Poetry of Pain on the Niger Delta

Poetry of Pain on the
Niger Delta

Written by: Omosun Sylvester

Vivid pictures of pain and aching, suffering and death resulting from conflicts within Nigeria have been created at least as long as the delta conflict has been upon us, if the poet of today create such pictures about pain through their write-up on the delta the message can captures the reader when it is conveyed powerfully to the affected people and it can heal and forces them to listen

In the internet most Nigerians have set up poetry and literary groups, within were the confrontation of African Conflict are presented in ennobled art and is traditionally based according to each authors tribe/ethnic background

All the writings posted are noticeably different from one another, most present endless pictures of hurting and aggression, others goes a step further and deals with the approach connected to pain from the Nigerian conflicts – wound becomes the subject of the art. In this way, it has tried to get readers to look inside themselves and in lieu with the judgment of the poet, thus, become a more sympathetic person with what is happening in and around the creek.

All through points in time there have been people who sacrificed their live on behalf of others in the Conflict prone society of Africa by the vivid pictures of pain and aching depicted in their poetry, When an African writer experiences something on behalf of others through his art, he may expose himself to danger of political/ethnic hatred if he writes of it, the truth that send hatred their way killed them. Their death in our hand because they made us see, Ken Saro Wiwa, Christopher Okigbo are some of these scapegoats, through their own lives they give other members of society the chance to experience real ache of their brothers in the creek without having to feel it. Without having to be there

The Nigerian poets can show others what a feeling of pain or real fear of death looks like in the hand of hoodlums. They can also tell how it feels to live in area like
Sudan in a single stanza from their poetry; they will tell you about the waste of land, the raping of the local wealth in using the delta as an element of art

, the intention in using the delta as an element of poetic art may be to astound the readers and ask him to examines his feelings with the Victor-perpetuator principle (shell/militant)

The use of such poetry as a creative element appeals to the readers understanding and, through their own feeling, to identify themselves with a cause:

If one considers why a poet not born in the delta handles such poetry with a passion, it is easy to think that he has been influenced by the predecessor before him,  because he is a poet and has certainly experienced all kinds of things as that poet’.

Accepting Shell in the Delta

  

Let us accept that the awareness of people is growing everyday about the direct relationship between their environment and their culture, their economy and politics, because their environment constitute their home and element of their religion, it is the source of their art and craft

If I hear that the shell/militia is the cause of unrest in the delta region and probable causes of the united state physiological war against Africa, and I say alright “I accept that” I may sound to you as if am saying I don’t care or maybe even that I like it or approve of it, in that case I wont do anything about it

But this is not the case is this article, my acceptance of shell only meant that I accept shell is the possible cause of the unrest that I was being told about, on the others hand it also meant that I did not deny it, I did not deny the news I have heard or read. If we don’t deny that reality of something we can respond to it in the best possible way we knew

“You can’t heal a wound by saying it is not there” Jeremiah 6:14

• Responding to Shell

 

If we as a people let go of our attachment (kidnapping, etc)of getting that which they wish for in lieu with our environment, we will still get it, the only difference is that we wont suffer if we don’t get it, because the odd of getting the “what” of our desire will be as good as ever

  

Our brothers were shelled in the delta and they got hurt, and then they, like most of us in the media spend most of their life tensed against the experience of the shell oil. The experience is over because it has already happened and I knew that we will not be shelled again because it is over, and the world as the onlooker will not allow it to happen again, the shell has been exposed

  

But for one reason or the other we wont allow the experience to go, we keep focusing on the time our leaders sold us off the shore of the creek, we thing of the people we love and the Ogoni eight, we think of them and we act out our anger by denying the reality of a new birth, the new development initiative, that in which the man (ken) we profess to fight for sought out with his life, it is development the ken dies trying to achieve. Nothing else

  

We have got to accept shell so we can respond to it, we have got to stop using excusing as reasons for not allowing development to take a new turn, let us be present, we are equal to every moment, and we need to be present in other to act

  

What if something else happen while we are focused in the past, what if it is another thing worse than shell, in life something always happen, we can’t be focused in the past that has nothing to do with the current negotiation principle being applied today

  

It is funny the way we are always protecting ourselves from the experience we just had in any conflicting situation, we develop a kind of militating sentient radar technology gear and when provoked we attack without reasoning

 

 

We need to get current and stop carrying out odd idea about our responsibility to accepting of shell that aren’t applicable to this present life and never will

  

If we live in the present we will be equal to facing new negotiation principle, new development initiative that Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni eight dies for

  

It is the belief of the delta indigenes that they need to be afraid of shell and therefore protect themselves that make them, stuck into this present circumstances, the belief is not based on anything sensitive nor is it protecting them from anything

  

I can see the militia saying… but protecting our domain is survival for the delta states, if we will not protect our domain, it will be shelled again

  

Is kidnapping and asking for ransom, protecting the creek, or staging you JamesBond007 act with CNN Jeff coinage propaganda a development initiative?

  

Many of us are so desperately invested in the assumption that development will not arise due to the presence of the shell in the delta, that we wont allow it to work anew even for a moment to know whether or not we may like it

  

Of course this is noted in the militia and other sponsors of it, because if shell is accepted, and they rebuild the devastation they had done in the delta, what your function will be, you all will be out of work, since you spend all your youthful age controlling the creek

  

Well I am not condoning a do-nothing approach in this article, but I an again kidnapping and so forth