The Poetry of Isaac Aju

By Elizabeth Gracen for the Flapper Press Poetry Café:

Isaac Aju

The Flapper Press Poetry Café features the work of poets from around the globe. It is an honor to share their work and learn more about their lives, influences, and love of poetry.

This week, we feature the work of Nigeran poet Isaac Aju.

Isaac Aju is a Nigerian writer of fiction and poetry whose works have appeared in Poetry X Hunger and The Writers' Journal in New York City. With a focus on African history, Isaac's poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous publications and online journals, including Synchronized Chaos, IkikeArts, and the Kalahari Review.

We reached out to Isaac to ask him about his work and passion to, as he told us, "speak to the world through my poems, especially towards the area of Biafra, which is a very difficult and disturbing topic to discuss in Nigeria."

Please meet Isaac Aju!

Elizabeth Gracen: Isaac, first of all, thank you so much for sharing these powerful poems with Flapper Press. I know so very little about Nigeria and its history. Please tell me about your life, your country, and why you have chosen poetry as a means of self-expression.

Isaac Aju: I was born in Nigeria, where I grew up, got my education, and presently work as a fashion designer. I’m interested in history, stories, and poetry. Nigeria is a country where many people feel voiceless. I feel as though I have no voice and access to my government, and so I’m happy to have my work here. I’m glad even to have this conversation. Nigeria is a country where there is a wide disconnect between the government and the citizens. Presently, there is an ongoing killing of innocent people in Northern Nigeria by armed Fulani Herdsmen. This has been happening for years, and nobody does anything about this.

I write poems to have a voice, to have a say. In my poems, I write about topics I think people are quiet about. I also write to have a sense of connection with the universe.

EG: Your bio states that you are a writer of prose as well. What type of writing do you do and why?

IA: I also write short stories and essays, some of which are now published, and my prose often takes the form of a protest. While I may not carry a placard and move into the streets, I use my stories and poems to protest against injustices and oppression. I want people to read my stories and discover the Nigerian condition, especially in its political realm. My first short story was published by The Kalahari Review last September, the very first time I sent my work out, and I wrote about the present-day agitation for Biafra, led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. I strongly believe in the power of stories to take the readers into places they know little about.

EG: The three poems that you’ve shared tell stories about historical events that happened in Nigeria. Could you share more about this slice of your country’s history and why you wrote these poems? What do you hope the reader comes away with from these three poems?

IA: My poems are historical poems about the Igbo people of Nigeria. The poems came to me when I was pondering on the possibility of the Igbos gaining their own political freedom. It’s been fifty-five years after the Biafran War, and the issues which led to the war have not been properly addressed. I want the world to know about the journey of the Igbos—Biafrans in extension. The three poems mean a lot to me. I want people of this generation to know there was a place called Biafra. When they read “Evacuation,” I want them to engage with history.

EG: The world has changed so much in the past year for America. I’m curious about what you think about the political turmoil that has befallen us. Does any of it impact your life in Nigeria? What are the most important issues facing your country right now, and what do you envision as its future?

IA: When I read an article about the undocumented Nigerian immigrants sent back to Nigeria by the present American government, I was deeply pained because those people who are now seen as illegal were once legitimate in their countries. Those Nigerians were fully Nigerians before they decided to leave and better their lives, but then America sent them back. The world has tossed them around like filthy rags. I captured my deep thoughts about this in a poem I called “Things To Be Removed." I have not sent [it] out to any publication. On what I think about the future of Nigeria, I don’t really know what to say because things are getting worse, and people are traveling out of Nigeria to seek for hope.

EG: Your passion and intent are so incredibly focused. You are truly making art, transmuting pain and suffering into something quite beautiful. Quite powerful. Can you please share some of the poets and poems that have influenced your life and work? 

IA: I was deeply influenced by Maya Angelou and her poems “Still I Rise” and “Caged Bird.” I suffered terrible bouts of depression within a period of years, and so her poems really helped me to heal. I read “Still I Rise” over and over again. Maya Angelou is the greatest poetic force I know. I’m also deeply influenced by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, but she’s not a poet. I want to confess that I still feel a bit surprised because I didn’t consciously think I would become a poet. I mostly occupied myself with novels and autobiographies until I began to express myself in the form considered as poetry. Hiram Larew was the first person who sent me a beautiful mail praising my poem called “I Am Not Afraid of You.” And then The Kalahari Review accepted many of my poems.

Artwork by Diane Wilbon Parks

EG: Can you tell me more about your association with the Poetry X Hunger project?

