Gabriel Okara Selected Poems from Collected Poems (2016)

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Gabriel Okara, Collected Poems analysis, The Call of the River Nun, Piano and Drums, Nigerian Civil War poetry, Biafran literature, postcolonial poetry, symbolism in Okara's poems, themes in African poetry, functional stylistics, literary techniques, war poetry, pacifism in literature, character sketch of Okara's persona, Cambridge English literature guide.

Gabriel Okara Selected Poems from Collected Poems (2016)

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This guide is designed to illuminate the profound and intricate world of Gabriel Okara, one of Nigeria's most revered poetic voices. Focusing on selections from his Collected Poems (2016), we will break down his themes, techniques, and legacy in a clear, structured manner, perfect for deepening your understanding and enhancing your essays and examinations. Our analysis will draw upon key critical perspectives, including those found in seminal works like Chukwuma Azuonye's commentary on Okara's war poetry.

About the Author: Gabriel Okara (1921-2019)

Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara was a foundational figure in African and postcolonial literature. Hailing from the Ijo ethnic group in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, his work is deeply infused with the imagery, rhythms, and philosophies of his cultural heritage.

• Key Biographical Points:

• The Niger Delta Influence: The rivers, creeks, and natural world of the Delta are not just settings but active, living presences in his poetry. Poems like "The Call of the River Nun" and "The Fisherman's Invocation" are testaments to this deep connection.

• A Witness to History: Okara lived through pivotal moments in Nigerian history: colonialism, independence, the Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War, 1967-1970). These experiences, particularly the trauma of the war, fundamentally shaped his later work, moving his focus from serene nature to the horrors of conflict.

• The Linguistic Pioneer: He is famously known for his novel, The Voice, where he attempted to translate African thought patterns and syntax directly into English, a technique he also employs in his poetry to create a unique, hybrid idiom.

• The Pacifist Humanist: Throughout his work, especially his war poetry, Okara’s voice is that of a humanist and a pacifist, lamenting the senseless violence and moral decay of conflict while clinging to a hope for peace and spiritual redemption.

Critical Appreciation

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Okara's poetic career can be broadly appreciated through two major phases, both of which are richly represented in the Collected Poems.

• The Early Okara: Nature, Nostalgia, and Cultural Identity
  In his early work, Okara is a poet of introspection and harmony. His poems explore the relationship between the individual and their natural and cultural environment. The mood is often lyrical, contemplative, and tinged with a sense of nostalgia for a purer, more authentic existence. "The Call of the River Nun" is the quintessential poem of this period, where the river serves as a metaphor for life's journey, spiritual longing, and the call of one's origins.

• The Later Okara: The Scars of War and Social Commentary
  The outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War marked a dramatic shift in Okara’s poetry. As analysed by Chukwuma Azuonye in his critical work ‘The Monstrous Anger of the Guns,’ Okara became a powerful poetic chronicler of the Biafran experience. His poems from this period, such as "Suddenly the Air Cracks," "Leave Us Alone," and "I Am Only A Name," are stark, visceral, and anguished. They grapple with themes of violence, displacement, starvation, and the psychological trauma of war, offering a searing critique of the political failures and neocolonial machinations that fueled the conflict.

Major Themes 

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Okara’s poetry is a tapestry of interconnected themes. Understanding these will provide a solid foundation for your analysis.

• The Journey of Life and Spiritual Quest:
  The river is Okara’s primary symbol for life’s journey. It represents a course that is both beautiful and inevitable, leading from source to mouth—from birth to death and a hoped-for spiritual union with the divine.

• Poems to Study: "The Call of the River Nun," "The Fisherman's Invocation."

• The Clash Between Tradition and Modernity:
  Like many postcolonial writers, Okara explores the tension between indigenous African culture and the influx of Western modernity. His famous poem "Piano and Drums" perfectly captures this cultural dissonance.

• Poems to Study: "Piano and Drums," "The Mystic Drum."

• The Horror and Futility of War:
  This is a dominant theme in his later work. Okara does not glorify war; he exposes its brutal reality—the sudden death from air raids, the widespread starvation, the social corruption, and the lasting psychological scars (PTSD).

• Poems to Study: "Suddenly the Air Cracks," "Cancerous Growth," "Leave Us Alone," "Metaphor for a War."

• Displacement and Exile:
  The war created millions of refugees. Okara’s poetry gives voice to this experience of being uprooted from one's home and becoming a nameless, suffering statistic in the eyes of the world.

• Poems to Study: "I Am Only A Name," (originally "Expendable Name").

• Faith and Existential Anguish:
  Even amidst despair, Okara’s poetry often seeks solace in faith. However, this faith is frequently tested, leading to profound existential questions about God’s presence in a world of suffering.

• Poems to Study: "The Silent Voice," "I Am Only A Name."

Character Sketch

While poetry is not fiction, a consistent "voice" or "persona" emerges from Okara's body of work.

• The Observer: The speaker is often a reflective observer, deeply attuned to the natural world and the subtleties of human experience.

