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Interrogating the Poetics of Politics in Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's 

Chants of Despair and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation 

Python Dance

Udeh, Bryan Jachukwuike 
Department of English,

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University
bryanudeh9@gmail.com

Abstract
In every literate society, poetry has always stood as a medium for 
buttressing the social, economic and political conditions of a 
community of people. Poetry has always endeavored to address 
issues concerning human conditions such as poverty, bad 
governance, marginalization, political disenchantment, ethnic 
struggles, illiteracy, ignorance, injustice, and lack of basic 
amenities. Nigerian poets over the years, have always drawn their 
themes and milieu from societal issues, political and situational 
changes in the country. This research studies the boundaries of 
poetry and politics against the backdrop of national discourse and 
particularly examines Chuma- Udeh Ngozi's Chants of Despair 
and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation Python Dance. This paper 
further investigates and portrays the extent to which poetry has 
endeavored to discuss, address and confront political problems 
and societal changes as exhibited in these works under study. The 
theoretical framework employed in the research is the 
sociological approach. This study concludes that in aligning 
poetry with politics, issues pervading nations are given a literary 
identity and in confronting the political situations and 
disenchantments that have belabored the average Nigerian 
character, the peoples' dilemma is brought to limelight and 
probable solutions, proffered. 
Key words: Politics, Poetry, literature, and Political 
Disenchantment.  

Introduction
th

 In the early 16  century, literary writings aroused as a 
result of man's effort to document the activities and happenings in 
his environment. Throughout the annals of history, literary 
writings especially poetry have always endeavored to address 
societal issues and human conditions in any given contemporary 
society. Creative writings and literary criticisms are usually 
propelled by a number of themes and motifs. However, such 
motifs could aim at protest against oppression, ethnic struggles, 
bad governance, poverty, political emancipation and 
disenchantment. The type of literary writings found in Africa, 
especially in Nigeria can be termed as a literature of protest and 
commitment, simply because it tends to confront socio-political 
problems in any given African society.   However, this paper 
presents poetry as a potent tool for social criticism and proper 
political re-direction as it relates to the multiplicity of societal 
issues that are predominant in the Nigerian society. Nnolim 
Charles is of the opinion that every generation of writers, have 
always written with burning desires to address the societal issues 
in their society (5). This implies that writers especially poets in 
Nigeria have been pushed to address these societal issues through 
their writings. Ifejirika Echezona speaks of poetry thus:

 Poetry involves a profound expression of one's feeling, 
thoughts, emotions, attitudes, perceptions, ideas, 
philosophies and mood about almost everything which 
attracts one's attention and makes an impression, 
negative or positive one. These phenomenon on which 
poetry could be written include the universe and its  
contents, man and his environment,  God and all his 
creations… politics, economy, religion, culture, 
family. Poets are the most sensitive of other literary 
writers and their sensitivity is often expressed in the 
most figurative, economical, emotive, and connotative 
more than novelists and playwrights. (1) 

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024
Udeh, Bryan Jachukwuike: Interrogating the Poetics of Politics in Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's 
Chants of Despair and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation Python Dance

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societal re-orientation in Nigeria. Through their literary writings, 
they have portrayed serious concerns for the extent of societal 
conditions like poverty, illiteracy, injustice, marginalization, 
ethnic conflicts, and political disenchantment as predominant 
socio-political issues found in Nigeria. These outlined socio-
political conditions forms the statement of the problem deduced in 
this research. The theoretical framework of this research hinges on 
sociological criticism. Sociological criticism is a theory and a 
critical school of thought that has its concern geared towards 
literary works that reflect the conditions of people and the society.

 This paper explores the works of Chuma-Udeh Ngozi and 
Asika Ikechukwu as poets toiling together for humanity and 
posterity. Through their poetic prowess, they have contributed 
their quota towards combating the multiplicity of socio-political 
problems found in their immediate environment. This scholarship 
therefore becomes an attempt to work towards a relatively re-
defined a Nigerian society that will be free from bad governance, 
poverty, and political disenchantment. It will also attempt to trace 
theses societal problems as it affects the average Nigerian 
character. This paper will also examine the influence of poetry as 
potent tool wielded by the Nigerian poet in the course of 
advocating for socio-political positive changes in his immediate 
contemporary society.
 Asika in Operation Python Dance states; 
            Remove these guns from our hearts

Remove these bullets from our faces
Guns will not quell our voices
It will not drown our tears
Only peace can sink this song
Only love can halt this match
Only dialogue will calm this spirit 
Only visible actions can evaporate this struggle

            Remove the guns from our hearts! (12).

