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The Theory of Implicature in the Analysis of Ossie Onuora

Enekwe‟s Broken Pots

A Project Report

Written and Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the

Requirements for the Award of a Master of Arts

Degree in English in the Department of English and

Literary Studies

By

Uzo, Cornelia Ngozi

PG/MA/08/48889

Department of English and Literary Studies

Faculty of Arts

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

June, 2012

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Title Page

The Theory of Implicature in the Analysis of Ossie Onuora

Enekwe‟s Broken Pots

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Approval Page

This work has been read and approved as having met the

standard required for the award of Master of Arts (MA)

degree in the Department of English and Literary Studies,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

____________________ _______________

Head of Department Date

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Certification

This is to certify that this project is an independent study carried out by Uzo,

Cornelia Ngozi Registration Number, PG/MA/08/48889 of Department of

English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and that this

work has not been presented in part or in full for the award of diploma or

degree in this or any other University.

__________________ __________________

Prof. Sam Onuigbo Rev. Fr. Prof. A.N. Akwanya

Supervisor Head of Department

__________________

External Examiner

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Dedication

To

The memory of Prof. Onuora Ossie Enekwe (1942 – 2010).

- A literary legend

- First generation writer

- An all round scholar – poet, play Wright, actor, theatre scholar and

writer of repute.

May his gentle soul continue to rest in the bosom of our Lord Almighty –

Amen.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am most grateful for the support and encouragement I got from many

people in the course of research and production of this work. My deep gratitude

goes to Prof. O.O. Enekwe (of blessed memory) for his sound academic advices.

To my colleagues and friends Ada Nwodo, Agunwamba C.N., Dr (Mrs) Sylvia

Agu, Dr (Mrs) Aka Joe, Dr (Mrs) Viv. Ibeanu, Dr. Chibuzo Onunkwo and others,

thanks for your advice and encouragement.

I am also indebted to my husband, Dr. N.M. Uzo, for his very strong

support in the course of this study. My children – Uju, Kene, Olly, Nze and

Chukwuemelie – sincerely I am most blessed to be part of you all.

To my supervisor, Professor Sam Onuigbo. In spite of your tight schedule,

you still painstakingly read through my work, making corrections and giving

directions, even without delay. I don‟t know how to thank you for this favour!

Remain blessed. To my lecturers Professors Akwanya, A.N., Opata, D.U. Dr

Ezema, P. and Nwankwo Chidi, I am blessed because you trained me. Thanks a

million!.

Above all, to God Almighty! What could I have done without you? Your

favour located me; your love sustains me; your grace leads me on. I honour you.

Ngozi C. Uzo

Department of English and Literary Studies

University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

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ABSTRACT

The model of transformational grammar which dominated linguistic thinking

many years ago, sees language primarily as a capability of the human mind, and

therefore highlights the formal and cognitive aspects of language. But

transformational grammar has been challenged by various other models,

particularly those which emphasize the social role of language. Halliday‟s

functional model for example sees language as a „social semiotic‟ and so directs

attention particularly to the communicative and socially expressive functions of

language. The same shift of focus has resulted in a different way from the

influence on linguistics of work by „ordinary language‟ philosophers such as Searl

(on speech acts) and Grice (on conversational implicature). These philosophers

believe that in the study of language, there seem to be certain features and

elements that cannot be captured in a strictly linguistic (or grammatical) view on

language. Based on the rich provisions of Grice‟s theory of implicature, it is

chosen and explored by the writer as a reliable analytical model for the

interpretation of Broken Pots. This is because it helps the reader penetrate an

author‟s literary world in order to project what is not said from what is said. What

is said may have no direct relationship with the intended message of the author,

but the ability to impose the socio – cultural and religious imperatives on the

linguistic code, to project the message makes the pragmatic procedure (theory of

implicature) a reliable interpretive model. Broken Pots is an anthology of poems

that spans a period of about ten years (1963 – 1973). It covers a period in Nigerian

history marked by grim political upheavals and societal problems that later

culminated in a thirty months civil war (1967 – 1970) that sent over one million

Nigerians to their early graves. This background/context of the poems has to be

taken into consideration by the reader in order, not only to be able to exfoliate and

comprehend the implied information in the poems but also to appreciate the

aesthetic beauty of the work. When the theory of implicature is applied, the native

sensibilities behind the poems are captured and appreciated but when analyzed just

linguistically most of the implied meanings with certain semantic density are lost.

Meanwhile, the work has been divided into five chapters. The first chapter

contains the introduction and explanation of certain terms relevant to this work.

Chapter two is the review of other works that have been carried out in this area

while chapter three gives the socio-political background of the poems. Chapter

four in three sections analyzes the thirty one poems in Broken Pots using the

implicature procedure, while chapter five summarizes as well as concludes the

whole discourse.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page - - - - - - - - - i

Approval Page - - - - - - - - ii

Certification Page - - - - - - - - iii

Dedication Page - - - - - - - - iv

Acknowledgments - - - - - - - - v

Abstract - - - - - - - - - vi

Table of Contents - - - - - - - - vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION - - - - - 1

1.1 Background of the Study - - - - - - 1

1.1 What is Pragmatics? - - - - - - - 5

1.2 Statement of Problem - - - - - - 14

1.3 Purpose of the Study - - - - - - 15

1.4 Significance of the Study - - - - - - 15

1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study - - - - 16

1.6 Research Methodology - - - - - - 16

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW - - - - 17

2.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 17

2.1 Theoretical Development in Pragmatics - - - - 17

2.2 Empirical Studies - - - - - - - 35

2.3 Summary - - - - - - - - 41

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CHAPTER THREE: SOCIO – POLITICAL BACKGROUND

OF THE POEMS - - - - 42

CHAPTER FOUR: WAR POEMS - - - - - 49

4.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 49

4.1 Textual Analysis - - - - - - - 50

4.2 Poem to Friends Lost in War - - - - - 72

4.3 Poems of Love and Nostalgia - - - - - 101

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION - - 116

WORKS CITED - - - - - - - - 119

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Learning theories, educational/applied psycholinguists, language teaching

professionals and policy makers have persistently sought to design and formulate

more effective methods to second language (L2) teaching and learning. Their

attempts have so far given some insights into L2 learning situation and provided

more practical approaches such as English for specific purposes (ESP) and

pragmatics. The teaching of pragmatics, according to Bardovi-Harlig (2003:25)

aims to

facilitate the learners‟ ability to find socially appropriate language for the

situations they encounter. Within second language studies and teaching,

pragmatics encompasses speech acts, conversational structure,

conversational implicature, conversational management, discourse

organization and sociolinguistic aspects of language use, such as choice of

address forms.

All these practical approaches and insights into L2 learning situations improve the

teaching of the language as against the abstract formalized way of language

teaching. Vincent (1973: 219) rightly observed that one of the problems of modern

African poetry teaching in the secondary schools and colleges in Nigeria is that

“for many teachers of poetry, the important facts about any poem do not go

beyond identifying a few metaphors and similes and making some naïve remarks

about musicality and rhymes”. To him, the idea of fixing on just meaning,

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“represents an abstracted facet of the artifact”. The meaning of a poem he

continues, “goes beyond the immediately graspable statement it ostensibly

makes”.

Reports, comments and questions at conferences and seminars indicate that

many teachers are preoccupied with hunting for the type of meaning that has been

criticized above. Quite a few of them have remained daunted in their quest. On the

above issue, Vincent (213) concludes rightly that

It is inappropriate to limit oneself to the lexical interpretation of a word and

to expect straightforward syntax not only because poetry does not operate

that way but also because the syntactic structure of the poem may be an

aspect of its meaning. This is especially so in modern African literature

which uses the English language to express experiences that are specifically

African. The analysis of poetry in purely linguistic terms remain boring and

unrewarding.

Gregory (1978:32) also in line with Vincent believes that „when the linguist has

described the structure of a language and codified its vocabulary, he has not taken

us to the heart of the mystery‟. He equally believes that

Without grammars, lexicons and phonetic descriptions, we should

understand nothing about the systems of languages. But these analyses

inevitably stop short at the point where languages, in serving personal and

social ends, becomes part of the ceaseless flux of human life and activity

for we choose our utterances to fit situations.

It is interesting to note that past scholars, especially those with close links with the

study of society like Boas and Sapir, Malinowski and Firth, have not failed to

remind us of the necessary relationship between the language we use and the

situation within which we use it. In fact, Malinowski (1949) argues that „an

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utterance makes sense only when it is „seen in the context in which it is used‟. His

argument was based on his observation of the way in which the language of the

people of Trobriand Islands fitted into their everyday activities and thus was an

inseparable part of them. Gregory (235) in line with the above idea, wants us to

understand that “language is essentially a social, an inter-organism activity, and

even in the extreme cases when we are talking to ourselves, we still in a sense

have company”. Onuigbo (2003:9) also has this to say, in line with the above issue

that

To work out the intention and purpose of an utterance or text, one is more

concerned with the relationship between „the speaker‟ and „the hearer‟ in a

particular occasion of use than with the grammatical import of the words

and structure of the sentences.

Linguists such as George Lakoff and John Robert (Haj) Rose, who believe that

language should not be used in isolation from the wider framework of human

activity, protested against the syntactic straight jacket of the Chomskyan School of

linguistics. In an article entitled “presupposition and relative well-formedness”,

Lakoff (1971b:3262), for the first time, publicly and in writing, opposed the well-

known Chomskeyan criterion of „well-formedness‟ as the ultimate standard by

which to judge a linguistic production.

In the „Syntax-only‟ linguistic tradition of Chomsky and his followers

observes Lakoff, (3262) “well-formedness plays the role of the decision maker in

questions of linguistic belonging‟. This is the definition, he went on to explain,

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that “assumed implicitly or explicitly invoked - has been the bulwark of the

Chomskyan system since the late 1950‟s”. But Lakoff (3263) points out that

This later notion is a highly relativistic one; it has to do (and a lot to do)

with what speakers know about themselves, about - their conversational

partners (often called interlocutors‟), about the topic of their conversation,

and about its progress.

Scholars also like Quasthoff (1994) Levinson (1983) gave in-depth examples that

show that the context of utterance has to be taken into consideration before

meaning can be finally arrived at. As Quasthoff (1994:730) observed

In the study of language, there seem to be certain features and elements that

cannot be captured in a strictly linguistic (or grammatical) view on

language. When one looks closer at these features and elements, they seem

to be related in some way to the „outer‟ world (what used to be called,

somewhat denigratorily, the extra linguistic) that is, to the world of the

users and their societal conditions.

Onuigbo (2003) sums it up when he asserts that „the grammatical categories will

always serve as frames of reference for handling of events in literature, but there is

always the recursive reference to the environment and context in which the

language is used‟. Proper interpretation of a speakers message is therefore, based

on the context and the possible interaction between the speaker and the hearer, and

of course their mutual knowledge of the world around them.

Going by Brown and Yule (1983:127) therefore “any analytic approach in

linguistics which involves contextual considerations necessarily belongs to that

area of language study called pragmatics”. The very condition of the existence of

pragmatics is the world of users. What people actually „do with words‟ derives

from the title of one of the classic works in the speech act tradition, How to do

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things with words (1962). The title of Austin‟s book contains an important

question, the answer to which is not, of course, that people should form correct

sentences or compose logical utterances but that they communicate with each

other (and themselves) by means of language.

1.1 What is Pragmatics?

Malmkjar (1991:354) defines pragmatics as

The study of the rules and principles which govern language in use, as

opposed to the abstract, idealized rules of, for instance, grammar, and of the

relationships between the abstract systems of language on the one hand, and

language in use on the other.

To Fotion (1995:60), pragmatics “is the study of language which focuses attention

on the users and the context of language rather than on reference, truth or

grammar”. Lycan (1995:24) further explains the above, by saying that

Pragmatics studies the use of language in context and the context-

dependence of various aspects of linguistic interpretation.... (its branches

include the theory of how) one and the same sentence can express different

meanings or propositions from context to context, owing to ambiguity or

indexicality or both... speech act theory, and the theory of conversational

implicature.

Gazdar (1979:16) makes it clearer when he says that “pragmatics is concerned

with those aspects of meaning of utterance which cannot be accounted for by

straight forward reference to truth-conditions of the sentence uttered”. Trask

(1997:174) also agrees with others when he equally defined pragmatics as “that

branch of linguistics which studies those aspects of meaning which derive from

the context of an utterance rather than being intrinsic to the linguistic material

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itself”. In almost all the definitions and explanations of pragmatics above, the

linguist places great emphasis on the users and the context of use.

Context is kernel to pragmatics. According to Quasthoff (731), „context

refers to the relevant elements of the surrounding linguistic or non linguistic

structures in relation to an uttered expression under consideration‟. It is worthy of

note, that the notion of context is often invoked to explain how pragmatics

complements semantics. That is why Bach (1994:14) says that

a sentence‟s linguistic meaning generally does not determine what is said in

its utterance and that the gap between linguistic meaning and what is said is

filled by something called context. The intuitive idea behind this platitude

is that there are different things that a speaker can mean, even when using

his words in a thoroughly literal way (even that he is speaking literally is a

matter of context).

To Bach, what one says in uttering the words can vary. What fixes what one says

cannot be facts about the words alone but must also include facts about the

circumstances in which one is using them. Those facts comprise the context of

utterance. Contextual information can be said to be „anything that the hearer takes

into account to determine (in the sense of ascertain) the speaker‟s communicative

intention‟ (Bach, 1994a).

Apart from contextualized sentence meaning and factors to be considered

under it, Questhoff (731) also says that speaker meaning is also to be considered.

According to him, “speaker meaning focuses on the linguistic contextual and

performance factors that influence the interpretation of messages intended by a

speaker via a given utterance”. The two major factors to be considered here, which

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happen to be basic to pragmatics are Speech Act Theory developed by Austin and

Searle and secondly Grice‟s (1975, 1978) Theory of Conversational Implicature.

Speech Act theory „specifies the object of linguistic description as the act of

speaking rather than as a structural system‟ (Quasthof 1994:732). In speech

analysis says Crystal (1994: 75); we study the effect of utterances on the

behaviour of speaker and hearer, using a threefold distinction. The three fold

distinction include

First, the bare fact that a communicative act takes place: the locutionary act.

Secondly, we look at the act that is performed as a result of the speaker

making an utterance - the cases where „saying = doing; such as betting,

promising, welcoming and warning: these, known as illocutionary acts, are

the core of any theory of speech acts. Thirdly, we look at the particular

effect the speaker‟s utterance has on the listener, who may feel amused,

persuaded, warned etc. as a consequence: the bringing about of such effects

is known as a perlocutionary act.

Kempson (1977:69) explains these acts further with an example

Suppose for example my child is refusing to lie down and go to sleep and I

say to him „I‟ll turn your light off: Now the locutionary act is the utterance

of the sentence I‟ll turn your light off. But I may be intending that utterance

to be interpreted as a threat, and this is my illocutionary act. Quite separate

from either of these is the consequent behaviour by my child that I intend to

follow from my utterance, namely that he be frightened into silence and

sleep.

Crystal (1994:70), concludes by saying that speech acts are successful only if they

satisfy several criteria known as „felicity conditions‟.

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Central to the very conception of a Grician pragmatic explanation is the

notion of conversational implicature. By conversational implicature explains

Fraser (1994:367)

Is meant the principle according to which an utterance, in a concrete

conversational setting, is always understood in accordance with what one

can expect in such a setting. Thus, in a particular situation in solving a

question, an utterance that on the face of it does not make sense can very

well be an adequate answer.

He drives the explanation above home with an example „if speaker A asks speaker

B, „what time is it?‟ it makes perfectly good sense to answer‟ the bus just went by.

„This is so‟ he explained further because

given a particular constellation of contextual factors, including the fact that

there is only one bus a day, and that it passes BS house at 7:45 each

morning; furthermore, that A is aware of this, and that A takes BS answer

in the „cooperative spirit‟ in which it was given as a relevant answer to a

previous question. Conversational implicature therefore, also emphasizes

the capacity of language to project messages which may have no direct

relationship with the formal linguistic value of the words and sentences

used to carry the messages. Onuigbo (7).

Also, the success of a conversation depends not only on what speakers say but on

their whole approach to the interaction. People adapt a cooperative principle when

they communicate. They try to get along with each other by following certain

conversational maxims that underlie the efficient use of language‟ Crystal (1994:

20). These maxims being referred to by Frazer (1994: 13255), are the maxims of

„quantity‟, „quality‟, „relation‟ and „manner‟.

The maxims as explained by Frozer are as follows

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Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current

purpose of the exchanged). Do not make your contribution more

informative than is required.

Quality: Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which

you lack adequate evidence.

Relation: Be relevant

Manner: Avoid obscurity of expression

Avoid ambiguity

Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).

Be orderly.

A speaker might observe all the maxims, as in the following example:

Father: Where are the children?

Mother: They‟re in the garden or in the playroom, I‟m not sure which.

The mother has answered clearly (manner) truthfully (quality), has given just the

right amount of information (quantity), and has directly addressed her husband‟s

goal in asking the question (relation). Frazer concluded by saying that „she has

said precisely what she meant, no more and no less, and has generated no

implicature (that is there is no distinction to be made here between what she says

and what she means).

It is important to note, that on very many occasions people fail to observe

the maxims. Grice calls this „flouting a maxim‟. Most often especially in the

literary scenario, maxims are deliberately flouted, with the deliberate intention of

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generating an implicature. Knowledge of the four maxims allows hearers to draw

inferences about the speakers/writers intentions and implied meaning. The

meaning conveyed by speakers/writers and recovered as a result of the

hearers/readers inferences is known as conversational implicature.

Grice proposed a toolkit, which has been elaborated by cutting (2008: 3) on

the basic factors that should be taken into consideration in the interpretation of

implicatures. Firstly, the usual linguistic meaning of what is said/written has to be

considered. Secondly, the socio-cultural/contextual/background information of the

text has to be considered. All the relevant elements of the writers world has to be

imposed on the written text for a reliable interpretation. Thirdly the application of

the cooperative principle and its attendant maxims, which Grice suggests is the

basis for the flexibility of the message that can be conveyed by the means of a

single sentence, is also applied. Also, the important point about these maxims is

that unlike rules (example grammatical rules) they are often deliberately violated

or flouted. In the literary scenario, the writer implies a function different from the

literal meaning of form.

Also the implicative value of traditional figures of speech, including the

ironic, metaphoric etc should be taken into consideration not just as literary

devices but as ways of enriching implied information.

An analysis of the title poem „Broken Pots‘ (p. 13) taken from the primary

text shows how the theory of pragmatics can be used to analyze a poem.

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‗Broken Pots‘

The heavy bosomed hill

Lies close to our hut

And the winding narrow path

Stumbles into our farm.

