Tade Ipadeola: The unsung poet laureate

Decades ago, as a young boy in the village of Akinmorin, Oyo State, Tade Ipadeola, would sit at the foot of his unschooled grandma’s stool to listen to fables and tales spun in rich Yoruba metaphors. It was a gift the woman had, a gift that charmed the young Tade and made him fall in […]

Decades ago, as a young boy in the village of Akinmorin, Oyo State, Tade Ipadeola, would sit at the foot of his unschooled grandma’s stool to listen to fables and tales spun in rich Yoruba metaphors. It was a gift the woman had, a gift that charmed the young Tade and made him fall in love with poetry.

Today, that boy has grown into a lawyer and  a published poet and he still remembers fondly those days when his grandmother would enthral him with stories. His passion for literature is obvious. He is regular at literary gatherings in Nigeria, especially Lagos, where he is based(He is also the legal adviser, Asssociation of Nigerian Authors). Sometimes, the passion, like tidal waves, sweeps him to other realms of the world. He was recently in India to participate in a literary programme, where he read some of his poems.

“I believe that I inherited a certain penchant for literature from my father and also my mother but I think that of all my influences, my late grandmother was my biggest. She was not literate but she was a great story teller and she had great rhythm in the Yoruba language,” he said.

As he grew, he gravitated towards literature and found a ready door held open by his father, who taught literature. Tade would recall that his father’s biggest influence on his literary development was introducing him to “the great masters of literature, especially poetry”

The masters who thrill him

He reels out names, all of them poets, many from the vast entity called Russia. He has for long fancied the works of Ana Akhmatova and Vladimir Mayakovski. But his interests are varied. The Irishman, William Butler Yeats and a Chilean poet who went by the pen name Gabriela Mistral and her compatriot Pablo Neruda have made him addicted to South American poetry. His Nigerian mentors include JP Clark and Wole Soyinka.

“The older I get, I realise I have this affinity for Russian poetry and also poetry from southern America,” he said smiling. Poetry from the farthest reaches of the world have found a home in Tade’s heart, curiosly I asked him why?

“The purity of that poetry and the severity of the discipline, the commonality of experiences, the pain, the deprivation. The poetry that came out of Russia in the era of Akhmatova and Mayakovski is similar to what we [in Nigeria] are trying to express,” he explained.

So, there is a connection after all. Russia, and most of South America, has had a turbulent past, same as Nigeria. Repressive regimes and poverty are common themes in the literature of these countries. Tade thinks the “sudden outpour of poetry” being witnessed in Nigeria is reminiscent of what happened in Russia during the difficult days of communism.

Poetry in Nigeria

Indeed, the bookshelves in Nigeria are crowded with poetry collections from established and budding poets. Despite the shortage of publishing companies, emerging poets have found an outlet through self publishing. But why the overflow?

“I believe the suffering that the greater number of Nigerians is going through is particularly responsible for that and some mistaken notion that poetry is easy since it is short,” Tade said.

Despite this, he thinks it is not all down slopes “I believe that abuse does not do away with use. We can get a lot of substances from the body of writing that is coming up – some in the name of poetry, some actual poetry.”

Living off poetry

Tade, a 1991 graduate of Law and literature from Obafemi Awolowo University published his first poetry title in 1996. Since then, he has published A Time of Signs (2000) and The Rain Fardel (2005) and won the Poet laureate at the Delphic Games, Jeju, South Korea in 2009. But he does not think one can live off poetry.

“No one lives entirely on poetry so we do a day a job, in my case it is practice of law but by far I have been able to get the most satisfying response to my daily life from whether I’ve written a poem or not. You don’t get paid in naira or dollars but you get a sense of fulfilment you don’t get from medical practice, law practice or any other practice,” he said.

This emotional thrill explains the proliferations of poets and poetry in recent times. There is no shortage of inspiration either but Tade cautions against exuberance.

“I believe that the great attraction that poetry holds for young Nigerian writers will reward them but promise is not enough, you need discipline, you need consistency. You have to pay the price.”

The price, he says, is at least ten years of consistent practice for one to perfect the craft. “I started writing poetry in 1990, my first published title came out in ’96 but I did not consider myself as writing poetry until 2005, so, there you have it. Maybe ten years is correct after all. I would say it took me 12 years of practice and reading to come to some confidence in my ability to create poetry.”

But not many budding writers will have the patience to wait a decade before going to press, this impatience has resulted in contemporary Nigerian poetry not “measuring up” to what was obtained in the first generation of Nigerian writing. But still, he recognise a quality that was lacking then.

“For instance when you go through the poetry of the Late Esiaba Irobi, Remi Raji, Jumoke Verissimo, Helon Habila you can see a certain degree of brilliance which was missing from that other generation of poets,” he said.

This has given Tade optimism that Nigerian poetry can only grow as has been demonstrated in the last five years in which Nigerian poets have won numerous awards, he said.

For these potentials to be fully realised, the award winning poet, has this interesting metaphor: “Remember that poetry is like a baby. If you force it to come to this world before term, you have [a] premature [birth] and you have problems; you have to get an incubator, you have to get a specialist, you have to get special foods, so the best thing is to allow the child to come to term before you give birth to it. Some things in life cannot be forced and poetry is one of them.