Ezenwa–Ohaeto: Poet of the Genre
In: Matatu, Band 33, Heft 1, S. 153-177
ISSN: 1875-7421
Ezenwa–Ohaeto was a poet of immense artistic vision. He was a conscious member of the Nigerian and African polity and a perspicacious user of the African oral tradition, particularly the Igbo afflatus/affiliation of it. A poet of ideas and style, Ezenwa–Ohaeto was to adopt principally as his stylistic tool the Igbo traditional genre of satire called In this essay, effort has been made towards identifying his use of the mode in terms of what he took from it and what in turn he gave to African poetry. It is demonstrated that Ezenwa–Ohaeto utilized satire to draw attention to the ills in the land. While he did so, he used the humour in to smoothe his way through. Although he was regularly concerned with the fate of fellow nationals, he did so light-heartedly, combining the use of airy Igbo iconic figures with mediated English and pidgin variety. Ezenwa–Ohaeto thus left behind an original, captivating and enchanting poetic tradition