IS there a connection between poetry and healing?
There is a very strong link between poetry and healing. I’d take you back to the classical era. First to a biblical allusion where poetry was used as therapy, remember King Saul and David who was a young poet in the palace of Saul. Whenever the king was afflicted by demonic oppression and depression, rather than calling for his physician or psychiatrist, he would call for this young poet – David, who would sing and play his musical instrument to King Saul. And the king would get his healing.
Secondly, Apollo is regarded as the god of poetry and healing. That means there’s a bridge between poetic expression and healing which we did not countenance for a very long time. Great scholars and philosophers have known right from the start that there’s a big connection between poetry and therapy.
At age nine, I got stung by scorpion and the pain was so much. My father, a king, was a typical traditional African man who knew a lot about what is called African technology and art. He fetched an old man who put me on his lap and started recounting an incantatory poetry and I slept off on his lap. And when I woke up, not a slight pain was felt. The only thing that reminded me that something happened was that the spot often itched me. Although in the African context, there may be the invocation of other forces beyond mere poetry rendition. But there is that connection. And the Holy Bible places a very high premium on what it calls “the Word” that was in the beginning. And we understand that that Word was what transformed into a living being – Jesus Christ – that has come from heaven to heal the world. There is a very strong connection between word and healing.
How did you find yourself in the poetry and healing branch of literature?
It started when I registered for my Ph.D at the University of Ibadan. I was fortunate to come in contact with a man who has today become a personal friend and mentor who was the one that supervised my Ph.D, Professor Babatunde Omobowale. He had his Ph.D in this area of scholarship, Literature and Medicine. And when he introduced it to me, I bought into it with my whole being because it was something novel and refreshing.
With your experience in this field, do you think arts hold a respite for a pandemic-stricken world?
It has a lot of respite to offer. Now that the whole world is passing through a pandemic, there is a lot that art can do in a situation like this because the aftermath of this pandemic would be psychological and psycho-traumatic crisis which largely can be handled through art therapy. It is unfortunate that not much adequate attention is being given to the arts with regards to the healing properties it holds for the world, especially at this time.
I think medicine and art and healing should play a complementary role.
Science has played a prominent role over time in leading the world out of pandemic as this. Nevertheless, there should be a synergy between the artists/writers who can use their work to create therapeutic expressions and the medical practitioners.
In what ways can there be collaboration between science and the arts?
Not many people believe that art can be used to engage healing. Science needs to descend from its arrogant position and embrace other branches of knowledge to handle crisis and to save our world. And same goes to the government. They never believe there is much in the arts which we can use to engage healing.
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