Who Are the Scoundrels?

Saints & Scoundrels (2018) is the debut collection of Ekaete George, who has had years of poetic engagement and honing of craft in poetic forums like NKA Literary Club and the Association of Nigerian Literature (ANA), Rivers State branch. The collection is divided into two sections: “Homeland” and “Girl Rising,” with captivating metaphors and imagery. As a female writer from the Niger Delta region, Ekaete’s focus is two-pronged – the Niger Delta environment as well the condition of women in the region. In the blurb on the back of the collection, environmentalist and writer Nnimmo Bassey notes that “whether writing about our despoiled environment or about social relations, Ekaete’s poems leave you deeply affected. There are no middle grounds here”. Bassey’s observation rings true from the arresting book cover to the powerful and evocative poems in the collection, which clarifies who the scoundrels are in the Niger Delta petroleumscape.

The first poem of the collection, “Ediye Obio Canaan”—which translates in English to the beautiful city of Canaan—pays homage to Calabar, also known as Canaan City, due to its rich biodiversity, cultural plurality, and serene and picturesque environment. George’s ode to Calabar is indicative of her glowing pride for the city and its people’s closeness to nature.

            Calabar! / Calabar!

            You call us all often (2)

            Your air is clean and crisp / Your eyes are soft and dreamy

            Your heart is uncluttered like the sky / Your hands are outstretched (5).

As a praise poem, repetition adds a lyrical effect to the reading while the use of personifications like “your hands’, “your heart,” and “your eyes” gives agency to the land and blurs the animate and inanimate divide. From the foregoing, Calabar is a city that is pristine and unpolluted, unlike other cities in the Niger Delta where “Gardens have disappeared / Paradise wasted” (7). Calabar’s tranquillity is juxtaposed with other cities in the Delta to decry the despoilment of the environment through destructive extraction practices.

            I wail / For the homeland

            My people are scalded / Their eyelids sagged

            Swollen and closed

            Smoke stealing their sight / While their lips are locked

            In a death kiss / With vampires

The lines above are but a vignette of George’s dedication to the Niger Delta region and its people who are entangled with oil multinationals, state power and petro-violence. In her poetic representation, the Niger Delta people, especially women, are wounded and suffering without assistance from those in power. Corrupt public officials, colluding natives and oil multinationals are not exempt from the poet’s criticism. From the foregoing, it becomes apparent that the vampires and scoundrels are those conniving to dispossess the Niger Deltans of their means of survival through destructive extraction, oil leak, pollution, gas flares, ecosystemic imbalance and various forms of violence.

In the section “Girl Rising”, George celebrates the strength and resilience of the woman and draws attention to the failure of society to protect the girl child and the woman in varying degrees, more so in a patriarchal society. In “Wings”, the speaker cries out,

            Leave my wings / Don’t pluck my feathers

            Just because I perched

            Leave my wings / Though you desire

            Feathers on your cap (44).

“Wings” is a plea against female oppression and patriarchal chains. Despite the impoverished condition of living in the Delta with pollution and food shortages, George writes with hope and faith that things will get better. This outlook is conveyed in the tone of some of the poems and the issues the author prioritizes. Although female writings on the Niger Delta are not as popular as male writings, Niger Delta women are actively engaged in criticizing environmental degradation, gender oppression, and violence and should not be dismissed. They have a voice, and their voice is loud and laudable.

Genre – Poetry
Author: Ekaete George
No of Pages: 105
Publisher: T&D Press, Nigeria