Echoes of Conscience

"The man died who keep silent in the face of oppression and tyranny" - Prof. Wole Soyinka This literary work is a creation of stirred inspirations emanating from the realities inherent in daily situations and vicissitudes of life. The poems are a cocktail of soul searching and emotionally charged variables recollected in solemn tranquility. Reading through, the reader is bound to discover that the poems are not willfully wrapped in some esoteric language or style, rather they are conceptualized and written in a form, which makes the ideas and messages behind them easy to comprehend for the general reader who is...the average literate person and the ordinary folks in Nigeria and beyond. The poems are also satirically spiced and pungently exhilarating with a lot of pun to wit. The style just like the varieties of the poems does not fall within any particular hitherto existing conventional or traditional poetic genre. The theme of the poems is varied; however, a common and consistent consanguinity binds the poems. The poet is fundamentally critical of the socio-economic, political and moral disequilibria, dislocations and cataclysms in Nigeria and Africa in general with a clear disdain for Western Powers "over lordship" over African affairs and interest. The overriding and consistent theme of the poems is lamentations, which is a product of positive hatred, hatred against social inequality, hatred against political irresponsibility hatred against- moral cataclysm, hatred against the profligate and apathetic elite in the Nigerian society. Some of the poems are mere poetic statements, but written in a philosophical manner that readily stirs deep emotions and is consciously crafted to be thought provoking. The poems move with the earth and the earth rotates round it in unison. On the whole, I intend the collection of Echoes of Conscience to criticize, but just as well to reveal, rejuvenate and effervescently to touch the heart of the reader in a mystic way. The poems flow in a childlike honesty and simplicity with a tapestry that is enthralling, because it is appealing. - Kenn Amaechi Jnr. (November 2005)