Brown Bamboo

In Shao, my hometown, we have a gathering place for the elders called Bompe. Bompe is made of brown bamboo originally neatly arranged up to ten feet. Bamboo sticks are lined horizontally beside each other with little space in-between. Bompe is a highly social place where men relax, play ayo olopon, deliberate on domestic topics, jokes, and even retire to relax after the daily work. But it does not prohibit women from joining as well. Bompe is a place of art too where minstrels demonstrate their skills to “benchers,” and exhibit their panegyric talent. Bompe is a place of poetry as much as a place of politics. It is a club of active listeners, speakers, writers, and readers who contemplate on issues found in music and other popular arts.

In the last one and half decades, African poetry has taken a new leap. Many poets have been born via journals, magazines, and other publishing markets. The intervention of markets such as the African Poetry Book Fund cannot be underestimated. There is a spring of African publishers too who are dedicated to the gift of language. Yet, these griots have little place of gathering in African space. Readership of African literature today has overemphasized a prose genre above as the cumulative sum of African literature. Club Bamboo is an attempt to retrieve the place of African poetry in African literature. We are gathering readers of African poetry. We are celebrating the griots. We are placing poetry as a framework for African social development.