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BOOK REVIEW
WALI

contemplating itself. The poetry of Christopher Okigbo is a typical example of this absence of social awareness and commitment as we can glean from "Lament of the Flutes" included in Mr. Hughes' anthology:
              
Sing to the rustic flute:
Sing a new note...
Where are the Maytime flowers,
Where the roses? What will the
 watermaid bring at sundown,
 a garland? A handful of tears?
Sing to the rustic flute:
Sing a new note...

Beautiful music if we listen to it, but to what effect, to what end? I would not accept the answer that poetry does not concern itself with anything except with itself, an exercise indifferent to action and unconcerned with social realities.
  
This anthology illustrates clearly that you cannot wish away the nerve center of a people's real concerns, the springboard of their anguish and the source of their dilemma:
               
The tall black king steps forward,
He towers over the this bearded white man,
Then grabbing his lean white hand
Manages to whisper
"Mtu mweupe karibu"
White man you are welcome
The gate of polished reed closes behind them
And the West is let in.

This is from Rubadiri's poem, "Stanley Meets Mutesa," a meeting which constitutes the opening of the tragic act of the conquest and humiliation of the African, a symbolic act of hospitality which ironically becomes a means for domination. And it is all the more significant that a hundred years after this gesture, the British are right now fêting the fugitive king of Buganda after his attempt to subvert Milton Obote's efforts to build a modern African state free from the encumbrance of traditional royalty. It is this preoccupation with the meaning of Africa, with its tragedy and destiny which engages the poets of black Africa more than any other theme:
                       
Is this Africa,
Mother Africa,
Long suppressed, divided,
 ruled, impugned?
  
The question is one asked by Roland Dempster of Liberia in his
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Transcription Notes:
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