This poem is from Tanure Ojaide’s Delta Blues and Homesongs, a collection of poems inspired by the plight of the people of the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria. The crisis in the region came to the attention of the world community after the killing of the writer-activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other minority rights activists in November 1995.

Since 1955, when oil was first discovered in Oloibiri, the environment of this area has suffered from oil spillages, gas flaring, and the indiscriminate felling of trees, resulting in the destruction of farmlands and aquatic resources. All these problems continue to threaten human survival.

In Delta Blues, Ojaide passionately articulates his concern with the injustices that the Nigerian state and the multinational oil companies operating in the region have perpetrated on the people of his region. Other poems in the collection go so far as to challenge the idea of a Nigerian nation.

When green was the lingua franca laments the tragic destruction of agrarian life in the Niger Delta region and the specific ways the degradation of the land has impoverished the people. The poet-persona chronicles the experience by appealing to his childhood memories of the near Edenic serenity and prosperity of the region before the invasion of the oil industry. The intruders broke the harmony between the people and their land, turning the mineral wealth of their land into a curse rather than a blessing.

Two major periods are referenced in the poem. The first is the period before the coming of the oil companies (which also coincides with the poet-persona’s childhood). That period was the age of innocence for both the poet and the land. But this innocence has since been lost, and the loss is what provokes the lamentation in the poem.

The success of the poem depends not just on the topical nature of its concern but also on the effective way it deploys appropriate strategies. It is at once the story of an individual and his community. The story it tells becomes credible as it comes as an eyewitness account.

The temporal shift in the poem, which coincides with the end of an old order, comes at the beginning of stanza four, where the Anglo-Dutch giant Shell Oil is accused of breaking “the bond / with quakes and a hell / of flares” (13). The poet creates contrasts between the once rich and picturesque landscape of the past and the afflicted environment that is gradually suffering desertification.

The tone constantly shifts from the nostalgic to the critical because the poet-persona at once underscores what he has lost and equally indicts those he feels should take responsibility for the condition of his land and its inhabitants.

Bibliography
Ojaide, Tanure. Delta Blues and Homesongs. Ibadan, Nigeria: Kraft, 1997.

Categories: Literature, World Literature

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