THE POETRY OF ESSA BOKARR SEY
AN AERIEL VIEW PART 1
By Hassoum Ceesay(National Archives-Banjul),
Essa Bokarr Sey currently the Gambia's ambassador to Taiwan is among
the Gambia's most prolific poets.Dozens of his work appeared on the Daily
observer between 1992 and 1995and he is also a frequent contributor to high
profile poetry websites such as Netpoets.com. Recently his debut anthology
"The boat of thought" was published in Budapest by pricomm communications
ltd.edited by Dr.György Suha.
The book is indeed formidable,comprising a selection of 110 of Essa's best
poems.That it is acres larger than your typical anthology which is usually
slim and mean in content.Essa's,however,is voluminous in content and
variegated in themes.
In "The Boat of thought" Essa adresses all aspects of Gambian life,"The
complete nature of his work cannot be overemphasised.It is a master piece
based on deep observation and sound analyses of The Gambian society," writes
Abdou Kolley in the preface to his engrossing anthology.
Indeed Essa's razor sharp description of his beloved country is
definitive.His patriotism glows like an olympian torch in a poem like "Your
political science in my conscience"p67;his ire at post independence failings
by our leaders boils in a piece like "Thirty years of thundering blunders"
p39,or "Greed" p43; his green credentials glitter in "desertification by
who?"p.108;his idealism climaxes in "Good bye my native village,p42,"The dry
season's footpath,p14,or "A farmer's son speaks"p.122;his mordant,if not
cynical view of todays's dalasi raising rent-a-crowd functions is in "Irony
at the funeral"p136;his contemporaniety flows in "The virus,," on Aids.
Essa' poetry breathes The Gambia,it drips of Gambian society's
experiences,aspirations and failures.
Robert frost's naturalism,Pablo Neruda's anger and Robert Burn's lyricism
all converge in Essa's work;an enviable elitism.
Equally formidable as his thematic diction and style.He uses words not only
to evoke sense and feeling but also to awl out rythm and sound. The poem
"Culture" p31 for example,is a veritable harvest of alliteration,"Bring back
the root";rhyme,"There we started,here we've deviated;assonance," "Brains
are baked." He uses oxymoron as in "The noble smuggler" p33,or in "Our
democrats are armed",to carricature villains;symbols as in "The paper
Tiger"p61,to show the banality of violence whether in celluloid or on the
ground.The personification in "foreign aid knocked on our door" p67 is
palpable.
His language is simple,flowing neither obscurantist nor abracadabra like.
His tone varies from unmitigated anger to sheen romanticism,in most times it
is optimistic,in a few occasions despairing.Even the structure of his poems
are not for nothing."Toys," p117,is arranged to adombrate the torso of a
doll;in "I have a dream",the words are scatter to evoke the ragtak of
dreams,the poem "Terrorism"p.81 has the out line of a slog, the terrorist
ace.
Poetry has remained the bastion of Gambian written literature since Phyllis
Wheatley in the 18th century,Lenrie Peters and the Ndaanan school in the
1970s,Tijan sallah in the 80s and the Daily observer Generation of the
1990s.
Essa's collection has put him firmly on the pedestal of being the most
authentic voice of the Gambian verse in the past decade.
Indeed it is for this that the UNESCO assistant Director
General for culture,Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki,wrote may 2nd thus to Essa,"I
appreciate the wisdom of your appeal to mind and soul.The many topics you
speak of and the in ward look under your pen are of particular interest."
Published in the Gambia's Daily observer on june 24,2001.
NB:Folks,the book "The Boat of Thought" is currently available at The Gambia
National museum.
This apart the writer Essa Bokarr Sey has also been dominating a column at
the point news paper in 93,94,95
thus the story "Towards Home".Interested parties may as well pay the
searching and copy fee at the point news paper's bureau in order to be able
to taste the non-poetic stories of this Kuntaya born writer.
Ousman Jallow Bojang.
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