Reliving global horror in Denja Abdullahi’s ‘Lovesongs in a Pandemic’
By Ezekiel Fajenyo
AS seen in his major works of poetry Mairogo (2001), Abuja Nunyi (2008), Hajj Poems (2014), The Road To Bauchi (2019) and drama Death and the King’s Grey Hair (2014), Truce with the Devil (2014), Fringe Benefits (2014), Mallam Denja Abudullahi is not unused to making light of terrifying world phenomena, dark experiences of man from which he wants us all to capture hidden realities of existence, some lessons of life. In Lovesongs In A Pandemic (2024), a chapbook, he maintains that what he has done is craft a body of poems “during the coronavirus Pandemic” of 2020 in an experimental collaboration with a fiction writer, Ify-Asia Chiemezien, who wrote “prose about sexuality experientially during the pandemic and me responding to what she wrote in poetry”. His poetic contribution is what is now pulled together as a volume, though excerpts of same were published in Prof. Vicky Sylvester-Molemodile’s edited work, A Plague of Many Colours (2022).
This collection is a slim work but potent with creative power and lyrical prowess, even when it is largely a lighthearted approach to the Covid-19 pandemic which terrified the human race just a few years back. The poet simply reduced the demonic plague-some visitation to a simple, laughter-garmented expression of the human encounter.
Like a popular artist performing to a cultural audience, he behaves true to type that since he has been given “the license to be this naughty during the coronavirus Pandemic”, he seeks their attention- and even makes a plea- to enjoy what he is there to offer: “Before/ begin my song/ I borrow the uncouth mouth of the itinerant madman/ whose wards should not be taken too seriously/ … the tongues of our mothers in the market place…/ …. The license of the turgid one/ who flogs the recalcitrant wife to order…/ I borrow too the resilience of the moist cavern/ The has seen to the deaths of a thousand erection. I plead beforehand; do not blame me for my running mouth…” It is obvious that the poet-narrator is not about telling ugly tales of “the deaths of a thousand” persons through the sudden plague which engulfed the world but is concerned with orgiastic eroticisms! His “acerbic tongue” speaks only of “the turgid one”, “That thing, that rises and the devil that whispers to it ?” His choice is therefore, ironic as he simply refuses to speak on the prevailing tragedy and its implications but on the choice of husbands who are forced to stay indoors and play the role of sex-inspirers and dominant family heads, though they often “steal out of the house/ To eat shawarma, pizza and grilled chicken”. These husbands who “are locked down at homes” are now ‘forced to eat the same meal, noon and night”. They now “grate their blunt teeth on toughened hides”. It is no longer time for night crawling and sharing hidden joints with outside lovers as these men “are locked down by an impish virus/ And nymphs, side chicks, runs girls and roadside sirens/ Pine away at homes…”.
Though the pandemic brutalizes man’s ego, the poet-narrator maintains that the frightening experience gives out a fresh definition of love, which may be natural or merely forced since the man cannot move out of his home to exercise his restless manhood anywhere else. Though dangerously dark-souled, plague-some and potentially limiting, the pandemic is able to check sexual recklessness in marital homes, breed a sense of family-hood, create a process of refocusing on the essence of marriage and creates fear of infections, afflictions and death. Man is symbolically reduced to a sheer element in nature- he thinks of self, life and self-protection. He cannot easily escape from responsibilities at home. Though he does not absolutely cherish the situation of forced entrapment, he has to respect the reality of the season. In fact, he agrees that “The Hunter has become the hunted./ I spied madam rumbling into the house and acting strange/ I was in no mood for seduction/ But I could see the fires of it being flung my way./ It is great doing the chasing and conquering/ It is manly and releases the testosterone/ But this familiar coquetry is a dampener./ I fished out an excuse and escaped into the wild of contrived responsibilities,/ I know I will return later to sullen looks and pouty retorts/ But what will a man not be put to in these lockdown days?”
