SOCIO-POLITICAL MOTIFS IN NIYI OSUNDARE’S THE EYE OF THE EARTH AND VILLAGE VOICES

CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION

Political sociology is the study of relations between state and society.

The discipline draws on comparative history to analyze socio-political trends. There are four main areas of research focus in contemporary political sociology: The socio-political formation of the modern state, who rules? How social inequality between groups (class, race, gender etc) influences politics. How public personalities, social movements and trends outside of the formal institutions of political power affect politics and power relationships within and between social groups.

What is motif? A motif in English literature is a recurrent image, idea or theme. An author may use an object, a color or an emotion as a motif to enhance the tory she is trying to tell. While people often may consider motif relics of antiquated writing, they are prevalent in books, as well as plays and poems. If something recurs in story, you can argue that if it is a motif. A motif may appear in literature as an image. This can include such images as animals, money, plants and sunlight. Writer can choose from a

range of possibilities. For instance, William Golding’s “Lord of the flies” features a Couch shell as a central image. A motif is not always fungible. It can also include such abstracts as emotions and ideas. For instance, a power struggle is an abstract motif.

However, this work is being embarked on through poetry which is one of the genres of literature. Poetry as a genre of literature is a creative and also a universal means of communicating the emotional, spiritual, social, political or intellectual concerns of mankind. Poetry also deals with the experience of a poet with special techniques such as meter, rhyme and verses stanzas. A poem is also a piece of writing in any form which manifest throughout and in its unity, the quality of poetry

A poet as social critic develops in one or two fundamentally opposed directions. He may see himself as an upholder or a civilized valve which lies in the future. As it is well known, a number of modern poets were strongly attracted to the kind of reactionary politic whose most extreme form is fascism. Others committed themselves in progress politics, socialism and Marxism. What they had in common was disaffection with the present, and

it was this that more than anything to define both the content and the formal consideration of what is usually thought of as modern poetry.

Niyi Osundare is one of the fecund poets that have written in Africa today. A Nigerian, of Yoruba extraction, his poetry is richly colored by common expressions of traditional life (like proverb and songs) which reflects the worldview of his people. Besides, his poetry is an accessible because in it he assumes the voice of the unlettered peasants and villagers who speak plain without feigning sophistication. His themes are many and varied they range from a preoccupation with the poor and downtrodden in the society to an engagement with African’s socio-political problems and a revolutionary vision that will bring about a new Africa. In all these, Osundare’s is not blind to his physical environment. In fact, most of Osundare’s poetry dwells on the impoverishment and decay of the rural communities. His fourth collection of poetry, The Eye of the Earth is entirely devoted to Mother-Earth and other forms of physical nation.

1. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This study examines the socio-political themes employed by Niyi

Osundare in Village Voices and the Eye of the Earth. Efforts shall be made to examine the ways he has portrayed this in these collection of poems especially through the class structure in the contemporary society. The aim however is to ensure that there is an egalitarian society i.e. bridging the gap between the haves and the have not in society.

1. JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

This study is being embarked upon, because we could see Niyi

Osundare as a poet who belongs to the new poetic revolution whose basic concern is the regeneration and reconstruction of the societal values. Therefore, this topic has been chosen to expose the societal ills portrayed by the poet. However, these texts Village Voices and The Eye of the Earth have been selected because they have socio-political issues raised in them. The author has been chosen because he falls under the categories of emergent writers who project the condition of the masses in African society. Also, he

is a writer whose pre-occupation is to negate the happenings in the growing

urban cities.

1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research shall be limited to the two collections of poems of Niyi

Osundare’s Village Voices and The Eye of the Earth which exemplify a kind of revolutionary protest. The feature of Marxist tenets shall be brought out in these two collections of poems.

1. METHODOLOGY

This work will be approached in line with Marxist theory. The

approach is relevant because it brings out the nature of the society. The Marxist theory will be used to discuss the data by passing the message to the oppressed in the society.

1. BIOGRAPHY OF NIYI OSUNDARE

Niyi Osundare, born 1947 at Ikere Ekiti in Ekiti State, had his

secondary education at school Amoye Grammar School, Ikere Ekiti and Christ’s School Ado-Ekiti. He later went to the University of Ibadan where he graduated with B.A. Honors Degree in English in 1972. He had is M.A.

from Leeds University, in 1947, and the PhD in 1979 from York University, Toronto. His published volume of poetry include Songs of the Market place (1983), Village voices (1984) and A Nib in the Pond(1986) and The Eye of the Earth(1986) “It’s the Harmattan” won the first prize in the 1968 Western State Festival of Arts and Culture.