Recent Nigerian Poetry in English: A Critical Survey

In general terms, Nigerian poetry in English before the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) was marked by an excessive preoccupation with private grief and emotions over and above societal tragedies and triumphs, undue eurocentrism, derivationism, obscurantism and private esotericism. This tendency may be attributed to, among other factors, the fact that until the Civil War, Nigeria had n© major public historical rallying point. The colonial struggles were waged by the various tribal kingdoms with little or no inter-ethnic co-operation; amalgamation was carried out by agents of an external force; the struggle for independence was neither violent nor concerted on a national scale; and independence itself was merely another gimmick for entrenching a few greedy members of the native élite.