Marxist Tendencies in Abubakar Gimba’s This Land of Ours

This article is published by the Zamfara International Journal of Humanities.

Jonathan Ogbu

Department of English & Literature
Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State

jonathanogbu@fugusau.edu.ng 08038324566

Abstract: This work takes a look at the Marxist theory as a tool, with a view to understanding the works of Abubakar Gimba. This paper examines This Land of Ours from a Marxist perspective through an analysis of themes, form, and all other poetic devices. The work looks at Inner Rumblings by identifying the Marxist ideas of the writer under study. This is done through the contents of the writer’s published poems. The Luckacsian reflection Model of Marxism serves as a suitable model for the paper. The findings show that Marxist ideas in the diction and contents of the poems of Gimba abounds. It makes for a balance of the assertion that Gimba is one of those writers of poetry that write with a purpose which is to achieve conscientization, function as an advocate the the less priviledged and oppressed people of the society amongst other functions as spelt out in the poems..

Keywords: Marxism, Lukacsian Reflection Model

INTRODUCTION

_Writers, the world over, have ideas or phenomena that influence  their  works  in  one  way  or  the  other.  The phenomena might not be mentioned or directly stated. At some point in time, these writers might even be unconscious or

 

rather, oblivious of the influence(s) inherent in their works. Through the findings of this paper, it will be established if Abubakar Gimba’s poetry conforms to the tenets of Marxism or if Marxism as a theory influenced his writing of poetry. In writing this paper, books, postulations, interviews, and reviews of scholars on the works of Gimba, especially his poetry were consulted to understand the ideology of the writer in our context. The poems were critically looked at and measured with the tenets of Marxism to establish the facts for this paper.

 

This paper looks at Inner Rumblings by identifying the Marxist ideas of the writer understudy, through the contents of his published poetry collection. This require that we look at Marxism as it relates to literature in general, and poetry, in particular, by tracing the emergence of, and development of Marxist critical theory and how it relates to literature and poetry in particular and how that is reflected in Gimba’s poetry.

 

This paper adopts the Lukacs Reflection model. The concept of Literature and the reality of the author or writers’ society, matters a lot to this model. The basic thing to Lukacs is that the works of art (literature) ought to express society in a reality so vivid and clear. There is a correlation found to be very corresponding to the idea that Gimba’s works depict.

 

The Concept of “Marxism”

 

Marxist theory has a long and complicated history. Although it is often thought of as a twentieth-century phenomenon, partly because it was the basis of the Soviet Union’s socialist system but it actually goes back to the thinking of Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883), a nineteenth-century German philosopher and economist. The first announcement of his traditional way of seeing things appeared in the German Ideology in 1845. According to Dobie,

 

Marx argue that the means of production governs a society’s institution and beliefs, and contended that history is progressing towards the eventual triumph of communism. He introduced the concept of Dialectical Materialism, the theory that history develops as a struggle between contradictions that are eventually synthesized (2009: 86).

 

Marxism is a materialist philosophy, one which insists on the primacy of material living conditions rather than ideas or beliefs in the lives of human beings. It sees History as, (in Marx’s words), “history of class struggle” (Goring etal., 2010)

 

-  the history of struggle for control of the material conditions upon which life rests.

 

When Marx met the political economist, Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) in Paris in 1844 and they discovered that they had arrived at similar views independent of one another, they decided to collaborate to explain the principles of communism (latter called Marxism) and to organize an international movement. These ideas were expounded in the Communist manifesto (1848), in which they identified class struggle as the driving force behind the history and anticipated it would lead to a revolution, in which the workers would overturn the capitalist, take control of means of economic production, and abolish private property by turning it over to the government to distribute fairly. With these events, class distinctions would disappear. In the three-volume work; Das Capital (1867), Marx argued that history is determined by economic conditions and he urged an end to private ownership of public utilities, transportation, and means of production. Despite the variations and additions that occurred in the century that followed, on the whole, Marx’s writings still provide the theory of economics, sociology, history, and politics called Marxism (Goring et al., 2010). Although Marxism was not designed as a method of literary analysis, its principles were applied to literature early on. Literature was linked to the philosophical principles set down by Marx and Engels. According to Dobie (2009: 87) “It was apparent that Marxism provided a new way of reading and understanding Literature”.

