DEICTICS AND STYLISTIC FUNCTION IN J.P CLARK-BEKEDEREMO'S POETRY

Yeibo: Deictics and Stylistic Function in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's Poetry 8

For a similar use of the locative adverbs 'here' and 'there' (i.e. to contrast the physical

world and the world beyond, see also "Debris of Day" (of Sleep and Old Age), "Rain in a

Basket" (Of Sleep and Age) "A Time to Sleep" (Of Sleep and Old Age), A Hymn for a

Friend in His Losses" (State of the Union), "Herons at Funama" (State of the Union), "A

Song for Harlem" (A Lot From Paradise).

Another strategic stylistic use of the deixis 'here' and 'there' in the texts, has to do

with a contrast between Nigeria and the rest of the world, particularly the western world.

In other words, J.P. Clark-Bekederemo uses these locative adverbs to express his views,

thoughts and propositions about contrastive socio cultural events and experiences in these

places. In "Here Nothing Works" (State of the Union), for instance, Clark-Bekederemo

highlights the substandard infrastructure and services provided in Nigeria, in contrast to

the perfect functionality of these same infrastructure and services "elsewhere", apparently

the western world or advanced countries. Specifically, the poet laments the worrisome

contrast in the standard and quality of water supply, telephone services, the motorway,

airways, etc, and wonders whether there is something inherent in our nature or times that

prevents these things from functioning in our soil.

In "The Patriarchs at the Return to Civilian Rule" (State of the Union), the deictic

word "here" also refers to Nigeria, in contrast to "other lands". In this poem, Clark-

Bekederemo laments the return of first republic politicians such as Zik, Awo, Waziri,

Aminu Kano, etc. to the political trenches during the second republic, instead of giving

way to a new breed of politicians to pilot the political destiny of the nation, like what

obtained elsewhere. In this situation, we find that the contrast highlighted by the locative

adverbials "here" and "there", enables the poet to expose the general infrastructural

inadequacy and moral decadence of Nigerians which have remained perennial clogs in

the wheel of progress of this nation. In fact, Clark-Bekederemo insists that this is the

reality of our being. The poet's attitude to all of this is overtly that of worry and

frustration. For a similar use of the deictic words "here" and "there", see also

"Handshake" (State of the Union), "A Time to Sleep" (Of Sleep and Old Age),"Debris of

Days" (Of Sleep and Old Age), "Rain in a basket" (Of Sleep and Old Age), etc.

In Bombay" (Casualties), Clark-Bekederemo uses the deictic locative adverb"

here" for this Indian city: "Here nothing seems new: the rising /Estate is cancelled out by

septic slums - " (emphasis mine). This confirms our earlier view that, the poet uses

"here" for subjects, places or phenomena that are closer to him, depending on the context.

The use of the deixis "here" in this context, tells us that the poet visited the city and wrote

the poem on the spot. It is a product of the poet's physical experience and assessment of

the highs and lows of this Indian city. Obviously, "Here nothing seems new" is a

comparison with what obtains in Lagos in the poet's native country where the glow of

Victoria Island or Ikoyi is "cancelled out" by the "Septic slums" of Ajegunle and

erstwhile Maroko.

The poem "Last Rights in Ijebu" (State of the Union) also confirms our earlier

view that the proximal "here" is used by the poet to relate actual experiences in specific

places he has visited. This poem refers to the customary burial rites (or rights?) accorded

the old in Ijebu, where sons-in-law play prominent roles. Clark-Bekederemo confesses

9 Yeibo: Deictics and Stylistic Function in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's Poetry

that: "I had no idea, until I did the rite - " (p.157). Of course, the poet's wife Ebunola, is

from Ijebu in South Western Nigeria. See also "A Song of New England", for a similar

use of the proximal locative adverb "here".

In "Land of the Gods" (A Lot from Paradise), Clark-Bekederemo uses the distal

"there" to refer to his native Kiagbodo Community. Two possible explanations are

applicable here: The first is that the poet could have written the poem from a distant

physical or geographical location from home i.e. Lagos. Secondly, he could have decided

to imaginatively or mentally distance himself from the setting of the poem. This

suggestion becomes plausible when we find that in "The Order of the Dead" (Mandela

and other Poems), the poet refers to the same kiagbodo, his ancestral home, as "here"

" - in a land/where the dead without blemish/Are buried in their homestead - ", in

contrast with "the dead in other lands" (p.204, emphasis mine).

