The Wry, the Witty, and the Laconic: Expression and Mythology in the Poetry of Chinweizu

Abstract

Chinweizu’s commitment to Africa’s social reality is woven in literary criticism and creativity, mythology and postcolonial themes—a consciousness for social change. His notable works, such as The West and the Rest of Us, Toward the Decolonisation of African Literature and The Anatomy of Female Power, amongst others, have raised intellectual engagements and re-interrogations of monolithic constructs that challenge Eurocentrism, while extolling African identity, cultural heritage and resistance. His fearless and avant-garde methods of discourse have earned him enormous respect and a permanent position of reckoning from scholars and students of Africanism, history, literature, politics, political science, criticism and gender studies. However, his collections of poetry, Energy Crisis and Other Poems, and Invocations and Admonitions, have not received as much attention as his other works. His deft applications of wit, wry humour, eclecticism and mythology in addressing humanity and allied themes in his poetry are as engaging as they are worth studying. This paper, therefore, critically approaches his verses through contextual and textual perspectives—a fresh and stylistic (re)assessment of his poetic style and genius to tackle the question of humanity and relations.