BIG Journal: Poetry

A few others (Mitch, Gabi) and myself presented works of poets originally from Nigeria. I gathered that in all of the presentations, styles and context changed regionally. I was able to draw some connections between landlocked countries and coastal countries. It is very important to discuss where a poet is from, giving us context. Just as one would first say that a Renaissance painter is from Italy rather than Sweden (or somewhere else in Europe), it is important to mention/give a setting and background for an poet.
As I touched on in the early slides of my presentation of Femi Fatoba, Nigeria (the country from which Fatoba came from):

• is on the west coast of Africa, bordered by the Niger River on the north.
• has a population of approximately 137, 253, 000 (7th largest population in the world).
• has capital: Abuja
• has these languages spoken: English (official), Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba and more.
• is run under a Federal Republic modeled after that of the United States'.

1.) What did you do well? Which areas of your presentation need improvement? What did you like and/or dislike about the poetry project assignment?

I think I speak well. I have always been a good public speaker as well as one to enjoy speaking/presenting. My presentation, being in form of a powerpoint presentation, really helped with organization. Things seem to be much easier to present/ flow better when they come slide after slide. I provided lots of background on Nigeria as well as on my poet, Femi Fatoba.
I included that Fatoba, though a very learned man, was also a man of many other arts. He was a well-renowned actor and painter as well as poet. I drew observations based on my readings; I concluded that his political stances and struggles are alluded to frequently in these selections. I informed the class that Fatoba is no longer alive due to an unfortunate automobile accident in 2008. He was also a professor.
I could have included more on my 'abstract/concrete idea' slides, although I found it somewhat difficult to formulate abstract ideas.
What I did deduce from my readings of Fatoba, was that perhaps he was psychologically troubled (he was never diagnosed), may have had a bad history with women, bad history with law/police/authorities and finally, he alludes to God/religion several times. In my research, I found that he was known to be a very pious individual.
In terms of concrete observations, Fatoba had lots of variance in the physical structuring of his poems. The structure of 'In America' (page 270), is representative of some of the verbs and nouns within the poem and is sort of shaped like a land form:

               In America

               In America
                  The highway runs too fast
                      For men to feel the ground underneath;
                         The mirage does not have time
                            To look like water:
                                And too many rainbows
                                   Strangle the clouds.



A majority of the poems have broken stanzas with little-to-no punctuation. I observed that along with the informal content came an informal formatting. There was also a lot of repetition in 'Hooker' of the phrase:

"The god of..." (271-272)

Overall, I really liked the poetry projects. Through the means of powerpoint or just speech presentations, the class was able to convey lots of information about a poet/country's history in just 8-10 minutes. I noticed that there were a few instances in which students dragged on a bit and some listeners zoned out, but for the most part, these presentations were enlightening and fun.

2.) Develop more fully the thesis you introduced in your presentation: Put into writing the ideas you articulated in speech. Explore your argument in more detail.

African Lit has taught me the importance of reading in context. Before making any assumptions/critiques, I feel that it is very important to know the background of a writer. This is why I included a lot of basic information about Nigeria and Femi Fatoba before even opening my poetry book. After actually reading Fatoba's pieces, I made some assumptions like (aforementioned):

• Fatoba was psychologically troubled perhaps?
• Content is eclectic/nonlinear.
• He most probably had some sort of bad history with women.
• Bad history with law/police/ authorities.
• Alludes to God/religion several times (in research, I found that he was a very pious man).

I noted that Fatoba probably had a wide perspective of the arts, seeing as he was a poet, actor and painter. He also seemed to know a fair amount about America. I learned that he visited several places in the United States including New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Chicago.
It is likely he had formed some sort of preconceptions before going on to write 'In America,' as it reads to me in a bit of a sour voice.

3.) Identify a similarity between the works you studied and the material presented by a classmate: Show originality and depth of thought. Establish a connection with material from a nation other than the one you studied. 

I think something that distinguishes Femi Fatoba from other poets is his ability to switch styles/structure in his writing. On the last slide of my powerpoint, I noted that it seems like some of the works seem like they could have been written by different poets. Contrast between different works of Fatoba have led me to believe that he is really a special artist. I did not really see too much of a contrast within the works of others presentations. Specifically, 'In America'  and 'Hooker' were written in contrasting styles in completely different voices (refer to 'In America' above).

Fatoba was quite different from most other authors: he did not face Apartheid, nor did he struggle a lot with entrance into Europe/Americas. BUT, similarly to my Femi Fatoba (other than Mitch's and Gabi's Nigerian poets), Austin's poet, Syl-Cheney Coker (Sierra Leone) and Julia's poet, Dennis Brutus (South Africa) are similar in that they studied and achieved higher educations. I think in retrospect, Fatoba's style and topics of poems were very different from others presented and this is one of the predominant reasons in my choosing him.