 Here the persona sees poetry as a means to peaceful 

 Chuma-Udeh buttresses the tenacity of the Nigerian 

poetry towards the reorientation of the society mindset. She is of 

the firm opinion that poetry should be geared towards the political 

orientation of the society: “The Nigerian poetry is studied herein 

in its true nature as a part and parcel of the historical sketch of the 

contemporary socio-political events of every given period of the 

nation's struggle. The type of poetry found in Nigeria becomes a 

revelation of the country's socio-political life, depiction of the 

inner psyche, aspirations, yearnings, dreams and mental 

characteristics of the group of people that made up Nigerian 

nation”(5). Over the years, Nigerian writers especially poets have 

drawn their milieu and themes from situational changes and 

societal happenings in their contemporary society.  The two 

Nigerian poets understudy is not an exception. The type of poetry 

projected by these Nigerian poets, borders on the evolution and 

complexities of changes in the Nigerian history, politics, economy 

and cultural developments. However, most Nigerian poets 

through their writings, have endeavored to emphasize and re-echo 

on the importance and improvement of human conditions and 

social structures in the Nigerian contemporary society. 

Moreover, this paper presents Chuma-Udeh Ngozi and 
Asika Ikechukwu as two Nigerian poets who have a similar 
perception and ideology that buttresses the condition of the 
average Nigerian character. Just like every other literary artist, 
they have surveyed, studied and analyzed their immediate 
environment and therefore have been propelled to write as a result 
of the happenings and societal issues which they discovered in 
their contemporary society. Their collections of poetry understudy 
are two powerful literary outputs which has endeavored to touch 
the core essence of human existence in Nigeria. 

The poets understudy have perceived poetry as a potent tool 
which can be used to advocate for proper political redirection and 

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024
Udeh, Bryan Jachukwuike: Interrogating the Poetics of Politics in Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's 
Chants of Despair and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation Python Dance

161 162



plagued 
By the eerie chants of Despair; the forlorn voices of the 
deprived and disenchanted (13). 

 The persona denounces poverty in its entirety and also 
portrays the extent of class consciousness in the Nigerian society.  
Chuma-Udeh voices out poverty as a recurrent societal condition 
in Nigeria. She talks about the deplorable wide gulf between the 
rich and the poor. She explores the political atmosphere in the 
country and points an accusing finger to the insensitivity of the 
people in power. One alluring characteristics of this collection of 
poetry is its virtually unavoidable connection with socio-political 
realities in the nation's body polity. The poverty and destitution 
portrayed in the chants of despair is as a result of socio-political 
problems. All around the poor were reminders of what they were 
and of their impact. They live among rich who flaunt their plentiful 
before them. The poet gives the true definition of poverty thus; 

I tell you my brother,
Poverty is not a disease 
Poverty is far from an affliction
Poverty is not lack or want.
I say as Monday is Monday 
And Friday is Friday, poverty is an aliment
Real poverty is a fate worse than a cancerous virus
It gives no chance.it eats up everything.
It is worse than a corrosive acid.
It devours a man and leaves him like a walking carcass
It makes a man a shadow thing…lifeless but living
Poverty sucks up a man
Like an orange in in the hands of a hungry school child
Poverty cracks a man like the palm kernel
And sucks him up like he is the nut inside
When it come, it comes with all its relations
And reduces a man to a mirage.
My brother, poverty is a taboo.

