OUR UMBILICUS

(DEDICATED TO NIGERIA’S 54 YRS OF INDEPENDENCE CUM 100 YRS CENTENARY ANNIVERSARY)

“OUR UMBILICUS”

A navel connection of body and soul
Like the confluence of Rivers Niger and Benue
A striking legacy of our colonial heritage
Cementing this borders of our consanguinity
Of many embers into an amalgamated union

A red placenta of love
Diffusing this hatred in our blood cells
Squeezing this breath of rancour
A cord of our bond of unity
Reminding us of our very home
Liike a legal document of our genetic creation
A green card of our earthly origin

When jouneyed so far away though
Giving the children ears to Mama’s calls
Feeding ceaselessly our hungry souls
Nurturing the treasures of our hearts
Its green blood running in our veins
A communal- passage of our ancestral lineage
Like the osmotic regulation
Through a semi-pameable membrane

Shall the ties of this brotherhood be broken
By this strangest hand of herculian force?
Shall this cord of harmony be attacked
By the waging wars of omphalitis and funisitis?
None of these embers shall safe be
If this heat degenerates in this ONE Body

(c) Richy Alzy
30th Sept., 2014

ANALYSIS OF ‘OUR UMBILICUS
‘Our Umbilicus’ is a clear symbolism of the bond of unity that holds a nation, a people, Nigeria a case study.
Denotatively, ‘umbilicus’ is the hole at the center of the abdomen. It is also called the navel. This umbilicus has a rope connected to it known as the umbilical cord which binds a foetus or a new born baby with the mother.
One thing that should be noted is that even when the cord is cut off, the umbilicus still remains with the baby till the baby grows old. That indeed stands as the connection the child has with its mother.
In typical African Culture, especially in most cultures of the Ibos of Nigeria, the umbilical cord when cut off is not thrown away or burnt but buried specially in the child’s father’s homeland. This ritual is significant because of the believe that the umbilical cord will keep reminding the child of his nativity. And even when the child travels so far away to a foreign land, the umbilicus will definitely bring the child back home.
Contextually, Nigeria is a multi-nation state, united by a common force through the amalgamation in 1914. This the poet expresses in the first stanza; it is this shared common cultural and political heritage that is ‘Our Umbilicus.’ The poet seems to compare this union to the Confluence point of River Niger and River Benue.

“.. Like the Confluence of Rivers Niger and Benue
A striking legacy of our colonial heritage
Cementing the borders of our consanguinity”

in the first lines of Stanza two, the poet seems to remind us of the fact that love was what brought us together. So at the point of social, political, ethnic and religious crises, let us allow that same bond of love to take away every malice, hatred, bitterness we may hold against each other. For the sake of that same comeMon cultural heritage we share.
“A red placenta of love
Diffussing this hatred in our blood cells”

As Nigerians, this bond is our only Identity here on earth. An Identity we must have to protect before the world at all cost and against all odds. This Identity is the only reason we are living. Should we then destroy our own identity?

“A cord of our bond of unity…
Like a legal document of our genetic creation…”

In Stanza three, the poet takes a panoramic step to reveal that Nigerians even though in diaspora, still have the interests of their fatherland at heart. They are ever hungry to be home; where their true treasures lie. The Nigerian blood still runs in their veins; ever showing their patrotism.
In the last Stanza, the poet asks rhetorical questions to all Nigerians(home and diaspora). Why do we want to fold our arms and watch this bond of unity broken into pieces by religious, social and political crises? He uses herculian force as the invincible political bickering; Omphalitis and Funisites (which are diseases that infect the umbilicus) as the religious forces combating the unity of this country. He then ended with a conditional warning to all Nigerians that if this whole crises continue, none of the geopolitical regions(south-south,south-east, south-west, North-east, North-west, North-central), will ever be safe from the destruction that comes with the crises.

POETIC/LITERARY DEVICES

* Symbolism
* Imagery
* Simile
* Metarphors
* Personification
* Rhetorical question

TONE/MOOD- possitivism; the poet seems emphatically passionate and confident in his expressions.

THEME:
*A bond of unity and harmony
*Ancestral/cultural heritage or Identity
*Theme of Patrotism
*Theme of underlying conflict.

Dictions: Quite simple except for some complex words as;

#Consanguinity #Placenta
#Osmotic regulation
#Semi-pameable membrane
#Herculian #Omphalitis and Funisitis..