BOOKS
Mingled with spices, with the fragrant sounds of the
Rivers of the South and the Islands...
157
Senghor, is of course, of French culture, and, if this sounds a bit like
Louis Aragon and a bit like much diluted
Bateau Ivre,
one must
remember that French poetry does tend to sound hell in English
versions. The best African poet, Christopher Okigbo, killed fighting
for the Biafrans in the Nigerian Civil War seems
to
me very inade–
quatel y represented (never die for the losing side). On the other hand,
Dennis Brutus, who feels like the most intelligent, to me, of all living
African poets, is very well represented. The Nigerian Wole Soyinka,
primarily a playwright, does a good editorial job but represents
himself,
to
choose this wordy opening of "Purgatory" as a fair random
sample,
Wall of flagellation to the South
Strokes of justice slice a festive air–
It
is the day of reckoning
over-generously. But this is as rich and readable as most miscellaneous
anthologies and, politically and culturally, a necessary book.
G. S.FRASER