The power of sex in a marital setting and the essence of the marriage institution itself and the challenges which might come its way are themes of interest to the poet. Marriage should not be abused as it is an expression of love and trust between a couple. It is dangerous to undermine of woman’s power which may be expressed in anyway she feels like: “Madam gloats over the lockdown,/ Flashing rekindled tambourines and conga drums/ Oga glides around the house like a monk of the Hare-Krishna order”. This “impish virus” plaguing the world is what gives a holistic meaning to marriage and how a man should handle his home. These themes run through the collection: we see a man trying to project himself as the true “oga” (master) of the house but his wife is already fully empowered by the virus as he is forced to admire her, though emotionally, he could only keep “wondering what more fire can/ be kindled/ from an ancestral forge?/ Oya, come here madam, let me begin again the charity I once started here,/ Haba, here the cry of a plaintive man, must I plead and cajole/ for what I have already fully paid for?/ Madam feigns ignorance and pleads headache and tiredness./ Headache? Sometimes I wonder if only women are the only ones with heads that ache?” Since the man cannot move out of the home to meet other available ladies, he increases his diplomacy as evening descends, fearful of a careless word,/ That may deny me of nirvana at the crest of the night./ Today, madam plays the ostrich, burying those things in swathes of clothes,/ The backs are turned, she in a fitful sleep of pretense”.
The pandemic clearly punctures the man’s egotism, selfishness, attitude of negligence and arrogance. In the past when no virus disturbed men’s sexual feelings, they had all the women they wanted and this poet-persona feels that the times are merely unfavourable to him to exercise his masculinity by “becoming a four-star General Alhaji/With a variety of fruits to feast on. Oya/Like them I can gorge on a mango today, I taste the tangy Udara or Agbalumo tomorrow,/ Sweeten my palate with pineapple the next day/ And chomp the buttery avocado pear the day after…/ But am here, lock-down with this unrelenting urge/But sleep came and I was swept into a dream/ Of twirling things and stolen pleasures”. Images of sex, lust, handicap, hypocrisy, egotism and of sexual organs dominate these lyrical lines, all of which are aesthetically, tied to the marriage theme: “Marriage is a game of hid and seek/ On nuptial night, the man is a lion and a tiger combine/ The woman a succulent duiker caught in a romantic den./ The man, newly licensed, pounces on his kill/ The den becomes a place of ceaseless sweet battles/ Of delicious meatballs tasted not with the cheeks/ Of daily voyage into the world of Kama Sutra…”
Understandably therefore, the poet-narrator also presents the experience of the “lockdown” as a preamble to what the future holds: “Prefigures another distant time in the future/ When the tool of man has been locked down by age and unfair use,/ When man looks askance at waning desire as it rumbles past,/ When even the most succulent twerk of a passing nymph/ Meets with bi-focal indifference of a newspaper reading head,/ This lockdown is a pre-enactment of the marital prison of retired days…”. Indeed, the “lockdown is period of practice/ Of mining the joys that will be left of life/ After the heady days of passion and desire”. The symbols of age, sensuality, the past, sexual laxity and simplicity in approaching life are unmistakable.
