cities were ostensibly patterned in their evolution, exuded vibrant productivity and were
ultimate beneficiaries of such productivity, Niger Delta cities were created in a qualified
simulation. Qualified simulation because rather than being the ultimate beneficiaries of
the proceeds from oil palm trade, the benefits accrued almost exclusively to Britain and
other European cities. Whatever benefits of urbanity they could garner in the era of
occupational colonialism were also soon to be eroded, laying the foundation for the
paradoxical dystopia created thereafter, from the colonial to the post-independence era.
Ebigberi Alagoa (2004:10) gives a vivid account of the historical and contemporary
dynamics at work in minimizing the spatial privilege and relevance of the Niger Delta
urban space.
The above then explains why the imperative of subnationalism in the Niger Delta politics
can no longer be ignored. Going by Joshua Forrest’s (2004:2) account of postcolonial
African subnationalism, there is no doubt that the political mobilization of ethnic and
regional nationalities as counterweight to aspirations of national governements is in most
cases a response to the attempt by the political class to endorse and perpetuate national
narratives and practices of marginalization instituted in the colonial days. As well as the
collectivism of subnationalism, individuals have also taken it upon themselves to
articulate the fears and apsirations of their ethnic and regional formations. This is what
Forrest refers to as “individuals’ conscious or ascriptive adherence to ethnic or regional
identity patterns” (ibid.). Specifically for Ojaide, the recurrence of the Niger Delta
condition in his poetry stems from the huge paradox that dogs the history of the region,
that is, the “paradox of sitting on oil and yet remaining impoverished” (Ojaide:
1999:244).
Any wonder then that the collection begins with a reflection on the ships, the mnemonic
and symbolic reminder of the genesis of marginalization and despoliation of the Niger
Delta space. But to fully explore the allegory of ships, and the memory they conjure up in
the Niger Delta space, both the present and the past are mobilized in the collection, which
is why the narrative begins more or less in media res with an announcement of the
migrant/ cosmopolitan breed that history has made of the persona: