TOPIC: “The Leader and the Led”

BACKGROUND OF THE POET: Niyi Osundare was born in march 12,1947 in Ikere-
Ekiti in western side of Nigeria. He attended Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, Univesity
of leeds and University of Ibadan. He has written lots of poems, few books and
few plays.
THEME: Theme of leadership-this is a major theme in the poem in the sense that
it portrays the kinds of leaders we have and the way they desire to lead by all
means. The poet use each animal to portray different kind of characters owned by
our leaders that can easily disqualify them as leaders, e.g. lion (pouncing paws),
elephant (too heavy and weighty to be challenged), warthog (too ugly and awful)
e.t.c. rather, the poet prescribed the better leadership character of, a little bit of
lion’s fierceness and a little bit of lamb’s gentility.
Theme of power struggle-this theme explain the unending power, often violent
struggle for power on the continent. Like the contestants in the animal gathering,
people who put themselves forward for leadership on the are often one
dimensional caricature with no real leadership qualities. It is either they want
power for its own sake or that, looking at their might, wealth, position in the
society, military background and so on, they have convicted themselves that they
too have the right to become leaders.
Theme of followership-the poem describes vividly to us the dilemma facing “the
led” (the pack of the animals) as they try to chose a leade. Clearly, these animals
seem to have too many options placed before them. The challenge howeer, is
that none of these numerous options seems good enough. This is exactly the
challenge facing the Africans. The political exercise of electing a leader is not an
easy task for “the led”.
POETIC DEVICES:
• Diction-the language of the poem is simple enough and can easily be
understood by readers.
• Structure-the poem has 12 pairs of lines. Each pair contains a thought. The
poem is a blank verse because there is no rhyme scheme. At the same
time, there is no run-on line because each pair stand on its own.
• Imagery-the poet used the imagery of a wildlife and animals to express his
mind, creating the vivid picture of the wildlife, e.g., lion, elephant, zebra,
rhino, snake e.t.c..