The Place We Call Home and Other Poems: A Review Article

Abstract

The question which inevitably arises whenever a prolific poet like Kofi Anyidoho publishes a new collection is: “So what is new here?” But perhaps before we confront that issue, it is useful to step back for a moment, rather like the Husago dancer that the poet is always invoking, to consider why the writing, the reading and, for us in the academic community, the study of poetry is a worthwhile activity. Poetry offers images which define emotively and felicitously our condition as human beings in a family, a nation and the world. A sociologist can write a paper supported with statistics on the “problem” of street children in urban Ghana. In comparison, a poet will offer an image of the anguish etched on the face of one imagined street child, and the emotional power of the poet’s picture may well be more instrumental than the sociological essay in a national campaign against the proliferation of street children. However, let us not get simple-minded. We are not saying we should throw out sociology in favour of poetry. What we are suggesting is that poetry should be an essential part of the way we look at and understand ourselves as human beings – bearing in mind that not all poetry is good. Anyidoho’s poetry has been most valuable in helping us see ourselves in powerful and quite unforgettable ways. Consider the picture of the rich relatives of the poor man in “The Dance of the Hunchback” who will not spend a penny to assist him, but on his death are quite ready to honour him with a lavish funeral. The fact that the people of this country will often waste on funerals money they will not spend to assist the needy living is well-known, but the poet speaks of it in language that imprints powerfully on our minds the folly of our ways. We feel the pathos of the hunchback’s dirge for his brother and sympathize with the sad-funny image of him as he tries to perform his ungainly dance for the departed.