 

Marxism and Literature

 

Marx, himself was extremely well-read in classical and contemporary literature, and literary allusions as references abound in his writings. Several early Marxists sought to apply Marx's ideas to Literature: both in terms of interpretation and evaluations of existing literary works, and also in terms of advice to writers and those with (or seeking) political power about what sort of Literature should be encouraged. The active and interventionist nature of Marxism has recurrently led to attempts to use literature for social-political ends; some of these have gained a bad press in the reviews of history, as in the case of socialist realism: others have received a more positive response as in the case of Bertolt Brecht’s attempt to use the political theatre in the interest of social revolution (Gorin et al., 2010).

 

The first major Marxist critic appeared outside Russia. George Lukacs (1885-1971), a Hungarian critic, who is responsible for what has become known as ‘Reflections.’ Named for the assumption that a text will reflect the society that has produced it, the theory is based on the kind of close reading advocated by Formalists. But it is practiced by the Reflections to discover how characters and their relationship typify and reveal class conflict, the socio-economic system, or the politics of the time and place. The system is also known as ‘Vulgar Marxism.’ Many other Marxist versions were established and developed but the version most suitable for the argument of this paper is the Lukacian Reflections model.

 

Currently, two of the best-known Marxist critics are Fredric Jameson and Terry Eagleton as asserted by Dodie (2009). In some ways, Jameson and Eagleton are typical of mixtures of schools in literary criticism today as asserted by Dobie (2009). This does not mean that these two (the duo of Jameson and Eagleton) are the only or major writers or critics of Marxism known today. There are many more others that have not been mentioned in the course of this paper as this paper is also an attempt at lending a voice to the established principles (of Marxism).

 

 

Theoretical Framework

 

This paper is concerned more with the ideas of Marxism inherent in the poetry of Abubakar Gimba and not just the theory of Marxism which is still very important in driving the thrust of this paper.

 

According to Isma’il (2008: 6), “Gimba’s writings indubitably reside in the domain of critical discourse, and are thus open to various interpretations and understanding.” In the course of reading through the poetry collections of Abubakar Gimba, the idea of Marxism is inherently observed. The question becomes how Marxist inclined or related are the poems, and in extension, how Marxist is the author? This becomes the central idea that this paper seeks to investigate and explore.

 

This paper tries to measure the poems of Abubakar Gimba in the Marxist tradition. Marxism as a theory of literature has been selected because Marxist ideas run through most of the poems in Gimba’s collections. This paper is geared towards finding out those Marxist ideas inherent in the words and ideas of Gimba’s poems. Through the poems, one suspects that though Gimba has never openly declared himself a Marxist thinker, that there are tendencies of Marxism in his poems which in turn informs us of his Marxist orientation. In the case of the poetry of Abubakar Gimba, the Lukacsian reflection model of Marxism is the most suitable form for the analysis of the poems under consideration.

 

Lukacsian Reflection Model and Literature

 

Marx and Engel’s postulation of the concept of Marxism generally viewed literature not as works created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria but as ‘products’ of economic ideology determinants of specific to the era (Abrams 2005). Literature reflects the idealism of Marxism, portraying the ideology of class stratification, culture, and socio-economic tendencies which pervade human society. Therefore, Literature seeks to integrate and explicate these class fractions, to show equality between human beings or how members of the society have been able to cope. This goes on to mean that, Marxism and literature are interpolated concepts.

 

The critical temper is either directly or indirectly expressed in several of Lukacs’ contributions to literature and Marxism. For Lukacs, literary form is that which reflects reality in ‘the most objective ways’. Consequently, literary ‘well-formedness,’ is perceived within this model as the most accurate portrayal of the external reality that Marx himself is reflected in the mind of man and translated into forms of thought’ (1976: 102). Forgas tells us that Lukacs’ idea of reflection transcends that simplistic mirror-object relationship popularized by the mimetic model. This idea shows us that Lukacs believes that ‘Literature, is a knowledge of reality and knowledge is not a matter of making one-to-one correspondence between things in the world and outside or ideas in the head’ (Forgas 1985: 139). Through this perspective, we understand that literature subjects reality to a creative and form-giving process that converts it to realism as postulated by Forgas (1985: 139). Lukacs who was an international figure in the communist movement until he died in 1971, patterned his critical thoughts after Marx’s presumptions towards creativity.

