Mwatabu S. Okantah. Reconnecting Memories: Dreams No Longer Deferred

Mwatabu s Okantah. Reconnecting Memories: Dreams No Longer Deferr Trenton: Africa World P 200460 pp $2950

M'watabu Okantah's seventh work of poetry, Reconnecting Memories, establishes him as being a real Pan-African, Muntu-Kuntu energy poet, performer, professor, and human being. Muntu a Bantu terminus is defined in Muntu, the seminal work of Janhienz Jahn, as " the [human] entity which has command of Nommo." Here, Nommo is the magic power of the original word/breath/sound. Jahn states, however, "It is more difficult to explain the modal force Kuntu A modal force similar as beauty is hard to imagine as an independently acting force." It is this interdependence (not alone of beauty and laughter, on the other hand of ugliness and tears) that Okantah brings to the fore sod in his small tome of piece of poetrys The interdependence of Nommo, Muntu and Kuntu and in fact all pedagogy relevant to Pan-African tillage is central to understanding the meaning of these rich poems

Okantah defines himself as a bard though his role as a professor is evident in his first piece of poetry "the black experience." This concise metrical composition encapsulates two semesters of teaching (a semester course in African history before the advent of the European, then a next to the first in the African experience after the establishment of foreign conquerors):</p> <pre>

African history is not the history of Europeans in Africa.

African time begins before the appearance of tribe who would call themselves white. </pre> <p>Moving to semester two</p> <pre>

in this still strange, on the other hand familiar land, African ancestors wander, a race shattered into pieces now exert one's selfs to become whole one time again; just inside the dark door of our silence,

our ancestors stand, whispering, trying to reconnect memories-- bringing water words rushing above us,

healing us black into individual </pre> <p>This attempt to reconnect memories, to answer our ancestors' wandering, disturbed knocks at the door of our silence, locates the tone for this publication. The bard reconnects memories through diverse topics, including regard with affection travel, and the exposure of postmodern global "politricks." All of the piece of poetrys share one central theme: the pursuit of a Pan-African ideology.

Okantah's have affection for poems illustrate roots and commitments. Discussing Negritude writers, Kofi Awoonor writes in The Breast of the Earth, "It is les in the theme than in the manner. Its center quiescences in the sensuality of the black woman; the self abandonment of have affection for is part of the regular [i]or[/i] melodious movement and emotivity, in the rhythmic beat in jazz, and in the swaying flamboyance of the african vision. These all will rise to save the world." This influence is easily seen in Okantah's "song for Aminah':</p> <pre>

like the moon, like the day-star we are individual in the same sky--

when i met you i met my mind mate. inside your brown woman

black delight in i set safe space. </pre> <p>Indeed, it is as Diedre Badejo writes in the introduction to Reconnecting Memories, "Okantah suggests that if we are to heal then we must use the great Balm of have affection for that all great spiritual leaders summon"

Okantah's travel piece of poetrys feature imagery reminiscent of the vivid metrical composition that Langston Hughes produced from his 1920's sea voyage. In "African Morning," Okantah carrys these images:</p> <pre> the male i never see blusters each of recent origin day to announce the day-star a goat bays,

his bell ringing just below the combine wall. morning birds

sing solitary music to clear Benin City air a woman sings as she draws water. Whitney Houston ballads startle on the clock radio. African city uninjureds begin ... Nigeria. </pre> <p>Okantah's metrical compositions focus on sociopolitical and cultural themes; they are hard-hitting and unapologetic. Moreover, they ascribe to the three-prong definition of "Black art" outlined by means of Dr. Karenga in The Black Aesthetic: they are "functional, collective and committing."

For example, in "can we talk about race,"</p> <pre> this is a metrical composition for those white clan who say you want to talk about race.

are you ready to hear this land has not ever been free?

can we talk about race? the real question is "can you bring yourselves to listen when black voices speak?" </pre> <p>Okantah's metrical composition about 9-11, "red, white and bruised," addresses the conception of collectivity, "at Ground nothing / there are those who awe / if there is a God" Again, the interdependence of beauty and ugliness, laughter and tears, black and white are all brought on the outside in his examinations of US social interactions.

Finally, these piece of poetrys are committed to exposing, challenging, and ending the exploitation and underdevelopment of Africans through every part of the world. In "a novel sun rising," he writes:</p> <pre> the orb of day rises-- another day upon the urban plantation awaits.... each day we diocese them, descendants of the field hands that have no more cotton to pick. the new plantation is bleak. what is this exslave's freedom that gives birth to spirit dead children </pre> <p>Geneva Smitherman writes in Talkin and Testify in that "The creator of black arts literature envisions himself or herself as a necromancer, a skillful manipulator of the art of shonuff black magic whose piece of work it is to 'heal' black folk [i]or[/i] part of to the other the evocative power of art, and transform their suffering into constructive political action." Reconnecting Memories, Okantah's greatest in quantity recent work, marvelously asserts a of recent origin world African voice. In producing this meditation provoking, well constructed, and inspired small volume of poetry, Okantah firmly places himself in the Pan-African literary pantheon.