An Exploration of Love and Spirituality in Ismail Bala's Ivory Night
~ Paul Liam Love is a relatively less explored subject in Nigerian critical discourse, literary critics and scholars over the years seemed to have focused their analyses on the so-called ‘serious poetry’ of political lamentation and social criticism of the governance and leadership failure in the land. The focus on the socio-political milieu led to the fostering of a national poetic ethos vested in the existential exigencies, socio-economic strife and the repressive political climates in which the people found themselves. The preponderance of the national agenda of angst negated the core of the matter—the absence of love. Love is the nexus between life and death and the bedrock for the expression of humanity. A society devoid of love and empathy cannot manifest harmony that can be translated to the formation of a hegemonic national anchored on development and the prosperity of the common welfare of the people. Thus, the relegation of love to the margins of critical literar...
