THE POETICS OF POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY YORÙBÁ WRITTEN POETRY

Abstract

Poetics of politics, the use of poems to reflect governance in the society, is common among Yoruba written poets. These poets use their poetic prowess to showcase their political poems. Previous studies on contemporary Yorùbá written poetry have concentrated on socio-stylistics and cultural aspects, with little attention paid to the political representation of governance and its poetics. This study was, therefore, designed to examine the poetics of politics in contemporary Yoruba written poetry, with a view to identifying its thematic paradigms, classifications, language and style. Ferdinand de Saussure’s Structuralism, complemented by Louis de Bonald’s Mimetic Theory, was adopted as the framework. The interpretive design was used. Four purposively selected poetry collections that reflect military dictatorship were used. These were (Àlọ ń lọ) by Jíboḷ́ á Abíoḍ́ ún (20 poems),(Ìgbà Lonígbàáka) by Olúyemis ̣́ íAdéboẉ́ álé(6 poems), (Asọ Igbà) by Dúró Adélékè (11 poems)and (Orin Ewúro) byÀtàrí Àjànàkú (16 poems). These poems were subjected to literary analysis. Ten political thematic paradigms were identified across the selected poems. They are corruption, party politics, bad leadership, political activism, ethnic marginalisation, electoral malpractices, cultural relegation, labour insurrection, egalitarian society and electoral reformation. The themes of corruption and bad leadership cut across all the texts showing that these form the basic preoccupation of the texts.Ìgbà Lonígbàákà and Orin Ewúro reflects no interest in electoral reformaton and egalitarian society. Ìgbà Lonígbàákàdid not cover ethnic marginalisation and cultural relegation, while Àlọ ń lọ have nine out of the ten political themes.Asọ Igbà have eight out of the ten paradigms. Ìgbà Lonígbàákà andOrin Ewúro have five and six political themes respectively. The poems were classified into three; strictly political, societal and general issues. The strictly political poems portray mis-governance, bad leadership, electoral reformation and ethnic persecution. Poems on societal issues are written to expose or correct governmental inadequacies like corruption and Academic Staff Union of Universities’ industrial action. Poems on general issues focus on social instability like June 12 political protests, scarcity of petroleum products and political thuggery. Stylistic devices were employed to call attention to vital political issues and the actors involved. Repetition was used as a dominant stylistic device in all the poems to achieve sensitisation. Repetition was used with direct vituperations and rebuke for bad leaders to conclude the poems. The poems exhibit the use of historical perspectives in highlighting salient points as well as rhetorical questions that pricks the mind. These have revealed positive effects in the sociological changes in the Yorùbá society The selected contemporary Yorùbá written poetry are concerned specifically with political issues in the society. Thus, these poems serve as a form of protest to achieve desired positive changes in the society.