Kanyinsola Olorunnisola, Dhee Sylvester, Eze Ossai and 3 others make Anarchi Shortlist

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• Kanyinsola
  Olorunisola

“Kanyinsola’s
artistic representation of Anarchi is a remarkable engagement. He demonstrates
a clear understanding of the expectation of the contest and explores such
understanding through poetic deconstruction. His choice of language is clearly
vulgar, deriding religious reference, “fucking messiah”,while effectively
exploring intertextuality – reference to Fela and Christian values. The poet
mocks traditional ways of life, “Oodua’sdrity skull”, even though he prefers it
to the “white gods with a fetish for black bodies.” Perhaps, of great
importance is the form and style adopted by the poet to drive disregard for any
form of standard or institutionalized control. The title of his poem sets the
tone for a larger than others persona, one who is confrontational and sarcastic
of “niggers” who are better of as “silent bitch”. Here, the poet is not ashamed
to attack gullible acceptance of foreign superiority and uses the right
language to foreground his disdain. The beauty of this poem lies in how the
poet demonstrates the conflict between social conformance and the individual
freedom, hoping that “niggers become their own gods.” The poem evokes strong
emotions of anger, frustration and chaotic appetite for damnation – “i’d like to
set my people aflame someday”, such emotions reach orgasmic crescendo as the
smell of the “bleached bodies” of his people “turns” him “on”. This subtle
connotation of violence and sexual pleasure unveils the conflict between
suppression of sexual desires and the expulsion of sexual fantasy often
socially aversive and sadistic.”

• Dhee
  Sylvester

“Dhee’sconcise poem, a smooth blend of
prose and poetry, queries the religious docility surrounding human nature of
lust. Exploring oxymoron in the title of the poem, the poet deconstructs the popular
belief (or misbelief) that lust, a natural trait of humanity, is ungodly. He
scores a strong religious point by using religion against itself: “godliness of
lust”. In doing this, the poet is ridiculing the very foundation on which
religion is built, the concept of “god”. To reinforce this, the poem opens with
an observation of condemnation –“all he sees are the sins he’ll never commit.”
This line foregrounds how religion makes individuals incapable of their
humanity, of the need to express what is possible. A perfect twist is introduced
in the following line as the poet mocks the identity of “god”, a reference to
the feminist clamor for feminization of god.The poem heightens as the poet
suggests the identity of the right god to whom the persona needs to pray: “if
your god is the picture of a porn star”. A bold attack on religion and
suppression of sexual needs. The introduction of a “porn star” brings a
different dimension to the poem: an argument that sexual exploration is a
spiritual feat, a necessity that must be imbibed through the same religious
indoctrination. The imagery of an “open bible” used as a simile for “legs
spread out wide” creates a fluid profanity of a sacred religious ritual. Here
the poet is making the reader see the connection between sexual exploration and
religious responsibility – and the need to be open to new experiences. The
climax of the poem celebrates the individual choice of sexual preference. Not
only has the poet demonstrated that religion is sex in a way, the poet argues
that a man should learn to “worship the obelisk between his thighs”, which
partly suggests that man’s sexual desires should be his religion, and also
hints at a favorable disposition to homosexuality.”

• Nzere
  Chinedu Herbert

“Chinedu’s poem is a remarkable effort at
redefining love. Through evocative imagery and aggressive language, the poet
attacks feminist ideals about the female’s identity by objectifying “her” as a frame
meant to be rough ridden, “How to travel her frame like a bumpy ride”. Heterosexual
love oftenhas been treated as a sacred commitment to the female in such a
filial relationship. As a twist, the poet shows that boys should be the center
of love, while girls are just tools to satisfy their needs. Since “foreplays
are for boys”, the poet foregrounds the element of “play”, a metaphor for
masculine dominance and fantasy of the female sex, the act of love should be an
extreme exploitation of her feelings, hence the intent “to rip her heart to
shreds” and “fuck her” till “she cums to bemoan love”. The use of coarse and
vulgar languageheightens theemotional violation central to the poem – a strong
desire to see that the object of sexual fantasy is fully aware of the new
meaning of sex and watch her “melt into a dirge”, a gradual acceptance of
hopelessness, helplessness and victimization. It is a deliberate recreation of
the female gender as one to crave the extremity of demeaning sex, typical of masochism,
while celebrating male sadismIt is important to note that the poet is not only
defining love in a novel way, he is questioning the conventional understanding
of love – which often is synonymous with sacrifice and self-humiliating
acceptance of the other person as the subject of affection and adoration, at the
expense of the one in love.The beauty of this poem lies in its ability to tear
down social understanding of love, celebrate masochist-sadistic relationship as
the new meaning of love, and the brazen boldness with which the persona tells
his victim of how to be loved.”

• Inegite
  Trust

“Inegite’spoem is a sharp rebuke of
heterosexual love as esteemed as the only way to love. The poet begins his
attack on traditional definition of love popularized by a suppressive religion,
demonstrating how individual freedom is trapped in nothingness, “I am a bird in
the middle of nowhere”. The internal conflict of loving who he chooses to love is
intensified as the judgment of hell is handed over to him, “A preacher man says
hell is my kind of home.” The defiance to choose love, to build a nest where the
“lover’s body is a portrait of flowers” has led to irreligiosity and
confrontation with the object of religious worship: “Yet, I drop the bible in
the flame, and walk my lover off the face of God”. This line introduces a
common trend between homosexuality and atheism. Here, the persona argues that a
sense of religious observance that does not promote personal preference of love
cannot coexist, a much darker reflection of religious people who desperately
juxtapose their sexuality with religiosity. Dropping the bible into flame is an
act of desecration of the Christian faith, a demonstration that the persona has
no more faith in his faith; the ultimate beatification of personal freedom. However,
while it is easy to attack one’s faith and “drop the bible in the flame”, the
poet doesshy away from the “lynch of the mob” that comes with such homosexual expression.
As a result, the poet longs for a time to be his own version of God. While this
poem uses irreverent language, the submission of the individual will to law and
the fear of the mob shows that the persona is not willing to dare society as he
has dared religion or God.”

“Tinuoye’s
poem is a dichotomy between conformance with social mores and the quest for self-expression.
The persona reveals that he is brought up to be chaste but lives in constant
denial of his humanity and sexuality. It is not unusual to find sexual
suppression as an integral motif in religion and morally puritanistic behavior
modification. The battle between individual freedom and social confinement often
leads to the individual being branded an “outlaw”, and in some cases a “rapist”
– used connotatively as violating dominating culture and values. One can argue
that people who find themselves in “despicable” sexual acts are sometimes products of denied normal sexual expression, people who, in
a way to be free of the suppressed humanity, often find themselves engage in sexual
acts which are considered antisocial. To avoid such unfortunate sexual misbehaviors,
the persona advocates for an abuse of a system that has suppressed “willing and
lush orifices” who delight in the thrusts of a “sweet penising”. This poem
celebrates anarchy by calling for an end of a culture that suppresses human
needs and promoting sexual exploration.”

“Eze’s
poem describes the internal conflict experienced by young boys who have romantic
feelings for same sex. The persona nurses nostalgia for those gone before him
to guide him in his quest for love – an apparent reference to same sex lovers whose
fates in the hand of a hateful society serve as a warning, may be wisdom, for
him to choose carefully. The persona does not shy away from the impending
danger of his choice, but the longing in him “for a day a boy” like him “would
say he loves” him is stronger than the damnation he is likely going to face,
even as his “broken skin shall melt in his arms”. Though the persona realizes
that his resolve is a “melting wax”, but the defiance to face his “morbid
testament” is a celebration of the human will in the face of societal suppression.”