25 Taban Lo Liyong

Dr. Parimala Kulkarni

Content

1. Objectives
2. Introduction
3. About the author
4. Works
5. Themes and concerns
6. Poems
7. Critical reception
8. Summary

Objectives

• Taban Lo Liyong, South Sudanese/Ugandan poet
• His works, style, and themes
• Two poems from each of his collections: Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs and Another Nigger Dead
• Critical reception

Introduction

Taban Lo Liyong, poet, critic, novelist, short story writer, essayist and playwright, is one of Africa’s most prolific and versatile writers. Seen as eccentric, and known for his non- conformist views and style, he is called East Africa’s enfant terrible. His iconoclastic ideas and unconventional modes of expression baffle literary critics who find it difficult to assess his work. Receiving equal praise and criticism, his work is considered highly controversial. However, both his supporters and his detractors, agree about his originality of thought and writing. Among his contemporaries, Liyong is probably the only other Ugandan poet whose fame rivalled that of Okot p’Bitek.

About the Author Taban Lo Liyong (1938)

Born of Ugandan parents in South Sudan, Liyong grew up speaking both Acholi and his mother tongue, Kuku. Educated in northern Uganda, he was a student of the famous Ugandan poet, Okot pBitek. Liyong joined the famous International Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa where he became the first African to graduate in 1968 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing.

Prevented from returning to Uganda by the totalitarian regimes, Liyong joined the University of Nairobi, Kenya where he worked with Ngugi wa Thiongo, Okot pBitek and Henry Owuor Anyumba. He was the first university teacher in East Africa to offer a course in African oral literature. He took the initiative to replace the English curriculum with one centred on African literatures. Together with Ngugi and Anyumba, Liyong successfully argued for the abolition of the English Department. The memo that the three wrote on 24 October 1968 calling for the abolition of the English Department and replacing it with an Africa-centred curriculum is considered a watershed document in postcolonial theory and criticism.

Works

Liyong has a substantial body of work—essays, poems, novels and plays, known for their thematic and stylistic eclecticism. Simon Gikandi (2007: 99) approaches Liyong’s work according to the key periods in which it emerged: the late 1960s, early 1970s and the 1990s. In first phase, Liyong strongly defended the African interests and character against the Western prejudices even while radically deconstructing the prevalent ideologies of Africanism. In Fixions (1969) and Eating Chiefs (1971) Liyong defends African cultures, traditions and oral literatures. But in essays from the same period, The Last Word (1969), The Uniformed Man (1971) and Meditations in Limbo (1970), Liyong satirises the claims of African literary canon and cultural nationalism. In The Last Word, he dismisses East Africa as a “literary desert”, declaring an absence of literary tradition in East Africa. He proclaims that African Americans are not Africans. A similar pattern emerges in his poetry collections. The poems in Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs (1971) are an intentional misreading of the Western canonical writers to make space for Africans’ voice whereas Ballads of Underdevelopment (1976) undermines the poetic basis of an African tradition. In 1990s, the second phase, though the satirical strain is present, a lyrical note is heard in dealing with the problems of Africa and the postcolonial crisis in works like Words That Melt a Mountain (1996) and Carrying Knowledge up a Palm Tree (1997).

Often aphoristic, his poetry has been described as modernist, existentialist, absurdist and avant-garde while inspired by the African oral narrative cultures. Liyong’s poetry is highly individualistic, written in a stream of conscious mode and known for the clever content, and mocking tone. Echoes of other writers reverberate in his work and demonstrate his debt to other writers and his ability as an experimental poet to borrow and adapt.

His plays seem not to have been written for the stage. The play Showhat and Sowhat (2007)  satirises  pomposity,  consumerism  and  sloganeering  among  wealthy  Africans. His other play, The Colour of Hope (2010), a closet drama, explores politics, conflicts between generations and women’s rights in Africa.

