'Live Burial' Poem By Sir Wole Soyinka : Metaphorical Reading
Introduction : This blog is written as a response to the Thematic Study of the poems from the African Literature. In this blog the central theme of the poem 'Live Burial' by Wole Soyinka is discussed.
The Poem : Live Burial :
The three guards namely, The Lizard, The Ghoul, and The Voyeur in the poem seems to a metaphor to Christian Trinity of God the Father, Son Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirits. With prcursoring reference of Galileo and his sentenced hanging by religiously dogmatic priests and popes of christianity hints at the hanging of truth by the falsehood, hanging of science by the religion, hanging of light by the darkness, and hanging of sage by the fools. The following three guards may symbolize the Christian Trinity as they had imprisoned the narrator having no fault but just protesting against injustice of Nigerian government.
The characters of doctors may have been metaphorized for the spurious bureaucrats who have turned sycophants to the autocratic ruling government of Nigeria. Their job is motivated by the wish and will of the ruling leader, but their true duty. They function in accordance with the commands of the authoritarian ruler, as they find no injuries in injured and tormented speaker of the poem, the surgeon does the fake identification of the speaker's good health that the speaker has still good image, how but being tormented into jail!?
The newly independent Nigeria in 1963 founds its newly formed government. The corruption by the "race of masters and soldiers" as Ania Loomba has also said started curbing the freedom of speech and action of the most African country and its people quite like the former British Masters upon which Soyinka has written a play 'Dance of the Forests' which was first performed on the occasion of the celebration of first Nigerian Independence in 1963. In order to wary the jingoist nationalist and extremist as well as burning youth of the country, Soyinka has penned writings dedicated to this noble cause.
Conclusion : The poem presents "Live Burial" not only of the imprisoned speaker but the freedom of speech and action of the entire Nigeria and other autocratic countries of Africa which extends to and pertains to every nook and corner of the world where democracy is sabotaged by the authoritarian kleptocracy which the poem 'Live Burial' by sir Wole Soyinka displayed in its course of story.
Live Burial
Sixteen paces
By twenty-three. They hold
Siege against humanity
And Truth
Employing time to drill through to his sanity
Schismatic
Lover of Antigone !
You will? You will unearth
Corpses of yester-
Year? Expose manure of present birth?
Seal him live
In that same necropolis.
May his ghost mistress
Point the classic
Route to Outsiders' Stygian Mysteries.
Bulletin:
He sleeps well, eats
Well. His doctors note
No damage
Our plastic surgeons tend his public image.
Confession
Fiction ? Is truth not essence
Of Art, and fiction Art?
Lest it rust
We kindly borrowed his poetic licence.
Galileo
We hoped he'd prove - age
Or genius may recant - our butchers
Tired of waiting
Ordered; take the scapegoat, drop the sage.
Guara'l The lizard:
Every minute scrapes
A concrete mixer throat.
The cola slime
Flies to blotch the walls in patterned grime
The ghoul:
Flushed from hanging, sniffles
Snuff, to clear his head of
Sins -- the law
Declared -- that morning's gallows load were dead of.
The voyeur:
Times his sly patrol
For the hour upon the throne
I think he thrills
To hear the Muse's constipated groan.
- Wole Soyinka
The Metaphorical Study :
1. Three Guards :
The three guards namely, The Lizard, The Ghoul, and The Voyeur in the poem seems to a metaphor to Christian Trinity of God the Father, Son Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirits. With prcursoring reference of Galileo and his sentenced hanging by religiously dogmatic priests and popes of christianity hints at the hanging of truth by the falsehood, hanging of science by the religion, hanging of light by the darkness, and hanging of sage by the fools. The following three guards may symbolize the Christian Trinity as they had imprisoned the narrator having no fault but just protesting against injustice of Nigerian government.
2. Doctors :
The characters of doctors may have been metaphorized for the spurious bureaucrats who have turned sycophants to the autocratic ruling government of Nigeria. Their job is motivated by the wish and will of the ruling leader, but their true duty. They function in accordance with the commands of the authoritarian ruler, as they find no injuries in injured and tormented speaker of the poem, the surgeon does the fake identification of the speaker's good health that the speaker has still good image, how but being tormented into jail!?
3. Government of Nigeria :
The newly independent Nigeria in 1963 founds its newly formed government. The corruption by the "race of masters and soldiers" as Ania Loomba has also said started curbing the freedom of speech and action of the most African country and its people quite like the former British Masters upon which Soyinka has written a play 'Dance of the Forests' which was first performed on the occasion of the celebration of first Nigerian Independence in 1963. In order to wary the jingoist nationalist and extremist as well as burning youth of the country, Soyinka has penned writings dedicated to this noble cause.
Here is one interesting and insightful video wherein the political dynamics of Nigeria is discussed by Professor Akin Oyebode :
Thank you!
Works Cited :
Sahara TV. (2022). Nigeria Is Not a Democracy But A Civilian Replacement of Military Dictatorship - Prof. Akin Oyebode. YouTube. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://youtu.be/n_mRuPElFjA.
Soyinka, W. (n.d.). Live Burial. Poems. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://wolesoyinka.tripod.com/id3.html
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