Of dance, kingdom and savagery

NIGERIA is a dangerous place to reside in at the moment. So many indices point at this. Some of these factors are what must have engaged the mind of Charles Akinsete, a teacher of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Ibadan, when he penned his second collection of poetry, Dance of A Savage Kingdom.

A collection of 53 poems, the anthology is a coterie of lines highlighting the savagery that the country, nay, the world has become. From the first and second poems which creatively share a joint title, “We Become Empty Dance…” and “… of A Savage Kingdom,” to the last, “Divided Kingdoms and ‘iro-ni-cities,’” the collection largely tells the story of our nation in lucid but few words, in metaphors and imageries of the daunting realities of our public sphere.

To begin with, in “… of Savage Kingdom,” the poet states: “Our kingdom gives nothing,/and takes everything.” These are a few words that encapsulate the current capitalist mindset of governments all over the world, particularly in Nigeria. He goes on to say “Our kingdom is endless land, infinite sea and/countless men,/Hollow source for every one,/Lavish protector of no one.”

Akinsete tells us with this that Nigeria is a land of vast opportunity that has failed to benefit its large human resources (which is, of course, part of the vastness in opportunities). Akinsete uses these first and second poems of the anthology to establish the thematic stand of the book, probing into the very essence of the Nigerian question.

Of course, not a few know that the world, particularly Nigeria, has become a space of cheap death. The poet foregrounds this right from the beginning of the anthology, when he asks “How many have to bleed,/before our vampire kingdom is satisfied?/How many must decompose,/before our groaning graves are balloon-bloated?/In this endless game,/In this game-less end,/In this dull dance of life and death?/How many?” Also, the poet dexterously conveys the metaphor of death in the poem “Death Comes in Small Packages,” where he articulates the throngs of decays and dearth in different sphere of nationhood.

Akinsete, with these few words, tells us the story of the gory cinema, the theatre of death that Nigeria has become in the last 10 years or thereabouts. And this tragedy, and similar such, runs through all the poems collected in the piece, Dance of A Savage Kingdom.

He also does not forget the ‘authors and finishers of our fate,’ the politicians. From among us rise our so-called leaders. But once they get to leadership, they no longer belong to us; they no longer belong to anybody. In the poem entitled “Killers in our trees” Akinsete says: “Every killer is a politician,/Every killer has a politician,/Now, they must kill,/Now, they must bill.”

Earlier, he had made allusion to the Nigerian seat of power, occupied by people pretending to be ruling the nation while they are merely ruining in. He says: “Every leaf dances with a vicious serpent,/The kinetic kiss of death, Dandling from anxious fangs/of opportunistic imposters,/Seated firmly,/On top of our collapsed Rock.”

But a notable trend in Akinsete’s dissection of the multifarious societal malaise is that Dance of A Savage Kingdom is divided into three movements, “Native Kingdom,” Foreign Kingdom” and “Personal Kingdom.” Each of these movements has its intrinsic sub themes.

Erudite poet and professor who wrote the forward to Dance of A Savage Kingdom, Ademola Dasylva, made allusion to this stylistic masterstroke when he says the book is “divided into three sections with a total of 53 poems robustly engaged in three distinct and yet related sub-themes.” Akinsete weaved his experience at home before travelling abroad, that which was experienced in a foreign land (Foreign Kingdom) and the aftermath of exploration that resulted in personal world view to present us a masterpiece of a work of art that probes into the heart of the realities of our present world.

Charles Akinsete was in South Africa and he did not allow the opportunity to compare and contrast the Nigerian experience with that of that country to escape his literary probity. In the poem “I see Devil’s peak”, Akinsete celebrates one of the iconic historical representations in Cape Town. He equally lauds the amiable attitude of a South African host called Tafadzwa in the poem, “Of Tafz and Cape Rhymes”.

However, the poem “Of White Smile and Black Scorn” serves the distinct purpose of critiquing the challenges of racial intolerance in the Southern African country and definitely across the world. Akinsete is, indeed, a seer. The poem, written long before the accentuation of ‘Black Lives Matters’ drives home the problem of racism and perpetual discord, distrust and dissention across the world.

Inspired by Mandela’s lifelong experiences, the poem “Prisoner 446/46” was born. But the poem that appears to stand out in this section is “A Conversation with Stellenbosch train”.

Clearly Professor Dasylva’s favourite, this poetic masterpiece comes alive in form of a trance, whereby the poet persona is engaged in a prolonged conversation with an extraordinary train which oscillates between a horrific past and an uncertain future.

In the final section, Akinsete returns home. So, he comes home and sings of variegated experience in “Personal Kingdom.” He shows his consciousness of the themes of love, hate, passion, betrayal and the Christianity faith he professes. Still, the poet returns to the frailties of kingdoms in contemporary times.

The last poem “Of monstrosities and monstrous cities,” encapsulates the central theme of savagery, playing on those words to constantly remind us of the ‘madness’ in our society.

Dance of A Savage Kingdom is indeed a beautiful piece. It is a collection that summarises the grief and disillusionment that the world is currently going through. It is the worldview from the lenses of a promising youth that should (normally) be a leader today, but have been deprived of that often promised opportunity.

Akinsete is a metaphor for the Nigerian youths, nation and African continent. His book is the lamentation of all of us in a compendium.

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