LITERATORS' CORNER

The Story of Haji Abdikarin Hussain (Waraabe)                                           --Nabiha Abidlahi Haji Abdikarin was born in 1905 in a town near Hargeisa called Toon. He was a kind man, and a good person. The story goes that a certain man had killed his father when he was very young. When he grew up to become an adult and wise enough, his uncles told him of this man who had killed his father. At this time, Somali people upheld a revenge system which permitted the killing of a person who deliberately kills someone else. When they told Abdikarin Hussain of how this man killed his father, it aroused his chagrin and he collected his guns. Together with his uncles, they traced out where the man lived and went to the place.  The journey was quite far, it took Haji Abdikarin and his uncles many days to arrive at the place. When they finally arrived at the pl...

"Vanity" by Birago Diop: A Raditical Analysis by Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy Vanity If we tell, gently, gently All that we shall one day have to tell, Who then will hear our voices without laughter, Sad complaining voices of beggars Who indeed will hear them without laughter? If we cry roughly of our torments Ever increasing from the start of things, What eyes will watch our large mouths Shaped by the laughter of big children What eyes will watch our large mouths? What heart will listen to our clamouring? What ear to our pitiful anger Which grows in us like a tumour In the black depth of our plaintive throats? When our Dead come with their Dead When they have spoken to us with their clumsy voices; Just as our ears were deaf To their cries, to their wild appeals Just as our ears were deaf To their cries, to their wild appeals Just as our ears were deaf They have left on the earth their cries, In the air, on the water, wh...

Gbemisola Adeoti's "Ambush": A Raditical Analysis by Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy MEET THE POET Gbemisola Adeoti holds a PhD in English from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He worked as a reporter/researcher with The News Magazine, Lagos, before joining the English Department of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, where he is currently a professor and director of the Institute of Cultural Studies. His areas of teaching and research include dramatic literature, literary history, literary theory and popular culture. His publications include Naked Soles , Voices Offstage , Aesthetics of Adaptation in Contemporary Nigerian Drama and Nigerian Video Film in Yoruba . He co-edited (with Bjorn Beckman) Intellectuals and African Development: Pretension and Resistance in African Politics and (with Femi Osofisan ) Playwriting in Nigeria Today. (culled from  http:// www.africanbookscollective.com / authors-editors / gbemisola-adeoti ) THE POEM Ambush ...

If Only... by Bodle Mohamed Once upon a time,  there was a boy who lived in a small town. The boy's name was Khadar, and he lived with his father. His mother died when he was four years old. One day, one of his friend in school told him, "there is a party at my house tonight; it is my birthday, will you come?" Khadar answered affirmatively. After School, Khadar went home and met his father watching television, he asked his father if it was okay to attend the party at his friend's house that night. He father said no. Khadar felt angry that his father refused him from attending his friend's birthday party. He yelled at his father, and then left the house angrily. After about four hours which the son did not return home, Khadar's father went looking for him. While he was searching for his son that evening, he noticed that some robbers were attempting to steal from a small shop. Khadar's father knew that if he called the police, they...

The Epic of Attah Ameh Oboni; The Great *Note: Attah Ameh Oboni remains; perhaps; the greatest king of the Igala people because of his magical prowess. Legend has it that the power of this king lies on the tip of his tongue which has so much efficacy so that whatever he decrees become so. How he came by such a magical power no one knows and no one may be able to tell till the end of time. They say he could look at a flowering green tree and command it to go dry and it would do so immediately, he had once poured sand over a river and commanded that a bridge appear and so it happened. Attah Ameh Oboni had enormous metaphysical powers and many of his followers became afraid of him. As the story goes, he was reported to the then colonial master who wanted to usurp him but could not as Ameh Oboni was not also ready to reliquish his authority to the colonial masters. In the wisdom of the people, no man however great should aspire to be greater than the society that created it, but Attah...

Land of Wonders Gandollar is infuriated! His cousin, Gorilla, has proven to be smarter. Gandollar receives the loot himself,  Hides wads of dollars in bulbous babarigas His froggy cheeks and cola stained teeth Give away smiles of contentment As the spy camera peeps at him. His kinsman, Gorilla, fared better It went for the money But was careful enough to avoid cameras Now, it plans to buy a forest of bananas! Gan thinks it an insult That Gor should prove smarter than him With the same initials and looks Why should Gor be better than Gan? Gan now wants Gor probed; I hear the police are prepared to arrest Gor too!  I have lived too long And palm nuts now sprout from my head-- To think I would live to hear the unthinkable! Kano is a land of wonders which Produces human and animal heisters. © Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy 2019

"Piano and drums" by Gabriel Imomotime Okara: A Raditical Analysis                                         —Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy THE POET Meet Gabriel Imomotime Okara Gabriel Okara was born in 1921 in Nembe in the Rivers State of Nigeria. After his secondary education at Government College, Umuahia, he became a book-binder. From then on he developed a remarkable personality through personal tuition, reflection and a deep interest in literature and in the language and culture of his people. Okara is one of the most significant and serious early Nigerian poets. He started writing poetry in the early fifties and still writes. Some of his war poems are among the best of this class of Nigerian poetry. Okara is interested in music and this shows not only in the lyrical grace of his poetry, but also in some of his imagery. The motifs of childhood, innocence and nostal...