Up above where squirrels prance

or the naughty little birds twitter

About my little sister and me

I want to go and see

The king of the animals.

At night when the cold wind

Runs its fingers through our bodies

Like a drunken lover,

We want to press close to our mother

To break off the crawling touch

We always hear, soft and clear,

Like the wail of a lost lamb,

The voice of a virgin

Whose pot of water

Has slipped and crumbled

While its little fountain

Lingers into our farm

Many have cried

And I have heard many varied voices:

Husky ones as people who eat to much corn,

Muted ones like sighs from broken hearts,

And others which because I‟m to young,

I cannot name.

But I know that some

When they wreck their glory

Within the shades of a benign bush

Never cry as when the pot breaks.

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The background of the poems in this collection are “mainly laments in

which the writer expresses, with great sincerity, varying levels of sorrow over the

misery, desolation, waste, apathy, betrayal and alienation which surround him”

Nwankwo (1977: v). Enekwe believes so much in African cultural systems, to him

colonization just brought about the disintegration of our cultural values and

systems.

The poem ‗Broken Pots‘ can be conveniently divided into two parts. In the

first part (ie the first three stanzas), the poet „portrays the rich, lovely, serene,

unsoiled world of Africa, while the remaining part (ie the last three stanzas) is a

lamentation at the loss of that which was once adorable‟ Ngonebu (2008: 81). In

the first line of the first stanza there is a violation of selection restriction rule, in

this way is a clear breach of the maxim of quality and manner since it is not

literally true that an inanimate thing „Hill‟ can be „bossomed‟, which in usage is a

feature of full – fledged womanhood. According to Ngonebu (2008:82)

The poet has attributed this female quality to an inanimate thing the hill. In

using this attribute, the poet wants to attract our attention to the hill. He

wishes to emphasize that the hill is not only huge but also attractive and

imposing, like the figure of a shapely woman. He wants us to see the beauty

in traditional Africa by comparing it to a young girl in her prime.

„Hut‟, „narrow path‟, „farm‟ are other features of rustic life, „which are

characteristic of Africa‟ „squirrels that prance‟, little birds that twitter and „king of

the animals‟ represent a microcosm of the entire animal kingdom for which Africa

is known and admired.

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The third stanza, also in line with the natural landscape shows that the clean

cool wind flows naturally and unobstructed from the hills. In the last three stanzas,

there is a sudden twist in events. Ngonebu explains that

This part about the breaking of the pot is a signifier, which lends itself to

various interpretations/significations. The two verb phrases used to show

this break … „slipped‟ and „crumbled‟ share the semantic features of

destruction, breakage, irreparable loss … further at a broader level, the pot

is a metaphor of wholeness, of serenity and tranquility. By extension, the

breaking of the pot signifies the destruction of the virtues of rustic rural life.

It‟s breaking denotes the chaos and anomaly that result from a society torn

apart from its values …. It also symbolizes the fragmentation which the

whole of the African continent suffered.

In line with the pain is the choice of lexical items in these last three stanzas to

effectively depict a situation of deep seated pain, of losses and damages.

wail …

the voices …

cry

The poet says he had „heard many varied voices‟, these depict the various voices

of other African continents who were equally colonized before or after Nigeria.

husky ones

the muted voices

(others)

The situation is indeed an unhappy one. These lexical items used to depict pain is

to also make you feel the pain he is feeling. With the background of the poems in

mind, we will realize that the extra meaning is there, not because of the semantic

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aspects of the words themselves, but because we share certain contextual

knowledge with the writer or speaker of the text.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Of the three main denominations of imaginative literature - poetry, prose

and drama- poetry has always seemed the most difficult and one that appeals less

to a majority of readers. The reason according to Vincent (218) is because:

Far too many teachers of African poetry were badly educated on how to

teach poetry generally. For many, the important facts about any poem do

not go beyond identifying a few metaphors and similes and making some

naïve remarks about musicality and rhymes. The emphasis on (syntactic)

meaning has bedeviled the appreciation of poetry in more ways than one…

Vincent, went on to explain, that it is inappropriate for one to limit oneself to the

lexical interpretation alone, and expect „straight forward syntax to yield the total

meaning of a poem‟. “The syntactic structure of the poem, is just an aspect of its

meaning, What fixes what one says cannot be facts about the words alone but also

facts about the circumstances in which one is using them” (Bach, 1994).

Proper interpretation of any poem can best be done when the context is

brought into focus and that is what the theory of pragmatics seeks to do. It looks at

the formal features of language and the relationship between these features and the

context of situation. Based on the above reasons, this research, wishes to explore

the theory of pragmatics in poetry, using the text Broken Pots by Ossie Onuora

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Enekwe since this work has not been subjected to such analytical framework that

provides great insight into the author‟s message.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to explore the theory of pragmatics as a

reliable analytical model for the interpretation of Enekwe‟s Broken Pots.

It is also the objective of this research to enlighten trainee teachers and

students of English literature, especially in poetry to shift their emphasis from a

purely linguistic description of poetry to embracing the provisions of pragmatics

as an adequate framework for the interpretation of poems.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The application of pragmatics as an interpretative tool for English literature

teaching in secondary schools in Nigeria has not been traditionally addressed in

language teaching curricula. It is important to note that pragmatics is taught in

classrooms in the United States. According to Boardovi-Harlig (2001: 13)

Teaching pragmatics explores the teaching of pragmatics through lessons

and activities by teachers of English as a second and foreign language....

The teaching of pragmatics aims to facilitate the learners‟ ability to find

socially appropriate language for the situations they encounter.

This pragmatic exploration of Broken Pots will provide novel insight into the

teaching of poetry in secondary schools in Nigeria and will demonstrate that a

purely linguistic interpretation of poetry alone is inadequate. With this theoretical

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approach in poetry, scholars can easily apply the same principles in the analysis of

secondary school drama and novel.

1.5 Scope and limitations of the Study

Enekwe has thirty-one poems in his collection Broken Pots. As the title

suggests, a common thread runs through all the poems. According to Nwankwo

(1971:v)

they are mainly laments in which the writer expresses with great sincerity,

varying levels of sorrow, over the mystery, desolation, waste, apathy,

betrayal and alienation which surrounds him.

This volume, whose unifying ethos is the sense of waste is powerfully articulated

in all the poems. And because of this unifying thread, I wish to analyze all the

poems in order not to break this thread. The two major factors which are basic to

all research in pragmatics are the speech act theory developed by Austin and Searl

and Grice‟s (1975, 1978) Theory of Conversational Implicature. The researcher

will use the theory of conversational implicature as a preferred interpretive model

since the two approaches cannot be used in the same analysis.

1.6 Research Methodology

Conversational implicature emphasizes the capacity of language to project

messages which may have no direct relationship with the formal linguistic value of

the words and sentences used to carry the message. The writer will apply the

principle of implicature as a new standard of relevance in the interpretation of

26

Enekwe‟s text Broken Pots. This, the writer wishes to explore through library

research and the resources of relevant literature.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

The review of literature related to this study centres on the following areas

1. Theoretical developments in pragmatics

2. Empirical studies that explore research work issuing from the theories of

pragmatics

3. Summary.

2.1 Theoretical Development in Pragmatics

We shall look at key theoretical issues in the development of pragmatics as

a means of providing a suitable framework for our study. For this purpose

therefore, the following issues are examined:

1. Speech acts in pragmatics.

2. Conversational implicature in pragmatics.

The literature in these areas is discussed in such a way that we will have a

clear view of the sequence of development of the issues under discussion.

2.1.1 Speech Acts

Pragmatics is „the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are

performed‟ Stalnakar, (1972:14). Pragmatics deals with utterances and specific

events, the intentional acts of speakers at given times and places. Different

theorists have focused on different properties of utterances. To discuss them,

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Korta et al (2006:1) made a helpful distinction between „near-side-pragmatics‟ and

„far-side pragmatics‟ as follows

Near-side pragmatics is concerned with the nature of certain facts that are

relevant to determining what is said, far-side pragmatics is focused on what

happens beyond saying: what speech acts are performed in or - by saying

what is said, or what implicatures are generated by saying what is said.

Korta et al (2006:2) provides further, points that make this distinction clearer by

saying that

Near-side pragmatics includes, but is not limited to resolution of ambiguity

and vagueness, the reference of proper names, indexical and demonstratives

and anaphors, and at least some issues involving presupposition. In all of

these cases, facts about the utterances, beyond the expressions used and

their meanings are needed. On the other hand, far-side pragmatics deals

with what we do with language, beyond what we (literally) say.... Its up to

pragmatics to explain the information one conveys, and the actions one

performs, in or by saying something.

My focus will be on the traditions in pragmatics inaugurated by J.L Austin and

H.P Grice. These philosophers were interested in the area of pragmatics we call

beyond saying. Campsall (2001:2) wants us to know that pragmatics is not just

interested in utterances but is also “a way of investigating how sense can be made

of certain texts even when, from a semantic viewpoint, the text seems to be either

incomplete or have a different meaning to what is really intended”. He drives this

point home with an example:

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consider a sign seen in a children‟s wear shop window: “Babysale-lots of

bargains”. We know without asking that these are no babies for sale- that

what is for sale are items used for babies.

He goes on to explain that

Pragmatics allows us to investigate how this meaning beyond the words can

be understood without ambiguity. The extra meaning is there, not because

of the semantic aspects of the words themselves, but because we share

certain contextual knowledge with the writer or speaker of the text.

To support the idea that there are other aspects of meaning which are not derived

solely from the meanings of the words used in phrases and sentences, Yule

(1996:127) gave an example

A: I have a fourteen year old son

B: Well that‟s all right

A: I also have a dog

B: Oh I‟m sorry

Harvey Sacks (1992).

In making sense of the quotation above, says Yule (127), “It may help to

know that A is trying to rent an apartment from B. Yule further observes that

„when we read or hear pieces of language, we normally try to understand not only

what the words mean, but what the writer or speaker of these words intended to

convey”. Speaking in the same vein, Campsall (2001:2) opines that

a simplified way of thinking about pragmatics is to recognize for example,

that language needs to be kept interesting - a speaker or writer does not

want to bore a listener or reader, for example, by being over-long or

tedious. So humans strive to find linguistic means to make a text, perhaps,

shorter, more interesting, more relevant, more purposeful or more personal,

pragmatics allows this.

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Basic to all research in pragmatics, is first the Natural language philosophy or

Speech Act Theory developed by John Langshaw Austin (b. 1911 - d. 1960) and

his student John R. Searle and secondly Grice‟s (1975, 1978), Theory of

Conversational Implicature. They „were studying actual linguistic usage,

highlighting in descriptive terms the complexity and subtlety of meanings and the

variety of forms of verbal communication‟ Sperber (1986/95).

At this point, it is worthy to note that much of the semantic work done by

philosophers of language during the sixties and early seventies rested upon the

„truth- functional‟ definitions of semantics. Mey (2001: 190) observes that:

philosophers working in the truth-functional tradition restrict themselves to

„propositions‟ representing one particular class of sentences, the so-called

declaratives, which in order to be true or false, must contain some testable

proposition.

If someone for example tells you that „it‟s cold outside‟ says Mey (193), „we can

go outside, if we wish, and test the truth or falsity of the „declaration‟. On the

other hand, Mey (193) explains further „if I say to somebody happy birthday‟,

I can only talk about the truth of my feeling, or about the truth of the fact

that I actually did pronounce those words, but not about the truth -„ of this,

or any other wish (e.g., „Good luck‟ „Congratulations‟, „well done‟ and so

on). The reason is that wishes are not propositions: they are „words with

which to do things‟, to paraphrase Austin. In brief, they are speech acts.

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The basic flaw in many linguistic theories before pragmatics according to Mey

(93) is that „they do not pay attention to language as an activity which produces

speech acts‟, defined by Austin (1962) „as the actions performed in saying

something‟ and by Searle (1969) as „the basic or minimal unit of linguistic

communication‟. Interest in speech acts „stems directly from the work of J.L.

Austin and in particular from the William James lectures‟ which he delivered at

Harvard in 1955, published posthumously as How to Do Things With Words in

1962 (revised 1975). In this his engaging monograph, Onuigbo (29) observes that

Austin challenged and successfully debunked the logical positivist doctrine

of verifiability of language such that unless a sentence is verifiable in terms

of its truth or falsity, that sentence is meaningless. In the alternative, he

established the fact that language could be used not only to make

statements and assertions about the way the word is but also to do things.

To perform actions and to bring about some changes in the way the world

is.

The conditions necessary for the success of a speech act according to Mey (96)

include the following:

A(i) There must be a conventional procedure having a conventional effect which

include the uttering of certain words by certain people in certain

circumstances.

(ii) There must be the right people and circumstances for the procedure

B(i) The procedure must be executed correctly

(ii) and completely

C(i) If the procedure requires participants to have particular thoughts or

feelings; then they must have it.

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(ii) If the procedure requires participants to perform particular acts then they

must, at the time intended to perform these acts and they must subsequently

perform them.

If all the relevant felicity conditions are satisfied for a given illocutionary

act, the act is described as „happy‟ or „felicitous‟.

Austin let the distinction between constative and perfomative utterances „be

substituted by a three-way contrast among the kinds of acts that are performed

when language is put to use, namely the distinction between locutionary,

illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, all of which are characteristic of most

utterances, including standard examples of both “performatives and constatives”

Horn and Ward (2008:54).

Austin focused mainly on the illocutionary act which occupies the middle

ground. “The ground now considered the territory of pragmatics of meaning in

context” Leech and Thomas (1990: 176). It is on the illocutionary act maintained

Leech and Thomas (179) that

We might find the „force of a statement and demonstrate its performance

nature. For example to say „Don‟t run with scissors‟ has the force of a

warning when spoken in a certain context. This utterance L can be stated in

an explicitly performative way, e.g. “I warn you, don‟t - run with scissors”.

This statement is neither true nor false. Instead, it creates a warning. By

hearing the statement, and understanding it as a warning, the auditor is

warned.

Austin went on to explain „that once we realize that what we have to study

is not the sentence but the issuing of an utterance in a speech situation, there can

no longer be a possibility of not seeing that stating is performing an act. This

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conclusion stated his belief that studying words or sentences (locutionary acts)

outside of a social context tells us little about communication (illocutionary acts)

or its effect on an audience (perlocutionary acts).‟

At the time of his untimely death, Austin‟s work on speech Act theory was

far from complete. His main work How to Do Things with Words, was published

post humously based on his lecture notes.

Conversational Implicature

The theory of implicature is closely associated with H.P. Grice who

attempted to face up to the problem of how meaning in ordinary human discourse

differs from meaning in the precise but limited truth - conditional sense... Leech

(1990: 179).

Grice was interested in explaining the difference between what is said and

what is meant. „What is said‟ explained Grice, is what the words mean at their face

value and can often be explained in truth-conditional terms. „What is meant‟ is the

effect that the speaker intends to produce on the addressee by virtue of the

addressee‟s recognition of this intention‟ Leech (179).

Grice, through his series of lectures at Howard University in 1967, became

„best known in the philosophy of language for his theory of implicatures, and also

for provision of an alternative to the Locke-Saussure model of communication as

coding and decoding of thoughts‟ (2006:24). Grice carefully outlined an approach

to what he termed conversational implicature, which according to Moore

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(2001:10), is “how hearers manage to work out the complete message when

speakers mean more than they say”. Moore (10) gave concrete example of what

Grice meant by conversational implicature with the utterance: “Have you got any

cash on you?‟

What the speaker really wants the hearer to understand as the meaning of the

utterance according to Moore (10) is:

Can you lend me some money? I don‟t have much on me”.

Let us also consider Grice‟s initial example given by Korta et al (2006:6):

A and B are talking about a mutual friend, C, who is now working in a

bank. A asks B how C is getting on in his job, and B replied; oh quite well,

I think, he likes his colleagues and he hasn‟t been to prison yet (Grice

1967a 1989: 24).

What did B say by uttering “he hasn‟t been to prison yet?” asks Grice.

„Roughly all that was literally said of C”, explained Grice:

Was that he hasn‟t been to prison up to the time of utterance.... But

normally, B would have implicated more than this‟ that C is the sort of

person likely to yield to the temptation provided by his occupation.

To explain conservational implicature further, Mey (2000: 46) lets us know that:

Conversational implicature concerns the way we understand an utterance in

conversation in accordance with what we expert to hear. Thus, if we ask a

question, a response which on the face of it doesn‟t make sense can very

well be an adequate answer. For instance, if a person asks me: „what time is

it? It makes perfectly good sense to answer: the bus just went by in a

particular context of conversation. This context should include the fact that

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there is only one bus a day, that it passes by our house at 7:45 am each

morning, and further more that my interlocutor is aware of this and takes

my answer in the spirit in which it was given, viz, as a hopefully relevant

answer.

From the examples stated above, we will agree with Moore (10) that:

Conversational implicature is a message that is not found in the plain sense of the

sentence. The speaker implies it, the hearer is able to infer (work out, read

between the lines this message in the utterance, by appealing to the rules

governing successful conversational interaction.

Looking at the very first example for instance, Grice proposed that

implicatures like the second sentence can be calculated from the first by

understanding three things - the usual linguistic meaning of what is said,

contextual information (shared or general knowledge), and the assumption that the

speaker is obeying what Grice calls the cooperative principle. The second

foundational idea as explained by Sperber (2009:3) is that

In inferring the speakers meaning, the hearer is guided by the expectation

that utterances should meet some specific standards. The standards Grice

proposed were based on the assumption that conversation is a rational,

cooperative activity.

In formulating their utterances, speakers are expected to follow the governing

dictum... the cooperative principle: „make your conversational contribution such as

is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of

the talk exchange” (Grice [1967] 1989:26). „This general principle‟, explained

Horn (2008:6) „is instantiated by general maxims of conversation governing

rational interchange (1989:36-7)

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Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true

1. Do not say what you believe to be false

2. Do not say that for which you lack evidence

Quantity:

1. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current

purposes of the exchange)

2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Relation: Be relevant

Manner: Be perspicuous

1. Avoid obscurity of expression

2. Aid ambiguity

3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)

4. Be orderly

5. Frame whatever you say in the form most suitable for any reply that

would be regarded as appropriate; or facilitate in your form of

expression the appropriate reply (added by Grice 198 1/1989, 273).

Neo-Griceans such as Atlas (2005), Horn (2000, 2004, 2005) and Levinson

(1983, 1989, 2000) stay relatively close to Grice‟s maxims. For instance, Levinson

(2000) proposes the following principles, based on Grice‟s quantity and manner

maxims (and given here in abridged form):

Q – Principle (Levinson 2000:76)

Do not provide a statement that is informationally weaker than your

knowledge of the world allows.

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I – Principle (Levinson, 2000:114)

Produce the minimal linguistic information sufficient to achieve your

communicational ends.

