Poetry as Paragon of African Oral Construction. Adeyemi Daramola´s Poem 'Coronavirus Pandemic'

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Literature - Africa, grade: 2.5, University of Lagos, language: English, abstract: This paper aims to answer the question of how Adeymi Daramola´s poem 'Coronavirus Pandemic' serves as a paragon for African oral Construction on more general basis. Poetry continues to provide the place of mirroring the existential reality of the society. The exactitude in this is what animates the architecture of Adeyemi Daramola's 'Coronavirus Pandemic.' Admittedly, it has shamelessly but viciously become the metaphorical clog in the wheels of our global collective progress. This global issue is gradually serving as a raw material for literature, validating the truth that literature reflects the society. There is no gainsaying that there is a symbiotic relationship between the pair so that what affects one, quite naturally, impinges on the other. Without doubt, the situation has served as a tool in the construction of Adeyemi Daramola's 'Coronavirus Pandemic.' Daramola, through his poem, lends his voice to the numerous voices that have registered their concern on the influx of the virus and its consequential effect. The poet reaches into the vast repository of oral literature in providing an African interpretation of a Western-named global pandemic experience. He aesthetically weaves traditional nuances into the poem with a polish of sound, while rhythmically and linguistically nativizing the piece, touching base with African orality conventions as he attempts to address an existing reality of a globally shared horrifying experience. Given this schema, this paper is bound to the bane of using the analytical tool of orality in appreciating Daramola's artistic craft.

Ejiogu, Nnadube Jonathan is a graduate of English Department, University of Lagos. He is a scholar, critic and researcher who has teeming interest in African Literary Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, Ecoafricanism, Comparative Literature among others. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria. +2348136123026 dubbysocials@gmail.com