and marginalization as recurrent societal situations in the 

Nigerian society. He sees poetry as a tool for x-raying the 

pressing contemporary issues in the country. Asika uses poetry 

as a vehicle for political mediation and social control. He has 

used poetry as a means of encouraging dialogues and peaceful 

negotiations to solve civil unrest, political upheavals and ethnic 

conflicts in the country. This poet understudy tries to re-echo on 

the agitations of the indigenous people of Biafra to the Nigerian 

government. Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's Chants of Despair is an in-

depth analysis of the contemporary Nigerian society:
These poems
With all their jumbled vulgarities 
With all their clustered misgivings
With all their chaotic condemnations
With all their frenzied uncertainties
With all their turbulent confusions
Are written for the love of my country
A land flowing with milk and honey
A land of plenty and surplus
A land more than the Promised Land
Dampened by depravity and degeneracy  
Echoing with the eerie squeaks of the poor and hungry
Rumbling with the weird whining of the depraved and 
disillusionment
Reverberating with the bizarre yelping of the down 
trodden
As long as injustice persists in our society
As long as two third and more of the citizens
In my rich oil country live in perpetual hunger and 
depravity
As long as the disparity in my country fosters and furthers 
As long as the gulf between the haves and the have nots 
breeds and broadens 
The country's conscience will always be troubled and 

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024
Udeh, Bryan Jachukwuike: Interrogating the Poetics of Politics in Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's 
Chants of Despair and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation Python Dance

163 164



which the apparent representation of the stark reality of the 
contemporary quandaries in her society is portrayed (123). This 
implies that poetry in its entirety brings to limelight the 
conditions, socio-political events and developments of the 
Nigerian contemporary society.  

 Moreso, Chuma-Udeh believes that poetry no doubt 
serves as a framework for a discursive understanding and analysis 
of the Nigerian society and its history as well as its contemporary 
woes (122). Through the poetic lenses of the poets understudy, we 
see their superhuman efforts in bringing to the limelight the 
problems that has belabored a society of people fore-grounded by 
multiplicity of societal issues in Nigeria.

  Ordinarily, in line with the symbiotic relationship 
between the poet and his contemporary society, Chuma-Udeh uses 
her poetry to negotiate the pathetic plight of her impoverished, 
oppressed, and exploited and class conscious society of people in a 
bid to attract attention, proffer an alternative vision and advocate 
for proper political redirection. Her literary writings raises a 
number of political questions, provoked by multitude of socio-
economic responses and offers a clear insight into the intrigues 
surrounding the Nigerian contemporary society.  For the poets 
under study, poetic activism serves as a platform for a discursive 
understanding and analysis on the extent of socio-political 
problems and its effects on the entire nation. In the context of the 
poetic collections, it is therefore not far-fetched to describe the 
poets under study as poet-crusaders who have used their poetry to 
mediate and intervene in the social contradictions of the nation's 
polity.For Chuma-Udeh Ngozi and Ikechukwu Asika, poetry is a 
kind of public duty which they owe to their people, to expose, 
reconstruct, and negate the actualities of political disenchantment 
in Nigeria. The core essence of this research is to prove that the 
poets under study intersects with the realities of political 
disillusionment and as such has come to be a formidable and 
reliable voice in Nigerian literature. Their poetic panoramahas 

It is evil!
It is hell! (11).  

 Chuma-Udeh ardently believes that poverty is a gruesome 
fate. She agitates for a re-definition of the relationship between the 
rich and the poor. The poet presents a society in chaos, a society 
hanging on a keg of gun powder, ready to explode. She combines 
truth and precision in a wonderful analysis of life. Her poetry is not 
a-political, but principle of politics. This lends her work open to a 
variety of political spectrum. The stark of poverty manifest in 
every facet of the common man's life; in the church, in the market 
place, the daily interactions and relationships between the two 
classes in the society and even in the streets they walk on.

  For Chuma-Udeh, poetry becomes a medium for political 
intercession and social control. The task in this paper is an 
exploration of her use of poetry to expose the socio-cultural and 
political dilemma in the Nigerian landscape. The average Nigeria 
individual suffers great social deprivation, political 
marginalization and economic alienation in spite of abundant 
natural resources. Among other problems portrayed by the 
Nigerian poet, political disillusionment and socio-political issues 
becomes the order of the day. 

