Songs Of Absence And Despair By Toni Kan

It is rare to see contemporary modern African writers addressing the issue of economic dire and hardship; anguish of being away from one’s kin, societal doom coupled with pain arising from missing some one loved, without being political. It is rare to see African writers being creatively aware of another platform of expressing the socio-political scenario of African society without being biased either by building the universal idea of their works on bad governance or lack of trust in leadership and followership which has always being the order of the day in the new dimension of African literature. I believe Toni Kan has brought the best by bringing his pen out of the dusty and boring general status qou of African literature being subjected to politics and squeezed his stream of consciousness for new juice of knowledge to present reality without being gullible of politi-ture which younger writers inherited from foremost African writers.

         Toni Kan’s song of absence and despair is a realistic collection of poem that laments for those who are being forced out of their land because of unbearable economic hardship and could not return back. Rather, they get united again to their families and friends through the space less window of social network and cash exchange western union, which are not enough to re-learn love back between husband and wife, father and children, mother and children who are, for a long period of time being forcedly made to gaze each side afar by hard-bitten inevitable torment of poverty, and there by aims at snatching hope from the dreadful jaw of despair.

        The poem is full of memories of manifold moments- love, absence, despair from the first poem ‘night falls gently like leaves in an autumn’ to the last one ‘a very young girl with enormous breast. Kan ,having got the ideology from a Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, he is  of the fact that there is need for portrayal of love’s torment which almost all parts of the globe are subjected to. The poems portray love as full of agonies, bitter melodies and baked moments, especially in a situation where lovers who are expected to be enjoying the game of Cupid find each other a lonely minstrel on deserted street of loneliness without any help. No wonder, ‘the night falls like leaves in an autumn’ expresses loneliness as an element of despair.

 In ‘want to see my dad’, and ‘loneliness has grown muscle’, the poet recalls the fall-out of one’s lover absence as being heart-piercing. He says:

      I mourn my husband

      Though he is not dead

      The distance between us

       Yawns like a graveyard

     I am wet with tears                     

Throughout the poem, I wonder why the poet assumes the responsibility of being the victim of absence and despair; Perhaps to bring the pains of absence close to common man. There is undisputable fact that the collection addresses the issue of immortality and death with ‘all I have now are memories’ and one day gone, and i am not tatter’ as copious instances. Though eye may be made far from eye by death, the memories of yesterday and last night when cordiality was the song of village cannot be forever kept in oblivion. And for those whose days are gone, their memories shall ever be caressed in the vessel of remembrance till eyes shall meet again on the lane of togetherness.

      The collection is a memories laced with bitter and distasteful melody filled with powerful imageries that wake slumbering passion and dying affection from being transient but eternal. Laconicity is employed in the poems. The fact that its language is simple, direct and straight-forward amounts it to accolades. I see the collection as a clarion call to those buffeted by economic shipwreck and melt-down with sense of consciousness for understanding among one another. What really impresses me most is the sequential arrangement of the poems with the theme built around coherence and cohesive subject matter.

   Contrarily, there are still many lapses which call for other-side of the collection. It is not only a bringer of tears but also the killer of hope. Though the it aims at snatching hope from the jaw of despair, throughout the poem, there is no place for hope to be seen, rather pains, tears, despair, nostalgic moments that evoke fears make the pages of the collection busy. We should also note that the collection is a similitude replica of Pablo Neruda’s ‘song of and love’ making it sounds plagiaristic. Lastly, there is no mutual correlation and corroboration between its title and the circumventing aim of the book. They are contradictory and ironic!