 

The model appears appropriate for our scheme of analysis in this paper, as most African writings have the outlook of realist literature. We shall therefore consider the poems of Abubakar Gimba as the reflection of the author’s perceived society emanating from the contents of poems.

 

In Gimba’s actual words from an interview conducted by Fajenyo (2008), it seemed to be as if he had everything spelled out from the standpoint of the thesis of this paper. His response to the question posed to him, about his literary works elicited the following answer which precipitated the quest for this paper. Gimba spoke like one who has been influenced directly by Marxism of the Lukacs’ model . This section shall be concluded on the assumption made by Gimba and after this; we delve into the actual contents of the poems in the study to unravel the Marxist tendencies inherent in them. The response is, as presented below from Gimba’s actual words as captured by Onookome Okome (1992) in the publication of Ezekiel Fajenyo (2008: 15).

 

One was interested in reading diverse writings, books from different parts of the world… First and foremost, I was interested in the milieu in which I lived at some points in my life. Invariably, this has influenced me greatly and has found its way into my writings

– especially the novels. Essentially, I belong to this class- I feel them and so I am bound to reflect on this milieu in which this class of people play out their lives.

 

Most of what to come out in the analysis of the poetry of Gimba tends to have a very close relationship with the Marxist idea of Lukacs’ Reflections model as observed in the above words of the writer.

 

Marxist tendencies in This Land of Ours

 

The main focus of this section in our discourse, is on the analysis of the poems, contained in the collection; This Land of Ours. The poems will be looked at, so as to point out the Marxist tendencies present in the poems, under study here. The collection is made up of poems numbering up to fifty, in total. All poems have their own idea and focus, but all, almost pointing to one same thing, which is, man and his society.

 

The collection, This Land of Ours, was presented to the public in 2001, when Nigeria had spent two years in democracy after the interruptions occasioned by successive military coups. Gimba tries to capture the political stagnation, economic exploitation, ideological stupor, social degeneration and the total neglect of the people. According to Fajenyo;

 

The leaders in Africa have lost sense of direction, their governance is ruthless, suppressive, corruption endowed and stagnating; ideas are not allowed to grow, the land is one long stretch of waste, religious darkness, injustice, seaming poverty, starvation, immorality, class schism and neocolonialism, politics and politicians are a

 

bundle of contradictions and meaninglessness (2008:99).

 

The poems further, in the same vein, treated and explored the themes of greed, selfishness, impatience, intolerance, arrogance, pride, corruption and oppression, as are all present in the poems. According to Fajenyo (2008:98), “this new collection tells of a writer thoroughly conscious of what he seeks to achieve with his medium.” This statement is a fact, judging from the poems in the collection. Gimba is more and further ascertained not just a writer in other genres but also a poet.

 

In an interview that preluded the publication of This Land of Ours, Gimba made a pronouncement that is seen and observed to directly point to his Marxist prospects as observed below;

 

Let’s be first … to stand up for victims before they even stand up for themselves… let’s learn from history: History does not repeat itself. But our follies do. Let’s champion the cause of change of the Nigerian society…. All

 

the corruption and oppression that dwarfed us are a manifestation of these devilish traits in us… (12).

 

This idea in Gimba as an advocate or preacher to the people is evidently seen most in the first poem of this collection under study. We see Gimba, in the poem titled ‘Key’ admonishing and seeking to talk to the hearts of the people in his society.

 

Know you not

That in expectation and giving

Our lot’s tied in a knot

In life’s rough waters sailing

 

The poem reminds the people in the society that man’s fate is tied up by destiny. That no man can exist alone, and that man must be positive and optimistic so as to be able to make good impact in life. Life is seen to be characterized by strong convictions and it is difficult to understand it is a “rudderless boat”. Abubakar Gimba is seen to be towing the tracks of Marxist thinkers as he goes on with his advocacy;

 

And be like the sun

Expectation always repel.

In giving always excel.

And that is the key

To this life…

 

A Marxist, as established in the course of this paper, is seen in the role of Gimba, becoming an advocate who speaks to the people and stands with them. Through the poem, the poet has been able to promote human values. The poem is a universal message to the entire human race. The poet reaches out to all the people in the society, as he preaches his message, to the populace. Marxism, as a concept is characterized, mainly, of revolution, transformation and change in social order.

