Summary
“Feigning Rebel” by Niyi Osundare is a 47-line poem that questions the sincerity of people who claim to be revolutionaries or fighters for social change. The poem starts by asking if these supposed revolutionaries are genuine or if they’re just pretending, waiting to be powerful themselves.
As projected in the poem, the “rebels” come around criticising the current system that runs in their society. They speak with such conviction that they inspire hope in the poor and the oppressed people. They identify with the plight of the poor masses, especially as regards poverty, homelessness, disease, and lack of basic necessities. The people begin to buy into their call for change, because of course, it means better lives for the people.
But talk is cheap. Immediately these revolutionaries get a hold of a little power, they become something else: the very thing and system they criticised on their way up. Their ambition takes over, and they abandon their cause. And again, the hopes of the people are crushed.
The poetic persona reflects on how they’ve seen this pattern before – people who make big promises but then quietly back down from their passionate speeches and promises the moment they taste the intoxicating sweetness of power. This is true, considering there are several instances from history of how people pontificating about one ideology or the other become the very thing they criticised. The Samuel Does of this world who rose from the lowest rung of the society to grab power for the people’s redemption only to become dictators themselves. The Jomo Kenyattas of this world who went from anti-colonial advocates to aping the very thing the colonial administrators represented. This inexhaustive list does not exclude coup plotters who oust a government because of corruption and its insensitivity to the deplorable condition of the people, only to make these abnormalities the order of the day in the new government they spearhead.
It is pertinent to note that this poem is not without the background that necessitated its writing, as we can see in the illustrations above. The poem is written against the background of the disillusionment people feel when those who claim to fight for change end up being interested in personal gain. It’s a critique of insincere activism and political opportunism.
Stanza-by-stanza Analysis
“Feigning Rebel” by Niyi Osundare is a poem of forty-seven lines, sectioned into seven stanzas. The first, the fifth and the last stanzas have four lines each; the second and the third have five lines each; the fourth has twelve lines, while the sixth stanza has thirteen lines. The poem, which is on pages 21-22 of Niyi Osundare’s Village Voices, is written against the backdrop of the prevailing political climate during the Second Republic and the heyday of the Buhari-Idiagbon authoritarian regime. Like the other socio-political poems in the poetry collection, “Feigning Rebel” explores the diverse shades of hypocrisy in contemporary Nigeria.
In the Nigerian instance, the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo ushered in civilian rule in 1979, this is years after the grandstanding corruption of Yakubu Gowon’s government. But what was the input of the democratic government of Shehu Shagari? Corruption, corruption, and a sprinkle of political violence and massive rigging of elections. The political class, which initially identified with the people, thus alienated itself from them for its personal gain. Same can be said of Kenya where the political class, which had literally fought the British colonialism with the people, left the people disillusioned when it became apparent that the new African leaders were indistinguishable from the British colonialists they replaced, and had perpetuated the colonial system that left people in acute suffering.
There is yet another person that comes to mind in the reading of Osundare’s “Feigning Rebel.” It’s Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. He began as a revolutionary figure fighting against white minority rule in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was a key leader in the struggle for independence and was seen as a liberation hero. When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, Mugabe became the country’s first prime minister and was initially praised for his policies of reconciliation and his focus on education and healthcare. However, over time, Mugabe’s rule became increasingly authoritarian and corrupt. Under his watch, there was the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s, where thousands of Ndebele people were killed by government forces; suppression of political opposition, media censorship, and human rights abuses; and economic mismanagement that led to economic collapse and hyperinflation. He also manipulated elections to stay in power. By the time Mugabe was forced out of office in 2017, he had become emblematic of the type of hypocritical revolutionary Osundare’s “Feigning Rebel” criticises – someone who began as a revolutionary promising positive change but ended up as an authoritarian ruler clinging to power at the expense of his people, all that revolutionary fervour having given way to his personal ambition.