 Themes and style

Liyong’s prolific writing is immensely influenced by traditional stories. His poems deal with a wide range of cultural, political and social issues, containing a diverse range of themes and writing styles that reveal an iconoclastic disposition, combining several modernist and indigenous features. Liyong’s poetry is distinctively individualistic demonstrating a consistent defiance and persistent non-conformism to the customary norms of crafting poetry. Liyong’s work defies categorisation of any kind but is praised for its cultural synthesism.

For Liyong, uncritical love of Africa and of Africans is not acceptable, because “self- criticism and search” are essential for human progress. Liyong’s attack on the sacred cows of African society and culture, including religion and negritude, has made him the most controversial of East African writers. He is highly critical of Christianity, but his criticism unlike that of Ngugi wa Thiongo who views it as a collaboration of colonial powers and missionary societies, is more a scepticism towards religion in general.

Liyong also attacked negritude which considered the blackness of the African as unique and a matter of pride. Liyong believes, negritude has served its purpose and the African intellectuals need to focus on the positive and constructive role of Africans, first in Africa and second as members of a universal international community.

Poems

Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs: With Poems, More and More (1971)

Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs, in an angry and rebellious tone, voices the poet’s rage that Independence had not resulted in significant political progress and artistic growth. Revolutionary figures like Marx, Fanon and Prometheus frequently appear. Liyong calls for revolution, more unambiguously and forcefully than any contemporary East African writer. Many poems contain a revolutionary zeal and satirise those who wish to capitalise on social inequities. Liyong’s first book of poems is a subversive work with a deliberate misreading of the Western history and its canon in an effort to create space for the African voice and perspective.

‘The Best Poets’ One of the quests in his first collection is to find an appropriate form for his poetic art. He says in ‘The Best Poets’:

Ask not reader if this be poetry or not because it isn’t.

Aristotlean definition of poetry is not acceptable:

Poetry a ccor ding  to Aris to tle is imitation of what? ask Ari sto tle

He who talks should talk and not i mi tate.

Liyong dismisses poetry as “thoughts arranged/ in inhuman ways” and nobody speaks poetry. So he declares “I would be dead/before/poetry rule-full I learn” (38). But prose is too long and time-consuming. Liyong discovers that his “grand folks” were not eloquent in either prose or poetry, however

Spoke they story-tell they in words. Words all full of emotion and feeling and wisdom and rhythm rhy thm thm thm thm boom boom boom.

The visual and the aural effect echoing the drum beats created by the above lines demonstrate the poet’s search for a poetic idiom reflecting the oral traditions of his “grand folks”. The poet says he would offer something similar, made of single thoughts, which looks like poetry but is not:

call it

what you may.

He tells readers to pick up Dante or Milton or Shakespeare or Homer if they wish to delve into “human antiquity”. He distances himself from the European/Aristotlean tradition moving closer to the African tradition, However he does not shut out all non-African influences. He identifies himself with Carlos William Carlos, e e cummings, Ezra Pound who have “ears for sounds” and eyes for “shape of poetry” and its they write marv’lously modernly like me.

The search for an appropriate form recurs in his work. Adrian Roscoe observes that Liyong is a “thinker, a controversialist, an agent provocateur, an essayist rather than a poet in the conventional sense” in whom the ‘burden is on argument more than wordplay’.

Student’s Lament

“Student’s Lament” is an example of the expectations and optimism of Liyong’s early pieces. This long work expresses a student’s thoughts about independent Africa and several problems associated with the post-colonial progress or lack of it. A sense of impatience and doubt regarding the pace and progress of the eagerly awaited change pervades the poem.

The poem begins on a joyful note, recollecting the pre-independent days when fathers sent their children to the mission schools. They deserved praise for allowing the first generation of young Africans to discover the outside world with an imperative to Learn all you can For the benefit of the tribe.

The politicians who rule now are people whose training ended at Primary Four and with their poor knowledge it is they who make cultural decisions. These men have ‘per- verted’ Capitalism, ‘placated’ Communism, and called the result ‘Socialism and African’. Borrowing is not bad but it should be done sensibly.

