How Does Ibadan Poem By JP Clark ( 1965 ) depicts the Status of Nigeria’s society?
Ibadan Poem By JP Clark ( 1965 )
“Ibadan”
running splash of rust
and gold-flung and scattered
among seven hills like broken
China in the sun”
Literal Interpretation of the poem
John Pepper Clark, a renowned Nigerian poet and writer, wrote the short poem above in 1965.
The poem describes the ancient city of Ibadan, where Clark had lived as a student while at the University of Ibadan.
running splash of rust in the poem describes the rusty roofs that characterize most of the buildings in Ibadan.
The remaining lines of the poem describes the disorderly nature of the buildings in Ibadan, how they were built without proper town planning measures.
It is often argued in the literary community whether Clark’s brilliant poem is an ‘ode’ to Ibadan or a ‘criticism’ of the town.
In any case reader may have divergent opinions, Clark’s poem remains relevant because of its powerful description.
Further more, whichever way we want to interpret the poem and subsequently apply it to any society say Nigeria, it is pertinent to take note of the following words: “running splash of rust”, “golden-flung”, ” seven hills”, and “broken China in the sun”.
Note, irrespective of the figure of speech above words represent, for the purpose of this interpretation to depict the status of Nigerian Society, let us take them as imageries.
That is the general overview of the poem
Relating the poem to Nigeria’s environment as a whole, we can say that “rubbing splash of rust” best describes the corruption that is evident in six geopolitical zones of Nigeria plus the federal capital territory inclusive.
While gold-flung represents underdevelopment in the six geopolitical zones plus federal capital territory also.
“Broken China in the sun” could mean, disunity and lack of peace among Nigerians probably due to issues like quota system, political sentiment, religious bigotry, ethnicity, nepotism and such other related issues that cause disunity among Nigerians.
In summary, Ibadan Poem by JP Clark from Global Economic perspective, a case study of Nigeria, one can say that JP Clark uses those imageries to depict Nigerian society that is characterized with: corruption, disorderliness, underdevelopment and disunity.
End of answer on Global Economic question
Remember, we are Masters students and because of our distinct backgrounds, experience and exposure, we are bound to see issues differently thus, that’s why the Author of this write – up, Sani Michael Omakoji, will not be surprised to see another Student interpret the question from another School of thought.
Finally, I would loved to read from my colleagues how they approach above question so that I can learn from them as well.
My regard to everyone.
