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 literary discourse is to negate the core of the human experience. Consequently, Ismail Bala’s Ivory Night like the love collections before it, contextualizes love as the foundation for experiencing the utmost human experience achievable through the reconciliation of the spiritual and the physical realities.  

Consequently, the above premise foregrounds the incursion into Ismail Bala’s Ivory Night (2024) published by Konya Shamsurumi. The 115-page collection is made of seventy-seven poems divided into four sections and x-rays the complexes of love. Bala’s thematization of love and exploration of its sublimity offers a lucid pontification that belies the mundane ascriptions often associated with love poems. Besides its prosaic limitations, it provides a refreshing way of engaging the discourse of love, particularly, its emblematic disposition advances a near-spiritual invocation. This assertion holds for the opening poem in Part I, “Psalmody” (p.27), in which the persona invokes a spiritual motif in amplifying the emotional depth and prestige of the subject of the poem in the persona’s eyes. The third and fourth stanzas illustrate this claim;

The curls on your head are your alternate liturgies

Lined on your head for melody and worship.

The ground trembles beneath us, my love.

Let’s psalm together, a double biblical harmony.

The allusion to ‘liturgies’, ‘psalm’, and ‘biblical harmony’ invoke well-known concepts in the Christian faith. Firstly, the liturgies loosely translate to the public spiritual worship rites performed by Christians mostly associated with the Roman Catholic Church. According to the online Catholic Encyclopedia, liturgies mean “the whole complex of official services, all the rites, ceremonies, prayers, and sacraments of the Church.” Thus, the persona considers the ‘curls’ on the head of the subject of the poem as having a spiritual essence inviting the persona to a form of worship as affirmed by the succeeding line. The ‘curls on your head’ could also be likened to angelic halo. Psalm on the other hand is the act of singing in worship and it can be inferred that the subject of the poem’s persona is united in the act of worship, that is to say, the open consumption of their romantic affairs. The ‘biblical harmony’ alluded to implies the divine unification of the love between the persona and his lover. Suffice it to say that Bala’s ingenious deployment of allusion enhances the texture of the poem beyond being a mere worldly romance but one that is embedded in the garment of spiritual fortification.

In the poem “Broken Heart” (p.53), the persona laments the rejection he suffers in the hands of a love interest despite his romantic overtures which renders him dejected. The persona laments thus,

I flavoured the sheets for my love and

Set her blazing fire on course

To spread the gospel of real love concealed somewhere

In the penumbra of emptiness and humility.

But she passed through my vale,

Refusing to take comfort in the spate of my tokens.

Unrequited affection can be heartrending, but it can also cause the admirer to develop a complex about his sense of self-worth in an attempt to redeem himself of the shame of rejection as suggested by the succeeding lines of the poem in which the persona makes an exaggerated claim of his self-worth. For example, after having been dealt the heavy blow of rejection, he remarks, “I beseeched her to stay, but she was unable to stand/The wonder of my existence,” suggesting that he is the coveted prize that his love’s interest is unworthy of, thereby manifesting the traditional chauvinistic tendencies of men in such situations. This depiction affirms that popular supposition that men are incapable of handling rejection by women.

In “Half-Curved Bracken of the Cinnamon Fern” (p.65), the persona foretells of an anticipated lovelorn dilemma by clinging on the strands of the cherished moments he shared with his lover. It expresses a deep fascination for a lover he is no longer sure of having and while this realization breaks his heart, he takes solace in the beautiful affairs they once had together by painting a glowing picture of her in what appears like an attempt to dissuade her from leaving him. The poem begins on a solemn note echoing this assertion. An excerpt is provided below for emphasis, 

Whatever becomes of us, your body

will spoke mine—slender, fragile

your kissmaking, like the half-curved bracken

of the cinnamon fern in the wild

just plucked by the wind. Your urbane, lavish hands

between which my whole being has come and come---

the harmony and innocence of the heaven my tongue has

discovered there---

The persona paints a picture of a lover who has found his ‘dream girl’, hence the sublime description of his lover as a ‘half-curved bracken cinnamon fern,” ‘urbane’, with ‘lavish hands.’ This glorification is further accentuated by the persona’s assertion description of the bliss he derives from his lover reflected in the lines, ‘the harmony and innocence of the heaven my tongue has discovered there---’ It is safe to infer that by this depiction, the persona implies the gratification offered by his lover is akin to attaining the promises of paradise on earth. This goes to say that when a man finds true love, he automatically finds his heaven. 

