The Arts-Muse Fair

Gimba Kakanda is a Nigerian writer with a poetry collection 'Safari Pants', published in 2010. However, he is known more for his socio-political essays and commentaries than his poetry. Currently on a Writing Residency of the International Writing program of the Iowa University, US, he writes a weekly column syndicated in some Nigerian newspapers. When a few days ago he deviated from his normal commentary on social issues in Nigeria and began to share poems on his social media platforms, he got many readers to equally run ‘commentaries’ on this poetic side of him that’s getting revealed to many of his fans only now. One particular poem,  'I'm not your plural'  is being shared eagerly across facebook, twitter and whatsapp platforms by enthusiastic readers. Here, he explains to the Arts-Muse Fair the story about the  poem. TAMF : You rarely write, or do we say, post poems on your Facebook timeline. However, few days ago you gave us this poem that has got many of

I am not your plural I’m not this unit Of a memory that grows from nowhere I’m not the geometry of your brush This monochrome is only the shade of your eyes For I’m not black, I’m not white I’m the artwork of a thousand ancestors You know me, don’t you? I’m not your noun I may be the conspiracy of an unlit bedroom A mistake made in a whisper But I’m not the negative of this camera I’m the adjective Of a secret that never was I’m a reality Only seen by stained binoculars I’m not this verb These things I do are mere prophecy Of my bank I’m a prisoner of my history I’m not this pronoun So if you don’t know the gender of my shadows Remember the lamps that banish them I’m not the photograph of your imagination Your accent calls to me But I’m not the tenses of your broken English Nor the slang of your city For you cannot count the alphabets of my story I’m not the identity card of my kind I’m my biology A reservoir of infinite memory I’m my diseases,

Nigerian essayist and fiction writer, Gimba Kakanda, has been selected for the 2017 Iowa International Writing Program, IWP, residency at the University of Iowa, United States, reports the  Premium Times .  A multi-talented writer, Mr. Kakanda is the author of a poetry collection, Safari Pants (Krafgriots, 2010). He will be participating alongside 25 other writers from across the world.  The International Writing Program is one of the oldest and largest multinational writing residency in the world. The programme brings outstanding authors from diverse places in the world to University of Iowa, a major American research institution for the three-month residency. IWP incubated many renowned writers, including winners of Nobel prize in Literature, Orhan Pamuk from Turkey and Mo Yan from China. Nigerian writers who had participated in the residency over the years include   Elechi Amadi (1973), Cyprian Ekwensi (1974), Ola Rotimi (1980), Amos Tutuola (1983), Flora Nwapa (198