Two Nigerian Poems

A considerable poetry has sprung up in the English press ofNigeria and elsewhere in West Africa. It often violates academiclaws. but, like so much in African culture, it is alive. Wegive two examples below, with acknowledgements to the NigerianSpokesman, from which they are taken. The first illustratesthe direct and concrete nature of the African mind, the second,his political emotion. Tony Enahoro is a young editor from Beninrecently sentenced to 9 months imprisonment for criminal libel,and the author belongs to a chief's family from the same town.Imoudu is the Nigerian labour leader. Wallace Johnson, the SierraLeone labour leader, was interned in Sherbro Island during thewar.