But still on the subject of marriage- a central theme in the work- the poet-narrator uses every opportunity to define it, using brilliant images, allusions and symbols to make his understanding clearer. The man insists: “And you hubby in these days of lockdown/ Do you not know before that to marry/ Is like serving a life imprisonment?/ The final ceremonies of a marriage/ Is like judgment day in a criminal court./ Both of you have committed the crimes of passion/ And the priest gave you your deserved sentence!” the judicial images here emphasize the unease, troubles and disaffections which are sometimes associated with the institution. The “lockdown” as a symbol of prison and entrapment makes the message visually impactful and rich. Marriage is not about sweetness, fulfillment, sexual satisfaction! In the absence of varieties, sometimes, the institution becomes boring, frustrating, threatened and tiresome: “Uncertain times breed uncertain anxieties,/ Like unbridled sex between a lock-downed couple,/ All the styles in the Sutra get exhausted,/ Soon, engine failures set in, the piston cranks weakly,/ The bottom plate leaks oil,/ The madness outside intrudes”. The metaphors and images of old age, lost interest and sexuality are profoundly sweetening. If the pandemic is restrictive, delimiting, frustrating, so also is old age. When young, a man must enjoy the sexual abundance provided by his wife and even encourage her to become her best at home: “To the kitchen I proceed to re-enact long-forgotten skills/ For once, let us forget patriarchy and worship at the altar of feminism,/ this road too may lead us to drink from the bottomless well”. Significantly, the pandemic helps the situation because the “virus has socially distanced the side-chicks…/ It is time for oga to daily flatten his curve between madam’s rippling thighs/ Bring out the burantashi and the Kayanmata! It is time to ramp up the sweetness in the beginning of this unending journey”. The true essence of marriage must be maximized before old age sets in to inaugurate a season of loneliness, isolation and inactivity. Man only thinks most often of temporary fulfillments and gratifications- he often strives to manipulate every condition he finds himself; he is selfish but seeks to be protected; he loves but his manhood is being pulled around by lustfulness; he seeks to stick to the traditional meaning of marriage, yet he seeks a newness in fresh thighs! This is the complexion of his dilemma!
There is another central idea in this collection: despite the ugly, frightening situation of the pandemic, those cheaply seeking survival and money through prostitution, sexual recklessness and immorality do not think of the consequences of their actions. The poet-narrator uses “Baby La Fire” as a symbol of reflect this subject matter. She is the “queen of the night and day/ Dispenser of ecstasies and fantasies/ The tiny virus dreaded by both rich and poor/ is not enough to quarantine men’s desires/ For your thunder thighs, tremulous hip and bouncy boobs”. Men struggle to “lie to their wives of being on essential services,/ Yes, it is of essence to dip their sticks in your river between”. She is voluptuous, beautiful, attention-grabbing and ready to be serviced with the right pay-packet dropped in her expensive bag: “They will hurry to go get the groceries/ from your walking supermarkets of varying tags”. Through her, the poet presents the reckless life of lousy prostitutes in the society who see nothing wrong in commercializing their feminine possessions, as seen in the well-used commercial images: “Baby La Fire, this commoditized stock exchange of yours/ Does it give out dividends to its fervent investors?/ I hear it gives bounties of spent destinies, cocktails of STDs,/ And ever-leaking pockets, drained by all sorts of pleasure taxes”. The “Fire” in her name also suggests the high level of her recklessness and limitlessness in moral depravity. Her type, without the fear of the pandemic, spread diseases, afflictions and deaths, so long as money is gained. Interestingly, the poet-narrator equally uses her to preach some gainsome morality in good living. “Baby La Fire, take it easy, as no fire burns forever,/ Soon those mountains will become valleys/Those sweet melodies will be overtaken by sweeter ones/ Those juicy tunnels will soon experience climate change”. The lyrical strength of these lines is established by the imagistic diction of “Fire”, “mountains”, “drums” “sweet melodies” and “climate change” suggestive of the temporality of her obsessions. All will wither, without any form of replacement. But the poet-narrator also drops an ironic conclusion: “… you should indeed take it easy,/ Or we will invite the mobile court/ To try you for violating this lockdown!” The point is that the “mobile court” is likely dominated by her male clients who, carried away by her “mountains”, “drums”, “sweet melodies” and “juicy tunnels”, are not likely to make judicial pronouncements in her disfavor! After all, the poet-narrator also reflects somewhere else that panting travelers travel distances “to enjoy the wares of courtesans in oases far from home./ Even in these days of plague the call of the flesh is unceasing,/ Making man to lie his way to the palace of desire,/ Poised for a dog-fight for the bitch on heat”. In this society, marital irresponsibility, immorality, lust, sexual recklessness are widely practiced, which is why it is a diseased, manacled, socially disfigured entity in need of salvation. The satiric impulse is un-mistakable!
