Of Earnest Poetics and Subtle Butterflies

Abstract

Poetry has over the centuries been envisioned as a butterfly-art with less didactics. Hence just as bridges are a solution to sea-crossing, African poets build their poems as solutions to the numerous socio-political problems of Africa. They build a utilitarian poetic corpus that is devoid of the luxuriance and aesthetic exuberance of butterflies. Their aim is to create a communal awareness that liberates and fosters the growth of the African spirit. Therefore this study adopts the postcolonial theory as its theoretical model and through its instrumentality challenges Eurocentric and aristocratic hegemonic values planted in the existential fabric of Africa. Issues ranging from poverty to superstition, Eurocentricism, gender prejudice, and cultural nationalism are succinctly expressed in Richard Ntiru’s The Pauper, To the Living and Virgin Madre. In Oswald Mtshali’s Men in Chains, The Marble Eye and A Voice from the Dead, the reader sees radical consciousness, suffering, orality, protest and subjugation expressly evident while Jack Mapanje’s Visiting Zomba Plateau, Travelling in London Tubes and When this Carnival Finally Closes feature the excesses of western civilization, Africans’ irrational guests for European ideals, the international nature of African poetry, corruption and so on. The poems do the talking and elicit the necessary action(s) from the readers.

Keywords: Butterfly-art, Utilitarian, Communal Awareness, Hegemonic Values