The Mystic drum and The Natives

2018ENG1042
Gabriel Okara, born on April 21, 1921, in Nigeria is well known and one of the most
prominent and important Nigerian poets and Novelists. His work uses and conveys
African Thought, religion, folklore, and imagery. It is also said that with the
publication of Gabriel Okara's first poem that Nigerian literature in English and
modern African poetry in this language can be said truly to have begun.

The poem "The Mystic Drum" written by him about which he said in an interview is
essentially a love lyric written for a woman he once loved but who did not love him
back and who appeared to be someone else but did not out to be of the impression he
had of her.

The poem essentially a love lyric can also be read symbolically as a between Natives
and Colonisers, that is the encounter between the Nigerians and their colonizers.
Through the journey of the drum player also tells us the story of the relationship
between tha natives and the colonizers by contrasting the relationship between the
man and the women and the nation and colonizer. The poem is divided into three
phases the one with how it was before the woman, the one due to her influence, and
the one after her effect.

The poem starts with the beating of the drum in its full glory and tradition. The
beating of drums which is considered a symbol of ancestral heritage and tradition of
Africa starts the poem on a joyous and celebratory note and invokes all the glory of
nature lines 1-4 "The mystic drum in my inside...... The rhythm of my drum" is
followed by the entry of the woman who represents the colonizer behind the tree,
which in a way can also be read as the hiding of the colonizer and its aim to suck
away all the natural resources starts the story of an encounter between a man who is
playing the drum in his glory and celebration and a woman, the man representing the
natives and the woman the colonizer. However, the celebration and spirits of nature
continue in full glory and she just only continues to shake her head and smile
representing the initiations of the colonizers and their different ways of seducing and
making the people fall into their trap.

The men and fishes all become one and continue to flourish in their natural heritage
and environment due to the increased speed and in a way resistance and sticking back
to the tradition with "The Quickenes tempo compelling the quick", however with the
second description of the women standing behind the tree and smiling and shaking her
head the beating of the drum doesn't stop but rather breaks all the gap between nature
with men turning into fishes and fishes into men invoking all the gods of the sky and
fishes and men all dancing in the joy and celebration of tradition and all things
"African".
However, the slight seduction of the westernization i:e the women and the growing
impact of industrialization slowly leads to the occupation over the heritage with all
the celebratory and wild nature turning back to normal and dying making the dead
who also came out of the ground and celebrated their heritage forcefully go back to
under the ground rather than indulging in celebrations with natives, signifying the
forceful oppression by the colonizer, this can also be read as the oppression of the
struggle of those who died at the hands of the colonizer with the drums being stopped
and the celebration being ended and everything becoming maintained in an unjust
way and in order and dry and engulfed in the darkness of her smile,i.e. the colonizer
and smoke coming out of her nose and her being transformed into a figure with her
roots sprouting and leaves and stems growing from her signifying the deforestation of
the land and taking over everything symbolical and natural and putting in its place a
system of machinery, science and forcing upon the land tradition their own beliefs and
values.

The poem ends with taking over and forcing of "The mystic drum" and the drum
player to turn away and the drum to never beat so loudly anymore hence
encapsulating the encounter between the natives and the colonizers and their
encroachment of the land and view of traditional African lives and its oppression of
the same.

The poet invokes the traditional imagery associated with the things that celebrate all
the ancestry associated with Africa and nature and through that describes the story of
an encounter between the natives and the colonizers.

References

1.en.wikipedia.org/Gabriel_Okara
2.The mystic drum by Gabriel Okara