PAPERBACK ISBN: 0-88258-129-5      $24.95

176 pages; 6 x 9 inches

by J.P. Clark-Bekederemo

Collected Poems, 1958–1988, with an introduction by African literature scholar Abiola Irele, gathers J. P. Clark-Bekederemo’s poetry from three previously published volumes: A Decade of Tongues: Selected Poems, 1958-1968; A Reed in the Tides; and Casualties. The works collected here emphasize somber themes, reflecting as they do on final departures, the passing away of individuals, ceremonies for the dead, and final resting places. The poet’s range extends from short lyrics to extended treatments of particular themes in State of the Union and Mandela and other poems, which address colonialism and the manifold tragedy wrought by the Nigerian Civil War upon the individual and the nation, and the liberation struggle in South Africa. Like Hamlet, asserting that “something is rotten in the state,” Clark-Bekederemo exclaims in State if the Union that “Nothing Works Here,” referring to his native land of Nigeria. That nation’s leaders, economy, civil service, and universi­ties—in short, all the factors that make Nigeria less than what it should be—come within the poet’s all-encompassing censure. Mandela and other poems focuses on the remaining struggle for the liberation of South Africa (“The Beast in the South”), the author’s concern that the liberation process is taking too long (“A Letter to Oliver Tambo...”), and the personal sacrifices of its leaders to this cause (“Mandela” and “The Death of Samora Machel”).  These assembled writings reveal why critic Robert M. Wren has called J. P. Clark-Bekederemo “a poet and playwright of the first rank in both originality and in expressive power.”

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