The Igbo Persona and the Agony of the Nigerian Civil War in Hyginus Ekwuazi’s That Other Country

The article contends that Hyginus Ekwuazi’s That Other Country addresses the Nigerian Civil War experience and the agonies of the Igbo persona. Being a latter third generation Nigerian poetry, the collection chronicles the connection between the agonies of the Igbo persona, the activities that led to the war, and the war experience itself. Unlike most Nigerian Civil War poetry, Ekwuazi’s That Other Country is influenced by the recent campaign and agitation for Biafra. The poetry does not only record a new version of the war experience, it reflects the Igbo persona’s disenchantment with the worsening socio-political situation of the Nigerian State. The poetry shows that the agony of the war glows, even though the war took place 50 years ago. The collection depicts that the agony of the war is fuelled by the inability of the Igbo persona to forget the horrible experience of his past. The article concludes that Nigerian Civil War poetry has continued to surface because successive Nigerian governments have been unable to provide a levelling ground for its people to melt away the tribal and ethnic mistrust that has become part of its national consciousness.

From Soldier-Poet to Veteran Memoirist: Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, and the Limits of Life-Writing in Prose

The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston is a key text supporting Siegfried Sassoon’s reputation as Britain’s pre-eminent Great War-writer. Critics have nevertheless reached no consensus as to whether these lightly fictionalised “memoirs” represent true accounts of Sherston’s/ Sassoon’s war or fictional constructions. They have also yet to account for the differences between the Memoirs and Sassoon’s war-poetry, and between Sherston’s stated commemorative goals and his complete account. This article dissects the Memoirs’ adaptation of Sassoon’s front-line poetics of commemoration: it reads their new application of this poetics via his compositional difficulties, his dependence upon his own wartime writings, and life-writing’s uneasy relationship to truth. As I show, Sherston has more in common with his author than Sassoon intended, but differences remain; still, his memoirs have as much right to that appellation as any other text in the language.