Gabriel Okara

Gabriel Imomotimi Okara (24 April 1921 – 25 March 2019)[1] was

a Nigerian poet[2] and novelist who was born in Bumoundi
in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The first Modernist poet
of Anglophone Africa, he is best known for his early experimental
novel, The Voice (1964), and his award-winning poetry, published in The
Fisherman's Invocation (1978)[3] and The Dreamer, His Vision (2005).[4] In
both his poems and his prose, Okara drew on African thought,
religion, folklore and imagery,[5] and he has been called "the
Nigerian Negritudist".[6] According to Brenda Marie Osbey, editor of
his Collected Poems, "It is with publication of Gabriel Okara's first poem
that Nigerian literature in English and modern African poetry in this
language can be said truly to have begun."[7]

Biography[edit]
Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara, the son of an Ijọ chief,[8] was born in
Bomoundi in the Niger Delta in 1921. He was educated at Government
College Umuahia, and later at Yaba Higher College. During World War II,
he attempted to enlist in the British Royal Air Force but did not complete
pilot training, instead he worked for a time for the British Overseas Airway
Corporation (later British Airways).[9]
In 1945 Okara found work as a printer and bookbinder for colonial Nigeria's
government-owned publishing company. He remained in that post for nine
years, during which he began to write. At first he translated poetry
from Ijaw into English and wrote scripts for government radio. He studied
journalism at Northwestern University in 1949, and before the outbreak of
the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70) worked as Information Officer for the
Eastern Nigerian Government Service.[8] Together with Chinua Achebe,
Okara was roving ambassador for Biafra's cause during part of 1969.
[10]
 From 1972 to 1980 he was director of the Rivers State Publishing House
in Port Harcourt.[5]

Writing[edit]
After leaving school Okara wrote plays and features for radio, and in 1953
his poem "The Call of the River Nun" won an award at the Nigerian Festival
of Arts. Some of his poetry was published in the literary magazine Black
Orpheus, and by 1960 he had won recognition as an accomplished literary
craftsman, his poetry being translated into several languages.[5] He
attended the landmark African Writers Conference held on 1 June 1962
at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, along with such
writers as Chinua Achebe, Rajat Neogy, Bloke Modisane, Okot
p'Bitek, Bernard Fonlon, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Segun Olusola, Grace
Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, Rebecca Njau, Wole Soyinka, John Pepper
Clark, Saunders Redding, Christopher Okigbo, Francis Ademola, Ezekiel
Mphahlele, Arthur Maimane, and others.[11]
One of Okara's most famous poems is "Piano and Drums". Another popular
poem, "You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed", is a frequent feature of
anthologies. Okara was very concerned with what happens when the
ancient culture of Africa is faced with modern Western culture, as in his
poem "Once Upon a Time".[12]
He pursued that theme in his first novel, The Voice (1964). Its protagonist
Okolo, like countless post-colonial Africans, is hunted by society and
haunted by his own ideals. Experimenting linguistically in The Voice, Okara
"translated directly from the Ijo (Ijaw) language, imposing Ijo syntax onto
English in order to give literal expression to African ideas and imagery. The
novel creates a symbolic landscape in which the forces of traditional
African culture and Western materialism contend.... Okara’s skilled
portrayal of the inner tensions of his hero distinguished him from many
other Nigerian novelists."[5]
In addition to his poetry and fiction, Okara also wrote plays and features for
broadcasting.[8]
Many of his unpublished manuscripts were destroyed during the Nigerian
Civil War.[9]
In April 2017, the Gabriel Okara Literary Festival was held at the University
of Port Harcourt in his honour.[13][14] The publication in May 2017 of the
book Gabriel Okra, edited by Professor Chidi T. Maduka, addressed
Okara's "place in African literature and the fact that he has not been given
his full due in African literature", which was partly attributable, said Lindsay
Barrett, to Okara (like himself) not having been "university-based",
while Odia Ofeimun acknowledged Okara as "not just the oldest writer but a
foundational producer of the literary arts in our part of the world."[15]