M – Principle (Levinson 2000136)

Indicate an abnormal, non-stereotypical situation by using marked

expressions that contrast with those you would use to describe the

corresponding normal, stereotypical situations.

The important point about these conversational maxims says Leech (198

1:295) is that

Unlike rules (e.g. grammatical rules) they are often violated... sometimes

the violations maybe clandestine as when someone tells a lie and is not

detected by the hearer, but more important, the maxims are also broken

ostentatiously, so that it is obvious to all of the participants in the

conversation. When this happens, the listener perceives the difference

between what the speaker says and what he means by what he says, the

particular meaning deduced from the later being the implicature.

In the Gricean model, says Horn (3) „the bridge from what is said (the literal

content of the uttered sentence, determined by its grammatical structure with the

reference of indexical resolved) to what is communicated is built through

implicature. A participant in a talk exchange says Malmkjar (356), may fail to

fulfill a maxim in a number of ways:

1. She/he may violate it, in which case s/he will be likely to mislead

2. S/he may opt out of observing the principle by saying things like “don‟t

want to talk about it”.

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3. There may be a conflict of maxims: you cannot be as informative as is

required if you do not have adequate evidence.

4. S/he may blatantly flout a maxim

Kempson (1977:69) says that „it is the flouting of these conventions which

Grice suggests is the basis for the flexibility of the message that can be conveyed

by the means of a single sentence”. Thomas (1994:754) lets us know equally that

“a „flout‟ occurs when a speaker blatantly fails to observe a maxim at the level of

what is said, with the deliberate intention of generating an implicature”.

There are many examples of flouts of each of the maxims. A speaker might

observe all the maxims, as in the following example given by Thomas (754).

Father: Where are the children?

Mother: They are either in the garden or in the playroom;

I‟m not sure which

The mother has answered clearly (manner), truthfully (quality), has given

just the right amount of information (quantity), and has directly addressed her

husband‟s goals in asking the question (relation). She has said precisely what she

meant, no more and no less, and has generated no implicature (that is, there is no

distinction to be made here between what she says and what she means).

Grice in his writings, discussed the possibilities and the very many

occasions when people fail to observe the maxims, “but the situations which

chiefly interested him”, Thomas (754) says

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Were those in which a speaker blatantly fails to observe a maxim not with

any intention of deceiving or misleading, but because the speaker wishes to

prompt the hearer to look for a meaning which is different from or in

addition to, the expressed meaning. This additional meaning he called

conversational implicature:

Let us now look at examples of maxims being flouted. The following example

given by Thomas (755) illustrates a flout of the maxim of manner. According to

him, it occurred during a radio interview with an unnamed official from the United

States Embassy in Portau-Prince,Haiti:

Interviewer: Did the United States Government play any part in Duvaliers

departure? Did they, for example, actively encourage him to leave?

Official: I would not try to steer you away from that conclusion.

Thomas explained this further by saying that

The official could simply have replied „Yes”. Her actual responses is

extremely long winded and convoluted, and it is obviously no accident, nor

through any inability to speak clearly, that she has failed to observe the

maxim of manner. There is, however, no reason to believe that the official

is being deliberately unhelpful (she could, after all, have simply refused to

answer at all, or said: no comment).... The official‟s flouting of the maxim

of manner is occasioned by the desire to claim credit for what she sees as a

desirable outcome, while at the same time avoiding putting on record the

fact that her government has intervened in the affairs of another country.

Those who flout the maxim of manner, observes Cutting (2008:3 8), appearing to

be obscure, are often trying to exclude a third party. Thus if a husband says to a

wife: „I was thinking of going out to get some of that funny white stuff for

somebody‟, he speaks in an ambiguous way, because he is avoiding saying „ice-

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cream‟ and „Michelle‟, so that his little daughter does not become excited and ask

for the ice-cream before her meal”.

Leech (1983:80) point out that the C.P. in itself cannot explain why people

are often so indirect in conveying what they mean. „It is for this reason he explains

„that the Politeness Principles can be seen not just as another principle to be added

to the CP, but as a necessary complement....” Leech (80) gives two examples were

the PP rescues the CP.

1. A: We‟ll all miss Bill and Agatha, won‟t we?

B: We‟ll all miss Bill

2. P Someone‟s eaten the icing off the cake

C: It wasn‟t me.

In his explanation of [1] Leech says that

B apparently fails to observe the maxim of quantity: when A asks B to

confirm A‟S opinion, B merely confirms part of it, and pointedly

ignores the rest. From this we derive an implicature: „S is of the opinion

that we will not all miss Agatha‟.

Leech then asks „on what grounds is this implicature arrived at? His answer is:

Not solely on the basis of the CP, for B could have added „...but not

Agatha‟ without being untruthful, irrelevant, or unclear. Our conclusion is

that B could have been more informative, but only at the cost of being more

impolite to a third party. „that B therefore suppressed the desired

information in order to uphold the PP.

Looking at [2], typically an exchange between parent P and child C, Leech

(84) observes that „there is an apparent irrelevance in C‟S reply. Leech‟s reason is

that

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C seems to react as if he needed to exonerate himself from the evil deed in

question. C‟S denial is virtually predictable in such a situation as if C were

being directly accused of the crime.., suppose P is not sure who is the

culprit but suspects that it is C. then a small step of politeness on P‟S part

would be to withhold a direct accusation, and instead to make a less

informative, but undoubtedly true assertion, substituting an impersonal

pronoun someone for „the second-person - pronoun you. Thus, P‟S remark

in [2] is interpreted as an indirect accusation: when C hears this assertion, C

responds to it as having implicated that C may well be guilty, denying an

offence which has not been overtly imputed. What this suggests then, is that

the apparent irrelevance of C‟S reply is due to an implicature of P‟S

utterance. C responds to that implicature, the indirectness of which is

motivated by politeness, rather than to what is actually said.

Leech (1990) shows how differing adherences to the cooperative and Politeness

Principles help to delineate characterization in Shaw‟s Your Never Can Tell.

A good example of the relevance maxim being broken, is the scene in

Macbeth, where Macbeth returns to his wife immediately after he has killed

Duncan as cited by Leech and short (1994:951):

Macbeth: listening to their fear I could not say „Amen‟ when they did say

„God bless us‟.

Lady Macbeth: Consider it not so deeply.

Macbeth: But wherefore could not I pronounce „Amen?‟ I had

most need of blessing and „Amen‟.

Lady Macbeth: These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it

will make us mad.

Macbeth: Me thought I heard a voice cry „sleep no more‟!

Macbeth doth murder sleep....”

(II, ii, 28-35).

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Lady Macbeth as can be seen explains Leech, „tries throughout in her

attempt to get him under control, to relate to what Macbeth says, but Macbeth‟s

utterances are never properly relevant to his wife‟s connecting, instead with his

own previous utterance”. This helps us to see that Macbeth is unable to cope with

the enormity of his actions.

„If speakers flout the maxim of relation‟, says Cutting (37), „they expect

that the hearers will be able to imagine what the utterance did not say and make

the connection between their utterance and the preceding one(s). in the following

exchange given by Cutting (35):

A: there is somebody at the door

B: I‟m in the bath

„B expects A to understand that his present location is relevant to her

comment that there is someone at the door, and that he is in the bath‟.

Another apt extract from Leech (1990:182) as an example of the maxim of

relation being broken is shown below:

Female Guest: Has the doctor been?

Basil Faulty: What can I get you to drink?

Female Guest: Basil has the doctor been?

Basil Faulty: Nuts!

[implicature: Basil does not want to answer the question]

Leech (1990: 184) also shows that „implicit meanings of irony or of

metaphorical interpretation can be explained at least in part by reference to the CP:

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Giving an example, he says that „at its face value interpreting the example (taken

from a „Peanuts‟ cartoon breaks the maxim of quality; literally speaking older

siblings (of whatever sex) are not coarse grass

Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life. The covert interpretation

“Big sisters are unpleasant and have a tendency to take over‟ depends on

the assumption that what is intended is related to the face-value meaning,

but is also relevant, truthful and informative.

Another way of flouting the maxim of quality is by exaggerating as the hyperbole

„I could eat a horse‟, or „I‟m starving‟, „which are well established exaggerating

expressions‟, says Cutting (2008:36) she concludes by saying that:

no speaker would expect their hearer to say, „what, you could eat a whole

horse?‟ or „I don‟t think you are dying of hunger-you don‟t even look thin‟.

Hearers would be expected to know that the speaker simply meant that they

were very hungry. Hyperbole is often at the basis of humour.

Similarly, a speaker can flout the maxim of quality by using a metaphor, as in „my

house is a refrigerator in January‟, or „don‟t be such a wet blanket – we just want

to have fun‟ Cutting (36). Cutting makes us to understand that:

Hearers would understand that the house was very cold indeed, and the

other person is trying to reduce other people‟s enjoyment. Similarly we all

know how to interpret the meaning behind the words „love‟s a disease but

curable‟ from Crewe Train (Macaulay, 926) and religion is the Opium of

the people‟ (Marx, 1844).

Cutting also adds, „that conventional euphemisms can also be put in this category:

Examples given by her include such utterances people make by saying „I‟m going

to wash my hands‟ meaning „I‟m going to urinate‟, „she‟s got a bun in the oven‟

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meaning „she‟s pregnant‟, or „He kicked the bucket‟ meaning „He died‟. The

„implied sense of the words‟ observed Cuttings, „is so well-established that the

expression can only mean one thing”.

Mey (l994:327) talks more on metaphors by saying that

Metaphors express a way of conceptualizing, of seeing and understanding

one‟s surroundings. In other words, metaphors contribute to one‟s mental

model of the world. Because the metaphors of a language community

remain more or less stable across historical stages and dialectal differences,

they are of prime importance in securing the continuity and continued

understanding of language and culture among people.

Levinson (1983) also presented a pragmatic approach to the study of metaphors.

This was traced and explained by Onuigbo (2003:53). In the end, he concluded

that

the pragmatic approach in the analysis and interpretation of metaphors is

based on the assumption that the metaphorical content of utterance cannot

be derived by the principles of semantic interpretation. Rather, the semantic

will just provide a characterization of the literal meaning or conventional

content of the expressions. From this, together with the details of context,

the pragmatic provides the metaphorical interpretation.

The last two main ways of flouting the maxim of quality are irony and banter, and

they form a pair. As Leech (1983:144) says: while irony is an apparently friendly

way of being offensive (mockpoliteness), the type of verbal behaviour known as

„banter‟ is an offensive way of being friendly (Mock impoliteness).

He explains that in the case of irony, „the speaker expresses a positive sentiment

and implies a negative one‟ „If a student for example, comes down to breakfast

one morning and says, „if only you know how much I love being woken up at

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4a.m. by a fire alarm‟. Leech says, „she is being ironic and expecting her friends to

know that she means the opposite‟. Leech also explains that sarcasm is a form of

irony that is not so friendly. He says that it is intended to hurt. Examples given by

him include: „this is a lovely undercooked egg you‟ve given me here, as usual.

Yum!‟ or „why don‟t you leave all your dirty clothes on the lounge floor and then

you only need wash them when someone breaks a leg trying to get to the sofa?‟ on

banter, Leech confirms that

it expresses a negative sentiment and implies a positive one. It sounds like a

mild aggression, as in „You‟re nasty, mean and stingy. How can you only

give me one kiss‟, but it is intended to be an expression of friendship or

intimacy. Banter can sometimes be a tease and sometimes a flirtatious

comment.

From the above explanations and examples of flouts of the various maxims, we

have seen that the concept of implicature provides more explicit account of how it

is possible to mean more than what is actually „said‟ that is more than what is

literally expressed by the conventional sense of the linguistic expressions uttered.

2.2 Empirical Studies

Pragmatics gives so much importance, to the social principles of discourse.

Pragmatic says cutting (3):

takes a socio-cultural perspective on language usage, examining the way

that the principles of social behaviour as expressed is determined by the

social distance between speakers: Pragmatics describes the unwritten

maxims of conversation that speakers follow in order to cooperate and be

socially acceptable with each other.

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Keith (2000:20) noted that „the vast majority of pragmatic studies have been

devoted to conversation, where the silent influence of context and the

undercurrents are most fascinating....” But he goes on to show how written texts of

various kinds can be illuminated by pragmatics, and he cites particular examples

from literature. Pragmatics gives us ways into any written text. Take the following

example as enumerated by Keith, which is a headline from the guardian

newspaper of May 10, 2002. This reads:

Health Crises Looms as Life Expectancy Soars

„If we study the semantics of the headline; says Keith we may be puzzled‟.

The metaphor („soars‟)‟ he continues:

Indicate an increase in the average life expectancy of the U.K. population.

Most of us are living longer. So why is this a crises for health? Pragmaties

supplies the answer. The headline writer assumes that we share his or her

understanding that the crises is not in the health or longevity of the nation,

but in the financial cost to our society of providing health care for these

living people. The U.K. needs to pay more and employ more people to

provide this care. Reading the article will show this.

Leech and Short (1981:228) also take extracts from a novel to show how

characters communicate with one another and how their interactions can be

effectively interpreted using the pragmatic principles. The illustration of a passage

from Austin‟s Pride and Prejudice effectively analysed by Onuigbo (87)as

follows:

Oh, Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar. You

must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will not

have him, and if you do not make haste, he will change his mind and not

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have her... I have not the pleasure in understanding you, said he when she

had finished her speech. Of what are you talking about‟?2

Of Mr. Collins and Lizzy. Lizzy declares she will not have Collins and Collins

begins to say he will not have Lizzy2

And what am I to do in this occasion?

It seems a hopeless business4

Speak to Lizzy yourself. Tell her you insist on her marrying him5 Mr.

Bennet rang and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to the library.

Come here child, cried her father as she appeared. I have sent for you

on an affair of importance. I understand that Collins have made you an

offer of marriage is it true?6

Elizabeth replied that it was.7

Very well and this offer you have refused?8

I have, sir.9

Very well, we have come to the point your mother insists on your

accepting it.10

Is it not true Mrs Bennet?11

Yes or I will never see her again.12

An unhappy alternative is before you Elizabeth. From this day, you

must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see

you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins and I will never see you

again if you do.

Leech and Short explain that the numbering is done as a matter of convenience to

represent conversational turns delimited by a change of speaker and not sentence.

They actually turned the passage into a stylized indirect speech using speech act

verbs to convey inter personal forces of what is said as shown below.

Mrs. Bennet TOLD Mr. Bennet that he was wanted She then EXHORTED

him to make Lizzy marry... and she EXPLAINED to him that Lizzy vowed.

She would not have Mr. Collins ... she warns him that if he did not make

haste....

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Mr. Bennet CLAIMS that he did not understand…

He ASKED her what she was talking about…2

Mrs. Bennet REPEATED that …3

According to Leech and Short (291):

the rendering shows „the relevance of speech act analysis to our

understanding of the conversation in the novel‟, since such a rendering

gives some idea of the ongoing nature of the Linguistic transaction between

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. And it appears that we as readers must perform an

analysis of this kind in order to understand what is going on in the passage.

As part of the explanation, they remind us that every speech act has its

conditions of appropriacy (felicity conditions) but they also identify

something inappropriate or even absurd about Mrs. Bennet bidding to order

Elizabeth to marry Collins. To them one cannot reasonably order someone

to do something unless one is in a position to do so and unless what is

demanded is feasible. In other words, „it is not at all obvious that a wife can

normally order the husband, nor that a father can force a daughter to marry

against her will‟ (Leech and Short 293). The interpretation therefore, is that

the whole exchange is a humourous one especially as Mr. Bennet „imposes

a counter threat on his daughter, thus placing Elizabeth in a comic

dilemma‟. Their point is that the ironic turn of the last sentence, is

important because until that time, Mr. Bennet has not given any indication

that he is not in agreement with his wife even though his cross-examination

of his daugther on the information given by his wife, implies some

disbelief. And it is this implied disbelief that casts some doubt on her

assertion and finally thwarts her threats.

Pursuing the interpretation further, Leech and Short (294) exploit the process of

conversational implicature to show that much of what the reader understands

comes from inferences from the language based on their knowledge of the author‟s

literary world rather than what is openly said. In their explanation

Mr. Bennets question, „of what are you talking about. Presupposes that he

does not understand what the wife is saying either because of the

inappropriacy of the conversation or because the news is very surprising. In

fact, “the same ambivalence follows his next question, „and what am I to do

in the occasion?” this question, according to Leech and Short, presupposes

49

a genuine request for advice or is designed to be a rhetorical question with

an implied force “there is nothing I can do”. The interpretation, therefore, is

that the question brings into serious doubt Mrs. Bennets‟ imperative

remark, „you must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins‟ and makes it

clear that Mr. Bennet‟s questions are not genuine information-seeking

questions. To them, the question violates the maxims of relevance because

Mr. Bennet actually knows what Mrs Bennet is talking about as may be

concluded from his mischievous counter-threat. Their daughter‟s comic

dilemma arises from the conflicting interests of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. It is

of course, the reader‟s ability to interpret the relationship between Mr. and

Mrs. Bennet on the issue that shows that Mr. Bennet‟s questions are not

innocent questions but those which are meant to carry the extra information

you do not expect to do anything.

„From what one has seen‟, concludes Onuigbo (2003), Leech and Short (1981)

Have their primary interest in the empirical account of the message and not

on generalizations and allusions that cannot be sustained as may always be

the case with literary analysis. Again, Leech and Short avoid the kind of

purely linguistic description that may be studded with technicalities and

jargons. In other words, it can be said that part of the advantage of their

pragmatic procedure is that the argument is not only simple and sustainable

but also verifiable from such socio-linguistic factors as they are based on.

Although Leech and Short make references to formal language features,

such references are usually followed up with explanations that derive from

the context rather than from the meaning of the syntactic forms.

A formal example cited by Onuigbo (89) to show that Leech and Short

(1981) usually follow up their formal language feature examples, with

explanations that derive from the context rather than from the meaning of the

syntactic forms is Mrs. Bennet‟s imperative remarks „you must come and make

Lizzy marry Mr. Collins‟? he explains this by saying that

It sounds funny because she is not in a position to enforce this looking at

the linguistic representations and their literal interpretation, the matter looks

serious but a careful examination of the intentions and the socio-cultural

stereo-types of the situation, we can see as the analysts did, a humorous

exchange with some comic implications .... Infact, the identification of the

50

imperative remarks, the interrogative sentences and the rhetorical questions

serve as mere contextualization cues. As soon as the analysts remind us of

the conditions of appropriacy in every speech act, we see the absurdity in

Mrs. Bennet‟s bid to her husband to order Lizzy to marry Mr. Collins. Such

pragmatic interpretation as given by Leech and Short have no mythical

allusions. Instead, every claim they make is sustained in an argument that

derives from obvious linguistic evidence which are however tied to the

context of the authors literary world.