The poet uses these facts to expose the official crudity, irresponsibility, inefficiency, corruption and selfish orientation of government officials appointed to find solution to the covid-19 plague, in society. They all prove to be money guzzlers, detestable exploiters and execrably evil manipulators who steal billions of naira to enrich themselves while the poor and helpless victims of the plague are left to suffer hunger, deprivation and death.
As the narration picks off from a seeming simple focus, we soon encounter such rotten-souled, conscienceless and odd citizens. These are the representatives of the “uncaring State enters in search of statistics/ To flaunt at isolation centers and special briefings:/Move that family to the isolation center/ They have become a threat to public health!/ At the isolation center the drama continues/ Of the State vs the People!”
These cloven officials make false claims on the number of victims, the cost of maintaining them at isolation centres and the kind of medication to be recommended. Rather than being patriotically sympathetic with the victims, such officials utilize the opportunity of the “lockdown” to humiliate families, deny victims of their rights, and lie to gain access to billions of naira for self-enrichment: “Covid-19 has thrown-up Covid-preneurs/ Manufacturers and hawkers of face masks,/ Real and quack chemists, makers of hand sanitizers,/ 419ners hushpupping and ambushing donor funds./ Palliatives announced grandly to press conferences,/ Disappear after leaving warehouses,/ While the poor wait endlessly for the Godot that will never come./ Doubts settle on the masses as usual:/ ”Release us from this prison of hunger,/We don not want to die of hunger,/ That scam virus we can take care of”, they cry”. The victims see the state officials as scammers because even such officials only see the plague as such but only using the opportunity offered to steal and lie on statistic and palliatives: “PTF and NCDC men go about in exotic face masks/ Reeling out the statistics of the pandemic and its lexicons:/ Social distancing, flattening the curve, epicenter, community transmission,/ Isolation center, ramping up tests, Personal Protective Equipments, Frontline workers…/ In the midst of these noises, claims and counter-claims,/ People know they can only stand for themselves and for others,/ The rich brother transferring small funds to the indigent brother,/ The lock-downed sugar daddies wiring small sums to their array of side-chicks,/ That is the traffic of the coronavirus economy”. The images of confusion, criminality, exploitation, graft, greed, incompetence, falsehood, hunger and starvation are effectively utilized. These are men who patronize the “Baby La Fires” who are always “out there/ To advertise greener gardens and bouncier bosoms”. The evil-minded, loathsome and sickening officials pretend to be dependable saviours and guardians but only see the pandemic as avenue to swell their bank accounts and family inheritance: “Covid-19 Pandemic has become a big business/ With its stocks quote daily at PTF briefings,/ Isolation centers can either be a prison or a resort,/ It depends on your station in life./ State governments angle for billions of naira/ By railroading citizens to isolation centers/ Or by simply playing the number game”. These officials, with their pathogenic inefficiency, are as dangerous as the pandemic itself: “Masqueraders from the NCDC like the ancestral masqueraders of old/ Proclaim their clairvoyance and whisk the offending family away,/ To the isolation center, the new grove, where atonement will be made,/ And the sacrifices to clean the despoiled land will be done”. People are forced to do self-medication in the absence of official support: “A mere cough emits suspicion/ Self-medication is the Surgeon-General/And the Chief Medical Director”. There is sardonic humour here because instead of laughter, tears and agony are provoked.
In this pandemic-afflicted land, medical doctors and hospitals are rendered helpless and hopeless as quacks have right of existence and fake drugs are all over the place. Isolation centres become a potent symbol of graft, savage exploitation, corruption, insensitivity of state, wastefulness and inhumanity: “… Where are the isolated centers and what goes on there?/ I hear jollof rice and chicken are served there/ I hear it is a place of temporary escape from the worries of life./ I am tired of this lockdown,/ Kai, is that a cough I hear behind me?…./ Let me call the NCDC/ it is time for a family excursion to the isolation center/ It is going to be a two-week vacation/ All-expense paid by the government,/ If my share of the palliative will not come to me/ I will go to the isolation centre to collect it”. The “center” is a symbol of erosion of conscience and human dignity; it is the platform of darkness, morbid stagnation and razor-edged crudity. It is a “place of temporary escape” from decency and morality and human feeling. That is the import of its ironic presence.