Further, he argues that those who point out the flaws need not be enemies or members of opposition. Emphasising the role of opposition in order to see the mistakes made, Liyong makes a Miltonic appeal:

But

They also serve the nation

Who serve in opposition.

… …

A saying No with reason

Is far from treason.

At this juncture, he finds it curious that the progressive values of his father’s generation that aided the independence have lost all validity. It is ironic and tragic that progress should stop after independence. Liyong ridicules Negritude:

Strange mules called Negritude And  African Personality Overran the terrain And kicked wisdom down Or above our heads.

He parodies the humane claims of Negritude. He argues that Africa has too much virtue which resulted in its submission to imperialism:

Our humanism is good

Our hospitality is good

Our unsophistication is good

Our sweat is good

Because with these

Worldly empires have stood

Africa must now be as alert, mean, fore-armed and aggressive as  the  rest,  because the world, unfortunately does not live by the values old Africa. The remedy is obvious. Africa has been too long on the defensive, it is time to move to the offensive:

To fight well the devil

Get thoroughly steeped

In the devil’s own ways.

But it is important to know one’s own position:

The beginning of wisdom

Is the realisation of weakness

The growth of wisdom

Is the search for true causes and effects

The message for students is to resist isolation from the rest of the  world. They need to progress but are prevented too often by ‘Toothless heroes’. The new elite are not intellectuals but men trapped in a treacherous conservatism:

Once we were barred

Now we ourselves bar.

The poet persona however cautions that new thinking should take the right direction, because what Africa desperately needs is fresh guiding principles emerging from right beliefs and values. Political philosophy founded purely on tradition and tribal gods is hollow. A modernism entirely based on the law of the market and unchecked capitalism is even worse. An ‘achievable Marxism’ is what is desirable.

Meanwhile, students need to be isolated from politicians:

Estrange the students

From the politicians

Or else they’re condemned

To mediocrity 

because productive and rewarding ideas cannot emerge if genius is held “in leash”.

Politicians and sociologists who do not question the existing structures and are interested in maintaining the social status quo do not find a place in the Tabanic vision. Instead he exhorts the writers to speak up for humanity,

And not remain

The eunuch scholar

and inspire people to work in the right direction. On the other hand, he emphasizes that empty intellectualism “leads to the heart of darkness”. The writer cannot exist outside society and has to talk from within arguing for betterment but all the while remembering to “stick fast to the umbilical cord” (136) and understand that

He who soars highest

Who’s deeply rooted.

While urging the writer to be rooted in tradition, Liyong questions the wisdom of retaining traditions that are no longer relevant to contemporary times just to

He believes that tradition which is a social creation can be discontinued for exactly the same reasons it came into practice i.e. to satisfy social needs. It is prudent to accept that many of Africa’s traditions have failed, let go of the past and make a fresh start:

Shed no tears

For vanishing exotica. (139)

The    younger    generation     is    provoked    to   think    vigorously     and    question    blind conservatism. Liyong’s student figure, greatly distressed with the direction and speed of the progress, asks in disgust:

Is this the reward,

Assigned for us

We who sprained our shoulders,

Who broke our backs

Shall we not be paid …

Not even get a beer

To restore our voices

So cracked with shouting ‘Uhuru’

Beyond natural pitch

Or endurance?

The poem concludes with a prose passage on a note of mocking despair: “(I thought we were supposed to be preparing ways; raising the ceiling higher for unhampered operations; and building large bases from which great monuments would stand.)”

One noteworthy feature of the poem that demands attention is that regardless of the fundamentally satirical thrust of the lament, Liyong’s student figure positively suggests a way out of the post-Uhuru predicament. The “routing of rulers” only to substitute others on their thrones “shows an effort vain/And blood shed for sport.” What is the use, he demands to know, if one elite group is replaced by another? He calls for a society where the energy of the masses, channelled to a collective purpose and directed by a leadership that cares for the collective, will be used for the common good.

