Revisiting the Soyinka-Bọ́lẹ̀kájà Debate

Since the landmark Soyinka-Bọ́lẹ̀kájà debate of the 1980s, African poetry has sparked intense discussions about authenticity and the influence of Western literary traditions and forms on its poets. 

In 2023, the Nigerian literary scene witnessed a fervent debate among poets and critics that brought to the forefront long-simmering tensions between tradition and innovation, identity and influence, and the very definition of what constituted Nigerian literature. That year, in December, Afrocritik published a collection of essays that reflected 2023’s remarkable output in essay writing and criticism. Among the 18 shortlisted essays, some focused on contemporary Nigerian poetry, questioning its authenticity and validity as Nigerian, while a few defended it. At the centre of this maelstrom was Ernest Ògúnyemí’s provocative essay, ‘Is Contemporary “Nigerian Poetry” Nigerian?’ which argued that the current crop of Nigerian poets had been overly seduced by the influences of American poetry, resulting in a homogenous and unoriginal ‘poetry-scape’. Ògúnyemí claimed that Nigerian poetry does not yet exist because today’s Nigerian poets are not working within a poetic tradition that can be characterized as Nigerian but one that is mainly American. This, among other criticisms, sparked a fiery response from Kanyinsola Olorunnisola whose responsive essay, ‘Our Literature Has Died Again: Nigerian Literature in the Era of Nomadists’, offered a piercing rebuttal, challenging Ògúnyemí’s essentialist view and arguing that the concept of ‘Nigerianness’ is rooted in colonialist fantasy and therefore cannot be used to define authenticity.  

This kind of debate on African poetry is not without precedent. In 1973, the troika of Ibekwe Chinweizu, Onwucheka Jemie, and Ihechukwu Madubuike wrote a powerful essay titled, ‘Prodigals, Come Home!’ which was later, in 1983, compiled as Towards the Decolonisation of African Literature, a book in which the self-acclaimed Bọ́lẹ̀kájà critics condemned the overwhelming recourse to Western literary models and forms by poets such as Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, and John Pepper Clark, and urged a return to African traditions. These critics aimed for an African poetry purified of colonial impressions and claimed that the poetry written by these poets at the time was ‘unAfrican’. In their opinion, African poetics need to be laid on the foundations of oral traditions.  

In 1975, Soyinka wrote a critical essay, ‘Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Tradition’, where, in response to the claims of the troika, he argued that African poetry goes beyond the myopic and simpleminded perspectives put forward by the Bọ́lẹ̀kájà critics. He argued that African poetry is not limited to easy-to-read verses, popular lyrics, and age-old praise and invocative songs. That traditional African poetry also exists in the arts of riddling, healing, mediums, divination, divine liturgies and cultic mysteries. He then urged the critic to have deeper knowledge of the dynamism of traditional poetry before questing for African poetics. This exchange set the stage for ongoing discussions about the nature and direction of African literature...

This essay features in our print issue, ‘The Enduring Voice of Wole Soyinka’ and is only available online to paying subscribers. To continue reading register for a free trial and get unlimited access to The Republic for a week!

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