LITERATORS' CORNER

JUNGLE             --Amadi Ekwutosilam Njoku This jungle is that land Where the future is webbed in desolate dreams And each thread of hope is dried up Like a lake cut off from a life-giving stream. This jungle is that land Where the dagger-hoofed beasts, masters of loot Trample on the frail masses, earnestly Whetting their callous knife of greed Ploughing the people's patrimony to fill their porous pockets. This jungle is that land Where impunity culture is gloried so high Because her laws are too weak to fight a just cause Where depraved dealings spread wildly like a leprous sore Overwhelming victims with its maddening juiciness; The sharpest knife is the bluntest. This jungle is that land Where talents and lofty ideas die unharnessed Under the very watch of her leaders-- Leaders who live only for themselves Leaving behind dusty footmarks for a legacy; the led Grope in continued and deep-seated blacko...

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...

"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...