Chilekezi’s poetic songs from a stranger

Title: Songs of a Stranger at the Smiling Coast Author: Obinna Chilekezi Publisher: Kraft Books Pages: 80 Reviewer: Nathaniel Bivan Chilekezi’s poems sing, and sometimes it seems like there is much more than what is in those short lines, but then, isn’t that the beauty of poetry? Take these lines from the very first piece, […]

• Title: Songs of a Stranger at the Smiling Coast
• Author: Obinna Chilekezi
• Publisher: Kraft Books
• Pages: 80
• Reviewer: Nathaniel Bivan

Chilekezi’s poems sing, and sometimes it seems like there is much more than what is in those short lines, but then, isn’t that the beauty of poetry?

Take these lines from the very first piece, ‘Do I Need Further Reason,’ for instance (p15):

It was not too long ago, I’ve owed all apology

For apparently abandoning my home for that of hers

But here I am, far far far away from home

With an abandoned apology in my pocket

Maybe I too have been kept a prisoner by Calypso, the witch of love And the Greek Poseidon had abandoned me to fate

 

“Abandoned apology in my pocket.” This is exactly what makes poetry appealing, the play of words, very few words, to express the deepest emotions or to summarise the longest of speeches. ‘Do I Need Further Reason,’ sounds like the story of a man leaving everything he holds dear for the one woman he loves. But then, once xenophobia is mentioned, you know this home he leaves may be a place he’s forced away from to seek another love, a lover he’s unfamiliar with.

Xenophobic attacks have been the trending news in months past, where South Africans have been accused of attacking, and even killing other Africans living in their country. Chilekezi is crying about the loss of a place, a country, Africans had once called home. But he does this without mentioning a particular nation, allowing his words to speak to his readers. Again, this is the beauty of poetry, where an author’s words, although powerful, still remains subject to the reader’s interpretation.

But not every poem is easy to unravel in Chilekezi’s collection. ‘Harmattan Dusk’ is a typical example and you wonder if the poet is simply talking about this Nigerian weather or pointing at something deeper. There’s also a pattern in his poetry, personification that shows just how much he is susceptible to talking about a river or social issues like a lover’s lamentation. ‘Our Happiness’ reads:

 

Oh my river Gambia, my woman, with this silky

Touch, though of a stolen moment, let me remove Your fears, and for our longings

And we reap our dreams in this stolen moment!

Also ‘Geej Gambia dafa nob geej Niger’ (p31):

The river Gambia was icy This April morning

I tried to flag your sail off boat

As I arrived at that nearly forgotten visit

Waiting for our new summer to dawn Without your smile

Everything was a cloud of mist

And you pulled the rope of an iron bell

And your boat full of smiles came out of the mist

My jabbar

River Gambia dafa nob river Niger*

Chilekezi Insists on writing several poems on the River Gambia, so much the reader begins to think there’s more to what he’s trying to say, like in ‘It’s time to go back to river Gambia,’ he writes:

Tonight is fearful, indeed

As I walk back alone to your bank

In dreams of you without you along river Gambia

Suddenly

I saw a star with swollen breasts,

Chased away by a moon in that darkly night

And it turned violent, bloody and red

 

‘Songs of a Stranger at the Smiling Coast’ is a collection of almost seventy poems. But what’s not very creative about the book is its cover design which isn’t as captivating as what is within the pages. Although it is in sync with the title, it leaves no room for deep thought and unravelling as the poems. A book may not be necessarily judged by its cover, but this is likely to put off some readers. However, Chilekezi’s work doesn’t disappoint one bit and flows with a confidence that’s almost cocky. But readers must be careful not to misconstrue every piece here as a love poem, because they aren’t.