The seemingly innocent questioning is transformed by Liyong’s use of tone and rhythm, into a poetry of satire. Much of the poem is in the form of sarcastically-directed questions. The dual point of view – outraged innocence superimposed by an unmistakable scepticism – takes on mock-heroic proportions.

Another Nigger Dead (1972)

Liyong’s Another Nigger Dead arouses a sense of bewilderment in the reader with its many curious features. Defying graphological conventions, the complete text is printed in lower case without punctuation. Almost every stanza is listed as a separate poem. The majority of the poems are very short pieces, each between two and six lines long, printed three to a page unfolding different sides of the writer. By rejecting the graphological rules he seems to suggest that his poems be seen as primarily spoken keeping close to the African oral tradition reflecting his ideas in the earlier collection that his grand folks who were not eloquent in either prose or poetry but were experts in storytelling.

What distinguishes this collection from the earlier one is the distinct change in the tone of the poems. There is a sense of puzzlement and unsolved mystery about the vast domains of human experience. A note of personal growth and quest informs the work suggesting a subtle shift from public and social concerns. Amidst all encompassing gloom, there seems to be a cautious determination to make a new beginning and to recover from past mistakes to move towards a better present and future.

bless the african coups

Unlike his earlier collection, Another Nigger Dead offers some hope. In Another Nigger Dead, perhaps as the title of the book suggests, tragedy is a key word. The Ugandan bloodbaths, memories of the Biafran war, the massacres in Rwanda-Barundi, and never- ending coups form the background for the book’s opening poem, “bless the african coups” and presents the tragic message of Africa’s failed present. In this poem, Liyong seems to be suggesting, like his fellow African Wole Soyinka, that perhaps tragedy is what is needed for a new beginning. A bitterly ironic vision pervades the poem which in a tone of sarcastic scorn explores the conventional notions of progress, tragedy and comedy. The poet ironically suggests that the coups have contributed to our understanding of tragedy:

bless the african coups

tragedy now means a thing to us (1)

Thanks to the coups, African tragedy can be defined:

when your child dies tragedy it is

tragedy is that which crushes your best hopes (1)

Tragedy is a great teacher, and has taught him that

the tragedy is that

which alters a peoples whole concept of good and evil (2)

He has learnt that the tragic has many faces and the grim catalogue continues:

it is tragedy

when you question goodness in the world

it is tragedy

when you are turned into a beast for other men to hunt

…

it is tragedy

when your friends are out to hang you

it is tragedy

when your brother betrays you for fun or fund (3)

Tragedy alleviates vanity and pride because tragedy

teaches us that we are not the lords of this world

… … …

makes us know our place in this world

… … …

teaches us final humility

and

elevates us to grander levels (3-4)

However the problems do not appear to be unrelenting and there is hope of salvation:

weep not child

human mind has a way out

weep not mother

other ways shall still be found (5)

And further he urges

indomitable farmers

cultivate another garden

for man must eat

if you cant drink milk

cant orange fruits do (5)

Yet, tragedy can only coexist with hope:

for the human mind yearns for greatness

even if man perishes on the way (6)

Despite the fact that the poem “bless the African coups” satirically draws attention to the lack of distinction between white colonial oppression and black totalitarian rule, it also maintains hope for the revitalisation of African culture and optimism for humanity.

“the filed man laughed and said”

“the filed man laughed and said”, Liyong’s strikingly idiosyncratic poem, presents an imaginary press meet, or a ministerial briefing, with “the filed man” (who thinks government means changing slogans into rules and laws) lecturing on socio-political matters, issues diktats while his “functionary” (the party bureaucrat) automatically pronounces “done” to each of the simplistic statements. The poem begins, the filed man laughed and said:

nationalization is the answer

a reporter jested

what is the question

the filed man laughed and said

neocolonialism is the problem ….