IA: As I mentioned before, Poetry X Hunger was the first publication to accept my poem. After writing the poem, I began to think about what to do with it because it felt so urgent to me, and I wanted another human being to see and read it. I went to Google and asked where I could send a poem whose theme was hunger. Then Google directed me to Poetry X Hunger. I really love what they do, and I’ve read their collection of poems.

EG: Isaac, thank you so much for sharing this important work with Flapper Press. What are your plans for the upcoming year? Where will your art take you—or where do you hope it will take you? 

IA: I hope to complete my novel about the present agitation for Biafra set in 2019, Nigeria. It’s about the agitation for Biafra led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. I started the novel during COVID, and I’m still in the middle of the story. A political novel is one that requires my full attention. I’m happy to have done the part I did during COVID, but I hope to fully return to the novel. I work during the day as a fashion designer, and anytime I go into my writing mood, I mostly write poems and short stories because they take a shorter time to complete.

I want my art to take me around the world. I want to transcend the gagging spirit of Nigeria.

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From Isaac Aju:

The poems came to me when I was thinking about the present agitation for Biafra, which is currently happening in Nigeria. The poems are historical poems following the journey of a West African tribe, which I didn't mention in the poems. But from the non-English words included in the poems, the reader is allowed to know that the poet is writing about the Igbo people of Nigeria.

Photo of Emancipation Statue - By Dogfacebob - Own work, CC0

Here Is a Man

(The region around the Niger River, before the white man came)

Here is a man who believes in his own personal freedom,

Freedom of the soul and spirit.

Here is a man who believes in his own personal chi.

Here is a man whose spirit is always at work.

Here’s a thinker,

An adventurer.

Here’s a believer in the divine.

Here’s a man who hates to be the receiver.

He is joyful when he’s the one giving.

Here’s a man who believes in his craft,

A craftsman who prides in the works of his hands,

Building his barn and filling it with yams which is the male crop.

Here’s a man who believes in a better tomorrow.

Here’s a man whose spirit is never crushed,

A man who would walk back into the seas with songs in his mouth 

Instead of becoming a slave.

Here’s a man with which the white man would be confused about how best to overtake and control him.

Here’s a man who believes in exploits.

Here’s a man who believes in physical strength first

Before the grace of the divine.

You have to till the land first

Before asking God, the Chi-ukwu, to bless and prosper the land.

Here’s a man who believes in working things out.

Here’s the man who would birth the lineage of the people whom the world would almost wipe out from the face of the earth.

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The first poem focuses on the attributes of the Igbo man before having any contact with the white men, who would later include the Igbos into Nigeria.

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Photo By Jud McCranie - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Water Spirit Will Take Us Home 

(1803, Dunbar Creek, Georgia)

How is it that Chukwu keeps quiet sometimes?

How fathomable is it that we should become slaves?

Kedu ka oga-esi mee?

How is it that we should be in bonds?

Chukwu ajụ.

Anyị jụrụ ajụ.

Steer our bodies into this sea.

Chukwu owns every water on this earth.

Let us go and meet Him there.

Guide us into this sea.

Drown this flesh.

We want to meet Him.

With our bodies,

With our souls,

With our spirits.

Let the water spirit take us home.

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The second poem is about the refusal of some Igbo people to become slaves in Georgia and drowned themselves in the place which is now called the Igbo Landing.

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Biafra War. Udo, Swedish Red Cross distribution center. Scramble before a food distribution. Biafra conflict. Udo, Swedish Red Cross distribution center. Rush before a food distribution. By of all photographers, only one name of the author of the photograph is known: Peter Williams. The names of the rest of the photographers are unknown or not found in the sources - Wiki Commons

Evacuation 

(Late 1967, Eastern Nigeria)

We’re leaving 

To an unknown destination.

We’re moving 

So we can live.

Our city is overtaken.

We took bombs for breakfast,

Can you imagine?

So we’ve got to leave 

We’ve got to move 

We that survived that horrible breakfast.

We were hungry 

We wanted to feed 

But we asked nobody for no bombs,

But that was what we got.

Which of thou givest thy son stones when he asketh for bread?

We asked for bread, but it was heavy, carnivorous stones that were hurled at us.

We do not know where exactly we are going to,

Or maybe we just have a vague idea of where we are going to,

So we’re moving,

Bags on our heads,

Children trailing behind,

We’re leaving.

May God the creator be with us.

May God the protector be with us 

In this unknown, precarious journey.

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The third poem is based on the Biafran War, which happened shortly after the white men granted Nigeria independence.

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If you enjoyed this interview, we invite you to explore more here! 

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