Voice to the Voiceless
Fortune Nwaiwu
Praise for Voice to the Voiceless Fortune Nwaiwu has a powerful ' voice for the voiceless ' ( which is often the role of poetry ) - although I always find that a particularly hard thing to do as poetry is such a personal expression . Coming from Africa myself , I was able to identify with much of the customs to which he referred . I feel that there is a lot of potential power in his writing .
In blank verse , such as this , the rhythm is all important . His rhythm is generally slow and powerful ( I think of Roy Campbell ' s poem , The Serf , here ). It conveys not only a sense of the tragedy , but also the inevitability of change .
The main message of the whole poem was the destructive force of traditions that favour men over women and all that women suffer as a result - the unfairness , and yet against that , she was aware of her own sin and the ' justified ' punishment for it . Then , at the end her ' saviour ' comes both in the form of a new religion that forgives and calls no child bastard , but also from an old man who recognises her as his daughter to indicate that customs can change . ~ Scribendi ~
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