For The Love Of Country And Memory: A Soft Colossal Torrent Of The Everyday Life Of A Nigerian
A Review of Michael Imossan’s “For The Love Of Country And Memory” by Iliya Kambai Dennis
The theme of grief has grown incessantly among poets, especially contemporary Nigerian poets. Most poets approach the topic of grief from the self, thereby writing more of confessional poetry. But not Michael Imossan.
In For The Love Of Country And Memory, Imossan, rather than take on a journey of revealing his personal grief, decides to remind us that by virtue of our Nigerianness, we are in fact, children of grief birthed into a country that has successfully daunted our dreams and has left us at the mercy of politricktians and bad governance— “the road to death passes through our country’s map” he writes.
“For The Love Of Country And Memory is important and timely because it elucidates the pain of being a Nigerian.”
The opening poem, “Arise TV” is an invitation to Imossan’s offering. And as you continue to journey through the collection, you’d agree with Samuel Adeyemi when he said the collection is a “memorabilia to remind us of what our country has taken from us, and what it continues to take… a recording, telling stories about the experiences of people, and in this case, a people exposed to a myriad of trauma.”
Often, we tend to forget the gory scenarios or narratives that have forged us into the tainted shards we have become—in a country where a “poet who said to not be called a poet because what glory lies in bending grief into rainbow or flowering our losses with metaphors grim as death?” A country where government owned media houses resort to hoarding the truth from the people; a country where every breath you inhale is a testament that you are God’s child sustained by His mercy. Or how else would you demystify why this minute you are flowering a beloved grave and the next, you’re on a journey that could mean the beginning of the end of another for you?
Being a victim of the gruesome genocide that is currently going on in Southern Kaduna, one which many of us are left to believe is a ritual of ethnic cleansing being sponsored by the very government we gave power and judicial precept, I couldn’t help but to agree with Imossan in the poem, “I Hear Moths Eat Tears For Dinner” where he said:
“the preacher said salvation is a thing with borders,
this means my brother is only my brother if he worships
god in my language. this is to say, the Muslim man is a
border i cannot cross. this is to say, there are roads in
the Christian man’s voice i mustn’t follow.
this is to say in this war of worship, i could be held
behind friendly lines.”
This is how pathetic we have become in a place we are supposed to call home. This is how our country has made brothers to turn against themselves because the sound of God has been altered by the alteration of our various mother tongues. And like Imossan, I’m tempted to ask, “what light is left for the living?”
For The Love Of Country And Memory is important and timely because it elucidates the pain of being a Nigerian. It is an archive we should hold dear to our hearts. Because aside from the nostalgia of grief and trauma scattered in between Immosan’s lines, he reminds us that our country is worth saving; that even though “you might step on a bomb while reading your country’s map, the argument over the worth of ethnicity over freedom, despite the littering bodies shut into everlasting darkness on our streets, we have a sense of duty to jump into the ocean to save it—our country drowning in a water of ruins.”
Another notable thing with Imossan’s collection is his dexterity in weaving words. It is said that a mother forgets the pains of labour when she feels the warmth of her newly born; on a personal note, it’s the same fate as a well written collection. When such a collection is published, the readers, overwhelmed by the beauty of language and aesthetics may not be able to fathom the rigorous stages of its writing process. Of which sometimes the poet forgets themselves in the body of the poems therein. But I applaud Imossan for this beauty. For this gift. For his philanthropic gesture of not denying us a taste of his writing.
Even though I feel the most interesting poems were held from the reader to the latter part of the collection, For The Love Of Country And Memory is a soft colossal torrent of the everyday life of a Nigerian.
RECOMMENDED: The Waterman as a Spectator — A review of Echezonachukwu Nduka’s ‘Waterman’ by Michael Imossan
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Iliya Kambai Dennis is a writer and poet from Kaduna State, Nigeria. His works have appeared on several online publication. He is inspired by beauty and ruins. He love movies, books and coffee.
