Poetry
Songs of the Marketplace
Niyi Osundare · 1983
Synopsis
Thirty-five pieces. The market serves as both setting and yardstick: one sees who sells, who buys and who has nothing to put on the stall. The poet counts the rich and the poor of the country, speaks of the administration that steals, and attends above all to those who grow the food without eating it. One of the pieces follows a politician's visit to the village, announced from afar by the siren of his escort.
Context
The volume came out in Ibadan from New Horn Press, slim, under an illustrated cover, in a series the house devoted to poets. A critic wrote its preface and saw two things in it at once: a poetry of revolution and a revolution of poetry, through its forms and techniques; he read in it as its great subject the dispossession of the masses, and more precisely of the producers of the countryside. The book contains thirty-five pieces and was reprinted the same year.
Who it is for
A slim volume in English, with no French version. The language is clear and meant to be spoken aloud. It is worth knowing that in Nigeria an official motorcade announces itself with police sirens.
Prizes and reception
The book immediately established its author's reputation as a voice of the poor, and all the studies devoted to his work begin with it.