Stanza 1 (Lines 1-4)
Stanza 1 sets up the central question of the poem: “are you real revolutionaries / or feigning kings / waiting for crowns?” (l. 2-4). The poetic persona directs the question to self-proclaimed revolutionaries. He questions the genuineness of their desire for change, and wishes to know whether they really want change or they’re merely seeking power for themselves.
Stanza 2 (Lines 5-9)
The poetic persona describes the scenario that informs his question in the previous stanza. He describes how the people have seen too many of revolutionaries in the past who come around with lofty ideas, while masking their true intentions. They criticise everything about the system of governance, and that the system must go down for the realisation of their lofty ideas and promises to the people.
The poetic persona, in describing that this is a pattern repeated too often, says they “have been roused / countless times / by masked rebels of the night . . .” (l. 5-7). Taking advantage of the deplorable state of the country, “these masked rebels” key into the sentiments of the people for a better country by calling for a total overhaul of the system: “the system is bad / and the only way it should go is down” (l. 8-9). The usage of “night” in the context of the poem instantiates two things. The first is the accentuation of the concealment of the true intents of the “masked rebels.” The other is that all is not well with the country, which perhaps is why the rhetoric of the revolutionaries is gaining momentum.
Stanza 3 (Lines 10-14)
The poem goes on to describe how the revolutionaries lure people with the allure of their lofty ideas and the “fire in their mouth” (l. 10). They speak so passionately that they hold people spellbound and get “a million hopes” hooked to their every word. They sway people to their cause with their charisma and convincing powerful rhetoric.
Stanza 4 (Lines 15-26)
The rhetoric of these “masked rebels” is so convincing and the promises it holds so gratifying that the people whom they are targeted at begin to believe that the rebels truly understand their socio-economic struggles and difficulties. The people start to think that the rebels are “the friends of the poor” (l. 16) who understand “what it means to wake up / without a penny” (l. 19-20) that they are not unaware of the various hardships faced by the poor: homelessness, inflated market prices, poor healthcare, and poverty. It is with the knowledge that the rebels empathise with their difficulties that the poor masses accept them into their fold, hold them in messianic regard, and take in everything they are told hook, line, and sinker. The understanding that the rebels “know the agonies / of soles without shoes” (l. 25-26) grants them the friendship and the trust of the poor so easily.
Stanza 5 (Lines 27-30)
This stanza is antithetical to the previous stanza. There is an abrupt change in the social carriage of the rebels. They go on from making passionate speeches, identifying with the poor and giving the poor a reason, a dream to live for, to being consumed by their own ambitions. The “fires” of their speeches and movements which had ignited hope in a million people is suddenly supplanted by their personal ambitions, the promises of what they could become, the power they could command. They embark on a total overhaul of a system characterised by greed, self-interest, avarice, and personal ambitions, only for them, the initiators of the revolution, to be overwhelmed by their own ambitions. Now leaders themselves, they abandon the very causes that won the hearts of the people and placed them on the pedestal of power.
Stanza 6 (Lines 31-43)
The penultimate stanza of the poem describes the disillusionment of the people that follows, especially considering all the fiery speeches and lofty promises that now count for nothing. These have been overtaken by personal ambitions of the rebels, and the people are returned to the same system they were convinced was wrong.
The strong voices of the rebels are silenced by their acknowledgement that they can’t bring to life or actualisation any of their lofty promises nor concretise their revolutionary ideas: “the timbre is scorched / by the sun of can’t” (l. 32-33). The people’s hopes are crushed, in a fatal way compared to melons falling from a dry twig. It is important to note that the disillusionment projected in these lines is not any different from the one that trailed independence in many African countries, when the people realised that they had successfully chased away the European colonialists and they had replaced them with black men who sought to rule them in every way the white colonialists did.