6.3 Temporal Deixis

In J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's poetry, the temporal adverbs "now" and "then" help the poet

to situate the event and issues highlighted in the poems within specific time frames or

periods. This is very strategic to the cumulative meaning of his texts because, whether a

poet documents events, reflects on or recalls his experience, or comments on sociocultural

or political phenomena, poetry derives more relevance, concreteness and social

appeal if specific time boundaries are clearly delineated. Specifically, in J.P. Clark-

Bekederemo's poetry, the temporal deixis "now" and "then", are used to highlight

present/past, old age/youth and life/death, respectively. A careful study of these

contrasting temporal phenomena shows that the essential or core issues that the poet

explores in his poetry, revolve around them.

In "The Traffic Now and Then" (Of Sleep and Old Age), for instance, the poet's

use of the temporal deictic words "now" and "then" is very strategic. As the title of the

poem depicts, the poet is able to capture and contrast the past pastimes of youths in the

Niger Delta (i.e. then), to what obtains now. Using the river as the centre of activity and

oil as the economic commodity around which the activities revolve, the poet tells us that,

in the past (i.e. then) "when oil in the land was of another kind" (i.e. palm oil), on

sighting a big stern-wheeler boat in the river, youths

" - With no sense of wrong

- Rushed to the beaches

And swam out to the ships,

- Offering a hand

It was lively fair and traffic. (p. 31)

In contrast, the poet writes that, in the present times (i.e. now),

Youths, now with guns, go for tankers

Today taking away before our eyes,

The new oil of a sinking delta. (Emphasis mine) (p. 31).

Yeibo: Deictics and Stylistic Function in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's Poetry 10

No doubt, the temporal deixis "now" and "then" here, help the poet in contrasting the

peaceful disposition of youths in the past, to the violent and daring disposition that youths

in the Niger Delta exhibit today.

In "I Wake to the Touch" (A Decade of Tongues), the poet uses the deictic word

"now" to contrast what happened the previous night in a dream, and what happened the

next morning. Specifically, he recalls his sight of "a snake/slithering in the field,

livid/where the grass is parched - " in a dream "last night", and the fear and anxiety that

this experience evoked in the morning. By using the temporal deictic "now", the poet is

able not only to demarcate the two events but also show the emotional and psychological

chain that links both.

Also in "Aburi and After" (Casualties), the poet uses the deixis "now" and "then"

to situate his doubts about General Gowon's firmness and capacity to withstand pressure

or contain crisis, before the Aburi accord was struck in Ghana in 1967:

I thought for a long time

They were winging jack Gowon's hand

Wringing his hand for use of a rule

Too broken then in the sand

To flog a fly. (Emphasis mine)

But his doubts vanished after Aburi, with the implacable posture of the government:

"And a keeper now at attention" (Emphasis mine). See also "Niger Delta Burning" (Of

Sleep and Old Age), "A Dying Breed" (Of Sleep and Old Age), "Return of the Heroes"

(State of the Union), for a similar use of the temporal deixis "now" and "then".

"One Country" (State of the Union) is another poem where temporal deixis is used

by the poet to effectively situate his comments. In this poem, J.P. Clark-Bekederemo

highlights the contradictions within the Nigerian nation where proceeds of oil wealth

from the Niger Delta, are used to transform "waste regions" into "garden cities"

upcountry while the Niger Delta, the source of the wealth, remains barren and

undeveloped. The poet contrasts what happens then in the historical past when Niger

Deltans "kept the stranger at bay", to "now" when the people are only anxious over their

economic and political rights which majority tribes unjustly seized, in the name of one

country.

In "The Plague" (State of the Union), the poet laments the upsurge of armed

robbery in the country, ten years after the civil war. The use of the deictic word "now"

relates the present times to the civil war and suggests that it is as perilous and

unpredictable as the Nigeria civil war era. See also "Concerning My Command by

General Olusegun Obasanjo and other Accounts of the Nigerian Civil War" (State of the

Union), "Birthday at Wesleyan, Middletown, cf." (State of the Union), "The Coming of

Age" (State of the Union), etc., for a similar use of these deixis.

