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Nearly everybody in the world has heard about the Niger Delta struggle; here is a poet's personal depiction and insider's perspective to the issues of marginalisation, degradation and ecological annihilation visited upon the local indigenes of this region. but some of these poems are hilarious to add spice and irony to the whole sadness of this insensitivity. Hope you find it as a welcome relief!
"CRY NIGER DELTA…CRY RAPE!"
From The Keyboard Of
Stephan A. O. Umukoro, An anthology chronicling the Niger Delta experience from an insider’s perspective. This book of poems represents the first complete work detailing the Niger Delta struggles in a single anthology. It is instrumental to clarifying the controversies which has assailed the peoples of the Niger Delta over the decades; against a backdrop of the general Nigerian social-economic challenges, dilemma, nascent democracy and colonial history. Most people are at a crossroad as to the reasons and motivations of our struggle. Why for most part of our recent history, signalling the end of this decade, there have been more vociferous voices clamouring for justice toward the Niger Delta aborigines. These poems seek to answer these nagging questions. Here is my voice, presented to you as original and personal as the sensitive mind of one who has not only been part of the struggle, but born into it. This is the question of birth besetting every true Niger Deltan today. Please we beg for your understanding and empathy on these issues while reading these poems. Happy reading! Place Your Order for the Complete Work In e-Book format for The Introductory price of $5.99 before it goes up. Below are the contents, so you know the material is worth more than the asking. CONTENTS VOLUME 1
PART 1
PART 11
VOLUME 2
1. THEY BREED VIOLENCE IN US! 2. THE BIRTH OF KAIMA 3. ROYAL FATHERS NODS 4. TO BEGIN AT THE BACK DOORS OF THE BEGINNING! 5. IN THE DARK CONGREGATION OF BATS 6. AT THE PLEA-CHAMBERS OF HISTORY 7. AN OMINOUS AIR 8. IN THE MESH OF SURVIVALISM 9. THE MARCH ON MOUNT FREEDOM 10. NEW SOCIAL HIERARCHY 11. MOUNTING THE PEAK OF POWER HILLOCKS 12. THE RAIN THAT WATER OUR ANGUISH 13. THE STORY OF JESSE 14. THE AFTERMATH OF JESSE 15. ODI DAUGHTER OF BAYELSA 16. THE SPUME OF HATE 17. CROSSWORDS OF FIRE 18. AT THE RECRIMINATING DOOR OF BROKEN ACCORDS 19. THE VOICE OF ONE WAILING IN THE CREEKS 20. MT AFRICAN PRIDE 21. REQUIEM FOR OLOIBIRI 22. A GIFT OF COURAGE 23. THE LOST GENERATION 24. SUNSET IN BIAFRA! 25. A SCOURGE OF FINGERS 26. THE SIGHTLESSNESS OF AFRICA'S BIGGEST POLITICAL PARTY. 27. OF NATIONAL POLITICAL REFORM CONFERENCES 28. LATE EVENING REVUE 29. EGBESU THE PENAL GOD OF PEACE 30. BOUND FROM THE ROOTS 31. THOUGHTS ON OUR NATIONAL WASTE. 32. THE GIANT OF AFRICA? 33. A DESPERATE NEED FOR UNITY 34. WHO CAN PUT OUT THIS SILENCE? 35. CRY NIGER DELTA…CRY RAPE! Many more. Index of first two lines: THEY MADE HER MAD! She suffers a drought of oil Oil wealth for hard currency- breeding insecurity… SHE CAN NOT ASK WHY She did not ask why… She could not really ask why… HER BURST WOMB The cry is imminent The howl has transcended abroad… THE ROAD TO MOUNT FREEDOM Then they beckon us to mount freedom No, not the multitude of us… A PAUSE FOR PARDON Pardon me sir! Only a demonstrative response … THE TYRANNY OF OIL DRILLS The towers of Shell, Chevron, Agip…all! Overlook the broken thatch roofs… REFLECTIONS ON THE BANKS OF FORCADOES Let me tell you about the plight Of the naked inhabitants---naked and hungry... SHE AGED SUDDENLY! She aged suddenly Who would not? Burdened on all aspects… First Poems of the two volume: VOLUME 1
PART 1 THEY MADE HER MAD! She suffers a drought of oil Oil wealth for hard currency- breeding insecurity High-sea money for internal decay and destruction “Oily belle” merchant imported From far and wide to her allurement To exploit her ravaged thighs In a siege of greed and sadism Laid waste the “fine bride of waters” As snorting pigs nuzzling in her terrains Called multi-nationals on every creek Drilling well-holes into her bowel In search for the last black-gold-drop Ravishing the shrinking cunt Of a howling harangue--- they made Her mad!!! PART 11 A LONG TALE I awake into my mind Telling this sordid tale My veins reiterate the pains Peering through cracks in my rheumy Eyes into an apocryphal theater …where I’m the exploited pawn!
It is all within a day of dark decades Oh, that day of blacken dreams Flowing from horror sights of mass-graves Where our will is suppressed in sepulchers We wake into this stifled bafflement
To welcome changes that orphaned us Right in the heart of our inheritance And all hope of joy drained surreptitiously Into the hideous abyss of strained disillusionment.
Life here takes a crooked bend… A cruel shape in the Niger Delta Where this mystified generation Lost within a decade of woe Crave explanations that estrange us…even more!
And new generations…not those gone! Into the swamp of forgetfulness Not those helplessly caught in a mire Not those witness to futile battles Not those inept ancestors drowsing In the throes of a mottled nightmare Interred in oil-spilled graves and greasy crude shards Not these bewildering insurgents who deign To fight blind, blow on a storm-course.
But the new generation who know not The scanty struggles of resource control And the intrigues that accompany the plunder Our trickster politicians…how they traded The cause for cosmetic occupation of power hillocks Like mini-demy-gods on chicken thrones Those who the wand of greed swept as far As the obsequious fortress of Abuja Licking the shitboot of collective passivity That raised a wave of propaganda against Their own land, propelled by government Machinery of free-flowing Naira.
This coming generation… lost in dejection Amidst the worn slabs in history’s lawn Still tarrying for meanings and rationale Spinning verse across the desecrated shores…
Pining on what was not done… how Did what was wrongly done What should have been done? And what now needs to be done To restore the fevered face of our resolve In a forgone mesh of belated realization.
VOLUME 2 THEY BREED VIOLENCE IN US! They breed violence in us Like placing earthen pots under the rain Of blood from our bleeding phallus To foster the hot crimson of cruel circumcision Then crush us each time we cry--- Simply because we cried!
In the bid to milk the cancerous udder They squeeze black blood from the mother And clog their ears against the yell With the wool from her fleeced flesh With a cruel heedless hand!
They pierce our hearts with pain To experiment on our emotions extent Our pores breathe forth protest In an involuntary response to their test But it is danger to expose our wounds!
They push us in their callous play In sadistic Machiavellian games To explore where laurels can be gained In cheap suppressive stratagem We fall collectively to satisfy their sigh!
Whole settlements are yet in the bush Refugees in this mortal play Of mass extermination--- Genocide if you like!
GOOD LUCK and HAPPY READING… Do you have any question bordering on these poems? feel free to post it in our FORUM in the ASK YOUR QUESTIONS section. All contributions should be posted on the GENERAL BOARD category. GRAB YOUR COPY NOW!!!
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Stephan A. O. Umukoro
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