Dr Oohay, some food for thought from Chimalum Nwankwo
Cornelius Hamelberg
“ I must state that I do not find it an exciting honour to be compared with Christopher Okigbo. Okigbo was a great pioneer African poet whose poetry played well for his time. We are playing today in an arena and zeitgeist so very far away from that time. The lazy critic and the aspiring poet should come to terms with that reality. Forgive me if I emphatically say that I do not find a comparison as flattering as some younger poets and some other people think, at this stage of my career. The last word, so far, on that issue was courageously presented by by Austin Akpuda at the Harvard conference on Okigbo’s poetry. My politics of culture and groupthink and the intrinsic Igbo pragmatism which goes with it, speak, I believe, quite eloquently, for my politics of art and life. That is so far away from the politics and practice which defined Okigbo’s life and poetry. What I call groupthink is the way of the world, and I do not believe it will ever change as long as we live in spaces called “nations“.
Groupthink comes before any pretensions to globalism. Until there is a playing field that is satisfactorily cosmic and culturally encompassing, speaking toward notions of globalism will remain as phony as the old ragged tale of universalism. To reverse that clear order suggesting a universal harmony of all cultures is spurious and politically disingenuous. It will amount to trying to stand the world on its head as Igbo elders say. Nothing can be before what I regard as pre-conditional ontological ecumenism. It is on such plains that I part ways with other African bards and thinkers past and present “
(An extract ( pages 5-7) of Chimalum Nwankwo’s preface to “ Of the Deepest Shadows and The Prisons of Fire “ published in 2010