Reconstructing the Transitory Phases of Africa in African Poetry

Scientific Essay from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics language: English abstract: Poetry as an art form is not only an overflow of feelings emotions and thoughts but also a means through which history is recreated. The history of a people is transmitted either through the oral or the written forms. The histories of mythical and legendary figures are also translated through the aforementioned medium. Poetry as mentioned earlier can also express the history of a people but often of great men and movers of nations in the form of epic. However poetry that reconstructs a continent''s history and its metamorphosis over space and time is what one hardly finds. Poetry nevertheless has the power to transmit history in such a way that the poetically transmogrified historical reality ceases to be seen as a history in historiography but a charged work of art that in itself is complete and beautiful. This paper studies Jarinatu Disu''s African Reminiscence and points that poetry is a form of art that can also capture and translate the transient phases of Africa. This kind of representation of history transmutes history into a form called historical poetry. It is thus concluded that the poet underscore has captured the historical phases of Africa giving poetic spirit to the historical forces that shaped the African world.