• The Cultural Insider: He speaks from within a specific Ijo and Nigerian context, using imagery and concepts rooted in that reality.

• The Moral Conscience: During the war, the persona becomes the conscience of his people—lamenting, accusing, and pleading for sanity and humanity in the face of madness.

• The Resilient Humanist: Despite witnessing immense suffering, the Okaran persona never completely abandons hope. There is always a whisper of faith, a memory of beauty, or a plea for peace that points toward resilience.

Famous Excerpt 

From "The Call of the River Nun"

"I hear your call!
I hear it far away;
I hear it break the circle
of these crouching hills."

• Analysis: This opening is deceptively simple yet powerful. The repetition of "I hear" establishes an immediate, personal connection with the river. The river's call is so potent it can "break the circle" of imposing hills, symbolising how the pull of one's origins and spiritual destiny can overcome any obstacle. The personification of the hills as "crouching" adds a sense of latent, living power to the landscape, a hallmark of Okara's animistic view of nature.

Literary Techniques 

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Okara is a master craftsman. Here is a breakdown of his key techniques and the literary terms used to describe them.

• Personification

• Definition: A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea, or an animal is given human attributes.

• Okara's Use: The natural world is alive in his poetry. Rivers "call," hills "crouch," and jets fly in "gruesome glee." This technique creates a universe where everything is interconnected and possesses agency.

• Example: "I want to view your face again and feel your cold embrace" (from "The Call of the River Nun" – the river is personified as a person to be embraced).

• Symbolism

• Definition: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

• Okara's Use:

• The River: Symbolises life's journey, time, destiny, and spiritual flow.

• The Canoe: Represents the individual self navigating the river of life.

• Piano and Drums: Symbols of Western and traditional African cultures, respectively.

• Kwashiorkor: A disease of malnutrition; in his war poems, it becomes a powerful symbol of the physical and moral decay caused by the conflict.

• Imagery

• Definition: Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

• Okara's Use: He employs vivid, often contrasting imagery. The serene "silver-surfaced flow" of the river is set against the "mangled bones and homes" of war. His imagery appeals to all senses—auditory ("stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle"), visual ("swollen stomachs"), and tactile ("cold embrace").

• Allusion

• Definition: An indirect or passing reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.

• Okara's Use: In "Leave Us Alone," he alludes to Icarus from Greek mythology ("O modern Icarus!") to warn the Nigerian government that its prideful, war-driven flight will lead to a fall. He also references Wilfred Owen, the great World War I poet, to place his own war poetry within a global tradition of anti-war writing.

• Functional Stylistics (as seen in the analysis of "The Call of the River Nun")

• Definition: A linguistic approach that analyses how language functions in different contexts to achieve specific communicative goals. It looks at how register, tone, and word choice change with the speaker's purpose.

• Application to Okara: We can see this in how the language of "The Call of the River Nun" shifts:

• Stanza 1: Register is declarative and receptive ("I hear your call!").

• Stanza 2: Shifts to a descriptive and sensory register, full of yearning.

• Final Stanza: Becomes philosophical and devotional, addressing God directly.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Definition: A psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. Okara’s poem "Metaphor for a War," written years after the conflict, is a profound depiction of this condition.

• Okara's Use: The poem shows a woman years after the war, still physically and psychologically shattered, suddenly re-living the trauma of an air raid ("Then suddenly—screams!"). Azuonye's commentary highlights this as a central theme in Okara's later work, exploring the long-term, invisible wounds of war.

• Pacifism

• Definition: The belief that war and violence are unjustifiable and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.

• Okara's Use: This is the moral core of his war poetry. Even when expressing outrage, as in "Leave Us Alone," the poems ultimately argue for cessation of violence and a plea to "be left alone" to heal and build a peaceful society.

Important Summary

• Gabriel Okara is a first-generation Nigerian poet whose work bridges the personal and the political, the traditional and the modern.

• His poetry is divided into two major phases: the early, nature-focused lyricism and the later, politically charged war poetry.

• Central motifs include the river as a journey, the cultural clash between Africa and the West, and the physical and psychological devastation of war.

• He is a master of symbolism and personification, creating a deeply animistic and interconnected world in his verse.

• Critical analyses, such as those by Chukwuma Azuonye, position Okara as a humanist and pacifist whose war poems are a vital testament to the Biafran experience and a powerful condemnation of neocolonial violence.

• Understanding the historical context of the Nigerian Civil War is essential for a full appreciation of a significant portion of his Collected Poems.

We hope this inaugural issue of The Okara Observer has provided a clear and comprehensive roadmap for your exploration of Gabriel Okara's profound poetic legacy. His work remains a vital touchstone for understanding 20th-century African literature and the universal human experiences of identity, conflict, and the search for meaning.

Gabriel Okara, Collected Poems analysis, The Call of the River Nun, Piano and Drums, Nigerian Civil War poetry, Biafran literature, postcolonial poetry, symbolism in Okara's poems, themes in African poetry, functional stylistics, literary techniques, war poetry, pacifism in literature, character sketch of Okara's persona, Cambridge English literature guide.