Young poets in Jos chasten their elders

I thought of Bulawayo’s statement a few weeks ago when I attended a poetry performance competition for school children in Jos, which is providing opportunities for youthful voices to be heard.  The {EB} Arts and Poetry Room, directed by Leonell Echa, is a creative educational platform that was formed in 2011 to promote self-expression. This […]

I thought of Bulawayo’s statement a few weeks ago when I attended a poetry performance competition for school children in Jos, which is providing opportunities for youthful voices to be heard. 
The {EB} Arts and Poetry Room, directed by Leonell Echa, is a creative educational platform that was formed in 2011 to promote self-expression. This year the poetry room has focused on peace through education by organizing a series of poetry competitions for school children held 25 July, 7 September, and 31 October, most recently themed “Finding Hope Again.” The competition was planned in part to have children raise support and awareness to send thirty children affected by the crisis, fifteen Christians and fifteen Muslims, back to school. 48 schools in Jos were invited to participate; 22 schools responded, and students from 19 schools turned up for the auditions and competition. The competition was hosted at the Alliance Francaise in Jos and was MC-ed by actor Akolo James Anthony and Anre John.
In an ideal society, moral instruction is directed from adults to children, as they teach them how to grow into good people. However, in a society where the adults have ruined the hopes of their children, the direction of this authority reverses, and the children must teach their elders. That was one of the things I found so powerful about the poetry that was performed at this event.
Olani Ayoola of Kingdom Citizen’s College laments the Nigeria he has inherited: Why have we turned this great country into a land of chaos? / Why the massacre, killings, and bloodshed of innocent souls? […]
I cry for the children the future of our great country Nigeria
Oh! How my heart sinks for those children whose future has been tarnished
They say all hope is lost because there is they have no one to speak for them
They say to themselves “what the point of existing if I am treated like an alien in My own country”?
Amina Sagir Ibrahim a JSS3 student from The Green College also laments for a circumscribed future, “I have nowhere to go but policed into this road / It was a long journey /Walking working with chains round my neck.” Khadija Ja’afar a JSS2 student from Nuruddeen Islamic College, writes “I feel the pain /When hope is lost /Just like putting off /the candle that was lit.”
I was particularly moved by the brilliant performance of Zalaikha Nasir Abdulwahab a JSS1 student from Hikmah College, who paced up and down and used silence as a part of the performance. Her voice broke at one point as if she was going to cry, and immediately tears sprang to my eyes as well. Each stanza she ended with what could have been: “It could have been a perfect season,” “It could have been a perfect Country.” “It could have been a Peaceful Plateau.”
This lament of what could have been and what has been lost in the wars and corruption of adult society was frequently repeated. There were memories from the Jos crisis and other disasters, JSS3 student at Success and Unity Schools Japhet N. Rinkam opens his poem “Tah! Tah! Tah! Tah! Hear the gun shots.” He continues, “In my infancy I cried and said / ‘woe to you those whom bitter tears bring to me / Whom with a saber sword caused pains in my eyes / As I watch with my eyes closed the disappearance of those I loved.”
Basma Abdul Hamid a JSS3 student from the Green College, writes “As I walked through life / I see darkness enveloped me / I turned to the right / News of bombing / Maiming, raping and arson / The life full of darkness…” JSS3 student Sophie Ishola from Kings and Queens Academy remembers “Many kept hostage /In this little village.” / Only the rich had the say /the paupers were slaved / They went through hardship / Each day was a crisis.”
Joseph Agusiobo, a JSS2 student at St. Murumba College also connects the suffering of poverty to crisis: “I dine and wine with poverty/ Even the rats in our house gossip us. / I groan with pains all night / Courage I summoned / Mummy, why our miserable condition? / We were a comfortable family, but for the loss of your dad to bomb.” Victor Chukwujama a JSS3 student from St. Murumba College follows on this theme, “Where the bread winner dies, a family falls apart / And children can further their education no more / When parents are killed in religious wars and children become orphans.” Fidelis Odeh continues, “Darkness over shadowed my stay bitter / Taste has come to stay hunger come to / Stay and refuse to leave even rats are  / starving because there is nothing for / Them to eat.”
Ngozi Nwabueze a JSS3 student from Plateau Bilingual Secondary School identifies the culprits behind so much poverty “The corrupt public officers have done more harm / to our society than armed robbers.” Amina Sagir Ibrahim refuses to follow those who take the easy road out of suffering:“A prosperous puppet leader / Stringed by a puppeteer.”
Siyama H. Sadiq, a JSS3 student at Hikmah College, in her poem “The Rising Sun” imagines a sunrise that brings justice to the innocent and judgment on those “Unfaithful men of autocratic generation / Cockroaches! Perpetrators of evil / Know not what fate awaits them,” “The day shall come when the wind uproots the trees / And make the grasses shine like the morning sunrise / The pitiful kind shall not shield your aching eyes / And shall not moisten your lips when dry.”  
Through the anger and sadness at the destruction wrought by their elders, however, most of the students turn back to the theme of finding hope again. Chidera Onwuasoizu believes that “If our leaders and our communities cease to be self centred, / but extend a hand of friendship to the less privileged / We shall sing a new song of hope in our dear country Nigeria.” Basma Abdul Hamid finds hope when she hears of the goodness of ordinary people, “the news, lost money was found! / In my country by a poor taxi driver / A tiny hope blink in my heart.”
Olani Ayoola’s prayer is to: “Let Nigeria be the dream that the dreamers dreamt /Let it be a great strong land of love and peace.”
The adults may have made a mess of Nigeria these children say, but they have determined to bring about a new Nigeria. Mary Idoko recited “I see a Nigeria where youth say no to crime and violence./ Hope is made manifest in the faces of all./ I see a Nigeria endowed with security and good health./ I see Nigeria springing up a boundless fountain./ That is my Nigeria. What about yours?”
The judges listed as the top ten best performers (without ranking): Abdulrahman Mohamed- Taoheed Private School; Amina Sagir Ibrahim- Green College; Clarion Dangana- Kings & Queens Academy; Irene Aderinto- Baptist Science Grammar School; Maimunah Abubakar- Hikimah College; Niima Al-Hassan-Federal Government College; Samuel E. Agwom- Success & Unity School; Sophie Ishola- Kings & Queens Academy; Tobi Umar- Kingdom Citizens College; Victor Chukwujama- St. Murumba College,
{EB} Arts and Poetry Room’s first anthology of children’s poems Through the Eyes of Innocence, is available at the Chullanz House on 82 Liberty Boulevard in Jos or online at http://elisbrain.blogspot.com/2013/08/through-eyes-of-innocence-peace-project.html. The anthology from the October 31 student poetry competition, Finding Hope Again, is expected to be published by April of 2014.