From the above intricate & explicit analysis of the text, Onuigbo concludes that

It is common in literary analysis to identify peculiar linguistic features

without explaining the purpose of such features in the text and the authors

intention for choosing such unique features in a given text. But in a

pragmatic interpretation, important linguistic features are examined in line

with relevant socio-cultural imperatives of the author‟s world. And this

accounts for the success of pragmatic procedure in both literary and non-

literary interpretation.

Two other examples, both adverts, taken from Yule (1985: 127) shows that in

pragmatic interpretation, important linguistic features are examined in line with

relevant socio-cultural imperatives of the author‟s world. The first advert says

Driving by a parking lot, you may see a large sign that says HEATED

ATTENDANT PARKING. Now you know what each of these words mean,

and you know what the sign as a whole means. However, you don‟t

normally think that the sign is advertising a place where you can park your

„heated attendant‟. (you take an attendant, you heat him up, and this is the

place where you can park him). Alternatively it may indicate a place where

parking will be carried out by attendants who have been heated.

The words of the advert allow the above interpretations, says Yule (128). That

„you would normally understand that you can park your car in this place, that its a

heated area, and that there will be an attendant to look after the car‟ he then asks,

„how do you decide that the sign means this? (notice that the sign does not even

51

have the word car on it)‟. He concludes his explanations by saying that „you use

the meanings of the words in combination, with the context in which they occur,

and you try to arrive at what the writer of the sign intended his message to

convey‟.

The second advert says BABY AND TODDLER SALE. Yule (128)

explains that

In the normal context of our present society, we assume that this store has

not gone into the business of selling young children over the counter, but

rather that it is advertising clothes for babies. The words clothes does not

appear, but our normal interpretation would be that the advertiser intended

us to understand his message as relating to the sale of baby clothes and not

of babies.

2.3 Summary

From the above illustrations we have seen that words do not always mean

what they say in literature. In order to arrive at the full meaning of linguistic

features as used by writers, they have to be examined in line with relevant socio-

cultural imperatives of the author‟s world. And this accounts for pragmatic success

in both literary and non-literary interpretation.

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CHAPTER THREE

SOCIO – POLITICAL BACKGROUND OF THE POEMS

3.0 Introduction

Africa is a vast and varied continent. The histories and geographical

conditions of African countries vary with different stages of economic

development and sets of policies. Equally, the sources of conflict in Africa reflect

this diversity and complexity. Okunyade (2008: 3) observes that “some of the

sources of conflict in Africa are ignited by internal feuds, some reflect the

dynamics of a particular sub-region and a few have international dimensions”.

Though the sources of these conflicts are varied, most of them are linked with

common themes and experiences. Armed violence and conflict in Africa for

example, Okunyade (2008) says, “are often caused by issues which range from

lack of transparency in regimes, inadequate checks and balances, non-adherence to

the rule of law, absence of defined peaceful means to change or replacement of

leadership, the absence of accountability of leaders, and the reliance on centralized

and highly personalized forms of governance to ethnic conflict”.

In Nigeria, though one would agree with Ademoyega (1981: I) that

Nigeria‟s political problems sprang from the carefree manner in which the British

took over, administered, and abandoned the government and people of Nigeria …

making no effort to weld the country together and unite the heterogeneous groups

of people”, yet the observable local corruption and incompetence had to be blamed

53

less on the colonialists than on an oppressive indigenous Nigerian hierarchy.

Povey (1979: 4) added that „this contemporary society provided no sustenance for

the dreams that had marked an earlier period when independence seemed to offer

to re-shape African society into a utopia of freedom and progress”.

The British constitutional framework of a tripartite Nigeria established a

country with three large regions and three centres of power: Kaduna in the North,

Ibadan in the West and Enugu in the East. This framework has also contributed

greatly in shaping the present day relationship of suspicion, apprehension and

doubt among the divergent ethnic groups in the country.

With Federalism which was instituted primarily to shun one ethnic group

dominating others and also protecting the interests of the minorities, the nation

was once again split into constituencies, each with its autonomous power. In this

political arrangement also, it was observed that the colonial administrators have

passed on to the Nigerian wards the prejudices which had enabled them to think

and act in the belief that this informal federation was a marriage of convenience

between incompatibles. With this impression in the minds of Nigerian peoples, it

becomes very difficult for them to work harmoniously together without such tribal

affiliations.

Each of the tribes of the country works only for the interest of its people and not

the nation, thus in these blind competitions of each trying to dominate the other,

conflicts of ethnic nature always occur. Ademoyega (1981: 48) reported that

„Northern Nigeria consistently and openly maintained that the amalgamation of

54

Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914 was „a mistake‟. He summarized the

economic situation of things in Nigeria in 1965 under the system of government as

an extreme form of capitalism. He went on to say that

Under that system, the vast majority of our people --- about ninety – nine

per cent, were extremely poor and lived in abject poverty; while a few

millionaires were being created here and there all over the country, by using

their political connections to divert government (the people‟s) money into

their hands. To be specific, there were governmental Finance Corporations

and Marketing Boards which were used to divert public money into private

hands by way of loans and inflated contracts. This system also favoured a

few middlemen, whose palms were greased by this diversion of funds. The

masses did not benefit but were impoverished thereby, hence the ever –

widening gap between the rich and the poor. No avenues were open to

check or correct these horrible anomalies (P. 48).

The masses showed their dissatisfaction with the socio-political decadence,

corruption violence and brazen exploitation of the populace in violent

demonstrations. Intellectual disaffection is most acutely seen in the searching

series of contemporary novels of which Achebe‟s Man of the People and Armah‟s

The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born are among the best known and perhaps the

most scathing. In poetry, the mood of the African writer is bitter – ranging

between the negative pole of despair and the positive element of anger. George

Orwell, the English writer, was explaining why people would want to write. This

was aptly summarized by Onyima (2011: 7) who said that

Putting aside the need to earn a living, there are four great motives for

writing. The first reason is what he calls sheer egoism‟, that is the desire to

be talked about, to be remembered after death. The second is „aesthetic

enthusiasm‟ – the desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable

and ought not to be missed. „Historical impulse‟ – to discover facts and

store them for posterity, is the third reason. The fourth reason why people

55

write, according to Orwell, is for „political purpose‟ – that is the desire to

push the world in a certain direction.

In Africa, Povey (1979: 2) observes that „African poets, much more than their

more private and abstract western brothers, have traditionally been the spokesmen

for society. They have now joined the chorus of complaint about the situation that

pervades contemporary Africa‟. African poets at this time committed their poetry

to the exploration of the imbalance in society caused by bad leadership. Onuigbo

(2003: 115) clearly stated that

The writer has the responsibility to search for his or her subject matter

within the experiences of his society and these experiences usually derive

from the socio-political and spiritual lives of the people that make up the

society. In most cases therefore the writer‟s creative imagination is directed

towards the exposure of analysis of the socio-political contradictions which

the society experiences.

To elucidate the above information from Onuigbo further, Okafor (2008: 151)

avers that

A work of art is never created in a vacuum, it merely supposes a culture, a

civilization which is the emanation of a particular historical, geographical,

socio-economic and political circumstance hence geography, history,

economics, politics are to a great degree … are indeed very important.

Chinua Achebe (1960: 138) had much earlier stressed the need for socio-political

commitment among Nigerian writers. In a paper appropriately entitled ―The Black

Writer‘s Burden‖, he said that „one of the writer‟s main functions has always been

to expose and attack injustice‟, and that a Nigerian writers should not “keep at the

old theme of racial injustice‟, but must also grapple with the „new injustices‟, that

56

„have sprouted all around us‟. That is why probably African literature and

Nigerian literature in particular has never been totally divorced from the masses

that make up the societies. The subject matter of these artists usually deal with

everyday life of the people. Osundare (1996: 6) summarizes his generation of

writers in which Enekwe belongs as

an angry generation. The generation which was born before the Nigerian

Independence who saw the ebullience of independence and suffered the

calamities of post independence trauma, so there is no way they could hide

away and write about the Danbodes and so on. This also is the generation

that has gone through the civil war, a war that should not have taken place.

Before the war, there were the political crisis. First at the Federal level, next

in the Western part of Nigeria, they rigged elections, and then problems in

the west, and the first coup, second coup, the pogrom in the North and the

civil war. There is no way we can talk about the literature without engaging

the history of contemporary Nigeria. Each time I read Omabe or when I

read your Broken Pots or when I read What The Madman Said, and of

course, Okigbo, I remember the Nigerian civil war. So there was a way in

which the situation of our mistake period forced us to engage our art in

terms of social responsibility … we are the generation of civil war, the

generation of crisis ….”

Ossie Onuora Enekwe appears to have been inspired by the above observations.

What should strike any reader of his poetry observed Egudu (1998: 90) is

The depth of its humanity as well as the fervour of its social concern and

commitment: it is poetry that advocates social health and social harmony; it

is poetry of comprehensive human concern and mass mobilization. It

exhorts the leaders and enlightens the followers; it warms the strong and

empowers the weak.

Ossie Onuora Enekwe really demonstrates the validity of that statement by Shelley

(1951: 583) that „poets are the … legislators of the world, even if they remain

unacknowledged as such‟. His poetry generally is set in the context of post

colonial Africa and her many civil wars. The realities of daily living becomes the

57

springboard through which Enekwe represents a powerful image of what self

centredness, injustice, financial embezzlement and corruption could do in society.

His collection Broken Pots in particular, dwells on the gory and cataclysmic,

episodes of the Nigerian civil war and its effects on human beings especially the

Igbo‟s on whose soil the gruelling war took place. This coup and counter coup of

January and July 1966 came about as a result of the heedless pride, greed,

selfishness and shortcomings of members of the three regions of Nigeria. It also

reflects the gross imbalance and psychic disorder as a result of a spiritual sterility

that goads men on the course of violence against their fellows.

“On July 6 1967” reported Onyema (2011: 46)

The guns of the Nigerian army opened up in Garkem near Ogoja in present

day cross Rivers State in the secessionist enclave of Biafra. That military

activity, otherwise described as a „police action‟ by the Nigerian

government was the beginning of a war which sent over a million Nigerians

to their graves and left a huge scar which is yet to fully heal since the war

ended in January 1970.

Ossie Onuora Enekwe is one of those Nigerian writers who came to literary

prominence on the blazing wings of the civil war. Stephen Greenblatt once wrote

that “history cannot be divorced from textuality”. This statement by Greenblatt

will be very relevant to the understanding of Enekwe‟s texts in general and Broken

Pots in particular. Enekwe masterfully marries history and memoir in the text. It is

a distillation of vivid firsthand observation and information of the Nigerian civil

war, also known as the Biafran war of 1967 – 1970. The conflict was infamous for

its savage impact on the Biafran people – Enekwes people, many of whom were

58

starved to death after the Nigerian government blockaded their boarders. To

Enekwe the „Pot of unity‟ holding the country together was actually broken then.

Going through the thirty – one poems in the collection Broken Pots, one

notices that the poems are filled with insinuations that can only be worked out as

the above mentioned relevant socio-political contexts are brought into proper

focus. Every poem in the collection reveals aspects of the theme of „Broken pots‟.

Although the poems are not arranged chronologically, but as the title suggests, a

common thread runs through all the thirty – one poems, thereby binding them

together. The thirty – one poems can thematically be grouped into three sections:

(a) The poems whose themes show aspects of the political upheavals in Africa

and the Biafran war theme.

(b) Poems written in memory of his fallen colleagues during the Biafran war.

(c) The poems written after the war-Reminiscences of the war.

Though the poems can be grouped thematically, they all retain the theme

of „Broken Pots‟. The poems as grouped above will be examined in three sections

and the last chapter will conclude the study.

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CHAPTER FOUR

WAR POEMS

4.0 Introduction

The thirty – one poems that have been grouped into three will be analyzed

in three sections. The analysis of these poems will be done applying the provisions

of the theory of conversational implicature as a new standard of relevance in the

interpretation of poetrys. This means that the poems, following the words of

Stilwell (1999:6) “will be studied in context, explaining them by knowledge of the

physical and social world as well as the knowledge of the time and place in which

the words are uttered or written”.

The actual happening of any war, is nothing but a sordid representation of

horrific violence. It does nothing but present us with images of crude barbarity

which Enekwe employs most aptly in his war poems to emphasize the perils of

violence and war. „The blood – soaked earth, the lifeless bodies, the cries from the

trenches, the broken boots and tattered pants of soldiers, the air raids, the agony of

hunger, limbless soldiers, the corpses piled by the road side, the wails of relations

and mothers … seem only to confirm the bestiality and ferocity of man during

war. Udumukwu‟s (1998) admonition that “the works which have emerged as a

result of the Nigerian civil war cannot be understood without their specific

historical forces …” is also very apt here.

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This collection of poems reveal a language that is both picturesque and

musical. The predominant metaphor as would be discovered as the poems are

being extrayed is that of struggle, liberation and courage. Also the image of

despair and despondency in these war poems later on blossomed to that of hope

and strength in the poems written after the war.

Another unique feature that has to be noted of Enekwe‟s poems is that

though a whole climate of sober refection on life and death based on the

experiences he had gone through informs much of his poetry, the organizing

principle of the art of dance underlies most of the poems. The reference to some of

the poems as songs and their dramatic bearing, which suggests the elements of

performance, has to be noted. Creating drama out of poetry is one of the stylistic

peculiarities of this poet who happens to be a specialist in drama and theatre arts.

Again there is a lot of fidelity to morality in Enekwe‟s poems, an essence of the

African spirit.

4.1 Textual Analysis

The poems in the first group, that is the war poems, have a common theme

of uncertainty initially and then pain and brutality.

As a result of the 1966 coup and counter coup and the subsequent civil

violence which led to the large scale cold – bloody massacre of Easterners in many

parts of Nigeria, especially in the North, the tenuous 1914 Lord Lugard arranged

marriage of convenience which produced Nigeria suffered a major, albeit

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temporary, setback which culminated in the bitter thirty-month civil war. The civil

violence which presaged the war, forced several people of Eastern Region origin

to flee to the East in search of succor from their collective brutalization and to

debate and assess their reactions to the assault on their psyche. These debates and

assessments eventually crystallized in the declaration of the Eastern Region as the

independent Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967.

Among the many who were forced by the logic of the Mayhem to rally

around the new Biafra dream were several creative writers, among whom were

several poets, whose works reflected the nightmarish experience of the civil

violence as well as their perceptions of the new nation of Biafra. Prominent among

the poets were names such as Kelvin Echeruo, Ossie Enekwe, Obiora Udechukwu,

Emeka Okeke – Ezigbo etc. Having experienced the trauma of the massacres,

these young men were thrilled at the birth of the new alternative state of Biafra

which they hoped would be the anti thesis of the decadent old Nigerian nation

within which they believed they had suffered a lot of injustice. On the eve of the

secession, therefore optimism had become the guiding philosophy of these young

and trusting men.

The Pot of Unity, the oldest poem with a date (1963) can be said to be the

key to the whole anthology. Written just three years after independence, observes

Nwankwo (1977: V) “It symbolizes the tragic fate of the political potpourri that is

Nigeria”. As self-governance begins in 1960, it was evident enough that the units,

which make up the Nigerian nation, were detached and dangling in disunity. This

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poem represents the failure of the constitutional framework of a tripartite Nigeria

by the British. Although the amalgamation of 1914 symbolically represents a

harmonization of the ethic groups which is now Nigeria, the people did not see

themselves as a homogeneous group. The unity of Nigeria can be said to be in a

fragile earthen ware. Ademoyega (1981: 10) captured the whole situation when he

categorically stated that

When the independence of Nigeria was ushered in on October 1, 1960, it

seemed as if the political arrangements in Nigeria had been fairly and

equitably settled. Actually, a time – bomb had been buried deep into the

foundation of the political edifice. So with the passing of time, the bomb

was bound to blow up the whole edifice, unless it was defused by a

cautious operation of the delicate tripartition upon which the edifice was

laid.

But this was not to be. By 1963, two years after independence when this poem was

written, agitation and rioting became the order of the day in Nigeria as a result of

the tribalistic artrocities committed by the rulers. An example is the population

recount of 1963. The governments of Sardauna and Belewa of the NPC did not

intend to govern Nigeria peacefully and progressively, but sought to cut down

their political opponents.

In this poem, a situation of utter despair and hopelessness is most

powerfully projected. Enekewe pre-empted the war that followed in 1967. The

image of a fragile clay pot as the symbol of unity in Nigeria is most apt

considering the tumultuous background of the country at that time. Nothing solid

can be said to be in place.

63

He who bore it first faltered by the cliff

Perplexed by the song of a grouping populace.

Another carried it through the quick river of delay

across the seven hills were smoke and vapour boil.

What is foreshadowed here in the first stanza is the emerging tragic situation in the

country.

The deictic reference „He‟ and the use of „another‟ and „it‟ in the third line

show that it is a historical context, a time in history which can be recalled by

people. He is merely reminding us of how it all started. Also the motif of „seven

hills‟ appear in tales to denote the mythical crossing into ancestral realms also

called the land of the dead. The governance of Nigeria after independence was

quite difficult because of the tribalism that was rife at the time. Emezue (2008: 72)

explains that

Crossing seven hills and rivers in Enekwe‟s poems (or in Igbo mythology)

suggests an attempt of supernatural significance. Something very far away

or hardly attainable by mundane humanity. Hence it is not surprising for

instance, that the quest for unity was a stultified dream in Nigeria, hence

the pogrom and war that ensued.

Therefore, it is by expostulating the deeper meaning that emerge from the context

and language of Enekwe‟s poems, the violation of acceptable relational principles

as used by him, that actually provokes the reader‟s questions as to what is the

intention of the author. The leaders were already in a fix. „Forward and backward

was war‟. The situation was already out of hand so unsurprisingly.

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He stumbled and fell

The pot broke and blood-thirsty snakes

trailed off to the four corners

boiling with vernom.

The faltering by the cliff, the unruly populace and the fear and confusion of the

leaders, provide a necessary background for the last four lines of the poem. The

leader falls and breaks the pot, letting out the contents of the pot – „blood thirsty

snakes‟ representing angry Nigerians from the four major ethnic groups in Nigeria

whose hearts had already been poisoned and who felt cheated as shown by the

hostile ethnic rivalries and bitter political situations in the country especially in the

Western region. This equally shows that the Nigerian civil war lad a monstrous

ethnic complexion.

‗The Pot of Unity‘ is a short poem of twelve lines with no significant rhyme

scheme to represent a situation of utter confusion. The expressive power of the

poet lies in the use of images which effectively represent a situation of uneasy

calm.

