Dissecting the heart of the land

A review of Emman Usman Shehu’s Footnotes for a Nativeland by UZOR MAXIM UZOATU. Topaz Books; 2026; 120pp

HE is in the top ranks of potent voices that have refused to be daunted by the multiform calamities of Nigeria. Emman Usman Shehu deserves to take a deserved bow as an irrepressible consistent poet remorselessly addressing the Nigerian project and the African condition.

He showed early signs of poetic afflatus when back in 1988 he earned literary limelight as one of the “six Update Poets” published by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) under the sponsorship of Chief MKO Abiola’s Concord Press of Nigeria. With the iconic poet Odia Ofeimun as the key facilitator, ANA undertook the special publication of  the collections of six budding poets, notably: Questions for Big Brother by Emman Usman Shehu, A Shout Across the Wall by Idzia Ahmad, Stolen Moments by Afam Akeh, Amnesty by Kemi Atanda Ilori, Cotyledons by Esiaba Irobi, and Flower Child by Uche Nduka.

Shehu has ever since held aloft the light of poetry by publishing other acclaimed collections such as Open Sesame in 2005, Icarus Rising in 2017, The River Never Returns in 2022 and now Footnotes for a Nativeland in 2026.

Open heart surgery with the scalpel of words is what Shehu is onerously doing to the land of Nigeria with his offerings in poetry. He speaks truth to power and does not indulge in obscurantist poesy. Vintage poetry laden with meaning is his forte as he undertakes the necessary duty of deploying his metaphors and metier to progressive ends of commitment.

In the foreword to the collection, Chioma I. Enwerem stresses: “In Footnotes For A Nativeland, Emman Usman Shehu has created a work of profound empathy and sharp political acumen.” He belongs to the class of “town-crier” poets as identified by the legendary Christopher Okigbo. The nativeland motif can be juxtaposed with Aime Cesaire’s classic Return To My Nativeland. 

The 62 poems of the collection kicks off with the arresting lyrical piece “Palmwine For Elusive Eyes”:

“Ah you elusive daughters of memory dancing/on the red dust of Abuja roads  where harmattan/whispers secrets  through the neem trees’ weary leaves.”

A poet that penetrates the streets, Emman Usman Shehu calls the bluff of members of the idle rich class to “Kiss The Truth”. He embodies the friction as “the high-voltage thread stitching the air/into a frantic shiver.” The poet can never be clobbered into silence as he forges ahead with “a moment of outpouring”. It takes layers of meaning to appreciate “Elder’s Gaze” and the wisdom “Beneath The Kolanut’s Weight”, “Shadows On The Compound Wall”, “Silent Weaver’s Loom”, “Stir Of The Harmattan”, Cracks In The Boabab’s Skin”, “The Drummer’s Hesitant Beat”, “Whisper Of The River God”, “Breaking The Clay”, “Song Of The Open Palm”, “Wind Over The Village Square”, “The Market’s New Voice”, “Dance Of The Unbound Tongue”, “Chorus Of The River’s Mouth”, “Toiling Bones”, “A City’s Deaf Ears”, “Stolen Dawn”, “Ghosts Of The Hammer”, “Hawker’s Shadow”, “Fisherman’s Empty Net”, “Splintered Loom”, “The Maid’s Silent Scream”, “Barren Scroll”, “Iron In The Marrow”, “The River Was My Brother” etc.

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The poet’s mastery of tropical lore lends to the collection a rootedness that is quite endearing. Even from the titles of the poems any casual reader can catch the essence. The lament is touching as per “Language Of Our Native Land”:

“The language of our native land  is forgetting/the meaning of compassion”

In “The Wound Refuses To Close”, Emman Usman Shehu goes full blast thus:

“Another day  just like yesterday and the day/before   My country once flowering hope /bleeds down the slope   My country bleeds/by the hour  making a mockery of Golgotha/Another day   my country bleeds like the other/day  and leaders recycle fake promises  of turning/things around  from safety of secure enclosures.”

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In “Dear North”, the poet offers the advice: “Dear North   don’t only look in the mirror   move/to break the bondage of error…” There is trouble in the land, the poet avers, and it does not bode well hiding in denial. The harsh truths are told via “Sipping Chaos”, “Harvest Of Denial”, “A Land That Drinks Its Blood”, “Poem For A Flag”, “Unfading Pits”, “Ramparts Of Earth”, “Waiting For A Dawn”, “Nunc Dimitis” etc.

Shehu is a literary surgeon of unimpeachable drive. He has a well-established reputation as a “literary cartographer of the Nigerian experience”. In a country where the “Niger Delta’s “black gold” has been turned into “liquid poison” there is ample reason for a committed poet to raise the requisite concerns. With the publishing of Footnotes For A Nativeland, Emman Usman Shehu has added broad magnitude to his standing as a major contemporary African poet.