Because she is musical

Natalia and her husband, Raphael d’Abdon, who is Italian, were the writers’ guests at the first ANA Abuja International Reading Session. Not only did Natalia perform for the Nigerian writers, gliding, gesticulating, cooing and musically rendering her poems, she also got them debating the meaning and essence of poetry. While some, particularly Jahman Anikulapo, editor […]

Natalia and her husband, Raphael d’Abdon, who is Italian, were the writers’ guests at the first ANA Abuja International Reading Session.

Not only did Natalia perform for the Nigerian writers, gliding, gesticulating, cooing and musically rendering her poems, she also got them debating the meaning and essence of poetry. While some, particularly Jahman Anikulapo, editor of the Guardian on Sunday, wondered what was missing in Nigerian poets that they could not deliver poetry like Natalia did, others, like Benjamin Ubiri, argued that “ba a canjawa tuwo suna [you cannot call pudding by another name]” and so poetry must remain poetry—a written art form and not a performed one.

But for all the arguments for or against, one should think that Natalia could not have done it otherwise. A performing artist and writer who has performed at several festivals, Natalia believes that “we are musical” (the title of one of her poems which she recited with refrain from the audience). So, how else could she perform?