Awards and honours[edit]

 1953: Best All-Round Entry In Poetry at the Nigerian Festival of Arts,

for "The Call of the River Nun"[16]
 1979: Commonwealth Poetry Prize, for The Fisherman's Invocation[17]
 2005: NLNG Prize, for The Dreamer, His Vision[18]
 2009: Pan African Writers' Association Honorary Membership
Award[19][20]
 2017: Gabriel Okara Literary Festival[21]

Selected bibliography[edit]

 1964: The Voice (novel), London: Deutsch, first edition;

Heinemann African Writers Series (No. 68), 1970. Africana
Publishing, ISBN 0-8419-0015-9.
 1978: The Fisherman's Invocation (poems)
 1981: Little Snake and Little Frog (for children)
 1992: An Adventure to Juju Island (for children)
 2005: The Dreamer, His Vision (poems)
 2006: As I See It (poems)
 2016: Collected Poems (edited and with an introduction by Brenda
Marie Osbey), University of Nebraska Press, African Poetry Book
Series, ISBN 978-0-8032-8687-0.
 The Mystic Drum
 
 
The mystic drum in my inside
and fishes danced in the rivers
and men and women danced on land
to the rhythm of my drum
 
But standing behind a tree
with leaves around her waist
she only smiled with a shake of her head.
 
Still my drum contimued to beat,
rippling the air with quickened
tempo compelling the quick
and the dead to dance and sing
with their shadows -
 
But standing behind a tree
with leaves around her waist
she only smiled with a shake of her head.
 
Then the drum beat with the rhythm
of the things of the ground
and invoked the eye of the sky
the sun and the moon and the river gods -
and the trees bean to dance,
the fishes turned men
and men turned fishes
and things stopped to grow -
 
But standing behind a tree
with leaves around her waist
she only smiled with a shake of her head.
 
 And then the mystic drum
in my inside stopped to beat -
and men became men,
fishes became fishes
and trees, the sun and the moon
found their places, and the dead
went to the ground and things began to grow.
 
And behind the tree she stood
with roots sprouting from her
feet and leaves growing on her head
and smoke issuing from her nose
and her lips parted in her smile
turned cavity belching darkness.
 
Then, then I packed my mystic drum
and turned away; never to beat so loud any more.
 
 
 
 
             Gabriel Okara

 Poetry Analysis: Gabriel Okara’s “Mystic Drum”

The drum in African poetry, generally stands for the spiritual pulse of
traditional African life. The poet asserts that first, as the drum beat inside
him, fishes danced in the rivers and men and women danced on the land to
the rhythm of the drum. But standing behind the tree, there stood an
outsider who smiled with an air of indifference at the richness of their
culture. However, the drum still continued to beat rippling the air with
quickened tempo compelling the dead to dance and sing with their
shadows. The ancestral glory overpowers other considerations. So
powerful is the mystic drum, that it brings back even the dead alive. The
rhythm of the drum is the aching for an ideal Nigerian State of harmony.

The outsider still continued to smile at the culture from the distance. The
outsider stands for Western Imperialism that has looked down upon
anything Eastern, non-Western, alien and therefore, ‘incomprehensible for
their own good’ as ‘The Other’. The African culture is so much in tune with
nature that the mystic drum invokes the sun, the moon, the river gods and
the trees began to dance. The gap finally gets bridged between humanity
and nature, the animal world and human world, the hydrosphere and
lithosphere that fishes turned men, and men became fishes. But later as
the mystic drum stopped beating, men became men, and fishes became
fishes. Life now became dry, logical and mechanical thanks to Western
Scientific Imperialism and everything found its place. Leaves started
sprouting on the woman; she started to flourish on the land. Gradually her
roots struck the ground. Spreading a kind of parched rationalism, smoke
issued from her lips and her lips parted in smile. The term ’smoke’ is also
suggestive of the pollution caused by industrialization, and also the
clouding of morals.. Ultimately, the speaker was left in ‘belching darkness’,
completely cut off from the heart of his culture, and he packed off the
mystic drum not to beat loudly anymore. The ‘belching darkness” alludes to
the futility and hollowness of the imposed existence.

