RALLIES OF THE VOICELESS IN IDRIS MUSA OKPANACHI’S EATERS OF THE LIVING AND ENO GRACE NTA’S SELVES AT WAR

Abstract

This paper, “Rallies of the Voiceless in Musa Idris
Okpanachi’s Eaters of the Living and Eno Grace Nta’s Selves at
War”, critically examines the predicament of the marginalized
in the 21st century. The voiceless in this context has to do
with the masses who have been silenced by systemic injustice
and prejudice appropriated by the capitalists. By
interrogating the predicament of the masses, this paper
unravels the strength of the oppressed in the face of the
dwindling political misnomer. Through the theoretical
strength of Marxism, this paper lays bare the manner with
which Okpanachi and Nta strengthen the voices of the
marginalized in wrestling capitalism in the society. These
poets encoded the plight of the oppressed, the serial carnage
and existential threats on humanity as an elixir of the masses
uprising. It is in this resilience and manner with which the
people speak that Mikhail Bakhtin describes elsewhere as a
“centrifugal force”. The assessment of the works of
Okpanachi and Nta show that whereas critical scholarship
exists in the poetry of most Nigerian poets, there is a
noticeable lack of substantial attention on the rallies of the
voiceless in their poems. This is why the drive of this paper is
built around this critical gap in scholarship. The paper
concludes that the writers’ frown at the vileness and depravity
of a besmirched society and passionately scream at a country
besieged by negative forces; threatening the peaceful
coexistence of the masses and calls for a fundamental
interventionist approach to nip this evil in the bud.