THE NATURE OF MODERN AFRICAN POETRY

Abstract

It is poetry alone that has the consensus acceptance as being indigenous
to Africa. With the coming of the European and the introduction of writing, the
nomenclature of African poetry changed to modern African Poetry. This led to the
assumption that modern African poetry emerged with the arrival of the Whiteman and
writing culture. To this end, this study looks at the nature of modern African poetry
using the poetry of nine poets, three each from the Eastern, Central and Southern
Africa. The modern-ness of modern African poetry is look at; the impact of orality in
modern African poetry is also considered. Other things considered include: the
assumption of African poetry as a colonial African poetry; the impact of cultural
nationalism and the Negritude movement; the language question in modern African
poetry; and the issue of gender. The study concludes that the collective experience of
slavery and colonialism shaped the nature of modern African poetry. Also, the
contributive impact of the contact with Europe cannot be denied but that African poets
have long left the imitating stage and move to the stage of adept.