The outsider, at first, only has an objective role standing behind a tree.
Eventually, she intrudes and tries to weave their spiritual life. The ‘leaves
around her waist’ are very much suggestive of Eve who adorned the same
after losing her innocence. Leaves stop growing on the trees but only
sprout on her head signifying ‘deforestation.” The refrain reminds us again
and again, that this Eve turns out to be the eve of Nigerian damnation.
Okara mentions in one of his interviews that “The Mystic Drum” is
essentially a love poem:

“This was a lady I loved. And she coyly was not responding directly, but I
adored her. Her demeanor seemed to mask her true feelings; at a distance,
she seemed adoring, however, on coming closer, she was, after all, not
what she seemed.”

This lady may stand as an emblem that represents the lure of Western life;
how it seemed appealing at first but later came across as distasteful to the
poet.

The Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara

The Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara is one the best dance-songs, love-
songs ever composed by Okara symbolic of African art, motif, myth and
mysticism, landscape and scenery, countrified greenery and forested tracts
where the indigenous Nigerian communities live in, where the tribesmen
beat the rhythms in their space and free air. The Mystic Drum is but a song
of Nigeria, a dance song of Nigeria charming us to our core and we feel
swept away with its cadence of music and wording. But it has also the other
side which the poet has not told it, how fraught with.

The mystic drum, he refers to is the folklore drums sounding, beating

rhythmically and the people dancing to the tune of songs and dances and
romances, religious rites and practices in order to celebrate and to their
jubilation; the mystic drum, he talks of is the Nigerian folk myth and motif,
the African signs and symbols and he is putting his signature over as an
spectator of all. A spokesman of his tribe belongs to, he seeks to present
the rhythm of life as it pulsates in, as has seen it from his childhood and
has lived within its circuit as an insider feeling the warmth and vitality of it.
But instead of that one in course of time naturally gets split in between
sticking to the roots of nativity and the modern global culture to his
realization that to balance is perhaps the best one.
The mystic drum is inside him and he keeps hearing the beats of it, the
musical sounds doing the rounds, toning up the self. Hearing it, the fishes
danced into the river waters flowing, men danced on lands, animals too
danced, means to say that such is the impact of it and in mythology it
happens, as it appears to be. Tribal painting, clay baked terracotta plates,
folk dances and songs and folk things but take us to a different plane of
thinking and consciousness, to the country, the woods, hills, rivers and
rivers, a landscape, so natural and full of exotic flora and fauna.

But someone from the tree, lying behind it and with leaves around the waist
lies in watching and waiting. She admires it all with the shaking of the head
as a nod from her in admiration. And he keeps beating and beating the
drum, enchanting it all. The spirits of the dead turn they alive again and
seem to dancing with as the shadows in company with which but she
smiles to see it with a nod.

Beating the drum, the tune takes to the lowly, strikes the things of the
locale indicative of realities and the track changes it. Fishes turn into men
and men into fishes as a topsy-turvy picture, a swap in images, a
reshuffling. The eyes of the sky, moon and river gods are invoked, things
stop to grow and the music silences a bit, seem to be stopping. Even then
the same nod of approval is given by the stranger standing behind the tree.

The mystic drum stops to beat inside him and the fishes return to be fishes
and men to be men. The moon, sky and the river swing back to their
positions and the dead too vanish away to be in their positions and places.
Things start to grow it again.

But the woman remains it here behind the tree finding herself in a different
situation, roots appear to be sprouting from her feet, leaves growing on her
head and smoke issuing from her nose. What has happened to her? Why
are lips parted in smile turned cavity belching darkness? The lines are
mythical and mystical, full of motifs, symbols and images.