 

Next poem in the line of analysis is the poem titled, “Desolate Stables”. Desolate as a word, denotes and connotes a lot as there are diverse and other meanings relating to it. Contextually, in usage, the word centers on abandoned and scanty; though many other synonyms are derived out of it. ‘Stable’, on the other hand, has to do with the definition that borders on housing, or shelter for animals; especially, horses. Rodeos thrive on owners of stables as the case is. Large stables are owned by rich and affluent members of the society who are always out and ready to provide the required services in the game of horses. This is a very common notation of the stable; business wise. An insight is given to this poem as seen in the poem;

 

Once again into the cradle, a delivery

And to our horns, with lullaby in deliria

With discordant notes the cradlesong’s tune

Forced from our lips in confused hysteria

 

In felicitations for a birth, while yet fearsome of death

For the stable has long been desolate.

 

 You don’t seem to understand what is expected of a literary critic.

 

The imagery of the stables business is seen to be used here, to relate the idea, the poet wishes to express. The horses and processes in the world of the game is being expressed closely and this gives a good insight into the idea the poet is trying to express. The Marxist bent of Gimba in most of the poems in this collection of study, is one, so much into advocacy, and messianic in nature as seen in subsequent lines of ‘The desolate stables’:

 

Phoenix-like in resolve our duty to rise Against all hurdles with adaptness surmount Lest to our peers we are made a laughing stock

And to our neighbours a derisive horse laugh

 

This idea of advocacy runs through the poem as the poet persona strives to call elites of northern Nigeria to sit up; especially, in matters of journalism as expounded by Fejenyo (2008 : 102)

 

In “Desolate Stable”, the poet-persona laments the unstable nature of journalism in northern Nigeria, the many publications which had emerged and disappeared from the scene. He is disappointed that despite the many efforts in the past, success never came and the public was truly denied the opportunity of learning the true incidents which occurred in the north.

 

The call of Gimba is loud and clear in its resounding nature through the lines of some of his poems.

 

The next poem in line of consideration in this study, is “The Honourable One”. The sarcastic and satiric nature of Gimba sprouts out in this poem. A lampoon on the person of the average unreliable, corrupt Nigerian politician is presented in this poem. The poem is a long narrative which spans fourteen unequal stanzas. The narrative sense of this poem makes it very accessible to all and sundry. The mockery in the tone of the poet persona makes the poem an interesting one. Interesting in a sense of what reality of our present society holds on. Political power is sought, at all cost by the politicians, who use all possible means at their disposal, to woo the populace into voting them to power, and in turn, becomes a scorn of the highest order, to the common man who is supposed to benefit from good governance. A very clear and lucid picture is presented by the poet persona of the person of the political leaders of the land and society as a whole as seen through the lines of the poem:

 

You will stand for me you vowed

You will stand for me you promised

And even with a rare humbleness yu bowed

A giant-pine tree to dare a raging hurricane

Your face a host to a mesmerizing smile

As strange as a bright morning sun

Out of the petals of a thunderous dawn

An exaggerated smile?

 

The very scenario of politicians, when in power, especially in Nigeria, is given clearly here. The poet persona uses the historical looks of the past ages when the motorcade or convoy of our leaders are presented as horses and their abodes are castles set apart. The government houses then become a fortress of sorts, where no ordinary man trespasses. The only benefit the common man on the street gets, is when he is graced with this stretch of aesthetics, of the passing ‘through town’ of this once lowly, humble honourable one. The pomp and pageantry that encompasses this leader is but a spectacle of interest to all onlooker as the ‘honourable’ one makes his passage on streets covered and surrounded by exotics of luxuries unexplainable. The common man then resigns to fate as he is rendered incommunicado.

 

The Nigerian political terrain is vividly described, and the poet has been able to put this eye opener forth, so as to remind the common man of what goes on, politically, in the society. To a great extent, the idea in this poem, about the political class and the electorate is vaguely addressed in the poem; ‘From the Rostrum’.

