Review of Late Beginning (Anthology)

 

Late Beginning is at first a striking title because of the contradiction between both words— how although gradually running out of time, it equally speaks of a commencement, of something new. But more than this, the works here delve deeper into further translation.

While the poems and stories are thematically similar, they are diffusing, declining to shrink into a definite space. From loss, childhood, breakup, friendship, and more— the writers point us towards experiences that are both touching and remarkable.

Agboola Abidemi Kaothar borrowing the title of the anthology draws us into her poem where a child, newly born, begins to make it exist almost instantaneously. We feel the mother’s pain. And as the baby “/falls at her feet/” and “/drowns in her blood/”, we too experience a kind of loss. But it is at this point that the poet, determined to heal from her pain, reminds the child that“/if you weren't born/I wouldn't have seen your smile/”. Similarly, Josh Pampam in Back To The Roots further offers us a tender, even straightforward way, to heal our perturbed psyche. However diverse we are, he assures us that“/This is for you/ who see a reflection of yourself in these lines/ and wish to be delivered/”.

In Daniel Akinyemi's poem, we see a child run back to his mother, only to find “/a world flushed into the darkness/”. This calls to mind human’s— indeed African's—growing desire to live elsewhere, adopt a different language or culture, or even to become someone else. But home is not always how we abandon it, and the child, now repentant, is bound to live out his life under a “/white knife/”. Favour Ogbor's story navigates us through the last structures of a crumbling relationship. We witness abandonment again, this time not of home, but of a person. The work, presenting us both as onlookers and story characters through the use of a Second-Person Point of View, is at once relatable and captivating.

Overcomer Ibiteye's PROVERBS is lyrical and didactic, drawing us smoothly into a chaos aggravated by regret. Like the theme of the anthology suggests, PROVERBS too yearns or a cleaner beginning; for a chance to “catch the clock by surprise and freeze time”. In Anamnesis, Gideon Emmanuel guides us into a despondent world where “/memory is a drunk driver/”. To remember is to be burdened, and so, to escape, we reel in pretension even as “/guilt visits the body/”. Olayioye Paul Bamidele's poem asks us to lie back comfortably and perceive life once again like children do. We observe a semblance between the child’s dream of seeing the moon and the popular Tantalus tale in Greek Mythology. Here, the moon as the child first sees it is both present and elusive.

Sands of time by Arayomi Samad Oluwatosin, in a rather fierce tone, attempts to pull us out of our shells in which we are most comfortable. The poem prophesies that “/a man’s dawn shall be his end”, except he learns the art of setting priorities. Chisom's Late beginning — coinciding with the first title in the anthology— is a timely narrative bordering on child abuse. Described with so much innocence, we may be tempted to overlook the retaliation however nefarious, and if anything, offer the culprit a chance for a new beginning.

All the works in this anthology exemplify the brilliance of emerging Nigerian writers. Individually, they have shown a mastery of form, style, grammar, depth, and understanding of themselves and their external environments. Collectively, what they have made is colossal. It is, therefore, a pleasure for me to invite you into this body of work. Come and witness what, as Kwame Dawes once proclaimed, is the first sound of what will be a remarkable noise in African Literature.

Chiwenite Onyekwelu

Writer and runner-up for the Foley Poetry Prize 2022