The mystic drum beating and Okara is hearing the music, the music of
Africa, the music of the country and the community, the indigenous people
of the world, the African diaspora and woods inhabited by exotic fauna and
diverse flora. They too must have a representation of own as art symbols.
His African music has really lured us, consoled the distraught soul. His
myth is the myth of Africa, the myth of Nigeria, human life and the world.
His motif is the motif of Africa, of Nigeria and the whole of mankind which
has its roots into nativity, locale, natural landscape and ancestral village
houses. On reading the poem, there grows a desire to see folk painting,
handicrafts, art symbols; a desire to hear the folk songs and dances and
the dancers and singers performing in their own folk attire and costumes.
The drum of Okara is not the drum of his, but the drum of Africa, the drum
of Nigeria and the tribesmen dancing and singing in hilarity and the music
overflowing the woods and the river-banks and the villages.

And behind the tree she stood

with roots sprouting from her
feet and leaves growing on her head
and smoke rising from her nose
and her lips parted in her smile
turned cavity belching darkness.

Then, then I packed my mystic drum

and turned away; never to beat so loud any more.

There are several things to know here. Who is the woman accompanying
him and hearing the music going for so long? Why is she not coming into
focus or the author bringing into light rather than keeping her in the
background, under the curtain, purdah and hearing the music, making her
stay erect by the tree as a myth, motif, symbol or a reader? If she had been
disinterested, she would not have been. Definitely, she was and this too for
how long? The other thing too is this that she is feeling fatigued.
The other from all these the woman may be a representation of Western
culture and the impact of
industrialization and urbanization and the cutting of greenery and the
depletion of exotic flora and fauna. The woman standing behind the tree
may be his love for a Western beauty; the story of her annoyance or
approval. Generally, the tribesmen like not to entertain the non-tribal guests
and strangers during their dance performances held in the hamlets or the
forest ranges. The other symbol may refer to Eve and her wrapping on with
leaves to hide her guilt. A Nigeria with depleting greenery, bereft of natural
scenery and forest landscapes may be also the other point of deliberation.
So many things are herein, the elements of song, dance, drama, love,
sympathy, attachment, rite, ritual, myth, motif, symbol, thought, idea,
reflection, faith, belief, system, society, art, culture, living, attire, costume,
scenery, landscape, village-life, race, ethnicity, indigenous custom,
sociology, anthropology, dark consciousness, nature mysticism, harmony,
magic, pantheism, urbanity and realism. There is something of his
nostalgia, something of innocence and also something of experience which
but instructs as well as corrupts it all too in the end.

The refrain, the repetition of the stanza adds different meanings in different
stages of the poem with the same nod:

But standing behind a tree

with leaves around her waist
she only smiled with a shake of her head.

It is a feature of tribal or indigenous dances that they like sticking the wild
blooms and the leaves. Whatever be that, the poem is really beautiful to
read. Music is as such alluring and alleviating and so is Okara under the
impact of it. Okara reveals it not who the girl is, a foreigner Western one
hinting towards colonial glitz and grandeur or a Nigeria bereft of natural
imagery, flora and fauna. There is some doubt with regard to it.

Analysis of the mystic drum

Mystic drum is a mystic poem. There remains many questions when it

ends.

The mystic drum is beating inside the poet and with rhythm of it dancing
fishes and men and women. Now poet sees one lady standing behind the
tree. She smiles at poet. The drum is still beating. It has power that dead
also begin dance and sing with their shadows. It invokes the eye of the sky,
sun, moon and river. The trees begun to dance, men turned into fishes and
fishes into men.
 But then mystic drum stops to beat. Men became men, fishes became
fishes. Sun, moon, and trees found their places and dead went under the
ground. Poet sees that whoever was standing behind the tree, roots are
sprouting from her feet and leaves are growing on her head. Smoke is
coming from here nose and her smile became dark. After that poet packs
his mystic drum and turned away and never play the drum aloud.