In the second poem ‗Prophecy‘, the poet looks generally at Africa

bedevilled by feuds. Enekwe believes that though Europeans are still part of the

problems of Africa, Africans are more to be blamed. Some of the sources of

conflict in Africa are ignited by internal feuds, while some reflect the dynamics of

a particular sub-region. Enekwe shows in this poem that the African nations, in a

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bid to embibe the whiteman‟s culture, tear themselves apart. This results in

disruptions, disorientation and imbalance in the African universe. Sadly in the end,

they lose their God – ordained blackness, communality and traditional values and

at the same time they are not able to be „completely white‟.

Emezue (2008: 62) observes that Enkewe in his poetry, mentions „names‟

of actual people like the traditional artistes of Africa would do. These names

according to her „symbolize the positive or negative tendencies associated with the

individual bearing the name‟. The two names Cantigny and Iwojima mentioned in

this poem may be names of villains, considering the circumstances of the poem.

Though the actual message of this poem is not readily seen from the

material of the language, however the relevant situation and the imperative

structure of the language stand as important contextualization cues.

Cantigny and Iwojima

Seem distant enough

in time and space

not in colour and desperation

Even though the African countries are distanced from each other, yet they are the

same in colour and desperation most of their leaders are so desperate for wealth

and this desperation has generated so much hatred among the people that:

hate burns us white

from coal black to dazzle ash

the only way to be white.

Ordinarily hate an abstract noun is not something that can physically inflict burns.

But the poet‟s violation of the maxims of quality and relation, question the literal

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truthfulness in order to suggest to the reader the degree of damage done to African

communities in their bid to embibe the whiteman‟s culture. The colour ash and

white evoke African traditional idea of waste land and death. It is something

purely undesirable.

In the poem ‗A Land of Freedom‘ the poet narrates painfully an example of

the impact of the ravages of colonialism and apartheid in the socio-economic and

political life of Africa in this case Ghana. The poet equally shows in this poem a

typical example of the disoriented action of a „grouping populace‟. Onuigbo

(2003:122), had also observed that in the game of politics in Africa, the reaction of

the public is unpredictable. He says that „sometimes, the public rejects genuine

leaders in preference to exploiters (probably stooges of the whites) who divert

their votes with intimidating promises of economic packages‟.

The poem proposes that as a political fighter, Nkurumah loved his people and

found for them „a new farm in the east‟ so they cheered and followed him.

He loved his people

and found for them

a new farm in the east

They cheered:

OSAGYEFO

and followed him.

Farm in the third line symbolizes life and greenness to the traditional African. It is

also associated with abundance of life. It shows not only freedom but rejuvenation

and promise of hope. Osagyefo is a Ghanian name for saviour. The capitalization

serves as a visual clue designed to emphasize the solidarity and estacy of the

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people initially. However the anti-climax comes almost too soon. The leader does

not find it easy. In the second stanza, we see the reaction of a „grouping populace‟,

brain washed into believing that nothing good can come out of their land. One

expects that having been accepted by his people, he will find governance easy, but

„the paths are full of snakes and thorns‟. His people were not with him. Enekwe

here, uses the image of the snake, a symbol of evil, deceit and chaos wherever it is

seen, to depict the situation. Thorns are constant sources of pains too.

The paths were full

of snakes and thorns,

and so, endlessly

in want of beds,

they called him a hawk

and murdered him.

In Africa, the hawk is used to denote a predator that preys on smaller birds. It is

also a derogatory term used also to denote greed and selfishness. The hawk‟s vice

include murder, oppression, suppression, selfishness, deceit and self – deification.

Agu (2006: 102) notices that “there is a certain sense of movement and stillness, a

structural duality, which pervades most of the poems. This is in line with the

background of tragedy in them”. Apart from the tenor of death as a structural

device in Enekwes poems, we also observed that there is a dense use of animal

imagery and their associated ideas as unthinking species and especially animals

capable of inflicting harm and pain. This is as a result of the peculiar historical and

environmental circumstances of his existence at that time.

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The next poem ‗The Story of a Ceylonese Girl‘, continues the projection of

human and material waste that characterized western imperialism in Africa with

its fracture of the colonized victims (as we see in Zaire, Congo, Zimbabwe, South

Africa and a host of other African nations) this time Nigeria.

The poem is a powerful dirge tragedy and also one that vividly depicts the

colossal destruction and violent tension that trailed the war, written in the

immediacy of the events, when the emotions aroused by the events where still

fresh Enekwe, through ferocious visceral descriptions which create a powerful

chilling and compelling sense of the chaos of the war, drives his points home. In

an interview with Ezenwa (2008: 21) Enekwe says of these war poems:

Somehow I wanted to tell the coming generation about the war so that by

experiencing it vicariously they can understand what it means to have a war

or to be in crisis.

This poem comes in the form of a chant. The turbulent confidence in oral tradition

and also appropriation of the element of orality is in line with what Osundare

(1996: 6) says that “the way of literature is looking back at the great resources of

our orality, our oral love, and making use of all these things”.

‗The story of a Ceylonese Girl‘ is about the passionate commitment of a

Ceylonese female undergraduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka who died

fighting to defend Biafra. The poem is marked by detailed narrative sequence

where the circumstantial details about the heroine is amply highlighted in a

manner of poetic exploration.

Blood of Mathi Kuiersegaram

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Polluted by battle powder

Skull and bones of a Biafra lover

Left to smoulder and crack in the flames

of a city whose paths she loved to walk

faraway from the people she loved so much

By lycricising the commitment of this non – Biafran cause, Enekwe draws

attention to the universal appeal of the ideal behind the establishment of the new

state and goes on to imply that Biafra was more than a project with only an ethnic

justification and implication.

To show the ugly side of war, the poet presents Mathi‟s body smashed and

destroyed. She is driven by love as against the selfishness that has driven the

people she loved so much to war. Egya (12), points out that „this justaposition of

the evil of the war and the demonstration of love for humanity is the height of

Enekwe‟s paradox in this poem‟. Egya (2008) also believes that in emphasizing

this paradox – „which sees love bringing death instead of life, Enekwe dramatizes

the Christ – like submission of one‟s life for the sake of other people. Although

Mathi „should have gone to her mother‟ like most foreigners did at the outbreak of

the war, she rejected that option. In the end her love became a

…casing

to take her well to the clay

beyond the reaches of the people

she loved so much

far away from the dust of her own land.

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The pain of loss is shown in the repetition of the name Mathi. It is also in line with

the Igbo traditional dirge, were the life and achievements of the dead are usually

sung. Every word in this poem is apparently moulded to serve a unique poetic

necessity – to establish a special impression of violence in line with the

background.

It is also important to note that irrespective of the sadness surrounding the

poem, Enekwe calls his poem a sung for the guitar. On this Ihekweazu (177: iii)

rightly remarks that in Enekwes poems „we find strong elements of performance

and acting‟. She avers that many of his pieces are called songs and more than once

we find reference to poetry as singing.

Another poem that treats a similar loss of people, peace, property during the

war, though cast in an epigrammatic structure is ‗A Palace of Tomes‘. It is a

variation of broken (human) pots. A short poem of two stanzas, but we notice here

a repeated pattern which Enekwe uses to confer on his narrative a sense of

originality and wit. It is the juxtaposition of nouns with surprising adjectives or

nouns. An example is the title of the poem, ‗A palace of tomes‘. Palace stands for

the strong room, centre and power house of a nation. It is the seat of government

like the Burkingham palace in Britain. The palace is associated with life and it is

usually a beehive of activities. In Nigeria during the war that necessitated the

writing of these poems, the context of an on – going spate of killings, deserting of

large cities, skulls and bones, helps the reader to understand the poets choice of

words.

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I saw tonight

in her palace of tomes

a youthful queen

and her king

the lone thought

in her cold skull

One would expect “palace” to collocate with fountain and flowers and sunshine

and not cold, skulls and tomes. The „youthful queen and her king‟, stand for

Nigeria that is just few years old from independence.

Birds equally are associated with flowers, sunshine, beauty, warm and

comfortable environments. Once there is uncertainty or lifelessness in an

environment, like the coming of winter or harmattan, they leave with „fresh leaves

to a more comfortable environment to make their homes.

The birds have since

fled her walls,

the last leaves

in their beaks.

The war and violence in Nigeria made the country uninhabitable for her foreign

visitors and citizenry. Here we can attest to the poets artistic power. He skillfully

chooses words that create a pitiable picture of Nigeria – the ‗Giant of Africa‘.

The next poem ―Buttocks‖ is another poem whose actual message is not

readily seen from the materials of the language. The title also seems to be at odd

with the theme of war which the poet pursues but once the appropriate social

context is applied, the meaning, becomes clear. This poem is presented against the

background of waste, discomfort and destruction.

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It is also worthy of note, that in his poetry Enkewe hardly refers to man as a

complete being. References are often made to body parts of a human being.

Enekwe equally uses „mud‟ in his poems to denote different phases of decay. As

used in the poem, „mud‟ gives the idea of an on – going process of deterioration:

„the mud dam bursts‟. The dam is made of materials that will not last, just as the

independence and unity of Nigeria is carried in an earthen ware. It is bound to

break some day and cause damage. There has been an on – going period of

negligence and neglect of self before an ordinary stomach upset deteriorates or

degenerates to diarrhea which can result to grave consequences. When a nation

faces crisis and its citizens show disaffection over certain issues in the country,

once their voices are neglected by their leaders „elephants‟, it might result to a

civil war and there are bound to be casualties.

The mud dam bursts

and frees the flood;

and elephants fall

into

shallow ponds

and elephants falling

break

their knees

Through activist (acid) rhetoric, Enekwe here mocks the leaders, who instead of

building and uniting the nation on very strong principles resort to ruthless

exploitation of the nation and building it on, weak principles. With the collapse of

the „dam‟ that is the country in 1967, many of the leaders „elephants‟ were killed.

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In his poem „New Creed‟ Niyi Osundare, refers to those in the corridors of

power in our country as „ruling elephants‟. Enekwe makes it clear to the

perpetrators of injustice in the country that is the „elephants‟, that those in glass

houses do not throw stones. Though they are the untouchables, they will not

escape retributive justice when the time comes because „elephants falling break

their knees‟.

The next poem ‗Lady Death‘, continues the projection of distress and waste

in Africa and Nigeria in particular. The fundamental and underlying message of

the poet in this poem, from apparent violation of the maxims of relevance and

relation in the first stanza is that of unequal opportunities in our country. He

compares the betrayal of trust, exploitation, wickedness and destruction meted out

to the male mantis by the female mantis during the time of intimacy to what the

whites had done to their trusting, homely black victims in the name of colonialism.

After independence, painfully those fellow blacks who were handed over the reins

of leadership also exploits the platform and abuses their loved ones. They see

power as the ultimate elixir of being which has to be acquired and protected at all

cost. They maim, kill in order to preserve their power. That actually was the cause

of war in Nigeria. The poem is a depiction of a vicious as well as a piteous

spectacle.

Love can be a dangerous game.

The mantis seeks his lady

in the region of terrible heat

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she claps him within her thighs

ensconces his head between her teeth

and with the swiftness of guillotine blade

chops it off ---

To Schneider (2008: 41), the poem „is a deliberate contortion which serve to

undermine femaleness and perpetuate the stereotype of her as a being of simple

qualities‟. When we consider the fact that the poet has rendered glowing tributes to

women in this collection in poems like ‗To Mother on Her Birthday‘, „love without

measure‘, we will conclude that he is not undermining women here. The

interpretation must go beyond what Ogunba (1975: 24) calls “the simple word –

on – the – page context to explore the inner meaning which derives from the

realities of the socio-political situation of the poets literary world of the time”.

Pragmatics allows the poet or writer to incorporate words and ideas from

disciplines other than literature in order to show the multi-directional spread of the

literary explorations.

In the second stanza of three lines the poet ironically concludes that:

Mankind must rejoice for their love is other wise

man should be glad for the terror in the face of his death.

Since man is a rational being, says Enekwe with the tongue in the check attitude,

he will neither exploit nor abuse his relationships like animals do.

In the next poem ―The Poor‖, the poet still dwells on the theme of man‟s

inhumanity to man. Socio-economic oppression against the poor and less

privileged. The poem is a graphic display of the corrupt rich in our society. The

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central idiom in the poem is materialism. During the Nigeria civil war, which was

fierce, murderous, wasteful and unnecessary, many at the hem of affairs enriched

them selves by supplying weapons and mercenaries to fuel the war. Food materials

brought by relief organizations outside the country were side tracked and sold.

According to Ademoyega (1981: 246)

Inside the prisons and in many refugee camps, men were dying hourly in

hundreds, from hunger, thirst and other deprivations. It was totally

inconceivable that those who claimed to be fighting for unity and oneness

could impose such hardships, such terrible suffering, such agony, such

privations on fellow human beings, not to talk of fellow citizens.

Enekwe in this poem, presents for viewing, chilling visions of humans made sub-

human, by political dictators and political jobbers.

The antennae of the „Poor‟

Like reeds

Quake before

A palace of gold

The antennae of an insect are the two long, thin parts attached to its head with

which it feels things. It can be said to be its life. So the life of the poor, who are

undernourished are at the mercy of the political dictators. As we apply the relevant

pragmatic standards in our interpretation, it can be said that the use of the image of

the reed to represent the poor here is apt. The reed is a plant that grows thin and

has no branches, irrespective of the fact that it usually grows predominantly near

waters, which give life. The citizens of this potentially great, but unfortunately

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mismanaged country are suffering in the midst of plenty. A palace of gold depicts

the rich and powerful of society.

The next poem ‗Mass for the Dead‘, also continues the projection of waste

during the war. In fact, it captures the mood of the climax of the wastage. We

witness horrific war experience, destruction and living governed by perpetual fear

and trembling. Here, everybody is affected by the crisis. He shows the war as a

ruthless destruction of young life. The use of symbols, imagery and lucid

language, creates a cinematographic montage which allows the reader get more

emotionally involved, not to mourn, but to re-live the experience.

In the Catholic Church where the poet belongs, the mass is usually the

highest and last honour given to the dead. In the mass, God is requested to tender

justice with mercy and to intervene in man‟s hopeless situation.

The tone of the first stanza of six lines apparently fits into the theme of hopeless.

From the sky suspended

the strings of tattered pants

marched on trembling feet,

under stone – heavy kits,

marched, on their breasts,

seared monograms of skulls and bones.

We can see that the euphonious effect of the pattern repetition of the „ts‟ and „ss‟

produced at the end of the lines produces some music which though pleasing to the

ear, reinforces the message of emptiness.

The first two lines show that the whole environment is littered with humans

that have been dismembered may be after an attack by bombers. Enekwe in his

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poetry hardly refers to man as a complete being. Images of death in this first

stanza are represented as „skulls‟ and „bones‟: „seared monograms of skulls and

bones‟. With this background of death the young soldiers who are supposed to be

agile and combat ready, are marching on „trembling feet‟. Their kits, which are

supposed to help them survive in the war fronts are „stone – heavy kits‟ which will

surely sink them. Death is surer with these images than life.

The choice of lexical items even in the second stanza, strongly and more painfully

reinforce the atmosphere of war and human waste. „Bloated edges of humanity, ..

mud forms of their mates‟ The poet‟s use of the image of the mud according to

Emezue (2008: 60), „find parallel in African communal regard for some objects,

especially mud and dust as things associated with death‟.

At sunset, the soldiers that marched to the war front come back, lesser in

number. They merely drift back, and march back the next day to await their turn to

die. Sunset can also stand for Biafra.

In the valley

The women folk wail

and battered bells Chime

the daily demise of the youth

The concourse of the living stare,

not sure if to pray for the dead

or for themselves dying in degrees.

Those that did not go to war like the women folk, children and aged, are referred

to as staying in the valley. They are equally not safe. They cry daily for „the

demise of the youth‟, not even sure of their own lives. John Pepper Clark in his

war poem „casualties‟ says that the war casualties are not even those that are dead

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because they are well out of it. Even those that are alive are casualties because

they „await burial by installment‟. Enekwe says they are „dying in degrees‟. It is

indeed a piteous situation.

In a situation of utter fear, disillusionment, hopelessness and despair, it is not

surprising that the poet believes that only God almighty can save the situation.

May God save our sons!

AMEN!

As we impose the pragmatic relevance of such biblical speech and culture, we

move with the poet from a state of appalling emptiness to a state of hope which

comes as one leans on his creator.

May He preserve them

from the hoarse shouts of officers

from fields of mines and flames of artillery,

cannon fire and deadly armoured cars

From flames of artillery

and motley mates …

save them also from the sneer

of the living …

The poet enumerates all that is threatening to the young soldiers in the war front in

order to justify his anchor on God almighty.

In the poem ―No way for Heroes to Die‖, Enekwe observes the true

consequences for soldier deaths. Their idealistic gesture becomes the subject of

history. His vital statement in this poem is that the society tends to forget the

ordinary people who fight for its survival and turn around to celebrate anti-heroes.

Soldiers liker Nzeogwu, Achibong, Atuegwu and many others should be the

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celebrated heroes because like Jesus Christ, they saw and bravely accepted the

consequences of their going to the war fronts. They laid down their lives for

humanity.

Enekwe was among the many who were forced by the logic of the mayhem

to rally round the new Biafran dream. He witnessed and experienced the „war

front‟. To him it was a nightmarish experience. In this poem, a dirge full of pains

and regrets, he replays this experience of pain and death. He fearlessly sings, not

to the memories of commanding officers and generals who have a twisted

perception of themselves as heroes but to „the memory of those who died to be

forgotten …‟ carcass of heroism stung by rainbows, stung till blanched …

abandoned by flies …”. He centres his philosophic quest on those nameless ranks

and files who during the war, were not only killed by weapons but also were not

recorded any where for remembrance.

Enekwe also mentions „names‟ of actual people like the traditional artistes

of Africa would do especially in dirges. This shows that he is really very proud of

them.

I sing of Nzeogwu, Achibong and Atuegwu.

In the field, their scattered bones jeer

at the azure sky and sneer at the masked

terrors of rainbows ….

To look upon these ranks and files as heroes is a way of shifting the

paradigm from self – praise to true heroism. In Africa and Igboland in particular,

the burial of the dead is seen as a great honour; the last rite of honour usually

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given to the dead. When the corpse of someone is not properly buried by his

kinsmen, it means he is not resting in peace and it is equally regarded as an

abomination and curse. This means that the family cannot point at the grave of

their beloved one. All these stigma they bear for their country. He painstakingly

traces the gruesome way these veterans were killed. The gravity of the loss of

these heroes appears to be that while,

Some heroes are carved in stone for the blind to see

others disintegrate in the shifting seasons.

Nzeogwu died like a lamb ripped apart by invisible claws,

his body drawn in the dust that could not rise enough to tell

his people of his whereabouts.

Achibong‟s head dropped when a coward found heroism

in a hatchet chopping the neck of a fallen soldier

Atuegwu died in a dark cell while he waited for prosecution.

