Versifying History and National Trauma in Tanure Ojaide’s The Endless Song
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Description
The symbiotic relationship between literature and history is most visible in the writer’s deployment of his or her art to
document experiences of the past and their impacts on the feelings and well-being of his or her people in the periods
represented in the work(s). This article explores the historical content and significance of Tanure Ojaide’s The Endless Song
from a new historical perspective. Most studies on Ojaide’s poetry often focus on his critique of bad leadership and his
denunciation of exploitation and pillaging of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region with little attention paid to his poems as history in
verse form. This article therefore contributes to criticism on the interface between literature and history. This study further
highlights significant motifs in Nigeria’s history in the periods documented in The Endless Song and analyses the traumatic
impacts of the events on the well-being of Nigeria and her people. These are aimed at showing that Ojaide’s The Endless Song
is more than an outcry against the plundering of the Niger Delta region; it represents the spatiotemporal record of Nigeria’s
turbulent history.
Keywords
PE English, PN Literature (General)