And a boy innocently asks

whence comes neo-colonialism (8)

to which the filed man laughs and unhesitatingly replies “from the west of course”. A cynic declares that “westerners from the east are friends in deed” and again the filed man laughs and says “from the east friendship only flows.” The poem is a commentary on the all- powerful politicians and their easy ways to fool audience. Liyong’s cutting satire targets the simple dichotomies between “west” and “east”, “friends” and “enemies”.

The poet attacks the simplistic notion that nationalisation is the solution to every problem:

the filed man laughed again and said

nationalize all industries for they came from the west

a functionary reported done (8)

The list continues, nationalize all houses, thoughts and all possessions for everything came from the west till at last and finally the filed man laughs gives a call to nationalise even that which has not been nationalised for it also comes from the west

And the functionary’s declaration that

we have at last nationalized POVERTY (9)

brings to climax the implicit anger and rage.

At this point, the poem moves towards a summation of the social and political attitudes that have been presented. The poem enforces the link between decision-making and the political structures that sustain the activities of Africa’s filed men. Liyong’s leader-figure predictably laughs “the last laugh” that

we can triumph over all our

difficulties when you follow

your leaders

nothing will go wrong (9)

and then, with the poet’s heavy ironic voice, comes the self-congratulatory remark that emphasises the one-party rule:

our present success shows what can be achieved

with a little effort

with the right leadership

the one leadership (9)

The poem’s witty style infiltrates into the seriousness of the socio-political concerns without diminishing the satirical impact. Unlike his poem “Student’s Lament”, this one does not avow any definite alternative way of leadership. Indeed, the idea pervades the poem is that there are no simple dichotomies, no either/ ors, no simple solutions and no easy ways forward.

Critical acclaim

Liyong’s work has received both acclaim and censure from critics. On the one hand he is  seen as Africa’s literary icon, on the other he is considered the black sheep among African writers. Some critics complain that his poetry is more cerebral than emotive while others accuse his writing of echoing bourgeois or even racist criticism, propaganda and Indo- Western decadence. The harsh criticism does not ruffle him and his response is typically Tabanic: “I have just continued doing my own thing. I have never read whatever other writers and critics have said. For one simple reason — knowing them and knowing their limitations, their intellectual limitations — I am likely to be infuriated. And then, secondly, I think I explore a wider field than most of them, not just of Africans but of other people, so I feel few of them can do me justice. So I am ready to go through life like Cassandra. Cassandra in one of the Greek myths is a prophetess, but she’s doomed not to be respected, not to be believed. When she tells the truth nobody takes action. So I’ve accepted it.” Liyong’s achievement  may be summed up in Roscoe’s words: “What emerges from behind the masks, and from writing that runs simultaneously in a dozen different directions, is a mind of Olympian independence, which refuses to be reduced to a formula” (116). Perhaps his own lines prove useful to capture the essence of his work:

I have strived to say the things that are new

But the things that are new take long to understand. (1971: 22)

Summary

• Taban Lo Liyong is a South Sudanese/Ugandan poet, essayist, novelist, playwright and critic.
• His style is highly satirical and his themes deal with many socio-cultural and political issues in Africa.
• His works emphasise and demonstrate a cultural synthesis, combining several features of the traditional African oral narratives with modernist stream of conscious techniques.
• His two poetry collections, Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs and Another Nigger Dead deal with issues like the initial optimism and revolutionary zeal giving way to cynicism, disappointment and rage in the post-independence African nations.
• Liyong’s works have received praise and criticism. He is considered Africa’s literary icon.

References

• Gikandi, Simon, Evan Mwangi. The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. Web.
• Liyong, Taban lo. Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs: With Poems More and More. London: Heinemann, 1971. Print.
• —. Another Nigger Dead. London: Heinemann, 1972. Print.
• Oyomoyela, Oyekan, ed. A History of Twentieth Century African Literatures. University Nebraska Press, 1993. Web.
• Roscoe, Adrian. Uhuru’s Fire: African Literature East to South. Cambridge: CUP, 1977. Print.