A Camouflage of Rage: A Review of Sandra Rofem Hitarh’s The Voice of Your Village

By Paul Liam

Sandra Rofem Hitarh’s debut collection of poems, The Voice of Your Village, is a promising debut that problematizes the social injustice, and dystopian aura in the land. It is rooted in the socialist vision that views poetry as an instrument for engineering social change, a rather strange obsession for a military officer. Hitarh’s aesthetics align with the Nigerian poetry tradition known for its romanization of utopia, characterized by the quest for social justice, harmony, and economic prosperity. The poems reecho the wailing anguish of voiceless citizens caught in the mesh of strife and misgovernance.   

The Voice of Your Village, published by Sevhage Publisher, Makurdi in 2024, contains forty-three poems and a foreword by the renowned poet and scholar, Ismail Bala. Bala describes the collection as “fresh and unique” for ditching the “American idiom” and shunning “...the seeming convention of confessionalism so rampant in recent Nigerian poetry. Bala’s appraisal underscores the focus of this review which seeks to highlight the sociopolitical consciousness of the collection. In Hitarh’s work, the subalterns find expression and agency in the vitriol voice of the poetic persona akin to a judge presiding over the degrading conditions of the common man in the face of abundant wealth. The persona speaks on behalf of the voiceless members of society, and bears witness to their subjugation and dehumanization by the ruling elites who plunder the commonwealth and endanger the soul of the society. The rigidity of language, sturdy deployment of metaphors, and symbolic representation of the perverse social conditions of society accentuate Hittarh’s poetic prowess. 

Hitarh writes with an acute sense of social responsibility and patriotism for her country. While the older generation of Nigerian poets focused on problematizing the inadequacies of the military dictators and their roles in the misgovernance of the country and portrayed the military as inhuman and incapable of sharing in the pains of the masses, Hitarh comes bearing witness to the sufferings of ordinary citizens. The Voice of Your Village is evidence that military officers often regarded as elites and disconnected from the reality of the people are normal people capable of expressing emotions and dissatisfaction with the decay in society. Hers is a poetic representation of the hopelessness of the Nigerian society bedeviled by failed leadership, death, rot, and social injustice.

The opening poem, “Crazy Things Are Happening (p.11)” affirms the above assertions. The persona asks rhetorically in the first stanza, “How do we describe the viciousness in our streets today? /What do we call stale blood? /Not by death but of the dead who still live among us /With eyes beaming with hate and a soul rock-strong.” The second stanza reinforces the deplorability expressed in the first stanza as the persona continues with her lamentation thus, “Who is the custodian of justice, and where does wisdom reside?/Would it ever come, the answers to our questions? /And when it does, would it bear solutions? /When would doomsday end? /If there is a queue, who’s next?” The sense of hopelessness projected by the persona echoes the current dystopian reality of Nigeria overrun by needless deaths, viciousness, and injustice.

In the poem, “Tag Yoke Or Curse (p.56)” the persona undertakes a reflective pose as she philosophies on the mystics of life and death. She offers herself in the opening stanza as the sacrificial lamb where everything else fails and wonders to whom we express allegiance. The first stanza reads, “I am the next dead one, the bait/The solution when all else fails/To whom is our allegiance pled?/To whom, when we bled?” In “Incantations Of A Wasteland, (p.63)” the persona bemoans the already familiar anguish of retrogression that besieged the land which she describes as a “wasteland” devoid of meaning and respite. The persona seems to commit the land to God in prayers, hoping for the restoration of lost hope. This assertion echoes lucidly in the second and third stanzas of the poem have been replicated for emphasis. “May the shame be before their eyes a trophy/A reward, a baton to crown the rising of the morning/The doors shut right before our eyes/And dying days hear the wailing of hungry children/The grief of idle youth, the regret of the pensioner.” “Their eyes” represents the oppressors whose resolve is to ensure the continued suffering of the ordinary citizens. The persona prays for a saving grace that will change the ugly reality of the people. The prayer continues in the stanza thus, “May the drumbeats of dirge be bitter/And unsatisfied doctors healed by Arimathea/Just maybe we could be sure of the verdict of the coroner/Maybe this time we would die well/Die completely/Save mourners from ghosts/Save families from testimonies.”

The existential crux of Hitarh’s exploration of our communal strive is exemplified by the poem, “Ma’a Fusa, (P 19).” The persona recounts the story of Ma’a Fusa, a poor woman who struggles through life and depravity to fend for her equally depraved children in a society that holds zero promise for vulnerable women like her. Ma’a Fusa is a story of sadness and hopelessness, it is a painful narrative poem that chronicles the travails of a widow who even when her husband was alive didn’t know the meaning of a quality life. Hers is therefore a sorrowful representation of the conditions of the ordinary citizens suffering through life without hope of respite. The second stanza of the poem provides a sufficient summary of the crux of the poem. The persona narrates, “Ma’a Fusa, trade your goods/The dead eats no stews and have no need for booze/The poor woman, no need for new wrapper/Trade your goods; your children are about to die before your eyes, a baby melting in the belly./Arrhhhh!/Would I count the dead as a lesser mouth to feed or the mourning, the morning?”

In conclusion, it is important to reiterate that central to Hitarh’s poetry is the representation of the deplorable conditions of society and the struggles of ordinary citizens in the face of hopelessness. It is difficult if not impossible to encounter her writing without indulging in the grief it exudes, she invites us to share in the plight of the depraved. Hitarh, in this debut, demonstrates the potential to become another significant military poet and writer in the fashion of Umar Abubakar Sidi and Maman Vatsa Although the collection is not without its shortcomings as there is still room for editorial inputs. Hitarh is by every stretch of the imagination, a worthy addition to the evolving body of military writers and indeed Nigerian and African literature.

Paul Liam is a poet, author, book reviewer, critical literary essayist, editor, literary columnist, polemist, creative writing mentor. He is the co-editor of Ebedi Review (Journal of the Ebedi International Writers’ Residency, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria). A former Assistant Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA), Niger Chapter, his published works include, Indefinite Cravings (2012), Saint Sha’ade and Other Poems (2014), and his numerous critical essays and interviews have been published in highly reputable Nigerian Newspapers including: The Nation, The Sun, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Independence, Daily Trust, Blue Print, Nigerian Pilot, etc., and online @ africanwriter.com, dugwe.com among others.