Locomotifs and other Songs (Noirledge, 2018) is a collection of poems written by Tosin Gbogi, a professor of English, popular culture and African literatures and critical race and ethnic studies. The book is a collection of 49 poems spread into six sections.
In the 96-page collection, the poet, like a tourist guide, takes the reader through the intricate journey of appreciation of the lines well written and messages well delivered.
From the work, readers will quickly decipher that the poet is taking them on a journey that portrays what can best be described as a straying nation. In some of the poems, the poet persona paints a picture of Nigeria’s “nationlessness”. The perceptive reader will quickly observe the poet’s deployment of the word “nay-tion” to describe the nation portrayed in the work, Locomotifs and other Songs. It suggests a country where the people are disjointedly placed together, but pointedly disunited in their perception of their nation.
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In the poem, Third station (p18), the poet muses:
a naytion plants bitter leaves
waits for sweet potatoes
a naytion plants a full-blown buffoon
waits for signs magic and miracle from god
a naytion plants a full-blown comedian
says to him after the deluge: “bring back our girls”
a naytion plants sanatoriums
waits for sanity
a naytion plants ten tubers of lie
waits for two hundred tubers of truth…
The poet suggests here that the nation is indeed a collection of people who expect truth to be held in high esteem when the foundation is falsity; a nation of people who want to reap good governance where they have entrenched mediocrity.
In Locomotifs and other Songs, Tosin Gbogi laments the various ailments that assail the nation and the media-induced distractions which make the people to feast gleefully on the screaming, sensational headlines to the detriment of the welfare of the people. For the poet, we are more fascinated by the headlines than by the solutions.
In this poem titled A Song like mine (Pp31-33), the poet persona wonders aloud:
a song like mine
is sour serenade
steeled against the eloquent
stealing of a naytion’s fate
steeled against the fanfare of fraud
that is this naytion’s second name
a song like mine, tantrum-tainted, daring
a scourge
for the black christ who redeems
his own life with the blood of his faithful
the law-abandoning emperor who says:
i don’t work with law
it slows brother-man down
and breaks him into pieces
before he dares to dream again…
Those words indeed sting, but do they tell you anything about our land and its leaders? The poet essentially avers that things like that only happen in a land “whose conscience has been vaulted in swiss”. And this is also evident in the poem, awaiting pardon (Pp38-39):
… such rogues as the one
who jumped the london trial
deserve execution at tyburn
but – as is commonplace- the emperor of this land
decrees his absolution in the following terms:
“i hereby absolve you of your sins.
i owe nobody’s father any explanation
when i forgive criminals.
may all those who ask me rude questions
end up in hell!”
The poet persona, in those lines recalls the ghastly tragedy of a nation where criminals are canonised and critics are cremated.
In the work, Locomotifs and other Songs, Tosin Gbogi also decries the waste, want, and the destruction of the Niger Delta in the name of oil exploration, while the people who inhabit those places are left to lick their wounds. The poet persona laments the hopelessness of the poor inhabitants of settlements across the land, like Gbaramatu kingdom, Owonifari, Makoko and Badia.
The oppressors in this case are described by the poet as “amunisin” – slave masters. The work shows a preponderance of sound. Thus, the poet situates the work on the backdrop of his penchant for performance.
In this collection, Tosin pens lines of tributes and eulogies for some individuals like Tayo Olafioye, Nelson and Kofi Awoonor. In this work are also cased, songs of love and about love, and of love gone cold. This is precisely the sense in this poem, sometime love bees cold (p69) where the poet persona says “the kisses no longer feel the same/suddenly/they have gone too cold/for a winter night/and tonight:/the mystery speaks of/two strangers kissing/and living together.”
In this work, the poet appeals to our sense of community, rather than individuality, and with the eclectic disposition deployed in the book, the poet has demonstrated that he is a vastly travelled poet, one who has had encounters with the masters of the art, dead and living.
Ultimately, the work is a montage of various themes, including love, nationhood, travels, politics, religion, and colonial legacies. The poet’s strong sense of imagery and humour make him really accessible and his message relatable in this work.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan, and he can be reached via molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com and on X @miketunbosun.
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