One other theme in the work is the reference to Madagascar, an African country believed to have produced functional drugs against the plague but ends up sidelining other desirous African countries from benefiting from same: “Give me that brew from Madagascar,/ Since our governments are no respecter of our native medicines,/ But I learn they have warehoused that even for their secret usage”. The attitude of Madagascar is a reflection of African governments’ insensitivity, isolation trend and refusal to honour the feelings and aspirations of fellow Africans- a plague-some socio-political situation since independence! This also points to the fact that African nations are not ever ready to inspire themselves using their natural gifts for self-advantage and development. The metaphor which refers to this situation is fleshed out in the narrator’s wish: “Into the forest I now proceed, I will cut barks and leaves,/ Which with hot water and agboniki/ Will send Coronavirus to Wuham from whence it came!” If Wuham, located in China is alleged to be the originators of the pandemic, Africans should collectively explore their natural forests and tap their leave to develop medication against such plagues. The issue of cultural technology, provoked by the sense of self-preservation, should engage the attention of African nations.
Presently, while the world labours hard to find a solution to the plague, African countries have not shown sufficient interest in doing same. While some believe the phenomenon is a scam, others simply refuse to take any action to counter this loathsome invasion. And what have stopped them from acting are accursed elements of gross insensitivity, bribery, nepotism, corruption and bad leadership: “Covid-19 pandemic is the new big brother show/Reality-TV filmed by furtive cameras…./ Virulent in the steel and glass jungles of Europe and America/ Mild in the tropical slums of Africa…/ In our Africa, our Africa, the story is always different,/ As the infection rate rises, we clamour to be unlocked,/ We bribe policemen at checkpoints to enable us violate lockdowns./ For us, this pandemic is another establishment scam./ Where are the billions donated by donors?/ Where are the stimulus packages and promised palliatives?/ Where are the people who have died of the pandemic?/ Where are the testing centers and the results of the test?/ Where are the isolation centers and what goes on there?…”
Is one long poem divided into 17 parts with themes aesthetically connected in an elaborated treatment. One strong stylistic trait in this collection is elaborate use of images and symbols- sexual, judicial, agricultural, commercial, animal, vehicular, hunger, criminality, deprivation, ill-health, darkness- all of which supply aesthetic energy and creative wealth to the work. For instance, “the man is a lion and a tiger combined/ The woman a succulent duiker caught in a romantic den./ The man, newly licensed, pounces on his kill/ Then den becomes a place ceaseless sweet battles/ Of delicious meatballs tasted no with the cheeks…”, “…burying those things in swathes of clothes”, “…forced to eat the same meal, noon and night”, “… this commoditized stock exchange of yours/ Does it give dividends to its fervent investors?/ I hear it give bounties of spent destinies, cocktails of STDs,..” are of powerful visual effect on the reader. Such metaphors and images work in creative partnership with a body of ironies which a careful reader can easily detect. The pandemic, for instance, proves to be a “Great leveler/ Hospitals long abandoned to the poor/As the rich regularly jets out for medical tourism/ Now whitewashed for all, poor or rich./ The king of diseases is here/ Let no common ailments come hithers,/ To die of corona is to die a rich death”. Another one goes: “… one big man after another/ Dying of it in special medical facilities,/ While the poor lucky to catch the big-man ailment/ Make merry at isolation centers”. Equally is this: “In the age of the pandemic/ Hospitals are no-go area…./ Hospitals are empty but isolation and treatments centers/ Are filled to the brim./ Self-medication, secret deaths and secret burials/ Take care of the rest”. All these tell of the kind of society being discussed! The poet equally satirizes the man and his wife, government officials, Baby La Fire as representative of the morally lost and situation at the isolation centres, among others.
