Abstract
In his article "Urhobo Folklore and Udje Aesthetics in Ojaide's In the House of Words and Songs of Myself" Mathias Orhero argues that Ojaide's poetry incorporates Urhobo folkloric contents and Udje style. Using African New Criticism as its theoretical anchor, this paper reveals that Ojaide amply deploys Urhobo folkloric contents and Udje aesthetics in both the form and contents of his poetry and thus, he continues as a modern Urhobo Udje maestro of the hybrid tradition. This paper also brings Ojaide's recent collections to critical lenses, especially as masterpieces of his Urhobo folkloric and Udje adaptations. Orhero concludes by suggesting that further scholarship on the influence of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics should be done on Ojaide's other poetry collections. Mathias Iroro Orhero, page 2 of 10 "Urhobo Folklore and Udje Aesthetics in Ojaide's In The House Of Words and Songs Of Myself" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 19.2 (2017): Mathias Iroro ORHERO Urhobo Folklore and Udje Aesthetics in Ojaide's In The House Of Words and Songs Of Myself This paper represents an attempt to examine the place of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics in the poetry of Tanure Ojaide. Some critics have maintained that Ojaide's poetry is influenced by oral aesthetics. However, critical studies have yet to draw significant attention to the influence of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics in his poetry, especially with regard to his recent collections – In the House of Words and Songs of Myself. Instead, Ojaide's works have mostly been examined from postcolonial, critical, and socialist realist perspectives. Consequently, his use of Urhobo folklore and the Udje tradition has been largely ignored, with critics paying more attention to his socio-political and ecocritical poems. In contrast to this scholarly trend, this paper treats Ojaide as a modern Urhobo folklorist and Udje maestro whose works belong alongside the other Urhobo Udje maestros of the oral literary tradition. In order to authenticate Ojaide's place in this tradition, this study examines contents and form in Ojaide's new poetry, with special attention given to the infusion of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics in In the House of Words and Songs of Myself. Born in 1948 to Urhobo parents from Okpara-Inland in Agbon Kingdom, Delta State of Nigeria, Ojaide is a poet whose works have been widely studied. He is primarily known as a socio-political poet, a satirist, and an ecocritical poet who is part of the generation Funso Aiyejina described as the "Alter/Native" tradition ("Recent Nigerian" 112). Ojaide's themes and techniques have changed over the years alongside the history and agitations of his people, but critics have recognized him as an important figure in African poetry since he began publishing in the 1970s. Bassey Bassey places Ojaide in "the generation of Nigerian writers after the Achebe – Clark – Okigbo – Soyinka era," and adds that Ojaide uses his poetry to "comment on the political reality of his day" ("Forms of Political Consciousness" 168). Tijan Sallah goes beyond the categorization of Ojaide's poetry to assert that Ojaide's work is appealing not only for its technical qualities but for its "cultural integrity" ("The Eagle's Vision" 20). Godini Darah further opines that "on the basis of sheer output, Ojaide is the most prolific in the Niger Delta region" ("Revolutionary Pressures" 2). Onookome Okome remarks of Ojaide's style that it "puts him apart from his literary peers. His poetry is simple, yet each line is loaded with meaning; each carries the weight of serious contemplation, creating a world in which meaning generates more meaning" ("About the Author" 2). On the strength of this evaluation, Okome concludes that Ojaide is one of the most important poets to emerge in Africa after Wole Soyinka. Critics have noted that certain themes predominate in Ojaide's poetry. One of these themes is that of environmental pollution in the Niger Delta. In this regard, Nesther Alu and Vashti Suwa assert that Ojaide "advances concern for the environment and the consequences of such unfortunate predicaments [environmental pollution] of his people" ("Tanure Ojaide" 134). Furthering their argument, they write that "Tanure Ojaide laments the deplorable condition of the Niger-Delta, using local rudimentary psyched sights of anguish, discomposure, and trepidation that streak his time and land. He paints the stench of human waste into words for the purpose of rescuing and salvaging the helpless victims of the exacting system. His sensitivity to the situation makes the subject of the Delta a compact milestone in his ingenious mind as he uses it to uncover the deleterious social order in his society ("Tanure Ojaide" 135). In a similar thought, Enajite Ojaruega assesses the environmental activism of Tanure Ojaide's poetry and concludes that: "He is one writer who, through his art, has been able