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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Poetry as a vehicle for promoting national consciousness and development: the example of four Nigerian poets |
Author: | Elimimian, Isaac Irabor |
Year: | 1988 |
Periodical: | African Literature Today |
Issue: | 16 |
Pages: | 112-123 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | nationalism poetry |
Abstract: | Examines the way and manner in which Nigerian poets have contributed, through their writings, to the sociocultural and political development of their country. Emphasis centres upon those poets who, according to the author, have most successfully influenced the course of national development: two so-called 'pioneer' poets, Dennis Osadebay and Nnamdi Azikiwe, and two so-called 'modern' poets, Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka. A content analysis of their poems shows that, in spite of their differences, some common features can be found. They have succeeded in creating a general consciousness that foreign influence has a deleterious effect on traditional culture and national progress; Osadebay and Azikiwe by expressing the needs and aspirations of a people in quest of political independence, Okigbo and Soyinka by extolling the beauty and essence of the African past and by decrying the forces of division within Nigerian society. Ref. |