Youth, Poetry and the Nigerian Traumatic

In a nation like Nigeria that is not so far removed from constant distress and anguish, it is only reasonable that literature, especially from young writers, serves as the analytical medium of these experiences. 

The past generations of Nigerian poets expended colonialism, neocolonialism, exile, racism, and political corruption as some of the thematic preoccupations of their work. However, if the purpose of poetry is the emotional and rational understanding of the human condition, as the American critic, Yvor Winters, insists in Forms of Discovery, then our younger Nigerian poets’ concentration on trauma (both national and individual), our history of violence, and to some extent, spirituality, is simply inevitable.  

While many of the past literary preoccupations are still present in our current work, they are no longer as central to our recent literary concerns as trauma, spirituality, and criticism of our social and political conventions. Even though the latter themes receive condensed attention from our new poets, sometimes to the point of impulsive proliferation (much like the former themes in the hands of older poets), it is also true that the significance of the individual is often overshadowed by the collective experience. Hence, in select poems by younger Nigerian poets, these issues examining the Nigerian traumatic experiences find proper identification as well as representation through fresh perception...

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