Now many years after, they are for gotten,

Their loves lost in the desert of their fall,

their resolve turned into folly

By hungry historians and starveling professors

These heroes instead of being celebrated, their sacrifice for their nation is used as

a money making venture by historians and professors. Concluding, the poet

maintains that „this is no way for heroes to die‟. The poem is prose – based

because of the use of everyday language, still it is coherent and has powerful

poetic effects and unity.

The same mood flows into the next poem, „Whatever Happened To The

Memorial Drum? In the previous poem, Enekwe shows that he believes in the

possibility of heroism but he laments that in our country, those at the hem of

affairs do not recognize the sacrifices of those „heroes who fell‟. Their deaths will

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not provide justification of a political principle. The poet admiringly produces a

historical record of war veterans who had fought great wars like the fallen heroes

in Nigeria and yet are remembered by their people and are even studied in history

all over the world.

… Achilles, Ceasar, Hannibal, Sulliman,

Chaka, Churchill, Hitler …

Our brothers rode through the Ordure.

We heard the swords of Napoleon threaten the stars

and Paton roll his tanks on sand, snow and water

to drive the retreating enemy down into Hades.

The list is endless. He uses lexical items of praise to show that he believes in true

heroism. „The swords of Napoleon threaten the stars‟. There are songs of praise all

over the world in hanour of Napoleon. „Patton roll his tanks on sand, snow and

water to drive the retreating enemy down to hades‟. Their exploits are heard all

over the world. In this poem, Achilles, Ceasar, Hannibal, Sulliman, Chaka

Curchill, Hitler --- are all war veterans who are in synonymous relation, each

reinforcing the significance in terms of commitment to destruction. In the same

way, spears, swords tanks are all weapons of war with plurality of number and

which the fighters use to accomplish their mission. Just as Achilles, Caesar,

Hannibal, Sulliman, Chaka, Churchill, Hitter ---- share common semantic features

of [+ veterans] and [+ commitment] to reinforce the import of destruction in them,

spears, swords and tanks share common semantic features [+ weapons of

destruction] and [+ death] to reinforce the import of war in them.

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Having recognized and admired the true nature of the idealistic heroism of

those who did become sacrifices, Enekwe can look with a bitter and sardonic eye

on the present circumstance in our country (after the civil war). The poet recounts

the huge loss of men in any war thus:

Wars came and men died.

Hope rose, swayed and shat;

Soldiers marched, kissed the dust.

It is not always that our hopes of winning for example in a war, comes to be but

whatever happens, we must remember those that lost their lives fighting our wars.

But in Nigeria after the war, the only thing the survivors did was to make gods of

them out of mud and copper”. These are non lasting materials.

Mud is used to denote different phases of decay in Enekwe‟s poetry.

Copper is not long lasting. Angrily he asks the question „I wonder why we‟re sick

of heroes and monuments, and lie defeated in every victory! Now that the

conqueror, stiff with fear, floats and farts in the air and the save loves his master.

Now that every state is enslaved … what use are the drums of memory”.

4.2 Poem To Friends Lost in War

Nowhere in the volume is the magnitude of the Biafran tragedy more

evident than in those poems which immortalize the victims of the war. Because

Enekwe is here writing about close personal friends who have fallen in battle and

because he is emotionally involved in his subject matter, he is able to convey the

depth and magnitude of the impact of their death on himself. These friends who

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may have “died to be forgotten – carcass of heroism stung by rainbows/stung till

blanched” and “abandoned by the leadership of the state which sent them out to

fight, will never be forgotten by the poet who had lived their dreams with them.

Enekwe feels deeply what he writes. One cannot miss in these poems the

personal intimacy with the subjects/heroes and the nostalgia conveyed in the

stanzas that make up the poems by the use of simple but highly emotive words like

„dear‟, „ken‟, „remember‟, „we‟ „our‟ …. He always in his poems, make himself

the speaker not only of himself but of many.

These poems to his friends are a collection of dirges memorizing the death

mostly in the Nigerian civil war of Nigeria‟s foremost artists. The preoccupation

of most dirges is that of loss and separation while the mood is filled with sorrow

and sadness. This lamentation becomes a precious outlet for the gnawing spirit.

In the poem ‗To a Friend Made and Lost in War‘, (a poem written in

memory of Martin Utsu) we witness an illustration of the rendition of the African

dirge and also the deep emotional outburst of a fully realized dirge. The poet

searches for appropriate epithets to convey his grief and agony. To achieve this,

the poem is detailed, with carefully chosen, simple, direct and vivid language. The

lines are short, unadorned and imbued with a telegraphic urgency to create an

overall arresting impact.

In the first stanza of fifteen short lines, Enekwe carefully traces and

explains how his friend had escaped death severally, by God‟s special grace in

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towns and villages well know during the Nigerian Biafran war as areas were the

battle was fiercest.

God had saved you

at Ihiala, Ozubulu

and Eluama were you lay

on the tracks of enemy guns

But that was not all, there was also the everyday terrors of mundane violence and

carelessness on the roads:

But a hungry driver

and a tired truck

hauled you into a ditch

in a thick bush.

Blood oozed from your nose

Mouth and ears …

The vivid portrayal of horror is aimed at showing the cruelty that lives with man in

wartime, and the inability of man to escape it. Still after being to „a village

hospital‟, two days later,

Soviet bomber rockets

burst your belly

and tore your intestine

on the white sheet

of the hospital bed

slowly your life spread

purple about you.

Egya (2008: 93) here explains that „the idea of postponed death, hoping for life at

every survival only to die in spite of hoping, is quite touching‟. From the third

stanza one cannot help but sympathize with the poet as he embarks on a very

traumatic spiritual journey to look for the body of a friend who has been torn apart

85

by bomber rockets. He goes to the morgue, „his friend is not there‟. He looks for

him at the cemetery, no trace of him. His body gets lost. There comes another kind

of pain, he could not be identified because other fighters came „too late to see him

buried‟ and therefore,

… could not tell

from the many mounds

which was yours.

The objective of Enekwes painstaking description of the final hours of his friend‟s

existence on earth is to show the contribution that always goes with war. It is also

more painful in Igboland than death itself, that one‟s burial site cannot be

identified. Burials are occasions to share and mourn and also celebrate a rite of

passage. But this was denied most Nigerians that died during the war. Most were

buried in „half – covered pits‟, they were far too many for the already devasted

living to handle. Ademoyega (1981:19) made it clear that „by the time the war

ended in 1970, an estimated one million Nigerians, most of them Igbo, had lost

their lives ….‟

One characteristic of Enekwe‟s writing inheres in his ability to pack a lot of

ideas into his short pieces. What this means is that he always goes for the

appropriate words that express his exact feelings. No embellishment. No

verbosity.

The poem ‗The Defiant One‘ (To Christopher Okigbo), is another of

Enekwe‟s reconstruction of the dirge this time in honour of Christopher Okigbo

who fell fighting in the battle of Biafra. Okigbo is mourned for the loss of a rich

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and versatile talent. Enekwe also projects the theme of loss – loss of flesh and

soul, of humanism and of environment. „Infact loss‟ concludes Egya (2008),

“essentialises the central image of Enekwe‟s poems of war which is the broken

pot, forced to the ground, scattered around, its contents lost to human

monstrosities”. The first stanza focuses on the hero, memories of whom are laden

with „Wreaths of epithets” depicting his untimely death. We also see the character

of praise tilting on colouful ululation for the dead as is characteristic of the African

dirge.

You lacked the drift

of the aged smoke

ubiquitous in time

and colour, despite drought

and wreckage of the shrine

Though he died early, yet he had made his marks on the sand of time. Christopher

Okigbo is seen by his peers as a rare jem. Paul Ndu‟s poem ‗Song for the Seer‘ a

dirge on late Christopher Okigbo, ranks Okigbo „among the immortal beings who

come once in an age to interact with the race of man‟. To Enekwe, he is an Iroko

which had been beheaded.

So like the beheaded Iroko

you stood till blasted

to the roots

The Iroko is a large tree that casts a wide shade. Egya (2008: 96), noted that the

tree is known “for shelter, sturdiness and protection. Human beings rely on Iroko

trees for many things in terms of human survival”. So what it means is that if the

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Iroko loses its „head‟, then something fundamental to human beings is lost.

Emezue (2008: 69) further explained that „spiritually, trees in African ontology

embody the strength, stoicism, firmness and growth of the race‟. Among the trees

of many an Igbo proverb or idiom, the „Iroko‟ comes out most kingly. By likening

Okigbo (a seer and the razor – tongued weaver bird) to an Iroko tree, Enekwe

couldn‟t have used a better image to describe him. But „at the end of the carnage

…‟ (line 9), nobody remembers him, just like the other heroes that lost their lives

fighting for their country. Instead of his grave being remembered as the foundation

that brought peace to the country; it is trifled upon by the military who are

interested in inconsequentials.

With your mound as pillow

Blown whistles carouse

Lipsticks on necks

And dark dust scrape

With bangle – topped sandals

Nwankwo (1977: X) in his preface to the poems concludes that „a generation gap

has grown‟ because according to the poet all that Okigbo and his talent stood for

are left to „gather dust‟ and „his shadow smutted by the trumpery of the innocent‟

consequently his acolytes:

Let loose the Wail

of the age that with (him)

stood before Madam Idoto

naked and disinherited

„This Wail‟ according to Nwankwo „picks up that of the women folk who

bewailed the death of the youths during the war.

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Most of Enekwes poems reflect the fact that he is a specialist in the dramatic arts

and drama is situated in ritual. Most times you see him projecting personal

feelings in a voice not alienated from its own culture and artistic heritage.

Christopher Okigbo in his poems normally supplicates to madam Idoto a river

goddess in his town.

The poem ‗Husbandman‘ a dirge also, is a tribute (in memory of Pol Ndu

who died on July 1, 1976). It is a continuation of his treatment and lamentation of

the personal pains of the loss of talented young poets and friends. The poem

enriches our awareness both by its deep – rooted Igbo heritage and the language of

English as the vehicle of its creative expression. In the first stanza of twelve long

lines, the poet paints a qruesome picture of the last days of Pol Ndu who happens

to be a poet.

He died with a song in his throat

Like a bird struck in mid air

Out of the clear sky

A hawk swoops at the frail beauty

Winging its way between green earth

And silvery sky …

Pol Ndu is a poet and Enekwe says „he died with a song in his throat‟. That means

that he would have written many more poems in his life time. He equally likens

him to „a bird struck in mid – air‟. The death of the poet at the time is

characterized by the poet as most untimely and swift. This show that while he was

still strong, healthy and full of life, he was cut short by the hawk – a dreadful

predator bird much stronger than the nza (a little bird). It connotes destruction and

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loss. In Igbo land especially in village communities, a lot of things are done to

prevent the hawk from carrying away chicks. But once it has its victim in its

clutches, people watch helplessly as it moves away with its victim crying

helplessly. In Igbo dirges death is likened to the hawk that strikes when people

least expect it.

The cry of Nza is lost in the violence of its end

Nothing is heard but claws

and silences wet with blood

It is usually fatal and painful because surely the victim cannot be helped just like

in the fatal accident that took the life of Pol Ndu.

Nothing is seen but battered steel,

shattered glass, a pool of blood on a velvet seat

blood – stained mangled car on a lonely road.

Every word and phrase especially in the last three lines of the first stanza is

apparently chosen and moulded to serve a unique poetic necessity: that of pain.

There is also the choice of voiced consonant clusters to reinforce the import of

pain in them … battered steel, shattered glass, pool of blood etc. Enekwe in this

poem agrees with the Igbo mythology that those that died violently do not rest in

peace … „neither to heaven nor to his kin could he cry‟ and that midnight is

usually believed to be a time when the dead move around „between the village and

the woods‟. Enekwe in this poem relies heavily on the traditional legacies of

African oral literature and heritage.

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In the last stanza, Enekwe reiterates the futility of life without one leaving a

legacy just like Pol Ndu did.

Life is futile but not the husbandman‟s

that like gold renews evermore.

The next poem ‗No Death At All‘ (For Pablo Neruda) is also a memorial. Here he

addresses his friend directly by using the deitic referencing „you‟. Enekwe here as

before, strongly reiterates his belief that death does not mean the end for those that

have left legacies for the living to behold. The legacies they have left behind are

ageless. They will always be remembered. In the first two stanza‟s, just like in his

memorials, he starts by praising the dead, mentioning his achievements.

You sang of love

that nourishes the tiniest leaves

on the Oak

of sun‟s cream on frozen streams.

The imagery overwhelmingly transmits the message clearly and brings out the

great achievements of the subject of the poem. His songs touch both the old and

the young. One also cannot miss the intimacy with the subject hero and the

nostalgia conveyed in the first two stanzas by the use of simple but highly emotive

words: „you‟, „nourishes‟, „leaves‟, „sun‟, „streams‟, „garden‟ etc. words that

transmits vividly life.

You brought banished Earth

and her offspring into the garden

bathed and clothed ---

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The biblical influence on Enekwe cannot but be obvious here. Enekwe likens what

Pablo Neruda has achieved in his writings and works and how he has affected

humanity to what God has achieved for „banished earth and her offspring‟ by

bringing them back through the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today

we are enjoying the salvation brought about by the sacrificial death of our Lord

Jesus Christ though he lived a short life.

„Love as the immortalizing agent is a strong theme of this book of poetry observes

Ihekweazu (1983: 128). She went further to explain that „death is by no means

underrated or embellished. It comes out in all its crudeness; but, even in the

frequent image of worms and maggots, far from being an idyllic image of hope, it

embodies an element of continuity of life and death‟.

Worms blow you

through their warm bellies

back into the womb

far deep in the turning crusts,

far far with the rhythm of rains

The poet is equally reiterating the inevitability of the natural order of things. For

life to continue, the work of the worms must continue. It is because of their

burrowing work that the earth is aired and water penetrates to give life. If people

wish that there should be no deaths anymore then „the world dies‟.

The last three lines of this poem concludes Ihekweazu, are the lines „which

struck me as possibly containing the central message and a core motif of most of

his poems:

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Death by bullets is no death at all

ask the phoenix for confirmation:

the dead are those afraid of love.

The poem ‗Beyond Tears‘ (in memory of Dr Alvan Ikoku) also expresses the poets

usual characteristic sadness at the passing of heroes without memorials set up for

them. This dirge is in line with the African dirge structure. It usually takes on the

characteristic of praise – tilting on colourful ululation for the dead. Copious

descriptive and lavish epithets are deployed to highlight the sterling qualities of a

great personality. As witnessed in previous poems, the language of dirge poetry is

usually full of images. In giving expression to the tragic memory brought about by

death, the weeping poet resorts to creating mental pictures as a way of

communicating his deep sense of loss from the injustice meted out to him by

death.

In the first three stanzas, the poet amidst cupious imagery, gives us a run

down of what great men are and what they are not.

Great men are not plucked from trees;

they are the lone leaf sailing,

the glitter on the sea

calm or angry and rumbling

with the agony of the waves.

The first two lines show that they are rare while the last two lines show that in all

situations they stand out.

They are not in the glint of hatchets;

they are the flash

in the beggars roosts

in the dark lone some nights of storm.

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In this stanza also he uses the glint and the flash of the matchet to depict the

sterling qualities of these poets.

They are like rain

that falls in harmattan

without the drip

plants faint, birds burn,

founts dry and fishes die

people sing to faggot gods

and dogs bite the fingers

that gave them bones

The expressive power of the poet lies in the use of images which effectively

represent the unique, sterling and very rare qualities of a great man (a poet). The

poet here violates every conversational principle, but hopes that the reader will

invoke the relevant literary world and the context of creation in order to

understand the intended message. He here likens these great men to rain that falls

in harmattan. Harmattan in Africa is a period of extreme dryness. Plants lose their

lives, streams dry up, fishes die, birds of the air and animals leave their nests and

holes in search of water. Even men start consulting the gods of the land to find out

why. The rain that falls in harmattan surely gives life to many. His use of the

present tense in describing these great men shows that they live on, whether dead

or alive because they have impacted on the lives of many. These great men „once

in the meet of edges of life‟ … that is as they try to impact humanity may die.

They should not just be left uncelebrated ….

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We strike our drums

and tune our cords,

despite the tears,

to chant beyond the seven hills

where eagles weave crowns

for the subjects of our song.

We strike and chant

till we burst our drums

for they did not die

mere victims of the world.

The first four lines above show elements of performance, acting and dance by the

use of lexical items like drums, chant, tune our cords. The motif of „seven hills‟ as

earlier mentioned appear in tales to denote the mythical crossing into ancestral

realms also called the land of the dead. These great men are recognized even

beyond. Their crowns are weaved by eagles, which denote kingly recognition, so

they should be celebrated with pomp and pageantry.

There is inevitably in the fifth stanza, the personal and legitimate despair of

sorrow at human loss, most especially this rare group of individuals that „the

angels are slow in the moulding … and the storeman is sparely in sharing the

parts‟. But Enekwe concludes that despite the „thorns‟ in the parts of life, it is

better to be a great man, for while we may not be able to do much about the

ultimate length of our life, we can certainly do a lot about its depth. We can

maximize and make it count – so much that long after our physical sojourn is over,

our laudable labours, legacies and laurels will continue to live on, blessing, stirring

and challenging multitudes of lives that will come after us.

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Again, in „Even After the Grave‘, it is the generation of his youth that

comes to focus:

My generation passes away

like comets in the gloom.

Awful to watch them go!

Friends in dry and wet season,

foes to all that would torment me,

die like wax light in the storm.

The tone of the poem is one of regret and disillusionment. His spirit is at its lowest

ebb. He has witnessed the death of so many of his friends. Such a pilling up of

images by the poet as can be seen in this poem shows that the poet, knowing that

ours is really a visual world dominated by images, uses images that suggest very

brief existence to represent the brief life his friends had spent in the world.

References to “Comets” in Enekwe‟s poetry as noted by Emezue (2008: 55)

„suggest brief but flashy existence‟. This image usually has a negative association.

He also compares their very brief existence to „wax light in the storm‟, as if he

was calling to mind the lingering tune of Ben Elton‟s „candle in de wind‟ the 1973

classic that he wrote in honour of Merilyn Monroe and it seems to me you lived

your life like a candle in the wind … your candle burned out long before your

legend ever did … (Obong-Oshe 2005). Candle wax light for example burns faster

when there is storm or wind. This wind or storm depicts the crisis in the country at

the time, that burned out thousands of lives in their prime. In the second stanza, he

lets us feel the pain he feels as he watches helplessly his already bed – ridden

friend struggle with life. It is not death that is reported to him. He shows how

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deeply he is affected by using direct speech to report the personal encounter and

discussion he had with his friend before he passed on.

“If I lose you

I‟ll know I have

lost a friend”.