The poetic persona reflects on the pattern of failed promises, which they had witnessed one too many. He describes the rebels as “promise peddlers” (l. 38) and “prostrating apostates” (l. 39) for their abandonment of their ideologies; “throwers of dumb bombs” (l. 37) who come preaching hatred, bedlam and chaos, and a new world order, only for them to perpetuate the very system they sought to bring down and become the very establishment they criticised vociferously. The poetic persona also alludes to how the revolutionaries take back their words like how a mongrel takes its vomit, particularly in his projection of how the “prostrating apostates tiptoe(ing) back to murmur good evening where once they shouted good night,” (l. 39-43) which is Yoruba way of saying someone is not principled enough and has gone back to eat their words shamelessly. These lines emphasised a contrast between the rebels’ earlier loud proclamations and later quiet retreats.
Stanza 7 (Lines 44-47)
The poem ends by repeating the opening question, now with added weight given the experiences described. It questions the authenticity of self-proclaimed revolutionaries: whether they are real revolutionaries or just another set of political opportunists.
The whole poem criticises political opportunism, where individuals use revolutionary rhetoric to gain support but don’t follow through on their commitments once they have a chance at power. This hypocrisy prompts the people who have seen this pattern repeat over time to question the motives of anyone claiming to fight for change.
Mood and Tone of the Poem
The mood of the poem is decidedly cynical about revolutionary promises. The people are obviously disillusioned by their memory, which is understandably “a track of throwers of dumb bomb,” of mongrels who go back to their vomit. Their hopes are dashed “down like melons on a harmattan twig” by revolutionaries who are emblematic of the saying that “talk is cheap” or to use a more colourful Yoruba variant, “the mouth easily makes sumptuous vegetable-broth; bare hands can axe logs into splinters?” In other words, things are easier said than done.
The tone of the poem, on the other hand, is critical of those who abandon their ideals for personal gain. It also warns against blind trust in revolutionary rhetoric.
Figures of Speech in the Poem
Some of the figures of speech used in the poem include metaphor, simile, rhetorical question, hyperbole, and repetition.
Metaphor
“The fire in their mouth” (l. 10) “the darkness of our doubt” (l. 11) “dawn of ambition” (l. 30) “sun of can't” (l. 33)
Simile
(lines 34-35) “our hopes dash down like melons on a harmattan twig”
Rhetorical Question
(lines 2-4; 45-47) “are you real revolutionaries or feigning kings waiting for crowns?”
Alliteration
“promise peddlers” (l. 38)
Symbolism
“Night” symbolises the time of revolutionary fervour while “daybreak” and “noon” symbolise the reality that follows initial excitement of a revolution. In other words, time of day (night, daybreak, noon) is used symbolically to represent stages of revolutionary movements.
Antithesis
The poet contrasts “shouted ‘good night’” with “murmur ‘good evening’” to show the change in revolutionary zeal.
Hyperbole
(lines 12-14) “the timbre of their voices seemed thick enough to hang a million hopes”
Repetition
The opening question in lines 2-4 is repeated at the end in lines 45-47 to show the cyclical nature of the issue. There is the repetition of “we thought” in lines 15 and 23 to instantiate the people’s initial belief and their subsequent disillusionment.
Synecdoche
Synecdoche is used in line 26, “soles without shoes,” in which the poet uses a part (soles) to represent the whole (poor people without shoes).
Enjambment
Many lines run on to the next without punctuation in the poem. Stanza 2 is a good example of this, where a sentence runs from line 5 to 9:
“We have been roused countless times by masked rebels of the night telling us the system is bad and the only way it should go is down”
Allusion
There is an instance of literary allusion in lines 40 to 43 where the poet does a literal translation of a Yoruba expression to fit his description of how the revolutionaries backslide on their popularised principles and seeming ideologies. The original statement, “a ki se ekaale nibi ti a ti se odaaro” (forgive the absence of tonal marks), is a testament to the richness and the vastness of the Yoruba language. Its literal translation, “we don’t say good evening in a place we have bid good night,” is emphatic on the need to stand on one’s words and principles.
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