Here poem ends. So questions remain like what is the mystic drum? Is it a
real drum or poet's heartbeats? Who is she standing behind the tree and
why roots, leaves and smoke begin to come out of her? Readers read the
poem in different way. Some say that drum is symbol for tradition of Africa
which is lively. The lady standing behind the tree is outsider who intrude
into native culture. It spreads and destroys  lively culture. Another
interpretation can be given like drum is heartbeats of the poet. He falls in
love with the lady behind the tree and so surrounding seems magical. But
she was maybe actually a ghost. After that terrific incident poet's heart
never beat for love.

Mystic Drum Analysis

                            
                          The Mystic Drum is Okara’s love lyric. The Mystic Drum
evinces a tripartite ritual pattern of imitation from innocence through
intimacy to experience. By comparison to the way of zone as manifested in
the experience of Zen master, Chin Yuan Wei-Asian this pattern resolves
itself into an emotional and epistemic logical journey from conventional
knowledge through more intimate knowledge to learn of experience
empowers the lover to understand that beneath the surface attractiveness
of what we know very well may lie an abyss of the unknown and
unknowable belching darkness. But experience teaches us at this stage of
substantial knowledge not to expose ourselves to the dangers of being
beholden to this unknown and unknowable reality by keeping our passions
under strict control including the prudent decision to ‘pack’ the ‘Mystic
Drum’ of our innocence and evanescence making sure that it does not
‘beat so loud anymore’.
          Okara mentions in one of his interviews that “The Mystic Drum” is
essentially a have poem:
           “This was a lady I loved and she coyly was not responding directly
but, I adored her. Her demeanor seemed to mask her true feelings; at a
distance, she seemed adoring however on coming closer, she was after all,
not what she seemed.”
          This lady may stand as an emblem that represents the lure of
western life; how it seemed appealing at first but later seemed distasteful to
the poet.
The Mystic Drum and Lines:-
      “The mystic drum beat in my inside
          and fishes danced in the rivers
          and men and women danced on land
          to the rhythm of my drum”
  

                        “But standing behind a tree

                             with leaves around her waist
                       she only smiled with a shake of her head.”

          “The drum in African poems generally stands for the spiritual pulse of
traditional African life. The poet asserts that first as the drum beat inside
him fishes danced in the rivers and man and women danced on the land to
the rhythm of the drum. But standing behind the tree there stood an
outsider who smiled with an air of indifference at the richness of their
culture; however the drum still continued to beat rippling the air with
quickened tempo compelling the dead to dance and sing with their
shadows. The ancestral glory overpowers other considerations: so powerful
is the Mystic drum, that it brings back even the dead alive. The rhythm of
the drum is the aching for an ideal Nigerian state of harmony.
          The outsider is used in the poem for western imperialism that was
looked down upon anything Eastern, non-western, alien and therefore
incomprehensible for their own good as the other.
          The African culture is so much in tune with nature that the Mystic
drum invokes the sun, the moon, the river gods and the trees began to
dance. The gap finally gets bridged between humanity and nature, the
animal world and human world, the hydrosphere and lithosphere that fishes
turned men, and men became fishes. But later as the Mystic drum stopped
beating, men became men, and fishes became fishes. Life now became
dry, logical and mechanical thanks to western scientific imperialism and
everything found its place. Leaves started sprouting on the woman she
started to flourish on the land. Gradually her roots struck the ground.
Spreading a kind of parched rationalism smoke issued from her lips and
her lips parted in smile. The term ‘smoke’ is also suggestive of the pollution
caused by industrialization and also the clouding of morals ultimately the
speaker was left in belching darkness, completely cut off from the heart of
his culture and he packed the Mystic drum not to beat loudly anymore. The
‘belching darkness’ alludes to the futility and hollowness the imposed
existence. The outside at first only has an objective role standing behind a
tree. Eventually, she intrudes and tries to behave their spiritual life. The
leaves around her waist are very much suggestive of eve who adorned the
same after losing her innocence. Leaves stop growing on the trees but only
sprout on her head implying deforestation. The refrain reminds us again
and again that this Eve turns out to be the eve of Nigerian damnation.
-Rukhaya M.k.