POETRY AND THE POET IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA

Abstract

Present-day Nigeria has been variously characterised as infernal, hellish, grueling and as danse macabre on account, principally, of the insupportable socio-economic hardships Nigerians are going through amid official apathy and criminal dereliction of duty. Despite this, there is an overwhelming efflorescence of creative activity, especially the production and reception of verse. This study, examines and maps the trajectory of Nigerian poetry from the oral beginnings through the various generational cohorts to the present, highlighting the rise and rise of verse-making in Nigeria. But it is not all about quantity but, more important, the quality of written poetry coming out of Nigeria today. The fate and fortune of digitally-mediated verse are also interrogated in this study even as the work periscopes the likely tramlines of verse in the future. It concludes that, given the incredible amount of poetry being produced across the nation, accompanied by the equally impressive efforts of the Nigerian Diaspora, the future of Nigerian poetry is bright.