In the third stanza, he lets us know why he has lost hope on his friend, who was,

Before young and fresh as sapling,

today, thin and fragile like reeds

when Harmattan has settled

to rule or ruin.

The West African harmattan is used by the poet here to connote the harsh climate

of dryness and aridity. In the sixth line of this third stanza, he personifies

harmattan, using the capital „H‟ as if human. He endows it with the destructive

quality of ruin this time.

The poet looks back at the way his friends had transited from life to death

unannounced and he concludes: „I do not care for skulls, nor for aging bones,

broken cords and wrinkled skin ….‟ One might get old, one might not, as long as

you live in the world, but what bothers him most after what he has gone through

and experienced, most especially during this war, is „for us that build this place for

bloom and see a high rock wall between the dead and the living‟. He wants man to

realize the futility of life. Somebody can be alive this moment and the next

moment dead. Man should not place so much value on the things of the world. As

far as he is concerned and from the experiences he has garnered during the war,

There is no fence,

no dead or living

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The dead are distant friends

Who refuse to write or call.

Among the „broken cords‟ of his generation reiterates Agu (2006: 115), „is Kevin

who lives, ready to sketch his friend whose voice/he loves as much as the person.

There is also Igboji who rides his auto bike forward and back, and Utsu whose

golden – gong voice/still tickles sad lips … „Indeed, even after Togo‟s death, the

poet strongly believes that „there is love … after the grave‟.

In the poem „Sing Not For A Crowd‘ (for Chinua Achebe and Emma

Obiechina) the poet enjoins his colleagues that survived the war, that they should

reclaim that endangered professional, prestige. They should transcend various

ethical or professional dilemmas and stand for what they believe in. He entreats

them to continue exposing the can of worms of the government and not just tell

them what they would want to hear like some sycophants do, in order to enthrone

a society devoid of hypocrisy and pretension. Poets and writers like them must be

remembered when they are long gone for fighting the course of the common man.

They are not to follow „the crowd‟, for it seems as if everybody is dancing to the

tone of those on seats of power to get their palms greased a bit. It is as if the

slogan is now „if you can‟t beat them; join them‟. The poet in seven long stanzas

preaches, trying to convince his fellow poets on why they should not follow the

crowd.

Our course is ever to flourish

when maggots have chewed and moulded

these frames and hues back to earth,

for from

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dust to dust the drum rolls.

Enekwe believes in posterity and in the making of legacies. Worms and maggots

are metaphors for the maintenance of cyclic balance through the regenerative

activity. Emezue (2008: 68) explains that „as abhorrent as this activity might

presume to the sensitivity, the poet describes this act as a natural phenomenon that

serves a purpose in the ecological structure of the universe: Maggots have chewed

and moulded/these frames and hues back to earth”. So as far as the poet is

concerned what the worms do with dead bodies „far beneath the earth‟s crust‟ is

quite natural as they maintain the natural cyclic structure: „for from dust to dust

the drums rolls‟.

In the second stanza, Enekwe still reiterates his belief in heroism and

leaving of legacies. The cyclical life of the planted seed has no relevance in the

theme of war unless it is linked with hope, love and steadfastness. Love as the

very element of life and at the same time the driving force of poetry:

The seed to bloom, must crack and rot.

For birth is only death‟s echoing

Spread the pollen on smiling earth,

For love is the kindler of this song.

Enekwe in the third stanza continues his reiteration and strong stance on human

sacrifices to achieve a course: “For what purpose surge stray roots among cold

faced stones, but futile strokes in a mad water ….” Here the biblical image of

seeds that fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth (Mats 13: 5)

comes to mind. They are of no use to humanity because they soon die off. Also,

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„the magician that dances on broken bottles‟ is just there to thrill the audience a

while, he is not interested in posterity. But for writers and poets they „are a voice

crying on a mountain, when iron wheels the crowed murmur swell‟.

The intention of the poet which comes clear from the pragmatic force of the

poem is revealed as one compares these writers with John the Baptist of the bible.

He stood firm to his teachings and even challenged the authorities that killed him,

but his death is part of the history that has saved humanity today.

These people are no listeners

They hear naught beyond the needling of

the finger …

They are dry pebbles waiting on the beach.

As Perrine (1969: 177) will always say, „an essential element in all music is

repetition‟. In this poem, the poet gives pleasant organization and structure to his

verse through the repetition of the phrase „sing not for a crowd‟ at the beginning of

each stanza. Also his use of various imagery, most especially from the biological

and biblical context reinforces from stanza to stanza his strong stance on rebirth

and regeneration.

Going through the previous poems, we find out that Enekwe‟s poetry is an

engraving in a history that mediates between art and the social realities in Nigeria.

The poet is not happy with the goings on in society. The experience in Nigeria is

that after the war, the society never, really gets rebuilt. It may have been

physically rebuilt, but the spirit of patriotism and a healthy collective psyche is

lost giving way to the moral and ethnical decadence of the 1970‟s to the 1980‟s

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and to the corrupt militarisation of the polity from the 1980‟s to the 1990‟s. In the

poem ‗Ripples Of The Apocalpse‘, Enekwe fearlessly lets out an apocalyptic treat,

in vicious, militant and activist rhetorical language on those leaders whom he

perceives are the authors of poverty among his people. He laments what he calls

“the sin of my people/upon my people”, which according to him, “cannot be

cleansed” either by the “waters of Oguta” or “the fountain of Ibuzu” (a deity in the

poet‟s town, Afa). This „sin‟ comprises the acts of oppression, deceit and

corruption, as well as the attitude of insensitivity of our rulers on the citizenry.

The poet draws tremendously from the richness of the Christian liturgy, and

it takes the knowledge of the Revelation of Saint John the Devine, the last book of

the bible to understand these ideas. The word „apocalype‟ is merely a

transliteration into English of the Greek word for revelation. Like the apocalypse

in the bible from which it draws was written during a period of disturbance and

persecution, so also is Enekwe‟s poem. Any writing under the title „Apocalypse‟

reveals Wansbrough (1984: 2028), „claims to include a revelation of hidden

things, imparted by God, and particularly a revelation of events hidden in the

future‟. In the first stanza, Enekwe warns a generation whose conscience has been

deadened by so much desire for power and wealth, of an impending doom if the

oppressive leaders do not change their ways. This impending doom will come as:

A pogrom sweeter than Orgasm

ascent upon a mount of hatchet and fire

came the war and denial with the finality

of spades on sod where love was buried.

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The first line is a paradox: A pogrom is an organized, official persecution, for

racial or religious reasons, which usually leads to mass killing of a group of

people‟ (BBC English Dictionary); It therefore cannot collocate with orgasm

which is a moment of great pleasure. But placed against the background of the

oppressed people of our country who can no longer tolerate the inconsistencies of

unfulfilled the paradox becomes clear. Enekwe predicts that there is bound to be a

rebellion and that this time it is going to be highly welcomed because the populace

are dissatisfied with the ruling elite. In the second stanza, he uses very brilliant

proverbs characteristic of his poetry to let the leaders know that they are losing

because the people they have trampled upon for long shall rise against them.

Nemesis will surely catch up with them, they will not go unpunished.

Men of my birth, think of the ripples of Apocalypse

you who spill your sperm on pebbles by your threshold

and pursue mice while flames dance on the crowns of your huts;

The two proverbs signify wasted efforts, expending energy, intelligence and

materials on activities that are bound to yield nothing. It is an allusion to the lack

of priority evident in modern society.

For on that day, the rivers, even the mighty ones,

will turn to stone, and trees will rush like warriors

across the wilds, and the ivory beads around

the necks of your maidens will turn to cobras.

Just as the language of apocalyptic writing is richly symbolic, so also is this poem

Wonsbrough (2028), further explains that “the importance of the visions which are

described is never in their immediate literal meaning”. “It can be taken as a rule”

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he continues, „that every element in this kind of writing has symbolic value –

persons, places, animals, actions, objects, parts of the body, numbers and

measurements, stars, constellations, colours, and garments‟. The poet violates

every conversational principle but hopes that the reader will invoke the relevant

literary world and the context of creation in order to understand the intended

message. You can feel the pulse of an agitated mind. Instead of building a vibrant,

strong and stable nation and economy on the blood and bones of our illustrious

and brilliant sons and daughters that died in active service of wickedness and

crime, our leaders go back to continue to perpetuate the same evils on the people

and the nation for which those veterans died.

The sin of my people upon my people

cannot be cleansed

by the blue waters of Oguta …

(or) by the fountain on Ibuzu (a hill and deity in the poets town Afa).

The repetition of this refrain intensifies the poets pain and reiterates the fact that

those perpetrators of injustice in the nation will never go unpublished. The idea of

being cleansed by waters is also an example of purification in the Old Testament

bible. But he believes that the waters of our own land cannot purify them. Their

sins are beyond cleansing. In the third stanza, Enekwe reminisces on the good old

days of our fore fathers, when things were peaceful. In our African folklore like

tales, myths and legends, it was said that man lived with animals peacefully then,

before the evil of betrayal and separation. It can also be likened to the peace and

bliss of paradise before man was driven way.

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There was a time

before the death of the moon

when apes lived in forests

time when all the malignant things

that crawl through grass and brushes

passed indifferent to our cause.

But all that was in the past. Now,

… all the demons have returned with hatchets

and spades, and lizards sharpen their teeth

on our sinews.

Another subtle use of orature is seen in the lines of the song:

Heaven and earth listen to our cry

songs of wind and leaves …

mud – smudged twigs on mounds …

According to Emezue (2008:72), „heaven and earth listen to our cry‟, draws from

popular songs in the Biafran enclave during the war. It was a supplication to the

ancestral spirit of a bewildered people – a song affirming the collective survival of

the doomed Biafran nation”.

Enekwe ends the poem on a sad note. He reiterates his warning that the

overlords may not neglect the groaning majority for long because the poet shows

that there are already cracks on the walls of the system. This tragic vision is a

hopeless one because no solution is at sight and men live daily in fear and

trembling,

Waiting for the voice to roll the drums

to the gulf, and the flames of revelation dance red

among the edges of the sky.

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Enekwe not only chastises his people for their lack of priorities, he equally extends

his anger to the white colonialists. He strongly believes that the ravages of

colonialism and apartheid have a great negative impact on the socio-economic and

political life of Africa.

In the poem ‗Manhattan‘, the poet spends considerable energy and time

exposing the ills and shocking abnormalities in the so called civilization of the

white that his people are trying to imbibe and his intense hatred and non

acceptance of their culture. Manhattan according to Ihekweazu (1983: 129)‟,

stands for death and decadence inherent in modern western civilization‟. In seven

long stanzas that make up the poem, Enekwe skillfully and using appropriate

imagery enumerates what white civilization stands for.

In the forefront of the Twenties,

Manhattan, you teach mankind to die

your men – true sons of mars

are of copper and bronze made.

Your dames smell like fetus

a five – day rot on your riverside.

Their uteri know only the caress

of rubber – sound of surf on pebbles

and the taste of sea shells.

The literal translation and the formal semantic interpretation of the linguistic

representation provide no relevant indication of the poets intention but the

pragmatic force becomes clear with the context of sterility that is usually the

outcome of the use of contraceptives. It is not true literally that Manhattan teaches

mankind to die or that their men are made of copper and bronze but the literary

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truth is that the use of various contraceptives promotes death and sterility

especially the death of fetuses of various ages. It is so rampart in manhattan, that it

seems as if their ladies smell like rotten fetuses. Their wombs do not know the

caress of babies but of implanted contraceptives which, just like the sound of

salted surf on pebbles, depicts sterility. The image of their “men true sons of

mars”, made of “copper and bronze” is important to the poet for the projection of

dead cold emotions of humans that were never nurtured or given proper maternal

care. That is why they teach mankind to die. This contrasts vividly with our

African culture that promotes procreation and never believes that men can have

too many babies.

In the next two stanzas, Enekwe continues to derogatorily describe white

civilization and everything it stands for, using very vicious and apt images. „There

is gold-dust in your blood and faeces dried and ground, your dogs feed on salted

babies that sprout in your refrigerators …” The aborted babies are preserved and

used as feed for their dogs. Their moon does not beautify the environment and

give its warmth because of the sky scrapers that cover it. Everything natural has

been replaced with artificiality. They all look beautiful on the surface but deep and

inside it is rotten, sterile and cold. This he emphasizes in a refrain

Manhattan why does your cadaver smell of roses?

Manhattan why is your rot as precious as diamonds?

According to Chukwuma (1994: 159), „repetition is a direct carry- over

from speech norms where the number of repetitions enhances importance,

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enormity and seriousness of a fact”. Also the continuous use of the deitic

expressions „you‟ „your‟ their etc makes it clear that it is a culture peculiar to them

alone. Also in the organization of the lines, irrespective of his tone of anger there

is beauty. Enekwe in the stanzas, first of all enumerates those things that people

see as beautiful and attractive, in the whites, only to counteract it in the line that

follows by saying it is a facade

Your teeth white as smutted snow –

shells exhumed from ocean floors.

You smell like egg seven – days rotted.

From the fourth stanza, Enekwe makes it clear that he hates everything white

I hate the smell of your breath

and the pur of your voice

your fur coats are of porcupine quills

sharp as scorched, angry grass of Alaska.

In the last two lines above, the poet breaks the maxims of quality and quantity by

saying that which is not literally true. Coats are made of finest wool from animals

and not of porcupine quills. But when interpreted in the background of the poem,

it shows that the whites are not as good willed and loving as their soft voices

portray. Enekwe explains that the whites love no one. They keep all other people

that are not whites in their … „basements where mice and all uncivilized beings

search for food in the ribs of the night‟. Basements here represent under

development. The whites discriminate against the blacks. To them the blacks are

… „nigger – trash barking the bark of a black dog in a dark deserted alley‟.

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In the final stanza of the poem, the poet brings the pride of race to bear

strongly on the poem – to return back to his country and leave the whites with

their pretenses.

Now that darkness has finally fallen

and each must return to his lonely sleep

farewell and tomorrow at dawn

when you perfume yourselves

may your hate remain strong

blowing over the scrappers

over the rivers and knolls

over the nuisance flowers

over the wretches and their dead

seeking a hole in your magnificence.

His repetitions is to emphasize the fact as he had done already, that behind all the

beauty projected by the whites in their structures and persons they are prejudiced

against those whose colour are not like theirs.

The poem ‗Jocker‘ continues the poet‟s mocking and satirical stance

against the white man‟s culture. He still sees everything about the whites

represented by Manhattan as sterile, hostile and cold. The poem, portrays the poet

in exile speaking to his host community about himself and his perception of his

new environment against the background of the home from which he has been

temporarily exiled. It is a poem that demonstrates that the modern African psyche

and consciousness are of necessity normadic.

In the first stanza the poet boldly and proudly announces:

I come from a land

where the sun smiles in the day,

the moon at night,

and electric has not killed the stars.

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In this first stanza, we witness a violation of selection restriction rules. This

suggests a hidden intention which the reader must discover for the proper

interpretation of the poem. It is literally untrue that the sun nor the moon,

inanimate objects smile. Neither is it true that „electric‟ is capable of killing the

stars. But the intention of the poet is revealed when one remembers that in most

cities in America, especially in New York where the poet was temporarily exiled,

the sky scrappers have completely eclipsed the sun rays and electricity which

never goes out, makes it impossible to notice the moon at night. A lot of natural

things have given way to artificiality. This is not so in Africa. He uses the

Nigerian vernacular equivalent of electricity, „electric‟ to emphasize the fact that

nature has not been displaced in his land.

In the second stanza, he uses the image of the winter to convey the

harshness, the massive pressure of the „great western world‟ and the debilitating

effect of the environment of the whites on both the physical body and the psyche

of individuals. “Winter in Enekwes poems”, reiterates Emezue (2008: 58), „shows

the unfavourable and unhealthy conditions imposed on man by this weather. It is

such that man in a bid to survive resorts to different measures as wearing animal

feathers – which turn them into animals”.

In the coming of winter,

I was scared of ice,

Slip and fall,

turtle necks, coats fat

with hair or feathers,

and all that make men

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walking birds, for none

ever spoke of winter as a Jocker.

The lines are short and imbued with telegraph urgency to depict the fast

movements of the people. He satirizes and make jokes of their winter clothes

which even makes them less human and more lonely. In the third stanza, the

background knowledge of the fearful dragon that emits smoke from its nostrils in

the fable tales will make the poet‟s intention here clearer. It also shows the

expressive power of the poet in the use of images that effectively represent his

thought patterns

… from my cabin … down the lift

„what! white smoke as my breath ….

Like a dragon in the fables!

Must have burnt my lungs …

must see a doctor‟

He chooses images to portray the fact that life in the western world is not only

stressful but also lonesome. Nobody bothers about his neighbour quite unlike in

Africa where everybody is his brother‟s keeper. The white man attaches more

importance to his relationship with dogs and cats than to his relationship with his

fellow man.

But then before man hurry

men and women boys and girls,

their dogs on leashes

their cats like babes in their arms;

all shoot white clouds through their nostrils

into the mist like pipers in a crowd.

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Emphatically, the poet uses the pointer „their‟ „to show that all these acts are

peculiar to the whites alone. To the traditional African „cats like babes in … arms‟

is indeed an abnormal and strange behaviour.

In the lines of the poem, we can see movement all through suggested by the

phrase and words „slip and fall‟, „walking‟, „hurry‟ and so on. They suggest

discomfort, tension and anxiety. These contrast with the communal living and

warm environment in Africa.

It is against this background of his personal experiences and encounters in

America that the poet in the next poem ‗For a Pot of Honey‘ lashes out at the

visionless Nigerian youth, represented by Okoli. The youths who are afflicted by

the predicament of a collapsing social and economic structure in their country

reject their birth place, friends, communal and climate friendly environment for a

sterile, cold and unfriendly environment.

For a bowl of honey

Okoli is marooned on an isle

Rejects his birth

Friends and foes

To mole through

Dung – dense mud

Brimming with ova

The author who is already familiar with the alienation and rejection that non

whites suffer in the whiteman‟s land, expresses his sadness at our youths that

reject their land, full of potentials for self actualization, in search of pea nuts in the

whiteman‟s land. The ignorant youths suffer to get there, by „molling through

dung – dense mud brimming with ova‟. This phrase stands for the dangerous

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desert that the youths of our land travel through and some even die Enekwe also

indirectly blames our leaders who have made the country unconducive for the

youths by not providing jobs for our teeming graduates from various institutions of

higher learning. These youths quickly accept job offers in places they are not

familiar with their cultures in pursuit of illusions.

In the last stanza, Enekwe still maintains his stand that nothing but sorrow

and suffering await non whites in the land of the whites because they are

prejudiced against non whites. When our youths get there, for a taste of honey;

He tills and wets the field

Without demur

Fuss or murmur,

Endless rain

Perpetual bliss.

