Modern Abuja,” the poet emphasizes his preference for the cultural aesthetics (such African drums, dance style and music) to the modern ambiance of the city. In the poem “Abuja: Phase One and Two,” the poet uses satire to paint a psychological picture of migrants traveling from a rural to a metropolitan scene. The picture, attached to the poem, scorns the high degree of migration of the people in the city of “empty ceremonies of aborted dreams”:
Abuja of this phase is one of grim realities
Of skyrocketed cost and amputated means
Of drunken revelry and empty ceremonies
Of aborted dreams and inflamed passions
Of abandoned villages and chocked hovels.
Abuja of this phase may not be rosy
Yet the “bliss” too must go on! (34).
On the idea of modernity explored in the collection, the poet employs Pidgin as a channel of artistic expression in the poem “Abuja Babes.” He highlights the grand abuse of power by the “randy executhieves” with ministers and senators using their offices as an avenue of chase after “the Abuja babes.”
The poem “International Conference Centre” lampoons the country’s dysfunction, likening it to a conference centre hosting African scholars. With renditions of sugar-coated oratory, Denja believes that the socio-political hazards are addressed via “power-point presentations” in conferences without outright actions to correct the ailments reviewed. To him, these conferences are more displays of political know-how among the African elites.
Taken overall, the stance of Denja Abdullahi’s Abuja Nunyi (This is Abuja) is the highlighting of the problems of victims of the unfair political mood of the country; the poet has attempted to maintain continuity between art and his lived experiences. The pictures attached to some of the poems augment the poetic merriments of the collection.
Ibrahim Nureni lives and writes in a beautiful world; his philosophy is “the sky is big enough for all the birds in the sky not to collide.” He uses arts to soak boredom. When he is not writing, Ibrahim is somewhere in the world with a glass of wine and suya (spicy meat skewer). Follow him on Twitter @Nurenium.
