BAYO ADEBOWALE’S AFRICAN MELODY
SINGS FULL-THROATED POETIC SONGS FOR AFRICA
Bayo Adebowale’s newly- published book, AFRICAN MELODY, (A Poetic Exposition of the African Essence) combines sweet melody with harsh melody, melody of expectation with melody of hope, for the African Continent. The 144 page book, containing a total of 61 poems, takes readers on a poetic excursion through the socio-cultural history of a Continent at the focus of global attention.
Nature and landscape in the book receive close scrutiny, as much as a number of selected political and historical events in the life of Africans on the Continent, and Africans in the Diaspora. (e.g slave trade, colonialism, coup d’etat, poverty, class distinction famine, racism, genocide, etc.)The poet adulates the achievements of the heroes and heroines of the land, while despots who smear the Continent’s beautiful garment with mud, receive castigation and several knocks on the head.
Sweet melody reverberates right from the beginning of the book, as readers encounter ‘motionless crocodiles basking under the blazing afternoon sun, at the magnificent swimming pool of Limpopo’ (p.12); ‘termites milling protectively round their Queen in the palatial fortress, inside the kingdom of the giant anthill’ (p.86); ‘photographs of brown-grass savannah teeming with spotted long-necked giraffes journeying on the express road of the mind in the open horizon of Pategi’(p.19) ; ’ the receding evening sun sitting down on the busy bay of Lake Chad, immobile like a fat market woman transacting business.’(p.6)
Harsh melody, in one other section of the book, exposes Africa as ‘an ailing giant walking with the limbs of a stegomyia and nursing a pulsating numbness in the region of his left leg’(p.53). The ancestral land here has become ‘an elephant crippled by a snare; an antelope caught in a trap; an impala extricating from a tightening noose; a puff adder with his stomach swollen by an undigested rodent; and an earthworm dancing the dance of death in a lake of salt.’(p.59-60)
Melody of hope resounds in the book with the arrival of notable icons – African role models like Shaka –‘ the black pugilist of the unconquered land of the rugged Zulu nation’(p.14); Kwegyir –‘ the amiable Goldcoast whiz kid who at school chanted multiplication table with ease and acted Daniel in the Lion’s Den with dexterity’(p.21); Makeba – ‘the cool evening nightingale perching on the African bamboo, dishing out symphonies of pleasant solo tunes in mezzo-soprano octave to a listening universe’(p.84); Luthuli – ‘the blooming banana rhizome on the bank of the roaring River Orange’ (p.10); Ali –‘ the buzzing bee with a deadly sting, the graceful butterfly floating in the openness of the blue sky’(p.110); and Mandela, ‘who trod, unscathed, the narrow freedom road, strewn with pricks and pains, thistles and bristles.’(p.98) and Barrack Obama – ‘the long African broom, sweeping the New World horizon incredibly clean and penny – bright… the arrow head of mighty Luo spear shooting staright to target’ (p.124).
In Bayo Adebowale’s AFRICAN MELODY, it is music all the way; Music ‘touching the incore of our heart; jerking us to alertness; and stimulating in us, wonder and incredulity’… Music,’ soft as the murmur of the dove at dawn, pervading our days with delight, in cadences of joyful bubbles; and music, harsh as the monotonous tap on the blacksmith’s anvil permeating our nights with grief, in sequences of sad gurgles.’ (p.23)
The inclusion of a Classified Index in this brand new book is unique, so also is the full-colour display of imaginative photographs {nine of them}, supplied with highly creative captions by the poet, for readers delight. Adebowale’s AFRICAN MELODY indeed is a ‘deeply-researched and competently – crafted work of art.’
VICE CHANCELLOR
Cover Price of the Book: N600; $5 {+ $2 Postage Cost}; £4 {+ £1 Postage Cost}
Page: 145
Year of Publication: 2012
Contacts for Purchase:
- African Heritage Publishers (AHP); P.O.Box 36330, Agodi Post Office, Ibadan, Oyo State, NIGERIA.
- Phone: +2348034495485
+2348072871715
Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade: +2348160176922
Gbemisola Edun:
"WE HAVE GREAT WORK TO DO. WE HAVE BEEN CALLED UPON TO BUILD A NEW AFRICA AND A NEW BLACK WORLD!"
DR. BAYO ADEBOWALE,DIRECTOR/FOUNDER
AFRICAN HERITAGE RESEARCH LIBRARY AND CULTURAL CENTRE
nigeria-arts.net/literature/
DR. BAYO ADEBOWALE,DIRECTOR/FOUNDER
AFRICAN HERITAGE RESEARCH LIBRARY AND CULTURAL CENTRE
nigeria-arts.net/literature/
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