4.3 Poems of Love and Nostalgia

The cries of dying comrades and their mourning friends and families

reverberate throughout Broken Pots. This is, however, not to suggest that

Enekwe‟s poetic vision is devoid of hope. In spite of the large scale tragedy which

define the historical period, we see Enekwe in the poems in this section channeling

emotion away from the world of action into that of nature so as to stop himself

from being suffocated by it. The poet handles it in a lighter mood, to relieve the

sobriety in the war poems. The poet sprinkles these poems with hope and

acquiescence. Nwankwo (1977: vii) also observed that though the themes of the

poems in this section remain broken pots from the war, they now flow out as

emotions recollected in tranquility. Generally, the poems in this section though

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they seem to be at odd with the theme of war looking at their titles, the historical

content of the poems generally, which the reader recalls, help him to appreciate

the intentions of the poet.

In the poem ‗Shadows of Osiris‘ the poet reminisces on the war, and on the

motif of life and death. He sees war as a ritual sacrifice to Osiris, who according to

Nwankwo (1977: vii), “in Egyptian Mythology is god of the underworld and lord

of the dead”. So when humans fight wars, it is only to satisfy the earth god‟s

demand for sacrifice. These gods have no emotions; for there is no other way to

explain such a colossal loss of humans and property.

Once in every season

The earth that we feed

And sit on

Asks for food

And we hurry

To do her will.

The literal translation and the formal semantic interpretation of the linguistic

representation provide no relevant indication of the poets intention but the

pragmatic force becomes clear with the historical and cultural background of the

poet which the reader recalls in order to appreciate the intentions of the poet.

Africans make sacrifices seasonally to their various gods and goddesses to appease

them for their provisions and protection. It is believed that when these gods are

offended or when they are not adequately appeased, they normally take their tool

from human life, most especially through wars. The deictic references „we‟, „our‟

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and also the use of the present tense make the context of general involvement

immediate.

In the second stanza the idea of endemic death, with its mood of despair

and hopelessness is seen. The motif of life and death as a natural phenomena seen

in Enekwe‟s poems is repeated in this stanza. One should not be afraid of death

but should rather work hard in life to leave a legacy when he dies.

Forget fear,

fellow tillers

of the soil.

Forget fear

as we cut fangs and lead

from our lungs, sharpen

on the crooked stone

the dull edges of our hearts

and rush across the tattered field

to meet our foes

Though the poet believes in the inevitability of death in ones life, he laments the

recession of a golden past when death was not a frequent happening in our society

in the poem ‗Let Dew Dwell‘. A time in which „dew dwelt on petals‟.

There was a time

When dew dwelt

On petals here

Dew stands for rejuvenation and life to plants and flowers and invariably to

animals and man. Emekwe here is referring to the time in Africa before the

coming of colonization. When everything was peaceful

But dust coming

with the wind,

laid think on it.

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Dust projects a dry dead object. The poets use of this image and its implied

association suggests Emezue (2008:60), „finds parallel in African communal

regard for some objects, especially mud and dust as things associated with death‟.

„Dust coming with the wind‟, can also be an allusion to the coming of

colonization. Enekwe sees it as an ill wind that wrecked havoc on black culture.

In the second stanza, the poet cries out to the Supreme Being in his state of

despair. He who has the power to rebuild and reconstruct to send his „rains‟.

Lord … Lord!

Let your rains

Falling wash

Dust to dust

Underfoot to let

Dew dwell inviolate.

The image of the rain in Enekwe‟s poetry explains Emezue (2008:57), „portrays

the idea of life – giving, sustenance, revival, regeneration or health‟. The rain

functions as an agent of restoration.

We can see also that the euphonious effect of the pattern repetition produces some

music which, though pleasing to the ear, reinforces the message of despair and

loss.

In the next poem ‗Silent Arms‘, a poem of two short stanza‟s, the poet

reiterates his belief in Devine adequacy. He likens a bird that “rides the waves and

does not know the secrets of the sea”, to Africa that was enjoying its communal

and natural environment before the ravages of colonialism „Chukwu‟s silent arms‟

protected us before the coming of the whites.

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A bird rides the waves

And does not know

The secrets of the sea

Chukwu‟s silent arms

Are unknown

By the birds

They buoy along

The poet draws his inspiration from the biblical injunction that it is not by

power or by might, but by God‟s grace. Also in Matthew 6:26 Jesus said “behold

the fowls of the air: for the sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet

your heavenly father feedeth them”.

Even though nothing is said of war, the Nigerian civil war and the many that lost

their lives, properties, health – ‗broken pots‘ in the war form the background of the

poems. A bird represents freedom, unfettered and happy movement, and does not

think about danger. He wants to be like the bird happy and unafraid.

The next poem ―A Wave‖ seems to be at odd with the theme of war, but

when we remember that Enekwe in the poems in this section, is reminiscing on the

causes and consequences of war, the poem then makes sense. He reflects the gross

imbalance and psychic disorder as a result of a spiritual sterility that goads men on

the course of violence against their fellows without stopping to think about the

consequences, he comes to the conclusion that „man is a wave‟. The wave is

impromptu, restless, tumultuous and more importantly, the wave acts on the

decisions of the wind and tide. It eventually falls back to the same waters where it

originated from, probably after destruction.

Skyward impulse

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and fall back

to the perpetual stream

is he deeply fulfilled

The poet violates every conversational principle but hopes that the reader will

invoke the relevant literary world and the context of creation in order to

understand the intended message. The results of such impromptu actions like

going to war is usually very devastating. They include sicknesses, waste and

unfulfilled dreams.

Sickness of stolid faces

Finds himself

Dream for leverage

The third stanza takes a look at beauty in creation: children are born, they go to

school, gunmen in their own work „feed their carbines … burns and transmutes,

transmits flashes of glory …” This shows that he is ever ready for action. These

are usually the heroes in times of war, ready to defend their territory, just like the

friends he lost during the war. They are … comet flash‟,

Arrow shot over dim tent

Beauty in expiration

Like coke conquered

And quenched beyond saving

Enekwe‟s poems by paying homage to living and dead poets, associate him with

their greatness. Looking back at the stance of his friends during the war, fighting

to liberate their people from the shackles of poverty and violators of human rights

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who happen to be our leaders, and dying for a course they believe in, he concludes

that sometimes he loves the impulsive and impromptu actions of man (wave).

… for its tumult

washes sand from stone,

shakes the vein to sense,

mixes pepper and salt

man and woman distanced

beyond repair, unless among

the wave that fuses them.

During the Nigerian/Biafran war, a lot of our leaders, that occupy the higher

echelon of our society lost their lives.

The poem, ―The Voice of Waters‖ represents vigour, beauty and life,

reconciliation and love as well as serenity. The feeling of the poet here is one of

inner peace. This is against the feeling of intense mental and psychological pain

and the stressful, shrill voice of guns and shells in the war poems. The poet

exploits the world of nature to still re-emphasize his strong stance and belief in the

unadulterated beauty of Africa before colonization. There is in this poem a

celebration of joy and fulfillment which are the essence of life.

I walked on and heard the voices of the river,

Stepping on the pebbles, fine, shiny stones,

Round as eggs polished by the river

In reality, waters do not have voices that can be heard. The poet personifies waters

giving them attributes of man that can sing in order to make a troubled soul like

his peaceful. This is supported by the beauty of pebbles – “fine, shiny stones,

round as eggs”. It is not surprising that in this life sustaining environment that you

find:

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Across the water, men and women, old as their boats,

rowed, their paddles plunging, and pressing the water

lodged underneath the keels.

In the final part of the first stanza, Enekwe seems to give expression to the patterns

of life which derive from reconciliation with God and fellow man. In a situation

like this, men and women live out their lives still strong and useful to their

community. The expressive power of the poet here, lies in the use of images which

effectively represent a situation and an environment that is long lasting and

peaceful.

In the second stanza the poet continues to celebrate a universe

unadulterated.

I offered an old lady a penny

to ferry me to Asaba.

Her teeth were white as the morning sky.

She was old, but had the vigour of the river.

We floated, dancing along on little bumps

and tiny waves, and ripples made by fishes

popping up and down, showing their backs

briefly as if to say; „look how beautiful!‟

Leaves and twigs glided and danced to the rhythm of waters.

Birds perched on the twigs and glided forever.

Every face, it is said tells a story and cheerfulness of a face, is an eloquent

testimony of peace in the inside. „teeth … white as the morning sky‟ are clearly an

evidence of a face that beams with similes and cheerfulness. The „fishes popping

up and down, “leaves and twigs … dancing … are all indications of peace and

harmony.

119

The pronominal reference „I‟ which begins the first and second stanzas shows that

it is a personal experience just like in the war poems. The biological images of

fishes, waves, leaves, birds fit perfectly into the poets impression because they all

represent natural life and beauty.

The final stanza of the poem, made up of fourteen long lines with no

regularity of length or rhythm and couched still in biological images shows still

the poets believe in the unselfish flowing love of God for humanity that knows no

bound. – „THEY SAY that at the end of the journey ….‟ This is against the selfish

nature of man against his fellow men which results in wars and prejudiced actions

and activities when they live and plan together. The poet in this stanza uses

expressions that actually violate literal truthfulness as well as the maxims of

quality, quantity and relation. The sea is not human and, therefore, has no gender.

But the poet here wishes to show the limitless blessings of God to the whole

world, irrespective of gender colour or race.

… The sea unites all the world, from America to China,

from Africa to India, from Europe to Australia

where the oceans sing at dawn like maidens.

The Mississippi and the Hudson are brothers

to the Niger and the Benue that nourish my country.

All these activities and devine provisions of the sea are characterized by features

that suggest continuity and permanence. Examples are „sea unites‟, „sea carries‟,

„waves‟ deposit … for humanity‟.

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In the title poem ―Broken Pots‖ the poet continues glorifying through

botanical and biological imagery, the beauty (most especially in her environment

and communal life) that Africa is known for, before the disintegration of the

African cultural systems for new and uncertain ones. Ngonebu (2008:81) believes

that the poem can conveniently be divided into two parts. The first part according

to her, “portrays the rich, lovely, serene, unsoiled world of Africa, while the

remaining part is a lamentation at the loss of that which was once adorable”.

The heavy bosomed hill

Lies close to our hut

And the winding narrow path

Stumbles into our farm

Up above where the squirrels prance

or the naughty little birds twitter

About my little sister and me

I want to go and see

The king of the animals.

In the first line, we have a case of selectional rule violation and the breaking of the

maxims of quality and quantity. Anohu (1995:44) rightly observed that „the

adjective „bosomed‟ which should select as its N (noun) or HW (head-word) +

human + female, is boldly deviated syntactically by measuring it with the lifeless

structure (Hill) to generate-„bosomed hill‟. This is because to the poet, the

unadulterated African hill like an African „bosomed‟ lady is not only beautiful, but

in her lies the power of procreation which enhances the richness of the continent.

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The poet‟s choice of lexical items which are so carefully woven in the first

two stanzas strongly depict rural/rustic life of the poet‟s good old days. „Windy

narrow path(s)‟ typifies the farm and village paths then. They were not motorable

paths. „The squirrels that prance‟, the „naughty little birds that twitter‟ on trees and

even „the king of the animals‟ represent the animal kingdom for which Africa is

known and admired with the deep green vegetation in a world of peace and

tranquility.

The third stanza, also in line with the natural landscape, shows that the clean cold

wind flows naturally from the hills purifying the environment.

In the last three stanza‟s there is a sudden twist in events. The breaking of

the pot

We always hear, soft and clear,

like the wail of lost lamb

The voice of a virgin

Whose pot of water

Has slipped and crumbled

Ngonebu (2001: 84) explains that

This part about the breaking of the pot is a signifier, which lends itself to

various interpretations/significations. The two verb phrases used to show

this break … „slipped‟ and „crumbled‟ shares the semantic feature of

“destruction, breakage irreparable loss … further at a broader level, the pot

is a metaphor of wholeness, of serenity and tranquility. By extension, the

breaking of the pot signifies the destruction of the virtues of rustic rural life.

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It‟s breaking denotes the chaos and anomaly that result from a society torn

apart from its values, a society unable to sustain its populace.

The breaking also symbolizes the fragmentation which the whole of the African

continent suffered. In line with this pain is the choice of lexical items in these last

three stanza‟s to effectively depict a situation of losses and damages.

Wail ----

the voice ----

cry ------

The poet says he had „heard many varied voices‟, these depict the various voices

of other African countries that were colonized before or after Nigeria. These

lexical items are most effectively chosen to depict distress discomfort, bondage

and losses.

husky ones

the muted voices

(others)

They equally convey the pain, the heartache that go with these losses. Some of the

voices he cannot explain because he was too young. In the last stanza there is

hope.

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In the poem ‗To Mother on Her Birthday‘, Enekwe is still appreciating

those characteristic cultural traits and values for which Africa is known. Though

still retaining the theme of broken pots in the poem, the poet in seven stanzas,

extols the beauty and passionate qualities of the African woman through the

Madonna image and the African culture as regards marriage and child upbringing.

In the first stanza, Enekwe addresses his mother representing a typical African

woman. Enekwe here extols the African mother‟s ability to nurture her children.

She is also self – sacrificing and long suffering

Oyiafo, you did more

than bring us into the world

and let us suck life

from your nipples

you gave us love

fresh and strong

as air on Ibuzu

In this stanza, he feels irredeemably indebted to his mother. He state the love

shown him and his siblings by their mother to be as “fresh … as air on Ibuzu (a

sacred Hill in Affa, home town of the poet)”. The love is unadulterated. The

African woman takes care of her child when he is „a mere sapling‟ and even when

the daughters are married and are in their own homes. When they give birth, their

mothers are there to teach them „that a baby is not a puppy … needs a lot of

loving. That to love her baby is to bathe her and wipe her nostrils, mouth and

rump‟. Enekwe here indirectly condemns the culture of the western nations. They

would rather carry, clean and nurture their pet animals than their babies.

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The African mother is even there for her grand children, even when they do

not know her. There is a strong family bound in the African culture. The grannies

play a great role in the families of their children.

You love your grandchildren

But they do not know you.

They call you mamma Nukwu (Igbo for grandmother)

All these established family ties bounds the family together in Africa. Maternal

love is „a love that strives like Iroko‟ in its all embracing nature. Enekwe in this

poem, sells the Madonna qualities of the African woman to the world. Through the

love that exists between father and mother, the African child learns that the lineage

must continue:

I have now a woman

Who is to me as you were to my father

Your other sons have begun to love the shape of girls

One already writes love letters.

Sooner or later they will do as I have done

He assures her that even in their new homes:

… we love you as much as before,

will never forget you, for you‟ve planted

a love that strives like Iroko.

Also the poem ―Love Without Measure‖ (for Chioma) a short poem of two stanzas

is a continuation of his praise and admiration for the African woman. Those

qualities which he acknowledges in his mother he also repeats and extols in his

wife whom he loves without measure. He uses images which effectively show

beauty and strength of character.

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A distant maid

flammable in memory

in dream striding

like an amazon

For her the ocean

is but a pond

She „strides like an Amazon‟ and „for her the ocean … is but a pond‟. This is in

line with the image of African woman hood. No problem in the home deters the

African woman. She works hard to keep the body and soul of her family together.

For her the ocean

is but a pond

The Ocean here stands for crisis of great magnitude but when such crises come up,

the African women surmounts them all. These qualities enders the African woman

to her husband‟.

Love without measure

is a chaos in the brain.

Nothing hotter than love

that is ignorant of sea and time

The last poem, To Cordy, a very short poem of three lines, is also a poem in

honour of a loved one - Cordy.

We meet in season

as surf and crag

often as we part

The meeting of the surf and the crag is naturally a sure one. The surf falls on the

crag and moves back. It is timely and expected. The shortening of the name, his

choice of words and the tone, show love, joy and a kind of intimacy between the

poet and the persona being addressed. He is remembering somebody who when

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they meet, they are happy as against the catastrophic meetings and sad moments of

the war.

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CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Enekwe‟s Broken Pots is an engraving in a history that mediates between

art and social realities in Nigeria. The poems span a period of about ten years from

1963 – 1973 in Nigeria; a period in Nigeria marked by observable corruption,

disunity, injustice, greed, spiritual sterility and above all a bitter three years civil

war. When the poems are placed against the above background and bearing in

mind that literature is always committed to the reflection of man in relation to the

ethical values of his society and also placing it against Udumukwu‟s admonition

that the works which have emerged as a result of the Nigerian civil war cannot be

understood without their specific historical forces …”, also lend credence to the

nature of the representation of violence in the poems.

The theory of implicature takes one into the author‟s literary world and

imposes relevant socio – cultural context on the poems for a reliable interpretation.

Any reader who imposes a different doctrinal principle on the political

problems/situation in Nigeria from which the poems derive, is likely to misread

the intentions of the poet. For most of the poems in this collection, their actual

message are not readily seen from the materials of the language. Take a poem like

“Buttocks” for example even though it is classified as a war poem the title seems

to be at odd with the theme of war which the poet pursues besides, the actual

message of the poem cannot be arrived at from the materials of the language. But

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once the appropriate social context is applied, the meaning becomes clear. The

poem is presented against the negative background of waste, discomfort and

destruction, represented by such lexical items as burst, flood, fall, break. Enekwe

uses „mud‟ in his poems to denote different phases of decay. In this poem, „mud‟

gives the idea of an on-going process of deterioration: „the mud dam bursts‟. The

dam is made of materials that are not long lasting, just as the unity and

independence of Nigeria is represented as being carried in such a fragile entity as

an earthenware. It is bound to break someday and spill its contents and there is

bound to be damages. Equally, there has been an on-going period of negligence

and neglect of self before an ordinary stomach upset deteriorates or degenerates to

diarrhea which can result to grave consequences on the body. When a nation faces

some crisis and its citizens show disaffection over certain issues in the country,

once their voices are neglected and the problems are not solved by the powers that

be, that is the „elephants‟, it might eventually result to a civil war and once there is

war there are bound to be casualties.

The mud dam bursts

and frees the flood;

and elephants fall

into

shallow ponds

and elephants falling

break

their knees

Through activist (acid) rhetoric, Enekwe here mocks the leaders who,

instead of building and uniting the nation on very strong principles, resort to

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ruthless exploitation of the nation and building it on very weak

principles/materials. With the collapse of the „dam‟ that is the country in 1967,

many of the leaders – „elephants‟ were killed. Most of the poems in this collection

are like the above poem. Analyzing them, based on the linguistic features alone

would not provide a reliable interpretation. This is especially so in modern African

literature which uses the English language to express experiences that are

specifically African. There is always a gap which can only be filled when the

linguistic features are imposed on the information about the socio-political,

contextual, and religious world in which the participants operate. That is what

pragmatic analysis does, and that was how all the poems in this collection were

analyzed.

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