In Clark-Bekederemo's poetry, the temporal deictic words "now" and "then" are

also used to contrast life and death. These are very serious and fundamental timesensitive

human phenomena and J.P. Clark-Bekederemo uses these deixis to effectively

11 Yeibo: Deictics and Stylistic Function in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's Poetry

delineate the different periods and raise vital socio-cultural and moral questions. For

instance, in "Family Meeting for the Disposal of the Wreck" (State of the Union), the

poet questions the rationale for holding extended family meetings and levying each

member of the family, to bury the dead, when the deceased was not taken care of when

he was critically ill. This poem highlights the petulant neglect of the living and the

bloated sense of obligation for the dead that characterize the social life of Africans. The

repetition of the temporal deictic word "now" in both stanzas (i.e. the poem is made of

two stanzas) of the poem, is, itself, a significant discourse strategy which foregrounds the

needless and misplaced care for the dead which is the subject matter of discourse. See

also "My Father's House" (Of Sleep and Old Age), "The Last of the Wives" (of Sleep and

Old Age), "Homecoming" (Mandela and Other Poems), etc, for a similar use of the

deixis "now" and "then".

In the two-stanza poem "Dressing the Dead" (Mandela and Other Poems), this

same discourse strategy is adopted by the poet. The temporal deictic word "now" is

repeated three (3) times, to foreground the preoccupation of the text (i.e. death) and

contrast it with life. For clarity and easy reference, we present the entire first stanza and

the relevant lines of the second stanza of the poem inter alia:

All indigo now as the dye in his veins,

He looked no different from the friend

His wife had often had to help

Out of his clothes, when flush with the gift

Of an additional day, he came home

At dawn, barely made it to bed,

And promptly asked for coffee. Only now,

He had to be helped into his best,

After receiving a good cold bath -

And now they were interlaced in white

Across his chest perfectly at rest,

Hands that, at a simple touch, could tell

A mother why her child cried all night (p. 185,

Emphasis mine).

We find a similar mode of signification in the one-stanza poem "A Passing at New Year"

(Mandela and other Poems). In fact, the one-stanza structure of the poem reflects its

mono-thematic nature (i.e. the theme of life and death). The critical point is that, in this

poem, there is a clear demarcation between life and death with the deixis "now" and

"then". The unfeeling and helpless state of death is conveyed in the line:

Now the white sheet he objected to

When he came out of a day-long coma

Was spread fully over his face (p. 193, emphasis mine).

Yeibo: Deictics and Stylistic Function in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's Poetry 12

This state clearly contrasts with the fact that, when the subject of the poem was alive, or

came to be after the "day-long" coma, he could react with anger and disgust:

Then he would get up,

He swore, and go home, regardless of cost

Before they got him. (p. 193; Emphasis mine)

See also "A Royal Welcome" (Mandela and Other poems), "The Court Beyond" (A Lot

from Paradise), etc.

In J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's poetry, the deictic temporal adverb "now" also

indicates the distinction between youth and its attendant energy and activity, and old age

with its associated inertia and general sense of foreboding and anxiety that death is just

around the corner. For instance, in "The Last Wish" (Mandela and Other Poems), the

poet uses "now" to indicate the period of old age, in contrast with the period of youth or

adolescence. It is actually a prayer for a peaceful death, and purveys the anxiety over the

shape or colour of the end, associated with old age. Here is the entire four-line poem:

Now that where I am going

Is nearer than where I began,

May I be like the emerging child,

If the arrival is into light (p. 203).

It is no coincidence that the deployment of the deictic temporal adverbs "now" and

"then" to perform the discourse function of delineating the contrast between youth and

old age, is predominant in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo's of Sleep and Old Age. This is clearly

as a result of the preoccupation of the text i.e. a reflective and contrastive journey through

his youth and old age. "Of Things Past" (Of Sleep and Old Age) clearly captures this

preoccupation:

Old age truly is the time

To look back at events in the past,

Not to retrieve anything for some archive,

But I find, out of fear, the old try all

They can to fill the void

They see clearly in front. (p. 33).

For instance, in "A Woman Special to Me" (Of Sleep and Old Age), the poet ruminates