It is within the context of a poignant, profound and perhaps
arcane ritual imagination that we encounter John Pepper Clark in his literary
world as evidenced by the evocative power of his primal poetic and dramatic
compositions. Especially so are some of the early works such
as Song of a Goat through Ozidi,
the ‘middle’ The Boat, The Return Home, Full
Circle, Casualties and the later Remains of a Tide.
*JP Clark |
His only known work of prose the
semi-autobiographical and bitingly sarcastic America their
America, at once immediate in content and prophetic in thematic concern
exists outside this ontology of ritual and the mythic imagination. Almost to the letter (or depth) of contemporary effusions from Trumpian America,
this work captures the supercilious arrogance of white America and victims of
racial disharmony narrated after a personal encounter with the programmed
academy of American culture, capitalism and sociology which our young and
bristling JP had found condescending and utterly restrictive.
And he wasted no words in expressing his
thoughts on this sensitive matter even as a guest of that beautifully
captivating American world!
His appropriation of language in his literary
work highly symbolic and imagistic interrogates the water-world of riverine
communities whose precarious existence is often dictated by the uncertainties
and unpredictability of the tide and, of course, the obtrusive black gold which
came in 1958.
Here we encounter free verse forms presented
within the African, indeed Izon and Urhobo idioms and cadences.
If this appropriation serves the overriding
purpose of literature, it is because language of the local, different from the
global, is often a reflection of the natural dynamics of one’s social and
cultural environment.
For, long before it became fashionable to
frontline the environmental degradation that has become the Niger Delta, his
literary imagination had created a platform for apprehending the dilemma of the
beleaguered region. What, we may inquire, is our prognosis on the apparently simple poem ‘Night rain’ which teenagers
encountered in the West African School Certificate Examinations way back in the
1970s?
How then, we may ask, did the work, or has the
work of JP escaped the level of attention that he richly deserved both in
literary scholarship and public acclaim?
Can this be attributed to his near-legendary
avoidance of the media to project his person?
What are the ethical implications of
self-projection in the world of writers?
Are we commanded to leave blowing of the
trumpet to external forces over which we have no control?
To be sure the world of his literary work is
not exclusive of the modern or the contemporary.
The contemporary we can argue is projected at
two levels – the level of metaphor and the level of a physical and realistic
presentation.
While, for example, Ozidi is set in
a pristine environment its message and purview capture the world of
contemporary politicians, in terms of power grab, vendetta, corruption, treachery,
assassinations and fatal betrayals.
All for Oil moves in time and to the Nigerian State after the discovery of oil in
commercial quantity.
If JP has written for all time, for the
pristine past and the rambunctious society we currently live in, if his work is
an embodiment of genuine creativity and profound thinking, if he along with
Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe form the original triumvirate of Nigeria’s
literary pantheon of artistic deities, if the academy of creative writing has
swollen in size and depth through his literary oeuvre why has he escaped
universal critical attention?
It was against this background that the Department of English University ofLagos and Monmouth
University in the United States
decided to co-host an international conference to honour this reticent and
self-effacing genius son of the Delta in the second week of July 2018.
It was against this background that the Department of English University of
It is an irony that the seed for the
conference was sown by a Nigerian academic sojourning in Trump country, Dr. Oty
Agbajoh-Laoye, an academic who cut her teeth in the foremost university in Nigeria , the University of Ibadan .
Perhaps her long stay from the hustling
environment that is Nigeria
detached her enough to conceive of a conference to honour JP.
Fittingly, the keynote was delivered by a contemporary
of JP’s from the halcyon days of University College Ibadan, Nobel Laureate
Professor Wole Soyinka who indeed was very generous with his time and rigorous
intellect. His lecture OTHELLO’S LAMENT: The MIGRANT RUES The WAVES provided a
bridge between history and contemporary experiences by an excursion through
history and geography.
In full attendance were the majestic living
ancestors of English studies in Nigeria .
Where Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo, Professor
Wole Soyinka, Professor Dan Izevbaye, Professor Niyi Osundare, we can with
confidence say that the tribe of English studies is well represented.
Uncle Sam Amuka-Pemu, a profound man of
letters, publisher of Vanguard was in attendance as Special Guest. Professors
Femi Osofisan, G.G. Darah, and Biodun Jeyifo sent in their apologies on account
of previous commitments.
The new generation was represented by Tade
Ipadeola and the NLNG literature laureate for 2017, Oke Ikeugo.
The feast was ready and the objects of
sacrifice were in abundance.
But this dance and poetry was not for seven
days and nights in the famed plot of ritual celebration of completeness!
It was a two-day fiesta with activities of a
life-time crammed into 48
hours!
As we pay tribute to JP, now in his 80s, still upright and firm in his ways, we indeed honour our pantheon of creative writers who have placedNigeria on the
foremost rung of the international ladder in the world of literature. JP has remained self-effacing, writing still and cracking jokes about the
remains of the tide and old and sleep.
As we pay tribute to JP, now in his 80s, still upright and firm in his ways, we indeed honour our pantheon of creative writers who have placed
It is hoped that the papers presented at the
conference will place his artistic output once again on the radar of literary
studies both in Nigeria
and the rest of the world.
In the course of the conference the ‘whys and
wherefores’ of the failure of governments to name academic institutions after
these great men came up.
Whereas our nation quickly names institutions
after politicians, famed or notorious, not even the grandfather of prose
fiction in Africa , Chinua Achebe had the
honour of having a university or college of education named after him.
Sadly, it is a reflection of how not to treat
our literary icons whose contributions would certainly outlive the political
machinations of politicians.
This therefore is a fitting salute to and celebration of our own distinguished JP, of the famed Bekederemo family, Emeritus Professor of English, of the University of Lagos, the famed writer of Agbor Dancer, Ibadan, Night rain and of course The Ozidi Saga and many more.
This therefore is a fitting salute to and celebration of our own distinguished JP, of the famed Bekederemo family, Emeritus Professor of English, of the University of Lagos, the famed writer of Agbor Dancer, Ibadan, Night rain and of course The Ozidi Saga and many more.
May the final boat of his earthly voyage
remain in perpetual abeyance and may we be gifted a perpetual feast on the
literary fecundity of this poetic genius!
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