The gleaner-glimpser-glitterer is committed at this point to ending his brief discourse on Olu Obafemi’s mango aesthetic. But he will not do so without a tiny remark, without a tiny mango reference, no matter how tinily tiny, to Olu Obafemi’s Melodies of Inclement Climes, his latest book of poems which was published in 2023. The text, like Pestle on the Mortar, is very appealing – perhaps more than this 1974 text. The book of poems stands out not only on account of the poet’s vastly dense or vastly superior force of mango imagination but also on account of his moral as well as philosophical depth of sweet juicy orange-yellow flesh or of sweet juicy yellow-orange flesh.

There is hardly a poem in Melodies of Inclement Climes that does not have ready appeal for the mango-loving reader – no matter the subject of the poem in which the gleaner-glimpser-glitterer notices Olu Obafemi’s concentrated psychological comedy and tragedy couched in his natural mango gifts.

Melodies came out in 2023, I was the first literary communicator – if I am not making an immodest claim – to look at it here from the perspective of good art. Let the gleaner-glimpser-glitterer quote himself: “The beauty of Professor Olu Obafemi’s new volume of poetry is the trick of its language. The emotions or feelings the poet generates are significant enough to ensure full daylight in our inclement climes…. Melodies of Inclement Climes will leap in my arms, hands, and mind for a pretty long time of creative reading and critical happiness. This is not an ostentatious praise, but the true judgment of a reader and critic – this reader and critic – of aesthetic and moral sensibility”. When I uttered this remark Olu Obafemi’s mango vision and mango world had not assumed a recognisable or definite form in my aesthetic consciousness. But since then, in my re-reading and reading of Melodies of Inclement Climes (and Pestle on the Mortar), I have discovered – I am again stating this with purposeful modesty – the vesture, the majestic vesture of mango createdness, Olu Obafemi renders emphatically in his lines which affect us efficaciously. The poet’s most cherished values which are the subject-matter of the lines fulfil the purpose of their creator’s mango art.

But the gleaner-glimpser-glitterer must now share the perceptions of select readers and critics, real gems of our literary scholarship, whose feelings – like a flowing river of mango art – flow and articulate themselves to me.

Let’s begin with Professor Ibrahim Bello Kano thus: “Prof TA, the literary churner of churning fruit juices (even in Syntax and Grammar, maybe even in Semantics), my preliminary comment on your nicely flowing, metaphorically fruity piece on the mighty Professor Olu Obafemi is this: why must our great Prof. OO be “aligned” with the humble mango (fruit)? Why not with Apple or with comfort foods such as ice cream, or with “medical” fruits such as Almonds or veggies such as Spinach and Broccoli?

“In Hausa fruit mythology, mangoes don’t ease the stomach, or sore throat, or alleviate the irritable vowel syndrome; rather, they intensify them. Mangoes or mango drinks don’t alleviate any symptoms of any kind. But an apple does that (“an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, we are told). Perhaps the mighty Prof. OO should be “likened” to, if not Apple, but to Shammam (a papaya-like fruit, a favourite in Kano), to the Banana (sweet, supple, and deliciously curved), or indeed, to the Water Melon (sweet, rehydrating, and full of “minerals” good for overall health).

“Or, if one doesn’t like the “fruit metaphor”, let’s call our venerable Prof. OO a kind of coffee. If you don’t like coffee, you must like Yoghurt (then). From the Fulbe side, Prof. OO (I suspect he has a secret Fulbe ancestry), let’s call him ‘Fura da Nono’, that deliciously romantic food that lulls one to sleep out of sheer delight. Fura da Nono has one great quality: it’s not “eaten” or “swallowed” like the Pounded Yam or Eba, but “drunk” in a fluidly form (which makes the throat sing with delight).

“Or, if one doesn’t like any of those, let’s call/regard the Distinguished/Professor Emeritus, Prof. OO as the Hausa “Kuka”, the alluring fruit of the mighty Adasonja Digitata tree found all over Hausaland, the desert savannahs, and the Sahel.

“Or, if my readers don’t like or wouldn’t accept my metaphorical re-description of Prof. OO, let them agree that Prof. OO could be a Mighty Cake. That would be more fitting than the lowly, un-cookable, unbeaten, sometimes sour, mango.

Let me close this brief re-description with these lines: Prof. OO is, in truth, a literary-critical “sugar artist” (good for the palate), a dramatic-dramaturgical “cake sculptor” (just like Shakespeare, with his Globe-looking theatre that looked like an Almond or a Pear). Or, let us just call this mighty creator of the ‘fictional’ Prof. OO a Carrot (tough on contact with the teeth), and the Culinary Curator of Delightful Fictionality. As for the mango metaphor, Prof. TA is also right in deploying it. Only that I should add to the mango sweetner with the words, ‘the President of the dressed Sensate Dramaturgic Table’ – the ‘comfort and comforting post-fruity Distinguished-Emeritus Magic Elixir’ that is Professor Olu Obafemi”.

Professor Mabel Evwierhoma: “Sir, the idea of the mango fruit contains elements of the universal theme of every person’s ability to identify the fruit. There are also allusions by you of savouring the mango or to ‘joussance’ or enjoyment of OO’s art. His plays show a strong need to align with the feminine essence or the world of women. His poetry remains fresh in its futuristic leaning on humanity to do the right thing and to make tomorrow count.

“And let me add that your reference to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is prescient. Today, she makes the headlines as the defamation case against her by the government has been quashed and her travel documents have been ordered “back to the original owner” by the FCT High Court.”

Professor Owojecho Omoha: “Prof TA, our own Friedrich, our Nietzeche, you have mangoed the words in our present for the future of our children, your readers!”

To be continued and concluded next week.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.