KC Publications

If they detain the poet

Can they detain the poem

If they now bundle your flesh

In their bundle of lies

And throw your body behind bars

Can they detain the poem

Can they?

Then would words burst

Into splinters of fury

Alphabets angrily sizzling out

Through grating bars

To reassemble outside

Into more terrifying words

Then would woe betide the jailer!

Dagga them! Dagga them!

With tongue of Cosmos own sword

Dagga them! Dagga them!

With words that wound the Spirit

Dagga them! Dagga them!

With blade that cuts the psyche.

If they detain the poet

Can they detain the poem

This poem is your Spirit

Forever roaming unquenchable

Long after mortar flesh is gone

And dust returns to dust

This poem is eternity!

So if they now bundle your flesh

In their bundle of lies

And throw your body behind bars

Can they detain the poem

Can they?

Dagga - Dagga Tolar is a Lagos based poet and former chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Lagos state chapter, who was detained in 2010 for organizing a protest against police extra Judicial killings in Ajegunle, a popular ghetto in Lagos, Nigeria. The poem was written when he was still in detention.

Title: Why Are We So Dark?

Author: Dumbiri Frank Eboh

Reviewer: Raymond Emeke Mordi

Publisher: Kimekwu Communications Concept

No Of Pages: 450

The first impression you get after reading through Why Are We So Dark? a novel authored by Lagos-based writer, Dumbiri Frank Eboh, is that the major theme is that of corruption of the ruling elite class in a typical third world African country, with its various negative consequences on the ordinary, poor masses. However, a deeper look at the story would reveal the underlying theme of destiny, upon which other themes in the story are founded.

The story centers round two young lovers, Eric and Rose, who defiantly struggle against the disapproval and hostility of Obodo-Uku community which expects their budding relationship to be short-lived. In order to have the needed financial stability to sustain the relationship, Eric decides to join the NPF (National Police Force). But it turns out to be a decision that triggers off a chain of interlocking events as the young police officer soon falls a victim of the endemic corruption that has pervaded not just the NPF but the society at large. And just when light seems to be at the end of the tunnel for the young couple, the powers that be swoop down to scuttle all that once seemed so sure and so certain. Eric is set up with a cache of cocaine and while he is in jail, the cabal snatches Rose from him. Eric’s quest for vengeance takes the story to an unexpected, tragic climax.

So, on the surface, it would appear that the main thematic preoccupation of the novel is that of corruption in Africa and its adverse effects in the society. And so doggedly did the author pursue this theme that it jumps at you on almost every page of the book. Why Are We So Dark? is a soul-searching story of a bedeviled society. Its success lies in the ability of the writer to use simple love and relationships materials to tell the tragic story of a nation that continually devours its best just to satisfy the corrupt and selfish cravings of a select high and mighty.

But, as earlier stated, there is more to it than that. When Eric is still in the womb, a diviner predicts that he has a bright future but that the marine world will send their agent to truncate this destiny. And when later, he meets the very fair and charming Rose, with her strange prophetic powers of dream interpretation, and they fall In love, his mother – Nne Ejime – tries all she can to separate them. But all her efforts prove abortive as the young couple gets closer by the day. The die is finally cast when later Rose gets admitted into the Metropolitan University and catches the attention of the randy VC, Prof. Don Okuchi, who is not just a school administrator but the strong man of the corrupt cabal in power. From then on, the tragic climax of the story becomes inevitable.

So, what was really the cause of the tragedy in Why Are We So Dark? Was it Eric’s foray into the corrupt NPF or the fulfilment of the diviner’s prediction? While DSP Umaru Lafia, Eric’s colleague at the Mainland Police Station, believes it is the former, Nne Ejime believes it is the latter. In-between these two schools of thought is Uncle Sam, Eric’s maternal uncle and pastor of the Believers Church of God, who does not believe in predestination but thinks Rose is a satanic agent sent by the Devil to destroy his nephew’s bright future. But would all this have happened if Eric did not join an organization that was not just corrupt but also ready to sacrifice its own to appease the powers that be? Those are the questions that come up as you take another, deeper look at the issues the author is trying to bring to the front burner.

Thus, Why Are We So Dark? also raises the fundamental question: Is destiny a function of predestination or the outcome of the bargaining interplay of social interactions? Understandably, the book does not answer this question but rather leaves it to its readers to make up their minds. This it does by bringing all the loose ends to the fore without actually tying them together.

A major narrative technique deployed by the author is the juxtaposition of the first and third person narrations. Why Are We So Dark? does not come with the regular chapter format; it is presented in sections which are further divided into units. In all, there are six sections: Intermission, Gestation, Cause, Consequence, Consequences and Post Script.

The story starts slowly but gradually builds up into a captivating and suspense-filled momentum that drives the reader to the point where they find it difficult to drop the book. The characters are well defined and so real that they linger in the chambers of your memory long after you have come to the end of the story. Why Are We So Dark? is a story of corruption, love, betrayal and vengeance.

Dumbiri Frank Eboh is a Lagos based writer, journalist and blogger. A former publicity secretary, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos state, he is also the author of If The Sky Weeps, a collection of poems on the environment. In 2010, he was rendered blind by an advanced chronic glaucoma that punctuated his writing career by an interval of almost 10 years.

Culled from Independent Newspaper