•ISSUE  NUMBER ONE*  1 9 9 7*

Tadaferua  Ujorha

He Has Three Legs
T HE literary wheel made a handsome turn  recently, and  this

has resulted in delightful  additions to the burgeoning field of
children's literature in Nigeria. Yusuf Adamu is a medical ge
ographer  and a lecturer with the department  of Geography,
Bayero University, Kano, and his Butterfly and other poems is a collec-
tion of fifteen  poems which focus on and are addressed to children, in
the  context  of their  needs, likes  and  hopes. Against  this  background
therefore, the work must become as simple and natural  as possible in
order  to capture  the
inimitable  contours
of a  child's  psychol-
ogy.  The poems  are
svelte  happy  songs.
Lyricism  is  assisted
by the regular use of
repetition,  allitera-
tion, and the employ-
ment of run-on lines.
Through  these  tech-
niques, 
the  poet
strives to capture the
speculating  intellect
and the endless chat-
ter of the child.

Yusuf  Adamu.  BUTTERFLY AND
OTHER POEMS. Joji  Publishers.
Kano,  1995. 24pp.

as  it  observes  life
around  it. All  these
tendencies  highlight
some basic capacities
in a child.

it 

The  poem  'My
Dear  Mum' , first  in
the  procession,  is  a
salute to all mothers,
that 
is
unpunctuated  might
go to suggest that the
salute  is  non-termi-
nal  or  endless.  The
child is filled with an
endless  desire to re-
pay  its  mother  for
her  selfless  services
and profound love to-
wards  it.  This  is  a
beautiful  and  thrill-
ing  beginning  for  it
represents  a  child's
first natural instinct.
The  child's  percep-
tive  spirit  and  hu-
morous bent  is  then
related  to  'Our  old
man'  and  'my  gran-
nies'.  In  the  former
poem the child specu-
lates  'he  has  four
eyes/two  made  of
glasses/he  has  three
legs/one  made  of  a
stick'  In  the  latter

Gleilira  Books  Supplement

16

the  fifth  stanza  of
'Ka'abah'. We see the
child  progressing
from  home  to  the
school, and  then  are
suddenly thrust  into
the  world  of  'Map'
and  the  'Butterfly'.
Perhaps  a  poem  or
two  on  the  teachers
and other pupils in a
school  would  then
become a vital back-
ground for the explor-
atory poems such  as
"Weather", 'The Solar
System',  and 'Moun-
tain'.

It 

is 

Nevertheless,
Yusuf  Adamu  does
succeed  in  speaking
to children, and  this
dialogue is facilitated
by a simplicity of dic-
tion, a sustained lyri-
cal  and  humour
laden  atmosphere,
and  unpunctuated
verse. 
the
author's  first  collec-
tion of poetry for chil-
dren.  He  has  other
works,  Mu  Koyi
Turanci ! (Let's learn
English)  included,
published  in  1994.
Children's  literature
has  suffered  neglect
and it's contemporary
resurgence  in  terms
of both art  and criti-
cism  is very  encour-
aging. We can almost
hear the radiant  ca-
dence  of  children's
voices  singing  joy-
fully in the  Butterfly
Park.-

Tadaferua Ujorha is of
the  post-graduate
school. Ahmadu  Bello
University. Zaria, Nigeria

the  child  exhibits  a
critical  and  humor-
ous  analysis  of  his
grandparents. He re-
flects,  'their  hair  is
grey/their skin slack/
their  voice  is  soft.
Only a child can con-
sider  his  grandpar-
ents  in  this  clinical
and  humorous  fash-
ion. The poem 'Today'
is a prayer, the  first
of the  poems that  is
expressed  in  a  stan-
zaic  structure,  and
reflects  the  author's
tendency  to  experi-
ment  with  style  in
the collection.

identical 

The  twin  poems
butterfly  and Tiger,
are 
in
length, and similar in
their  openings.  The
alliterative  Butterfly
is  filled  with  lines
like  'Fly  so  high/
flower  to flower'. And
its lightness supports
the jocund and genial
overtone 
that
characterises 
the
work.  The  metrical
system in 'Tiger'sug-
gests  a  dense  or
heavy reality, and the
child  can  be  per-
ceived  as  making
critical  distinctions

Evidence  abou-
nds that the poet has
paid  especial  atten-
tion  to  organisation
and chronology. Thus
poems  with  very
identical  concerns
are  placed  close  to-
gether,  explaining
the 
propinquity
shared  by  'our  old
man' and  'my  Gran-
nies', 
'Map'  and
'Ka'abah',  'Rainbow'
and  'Weather'.  The
presence of elements
from the turf of geog-
raphy demonstrate a
felicitous  association
between  the  child's
universe and his own
orientation.  This  is
immediately 
ob-
served in the titles of
the  poems  'Maps',
Weather', 'Rainbow',
and 'Mountains'.

to 

A number of typo-
graphical errors are a
disservice 
the
work.  For  instance
the omission of'to' in
the  first 
line  of
'Maps',  or  the  addi-
tion  of 's' to 'face' in