Sunday African Poetry Special: Agbor Dancer by John Pepper Clark

http://popafrica.com/sunday-african-poetry-special-agbor-dancer-john-pepper-clark/

Today On PopAfrica’s Sunday African Poetry Special we’ll be featuring a poetry work of the famous Nigerian Poet and playwright,John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo titled “Agbor dancer”

Born in Kiagbodo, Nigeria, to Ijaw parents, Clark received his early education at the Native Administration School and the prestigious Government College in Ughelli, and his BA degree in English at the University of Ibadan, where he edited various magazines, including the Beacon and The Horn. Upon graduation from Ibadan in 1960, he worked as an information officer in the Ministry of Information, in the old Western Region of Nigeria, as features editor of the Daily Express, and as a research fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. He served for several years as a professor of English at the University of Lagos, a position from which he retired in 1980. While at the University of Lagos he was co-editor of the literary magazine Black Orpheus. In 1982, along with his wife Ebun Odutola (a professor and former director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos), he founded the PEC Repertory Theatre in Lagos. A widely travelled man, Clark has, since his retirement, held visiting professorial appointments at several institutions of higher learning, including Yale and Wesleyan University in the United States.

Agbor Dancer by John Pepper Clark

See her caught in the throb of a drum

Tippling from hide-brimmed stem

Down lineal veins to ancestral core

Opening out in her supple tan

Limbs like fresh foliage in the sun.

See how entangled in the magic

Maze of music

In trance she treads the intricate

Pattern rippling crest after crest

To meet the green clouds of the forest.

Tremulous beats wake trenchant

In her heart a descent

Tingling quick to her finger tips

And toes virginal habits long

Too atrophied for pen or tongue.

Could I, early sequester’d from my tribe,

Free a lead – tether’d scribe

I should answer her communal call

Lose myself in her arm cares

Intervolving earth, sky and flesh.

Commentary
The dance symbolizes the poet’s yearning to be identified with the root.
The poet is fascinated with this aspect of his culture which engages the dancer in an act of cultural dance.The dancer contrasts sharply with the poet as the dance signifies her deep knowledge of and involvement in her culture and understanding of cultural music.The poet describes the dance as ‘magic maze’ with its ‘intricate pattern rippling crest after crest’
Early separation makes the poet to respond to the appeal or communal call this infectious music. His frustration is shown at the end of the poem.

This was posted for educational purposes and provided at no charge.
http://popafrica.com/sunday-african-poetry-special-agbor-dancer-john-pepper-clark/