 

In the poem, the poet uses imageries of a sage, to tell a very lengthy tale of the political brouhaha in the society we live in. This very detailed treatment of the idea addressed in this poem, makes the latter poem, one of the longest, if not the longest of Gimba’s poetry collections. The poem is summarized more succinctly, by the statements of Ezekiel (2008; 119):

 

“From the Rostrum,” obviously the longest in the collection, is a reflection of the political insanity, meanness, megalomania, deceit and falsehood which have drenched Africa’s landscape. It goes into history, which accounts for its narrative tone; it is suffused in images of political treachery, insincerity and visionlessness. The poet persona moves back in time, informing us of the griot-like function of his grandma (‘the ocean of tales’) and the ‘wise old man’ who ‘talk of foxes or hares’, stories which delighted him of past.

Gimba still proves his worth, through these great satires. The Marxist spirit is very much set in these poems as the class differentia and oppressive nature of the society is presented, first to the common man, and then, to the political class as well. The town crier is seen to be an agent of the leaders, in information dissemination and communication of ideas of the leaders in a local setting. The leaders in this regard might be corrupt, selfish and witch hunting, as the previous poem points out. The town crier, to an extent is seen to be a prophet of sorts, in his discharge of duty.

 

Talking about the prophetic, the poem titled, “A Peace Zone”, bears on this, a lot. The poem makes the saying that ‘poets are more of prophets’, true. The scenario created by Gimba in the poem is but a reality of today in northern Nigeria; especially, the north east. The spate of insurgency has made this region to pass for a war zone unlike it used to be. The poet did not hesitate to point out the pockets of clashes and bloodlettings, occasionally experienced in the (Nigerian) society.

Go to the cemetery for witnesses

An expanding city of peaceful skeletons

We still bury our dead

Not in mass graves, as in war zones.

The evident flow of blood? Ignore

To dead bodies and burnt houses be blind

Widows and orphans too glad to live

Ah, all evident zeal of a calm quickstand

See the bold footprints of peace-enforcers

So dutiful to keep this a peace zone.

 

Clashes and crises is characterized of our existence as a nation but not a thing that has gone the scale of a full-blown war as we experience today in the north-eastern part of Nigeria and many parts of Nigeria and Africa as a whole today.

 

The last line of this fourth stanza presents an assonance that has much become a reality of our present-day Nigeria; especially, the north of the country; ‘Where only guns and bombs boom’. This above statement, haunts us today as it seems to be the current state of the reality on ground in the present-day Nigeria. As at the year of this publication, insurgency in the north east as we have it today isn’t a common thing. Incidents of suicide bombings and the ‘Boko haram’ trend were not present at all in the polity. The poet, at the time of this publication was relating the way things really stood; the position of peace in the nation. In essence, all what we see today in the north-east of Nigeria points back now to what things used to be before the emergence of insurgency. The scenario the poet paints in this poem, as being absent, has come to be the reality on ground, today; especially, in present Borno state and other states in the north eastern region. This trend has grown to all parts of Nigeria with a high prevalence in the core northern states of Nigeria.

 

Looking at the security set-up of the nation or society, becomes the concern of a particular poem in this collection of study. Gimba beams his searchlight on the police force as a whole, through the poem titled, “Need the Sheriff’ Pray!” The title of this poem even makes it a mockery at a first look. The poet uses punctuations to achieve this effect. The poet’s use of the question marks at the end of the word, ‘Sheriff?’ is succeeded by the word, ‘Pray!’ with an apostrophe, thereby, creating a humorous effect. The poem is a great satire on the police force of possibly, Nigeria or African states as a whole. The point of note for the poet is the inefficiency of the police in combating crimes and confronting criminals in the society.

When in the middle of the night

And hoodlooms break your door

You call the station in desperation for help

Pray there is petrol in the car.

You call the station for the sheriff to come

Pray the batteries and tires are good.

 

These aspects of the poem are illustratively explained to even the common man who reads through the poem. This poem could offer some sort of entertainment and succor to the ordinary man when he sees the play of words about issues in his society. The policemen, use the job, to extort the masses who have no option when they want to gain freedom from the police net. And this freedom the person gets, is at the expense of his possession and fortune to part with.

When misfortune frowns at you

With an infraction of the law and you are a fish in a net

Owning silver nor gold, in desperation for his help

Pray he doesn’t feast on you like louse.

