Niyi Osundare : The ‘Eco Elegist’ Echoes through his Elegies

Abstract

The biggest enemy we face is anthropocentricism. This is that common attitude that everything on this earth was put here for (human) use.” −Eric Pianca, Eminent Ecologist, Ecological Society of America. A poet dons many roles to ring in a change, to bring in a transformation, blows a clarion to call caution, envisages a dream and battles for a better world. Niyi Osundare, the Nigerian poet, activist fits into this bill perfectly. His heart heaves heavy as he whines over the imbalance in the ecology imbued by the brutish and selfish humans. He grieves over the loss of the green cover, wails over the woods being cleared, moans over the mountain ranges being razed to the ground and sheds tears on seeing the ‘tear’ in the sky. Osundare wears the mantle of the typical ‘eco elegist’, who earnestly laments over the degradation, deforestation and death of the ecology and human destiny thereafter. Following the lines of traditional elegies, Nyi Osundare begins his poems on a highly pessimistic note over how, man pounds and plunders the earth for his selfish motives. He imbues his lines with melancholic mood as he moans on seeing the morose, unsightly sights around him.