African Poetry: Gabriel Okara’s Piano And The Drums SS1 Literature-in-English Lesson Note

GABRIEL IMOMOTINE OBAINBAING OKARA: was born in 1921 in the ijaw area of the delta region of Nigeria. After his secondary education in Nigeria, he developed himself, by private reading and deep thinking, into a remarkable person and poet. He is known as a principal information officer in the eastern Nigeria government service.

His poems and short stories have been broadcast, published in various journals, particularly in ‘’Black Orpheus’’, and translated into many languages. His novel, the voice, published in 1964, reveals his deep concern with the problem of the development of an English language capable of fully expressing the African’s view of life.

PIANO AND DRUMS

When at breaks of day at a riverside

I hear jungle drums telegraphing

The mystic rhythm, urgent, raw

Like bleeding tree of speaking of

5   primal youth and the beginning,

I see the panther ready to pounce,

The leopard snarling about to leap

And the hunters crouch with spears poised;

And my blood ripples turns torrent,

10  topples the yearsand at once I’m

In my mother’s laps a suckling;

At once I’m walking simple

Paths with no innovations,

Rugged,fashioned with naked

15 warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts

In green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.

Then I hear a wailing piano 

Solo speaking of complex ways

In tear-furrowed concerto;

20  of far away lands

And new horizons with

Coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint,

Crescendo. But lost in the labyrinth

Of its complexities, it ends in the middle

25 of a phrase at a dagger point.

And I lost in the morning mist

Of an age at a riverside keep

Wandering in the mystic rhythm

Of jungle drums and the concerto

Piano symbolizes or represents the western civilization or European culture while the drums symbolize diverse African civilization and its rich cultural heritage. The incursion of western civilization into the cherished African way of life places African man in a state of confusion and retards the growth of his cultural life. The poet is embittered that the advent of European civilization has brought in strange culture which has been very difficult for the people to comprehend. 

Though culture is dynamic, the way and manner the new culture(piano) has arrived and the poor impartation and the swiftness with which the invaders tend to propagate creates a serious burden to the people it has been imposed on. ‘’then I hear a willing piano sol speaking of complex ways/in tear-surrounded concerto, of the far away lands.’’

It is because of the way ‘’things have fallen apart’’ and the center of African civilization refuses to hold’’ that compels the poet to put down his pen. As these two culture classes the speaker is in a dilemma.

He does not know which culture is genuine to be followed. The African way of dressing, worship, food, language or the European way of worship, dress, food , dance and language.