 

The last stanza of this poem sums it all up as a dread for the police is advocated by the poet persona. Help is seen to be elusive with the police. The average Nigerian have always lived with this idea in their head due to police brutality, corruption and inefficiency. This trend resulted in the mass protest of 20^th October, 2020 popularly tagged the ‘End SARS’ protest.

 

Next in the line of analysis, is the poem; “Gloves in the Ballot Box”; another very political poem just like “The Honourable one”. According to Ezekiel (2008:109).

 

Another evidence of political meaningless, impotency, aridity, falsity and empty electioneering campaign is “Gloves in the Ballot Box”. Though, democracy is highly respected, and cherished, it is not allowed to hold sway in the African society.

 

This gives us an insight into the poem at hand. The presence of the word, ‘Ballot Box’, easily tells us of the political nature of this poem. This is the message seen through the analysis of the poem.

 

Not an ordinary box but a house of treasure Fragile though holds more than you can measure

Therein entrusted with all pleasure

All we cherish from our past, for a future sure

 

The poet persona attributes affluence, pleasures, and all other goodies to the ballot box. The box is seen as an ordinary but mighty one that gives license to all the affluence and greatness the politicians amongst us enjoy, at liberty today. The results the box holds is inestimable and non-quantifiable to any tangible amount, since the benefits attached, are very plenty much.

 

The poet persona, just as he has been doing in all the other poems discussed, now takes to the role of a sage; an adviser and proclaimer of wisdom on what is expected of the benefactor of the votes in the ballot box. The poet persona goes on in describing the political, or rather, democratic process through the stanzas of the poem.

 

The choosen one, the victor atop the mountain jeers

 

Never to the victim rally.

 

The gloves were in the ballot box, or aren’t we aware?

Ah, mistaking an enemy for an ally

For complacency, we’ll pay dearly.

 

According to Fagenyo (2008; 109), in commenting on this poem;

One of the greatest problems of African voters is the tendency to vote wrong political figures, out of their expression of greed, graft and lack of self-discipline. From Nigeria to Togo, from Central African Republic to Malawi, from Kenya to Zimbabwe, African leaders have had dictatorial, brutal, sectional, insensitive and corrupt leaders … This poem celebrates the tragedy of politics.

 

These tragedies, too, are reenacted in the poems; ‘A Seat of Nails’ and ‘Hills Barbecue 2000’. In the first stated poem, the poet persona, looks into the sit tight syndrome of African leaders. The latter, is a comparison of two continents political stance; America and Africa as the case is. The major Marxist ideas in the previously analyzed poems, are also very much present in the two poems mentioned here, to a great extent. Another poem that looks at the leadership problem in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, is the poem titled, “The Guardian”. As the title of this poem suggests, the guardian is supposed to be the one who is responsible for the care of those under him. In this poem, it is possible the guardian is serving the purpose rightly or falling below expectation. Gimba uses the guardian to symbolize African leaders who are supposed to be the care takers and care givers of the citizenry as seen through the lines of the poem as a confused state is presented:

 

When on each other’s toes we step Without remorse shown and tempers rises When in our daily chemistry we are out of step

 

And we turn pugilist in pursuit of a prize.

 

The poet persona in so many ways, through the poems in this collection reenacts the predicament the masses in the nation(s) get faced with. The advocate for the people is many times being played, through the lines, and messages are contained in the poems. Gimba, to a very high extent, stands as an altruist who not just observe things that takes place in his society, but also joins the people in educating and bringing to the notice of people, what is obtained in the society on a daily basis. An isolated couplet in the lines of the poem has a very captivating stance of the supposed role of the ‘Guardian’ as exemplified thus:

 

Like a grazing sheep cornered by a leopard No greater sight to behold like that of its shepherd

 

Injustice and inequality stands to be some of the most biting tenets of Marxism. Protection of lives and properties are seen to be a major obligation of the providence of government. The masses of the nations of Africa are yet to yield most of the basic benefits of governance.

 

The next poem in the line of analysis of this paper, looks through the trend and the process of this very idea in a formal court room setting. From the poems treated so far, right from the beginning of this paper, it appears that Gimba is really out to address every part and corner of the society he calls ours. The idea of the title of this collection is one that looks at almost all and every part of ‘This Land of Ours’. It is like there is almost everything in this land of ours. The poet now takes us into the walls of a court room and behold, all that transpires in it is presented, so glaringly to all. He beams his search light at the judicial system of the land as seen in the poem, titled ‘In Proportion’.