Is love not a form of worship? All religions have contemplated and defined the concept of love as a form of spiritual supplication to God and love among human beings. Regardless of the type of love, what is common in all the concepts is a commitment to something which can either be a commitment to God or another human. It could be the love of a mother, father, sister, brother, friend, neighbour, or pet. For Bala, love is the embodiment of the spiritual and the physical but more of the physical for it is in the consummation of our fleshly desires that we are reconciled in spirit with our creator. Throughout the collection, we encounter the unclutched expression of sexual and sensual feelings sometimes through the graphic portrayal of sexual scenes that leaves one wondering if these poems were written by a poet with a conservative background. But where is the creative freedom if a poet cannot freely express himself to the fullest of his capabilities? In the poem entitled “Fantasizing” (p.37) the persona is seen fantasizing about his sexual encounters with a lover. This assertion is corroborated by the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas represented below,

My, my. Your moan blares into ardent words

which implode in my head. Then you stall, push,

for re-ignition.

And this is how we spoon. You’re thrust-in now, hard,

exacting; so I fantasize more fervently, fantasize

till it numbs

that it is for sure, ah! I feel it.

When you hear me, you ride on high, emphatic,

as if we are falling.

This visual representation of sexuality in Bala’s poetry is a rare feature of northern Nigerian poetry which is often overridden by the burden of morality imposed by religion and culture where sexuality and romantic overtures are considered private affairs that should not be discussed in the open. In the event that such private affairs leak into the public spheres, they are viewed with hypocritical condemnation. It this sort of perception that has over the years controlled the textualization of sex and sensuality in the writings of northerner Nigerian writers. Until recently we have begun to see the exploration of sex and sensuality in Northern Nigerian writings and film as well as on social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Bala’s unabashed exploration of sexuality signals the dawn of a secular awakening in northern Nigerian, it is also indicative of the revolution taking place in the region as the collection relies heavily on overt sexual motifs and Western/Christian imageries. This assertion is significant because it is uncommon to a find a northern Muslim so overwhelmingly obsessed with projecting contrary beliefs especially those fundamentally considered as antithetical to Islamic ethos. As the poet and theatre scholar, Ola Ifatimehin once quipped during a conversation on the representation of Christian imageries in the collection in a WhatsApp exchange, “Is this a sign of some revolutionary evolution against conservative puritanical stasis? Shouldn’t we expect the spirituality of the text to come from Islamic inductions.” Perhaps this representation stems from the poet’s well-known romance with Eurocentric art and literature which is textually evident in the abundance of the “after poems” in the collection.    

To end the incursion on the spirituality and sexuality in Ivory Night, the last stanza of the titled poem, “Ivory Night” (p.107), provides a benefiting redemptive epilogue hinged on the foregrounding premise of this analysis which presupposes that Bala’s romantic ideation is underpinned by a subliminal trope of spiritual invocations which furthers the discourse of the intricate relationship between love and spirituality as indicated by the allusions to religious motifs of which love is a fundamental precept. The stanza is represented below;

And after I have been defiled

By my thoughts---thoughts I want to let go of---

Then I have to go through the rites of sacrifice

So that I can bow before You unscathed

When it is time to sing the psalms.

The persona having realised his romantic exploits have far-reaching implications for his heavenly race recounts his perfidy and expresses the desire to seek the true love of God by committing to ‘…go through the rites of sacrifice/So that I can bow before You unscathed/When it is time to sing the psalms.’ It is important to note that the letter ‘Y’ in ‘You” in the fourth line is in caps lock signifying a reference to God rather than to an earthly lover. And ‘psalms’ symbolizes the praise and worship of God in heaven post armageddon as foretold in the Bible. Suffice it to say that the persona longs for a peaceful ending and reconnection to his creator. 

While intertextuality is a common feature in the art of poetry, overburdening a collection with fifteen “after poems” is irksome. It raises a legitimate question on the place of originality in art as it often blurs the line between simply drawing inspiration and imitating another person's work.

In conclusion, Ismaila Bala’s poetic craft is sturdy as exemplified by his skillful metaphorization of love and problematisation of the human emotions often regarded as mundane. His elevated deployment of language evokes nuances reminiscent of the works of classical poets like William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot and Pablo Neruda. For reference, the “Empyrean” (p.74), is particularly worthy of note for its last stanza, especially. Ivory Night is a remarkable ode to love and beloveds. Ivory Night is a delightful read for its fine language, riche imageries and humour.  

Paul Liam is a poet, critic, and author of two poetry collections. He is a consulting art editor with Daily Review Newspaper and the coeditor of Ebedi Review.