The moral lessons projected in the collection come through Baby La Fire, the man and his wife, and the government officials. This society is in an urgent need of fire of salvation, recovery sanity and development. Right now, it suffers from ethical perilousness, socio-political toxicity and pyretic darkness. It is the coming of the pandemic which reveals more her inherent situation of stormy sickness and gloomy darkness.
Written in a simple language fed with alluring lyrical notations, the poem accommodates, many indigenous words and local coinages whose meanings and relevance are explained by the poet: “Oga” is husband or a superior; “Burantashi” is a local aphrodisiac in Hausa language and with her female type, “Kayan mata”; “Hushpupping” is the act of engaging in cyber-fraud reminiscent of a popular Nigerian Fraudster, “Jollof rice” is that cherished dish of rice mixed with assorted ingredients, popular in the West Coast of Africa and “419ners” stands for Advance Fee Fraudsters in Nigeria- are a few.
Humour is in abundance throughout the poems, showing the writer’s pledge to soften the tears-breeding message of a plague which shook the entire race! The narration reminds the reader of the character, Mairogo in Abdullahi’s work, Mairogo: A Buffoon’s Poetic Journey… (2001). There is a sense of drama which runs through the presentation. Action is not lacking as seen when a male stimulant seller moves close to “Oga”: “Oya Oga come try this, you need to teach madam a sweet lesson this night,/ It is straight from the source and there can be no power failure”. Such dramatic dialogue also occurs to “oga” another time: “I have something for you sir, that will turn you into a stallion”, they coo./ “Come closer, let me check your merchandise”, oga leers,/ Taking in the stylish pout of the jean-cladded seller of third-rate Viagra./ “Are you sure this works? Can I try this on you?”/ “Of course yes, but you must buy it first”, she lures”. Such humourous moments add aesthetic beauty to the lyrical bent of the poem and further project the themes. We are privileged to encounter cinematic and visual images and metaphors through the actions of the characters.
One element profoundly used by the poet is alliterations as seen in these few instances: “…grate their brunt teeth on toughened hides”, “…Nymphs, side chicks, runs girls and roadside sirens”, “… burying those things in swathes of clothes”, “… sexual toys shops and imported tablets”, “…hurry to go get the groceries”, “Dispenser of ecstasies and fantasies…/ For your thunder thighs, tremulous hip and bouncy boobs”, “sweet melodies will be overtaken by sweeter ones”, “… greener gardens and bouncier bosoms”, “…the apples and pomegranates in the passion jungle”, “…The hoi-polloi in their hovels call it a hoax”. The lyrical signature intended by the poet appears through this style, just like the body of rhetorical questions, for instance: “Where are the billions donated by donor? …/ Where are the testing centers and the results of the tests?” There is also the use of refrain in: “In Africa we defy the norm…/ In Africa we defeat high theories/ With hardened reality./ In Africa our blood is a cocktail of ailments,/ In Africa…/ In Africa we have sped to the virtual world”. The poet’s repetition of “In Africa” is to emphasis the failings of a continent which runs to embrace virtual technology when we are filled to the brim with “poverty and ignorance” “choked markets”, “Ecstatic churches, puritanical mosques and pungent shrines”, “disappearing meals”, “Joblessness disguised as working from home”, etc. Africans are even prepared to “go virtual” if “physical sex will not enhance or tame our desires”. Such a continent of confusion, hypocrisy, underdevelopment and poverty!
Abdullahi’s work significantly satisfies the motive for which he writes and he also proves the tempo of his naughtiness in his ever-engaging romance with sensuous imagery and metaphors which run through this publication! It is indeed a successful experimental collection with swollen body of lyricism enriched by satires, pun, ironies, controlled language and picturesque and visual images!
* Fajenyo, Lagos-based poet, literary critic and biographer, published Denja Abdullahi: New Perspectives (2024)