 

The defendant and the plaintiff are in profuse sweat

The trial judge has never been this late

 

The catfish, dogfish and octopus accuse the shark of murders

 

And the fisherman blamed the electric fish for the electrified waters

 

The whole judicial process ends in a quagmire as the sole principal officer of justice is almost a confused and unprincipled smart fellow. The volumes of matters at hand makes things more compounding and cumbersome. The expectation of the masses for justice is a mirage and more issues gets compounded for them, begging for justice. The poem is best summarized by the very short summary of Ezekiel (2008: 122) thus;

 

The air of meaningless, erratic behavior and discordant mannerisms is packaged for presentation in the poem which exposes the judiciary in the land as being dominated by clowns, idiots and corrupt figures.

 

The poems that have so far been discussed, have to a great extent, described Abubakar Gimba in so many ways to be a writer in line of the Marxist principle. It is still imperative that we take one or two more poems from the collection in establishing how Marxist inclined Gimba is, through the lines of his poetry collections.

 

Another poem that treats the manner and art of the poet or writer (Abubakar Gimba), is the one titled, “In the Shadow’. This poem is refectory of Gimba and by extension, writers that have same principles and share the same ideology as him. Writers who fight for the cause of their society and heed to the cry of the oppressed masses of their land. Here we see the poet persona personifying the pen with which he writes his works.

 

To the shrieking cry of my pen I did wake What is it? I know it was my pen’s cry.

 

Its offal a guiding light even the blind would take

 

And the stars perhaps in fright ran away Outside their tears formed a big lake

No, it’s their sweat as they race into the sky

 

The pen in this poem symbolizes the art of writing as a whole. The pen is attributed, characteristics of a living being. It symbolizes a tool and qualifies for a voice or agent of righting the wrongs of the society. In this poem, we could see every reason and purpose of Gimba’s work. All manner and sort of happenings in the society are reported and presented through his writings. The creative process and purpose is the central idea in this poem. The poet is seen to touch all happenings and events in the society.

 

He gains friends and also have great number of enemies, who are affected by the contents of his writings. The writer, must, and, always stand for justice, truth and high sense of moral. This is what makes him to stand out in the society as he goes on trying to correct her ills. The writer is a social critic and commentator as well as a reporter of events. That quest to write is seen to be expressed through the poem by the repetition of “where is my pen?” almost in all the lines of the poem. The writer has that zeal and passion in his art. He is an advocate for the people, especially, the poor and oppressed in the society. The writer is as a matter of fact, an ambassador of justice in the society. This is signified by ‘light’ in the lines of the poem. Men and mice is suggestive of the inclusiveness of all levels, class and species of being.

It entrails light and draws moths

 

To the cautious a life, from the impatient a life.

The shrieking cry persists, in the shadow

From the shadow, defiant of men and mice

For the love of mirth.

 

This art is what the poet holds dear and points clearly in the poem as well as others, related in theme in the collection.

 

The succeeding poem, titled, ‘The Book-Hunter’ has the same theme as the previously discussed one. It is apparent that Gimba expresses same idea through different poems so as to fully engage the subject of discussion in more than one way. This could be, so that the message is adequately passed across and all areas of the matter or issue at hand is dealt with, adequately. Before concluding on the analysis of the poems in this collection, a very serious but funny poem has to be looked at. This poem is serious because of the kind of treatment that people of the land of Nigeria receive, when on transit, outside the shores of their country. The trend is so disheartening and very humiliating to a very high degree. Nigerian citizens get treatments that classify them as the others; a different class of people. The dehumanizing treatment the poet experienced is what he shares and presents in the poem; “Where Are You From?”

 

The poet satirizes the situation but have a very pressing message to pass across, even though it had been presented in a humorous manner. The poem is a narrative dialogue which involves the custom official on duty, in an international airport and other citizens, including the Nigerian. The scenario created in this poem is compared and is similar to the poem of Wole Soyinka, titled; The Telephone Conversation. In this poem by Soyinka, we witness a telephone dialogue between an African; possibly, a Nigerian. This African, seeks an accommodation abroad, but the treatment meted on him shows of the class and race differentia in the world today. The poem presented by Gimba here carries that same message as the poem of Soyinka. Racism is the name of the game and it keeps going on, in the world without any check, on the excesses of other nationals on the African or Nigerians, in particular. This is the issue Gimba tries to address in this poem as seen through the lines; especially the third stanza of the poem:

 

Take off your clothes. Everything

Everything? And my pants too?

