Resisting pacification: Locating tension in G'Ebinyo Ogbowei's poetry

Abstract

This paper analyses the tension between subjugation and resistance as represented in G’Ebinyo Ogbowei’s six poetry collections, through the lens of discourse stylistics and eco-linguistic theories. Ogbowei is a prolific Nigerian poet whose work delineates anger and resistance while documenting the Niger Deltan experience. His poetry illustrates themes of emasculation in the aftermath of continued pillage and drums up support for the region’s nationalism, expressing the Niger Deltans’ frustrated yearnings for self-determination. Venturing beyond the usual boundaries of ecocriticism, Ogbowei’s poetry not only engages with the Niger Delta’s enduring poverty, ecological degradation and despair but also deploys resistance against the region’s continued subjugation, portraying Niger Deltans’ determination and struggle to live a fulfilled life in an ecologically-degraded environment. Taking eco-critical concerns as a point of departure, this paper interrogates the poetics of resistance in Ogbowei’s six collections: the heedless ballot box (2006), the town crier’s song (2009), the song of a dying river (2009), marsh boy and other poems (2013), let the honey run (2013) and matilda (2018). Ogbowei expresses feelings of anger and anxiety through linguistic deviations, collocational clashes, allusions, repetitions and pointed use of lexis, in service of an artistic commitment to resistance and protest. Ogbowei’s poetry collections thus provide a literary site where protest, resistance and revolt intersect, relaying the peculiarities of the Niger Delta. Through an analysis of selected poems in his oeuvre, we argue that Ogbowei’s work calls for eco-revival and the restoration of dignity to humanity in this troubled region.