to bring to public attention the level of environmental degradation going on in the Niger Delta region for several decades. By extension, he also reveals the plight of the people whose lives and livelihoods have been greatly compromised as a result of the negative consequences of oil exploitation in that region. Much of Ojaide's poetry consistently dwells on the paradox of an oil wealth that is a blessing turned doom, a curse rather than a source of joy for his people and region. Strong strains of lamentation and nostalgic evocation for what was once an idyllic environment, but now greatly damaged, are also found in his poetry" ("The Place" 138-139). Apart from the environmental consciousness of his poetry, critics have also noted the political consciousness of Ojaide's poetry. In this regard, notable work has been done on his satirical tendencies and critical and social realism, as well as the pure political activism in his poetry. Jide Balogun believes that "Tanure Ojaide uses poetry as a vehicle for political mediation and social control" ("The Poet" 78). In this vein, he is often seen as a socio-political poet; for instance, Aiyejina refers to Ojaide as a Marxist poet ("Recent Nigerian" 112). The variety of critical readings of Ojaide's work yields credence to the idea that Ojaide is a poet of many colors. Ojaruega has also assessed Ojaide's use of orature in his poetry. She writes that: "...it is apparent that Ojaide uses orature to establish not only a cultural idenMathias Iroro Orhero, page 3 of 10 "Urhobo Folklore and Udje Aesthetics in Ojaide's In The House Of Words and Songs Of Myself" CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 19.2 (2017): tity for his work but also organize style and form to effectively express his themes. In doing so, the poet also gives the present generation and readers an idea of their traditional heritage and how it can be used to express current and enduring thoughts and feelings. Within Ojaide's poetry, contemporary issues are sometimes reconstructed through similar episodes and events found in past Urhobo traditional oral history and folkloric heritage" ("The Place" 143). Clearly, Ojaide is a poet who has received much critical attention. His poetry has evolved over the years to cover a wide variety of themes and techniques. But for all of its diversity, this critical attention is also limited in scope. A crucial lacuna, which this paper will attempt to address, remains at the question of the influence of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics in Ojaide's poetry. The African New Criticism offers a useful set of critical tools for approaching such a question. Like mainstream New Criticism, African New Criticism reads a text closely. However, the context of a text is also taken into cognizance. It has some semblance with Neo-Aristotelianism in its recourse to context in explication. Gabriel Bamgbose describes the African New Criticism as "a sort of hybrid of the textual and the contextual as opposed to the Anglo-American New Criticism, which is extremely textual; it is a formalistic explication of text with focus on the intrinsic; however it strives to resist the temptation of ignoring the extrinsic since both are modes of signification of meaning" ("Reading" 1). Major African literary critics such as Abiola Irele, Chidi Maduka, and Charles Nnolim, among others have defended this approach as the best way to explicate African literature. Much like the attention given to literary language adopted by the Russian Formalists and American New Critics, the African New Criticism enables the reader of Ojaide to closely examine textual features such as imagery, symbolism, metaphor, structure, allusion, diction, style, satire, and other literary techniques. At the same time, however, an African New Critical reading of Ojaide would also examine the socio-political, historical, economic, and other contexts that the work is thrust into. For the purposes of this paper, this means an examination of how Ojaide's poetic language is employed to show Urhobo folklore and the Udje tradition. Such a study must begin with an understanding of the Urhobo people and culture, and specifically of the Udje tradition. Tanure Ojaide identifies himself as an Urhobo man (Poetic Imagination 121), and he has argued that a proper knowledge of his background is important in understanding the dynamics of his poetry. The Urhobo people are indigenous to Delta State. They are about five million in population (Ojaruega, "The Place" 140) and are the largest ethnic group in Delta State as well as the fifth largest ethnic group in Nigeria. The Urhobo are also found in Bayelsa State (Sagbama Local Government Area) and Edo State (Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area). Their settlements can be found in Ondo and Lagos States. Urhobo major cities include Warri, Ughelli, Effurun and Sapele. There are various theories of the origin of Urhobo people. However, the most acceptable theory is that of t
Full text