 

Don’t you understand simple English?

 

This inhumane treatment goes against the fundamental human rights of this individual who is helpless and without any resort. The whole bad treatment he got is because he is a Nigerian as seen in the last stanza of the poem.

Thank you. It is over

But why….?

 

Sorry, we’re just not taking chances… Because I am a Nigerian?

 

The last poem to be discussed in this paper, before concluding is the title poem of this collection of study. It is clear that Gimba has been relating events, happenings and the nature of practices in “This land of Ours”, but yet the title poem is specific of the travails of the society of the poet.

 

‘This land of ours’ is a poem that really deals with the very issues confronting a nation as ours. The poet uses the title to denote the communal spirit he shares with the people of his nation. It is not an individualistic quest, but one that is collective and collaborative. The poet is a true messiah of the land. This has been demonstrated in all the poems looked at so far. It has been demonstrated too, that Gimba is Marxist inclined in some way, through the contents of his poetry.

 

Discussion of the Major Findings

 

The idea, reached, at the end of this paper is best described in the idea popularized by Chinua Achebe. Achebe is known for his yam and oil talk in Things Fall Apart. And from Achebe’s comment, which says that proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten, a coinage is made, in relation to literature and theory. In our regard, in this paper, it is the relationship between Literature and Marxism (theory) that becomes like the yam and palm oil. In this paper, Marxism becomes like the oil with which yam is eaten. That is to say, that, literature and theory go hand in hand and by extension, Marxism and literature are interdependent, in the context of this paper. The idea is that both concepts are interrelated and dependent on each other, as far as this paper is concerned. In essence, Theory (Marxism) and literature need each other; especially as it relates to the idea of this paper.

 

Through the discussions, the Marxist ideas and postulates in the lines are unraveled and subsequently, discussed. In the end, the Marxist ideas in the poems are discussed as those Marxist tendencies inherent in the poems. It became established that there are serious Marxist ideas, tenets, postulations, and ideologies inherent in the poetry of Abubakar Gimba as seen in the collection of This Land of ours.

 

The poems amongst these further treats and explore the themes of greed, selfishness, impatience, intolerance, arrogance, pride, corruption, oppression, class divides, and other injustices of the ruling class of the society. This address, to the predicament of the current situation of the writer’s society, is very much seen in all the poems of this collection. In most instances, the poet is a voice, or rather a mouthpiece of the people. At some other times, he is an advocate as well as an agitator. The Marxist bent is but very much pronounced in almost all the poems of the collection. We easily see, a lot of Marxist ideas and manner of doing things manifested in the poems. The mood, approach, and engagements in the poems easily pass for them to be associated with Marxism. At some points in the collection, Gimba goes close as to call the people to arms. He spurs and urge the masses on, as well as address and present the ills and decadence in the society. By this expression, the poet involves himself in the predicament of the people. He sees himself as part and parcel of the society he writes about and addresses. The investigation, through the poems in this collection, makes for the argument of this paper to be valid. 

Conclusion

Marxism as a literary theory is one of the tools in analyzing literary works. As has been established in the course of this paper, a theory is a guide which through its pattern, sets a work of literature in order. It is established, that Abubakar Gimba, as a writer and poet, has Marxist inclinations in some way as the key texts established. This inclination to Marxism is what the title of this paper meant by the use of the word, “Tendency.” The tendency as has been used in this paper tells of the disposition, affinity, relationship, and (or) familiarity with a concept. Ideas in the poems point closer to the tenets of Marxism. Through a thorough analysis of the poems in the collections, side by side with Marxism, as a tool, it became possible to ascertain the Marxist level of the concerned poems in relation to the author. Gimba is not pronounced as a Marxist or a Marxist writer but this collection, through the poems, have in some way, presented Marxism as an element present in the poetry of Gimba. The ideas in the poems, through the explication of analysis on them, expose those Marxist tendencies present in the poetry of Abubakar Gimba.

 

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