 The Nigerian poets under study has endeavored to use 
their literary outputs as a re-directive tool to combat these 
cankerworms which has eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigerian 
society. These outlined problems in the country has been instituted 
by political and economic conspiracy of the past and present 
moribund Nigerian civilian governments. However, most post-
independence poets like Wole Soyinka, Maik Nwosu, Festus 
Iyayi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ezenwa Ohaeto, Tanure Ojaide and a host 
of other Nigerian poets, has taken a similar stance on these 
predominant issues in the country. The poets understudy presents 
poetry as a tool for x-raying the pressing issues in the country. 
Chuma-Udeh opined that her poetry serves as a means through 

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024
Udeh, Bryan Jachukwuike: Interrogating the Poetics of Politics in Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's 
Chants of Despair and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation Python Dance

165 166



                                    Works Cited
Asika Ikechukwu. Operation Python Dance. Onitsha: First Class 

Publishers, 2017.

Bodunde, C .Tanure Ojaide's “Poetry and the Niger Delta 
Landscape. A Study of Delta Blues and Home 
Songs.''Bayreuth.2002.

Chuma-Udeh Ngozi.Trends and Issues in Nigerian Poetry, 
Onitsha: Base5 Press Ltd. 2007.

Chuma-Udeh Ngozi.Chants of Despair. Onitsha: Malchjay 
Limited.2014. 

Chuma-Udeh Ngozi and Echezona ifejirika.English Studies; 
Facts, Patterns and Principle, Onitsha: Africana First 
Publishers, 2012 .

Chuma-Udeh, Ngozi.“Ecopoetics in Nigerian Literature: The 
Language of Nature in the Poetic Mettle of Christian 
Otobotekere.” Book of Chapters from Celebrating the 
Master Ecopoet @ 80. Port Harcourt: Herodotus Ventures 
2013. P 56-69. 2018.

 Nnolim, Charles. Ethnic Politics in Nigeria.Fourth Dimension 
Publishers, Enugu. 1980.

--- Approaches to the African Novel. Owerri: Ihem Davis, 1992.

 --- “The Artist in Search of the Right Leadership: Achebe as a 
Social Critic” In   Edith Ihekweazu (ed.). Eagle on Iroko. 
Ibadan: Heinemann, 1996. 166–77.

Nwagbara, U. Political power and intellectual activism in Tanure 
Ojaide's The Activist.2008.Nebula: A Journal of 
Interdisciplinary Scholarship, 5(4): 225-253. 

Oguyade Ogaga. Eco-Critical Literature. Regreening African 
Landscapes. New York African  Heritage Press.2013.

found its place among this expanding matrix of coexistence 

between the average Nigerian individual and his society.

Conclusion
 Chuma-Udeh Ngozi and Asika Ikechukwu through their 
poetic lenses and prowess have agitated for proper re-orientation, 
redirection, good governance, peaceful resolutions, dialogues and 
proper negotiations through their writings. They both share the 
same ideology that good poetry should serve as a means to foster 
the improvement of the human conditions in any given society. 
The two Nigerian poets understudy has endeavored to use poetry 
as vehicle for political mediation and social control. They ardently 
believe in the infinite power of the Nigerian poet as a seer, an 
observer, an agitator, and a promoter of positive events. 

 This paper concludes that the Nigerian poet should stand 
as an engineer on the course of building peaceful bridges across 
the nation through his writings. The paper arrives that good poetry 
should modulate politics in any given human society. This paper 
further concludes that the poets understudy are two strong voices 
to reckon with in the course of voicing out the immediate concerns 
and societal issues that are predominant in the Nigerian society. 
The Nigerian poet must be a flag bearer bringing about waves of 
positive societal changes, good reforms and improvement to the 
values of the lives of the average Nigerian individual. With the 
help of the collection of poems understudy, this paper so far has 
endeavored to examine the place and essence of poetry in the 
Nigerian contemporary society. This paper has examined the 
place of art (poetry) in the Nigerian society as it relates to politics. 
Finally, this paper projects poetry as a means to achieve proper 
political re-direction and positive societal changes in the Nigerian 
society.

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2024
Udeh, Bryan Jachukwuike: Interrogating the Poetics of Politics in Chuma-Udeh Ngozi's 
Chants of Despair and Asika Ikechukwu's Operation Python Dance

167 168


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