“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. Some of the identifiable themes in “Feigning Rebel”, which we have dedicated this space to, are the themes of disillusionment, revolutionary authenticity, and power corruption.
Theme of Disillusionment
The theme of disillusionment is evidently one of the prominent themes in Niyi Osundare’s “Feigning Rebel”. The people typified by plural personal pronoun “we” are indubitably disillusioned by the endless fruitless promises made by past revolutionaries, simply identified as “masked rebels” and pronoun “they” and its variants, that now they doubt anyone that comes across as revolutionaries. And by anyone, the poet categorically projects a new stream of revolutionaries addressed as “you” that the people find hard to believe are not pretenders who espouse ideas they might not believe in. This new set of revolutionaries are judged based on the precedents set by their predecessors who have deceived the people with the power of oratory to get a chance at power.
Disillusionment interacts closely with the cycle of false hope. The people go from being excited and inspired by revolutionary speeches to being weighed down by the crushing weight of disappointment. Their hopes are dashed “down like melons on a harmattan twig” (l. 34-35) when revolutionaries who have previously told them that “the system is bad” (l. 8) and identified with the “agonies of soles without shoes” (l. 25-26) turned out to personify the very system they criticised.
These revolutionaries were swayed easily by “the seductive dew of a dawn of ambition” (l. 29-30) over the betterment of the living conditions of the poor whom they have previously claimed to be friends of. Consequently, the people are sceptical of revolutionary movements and its key actors, and disillusioned from the emotional toll of repeatedly investing hope in revolutionary promises, only to see them unfulfilled.
Theme of Revolutionary Authenticity
The theme of revolutionary authenticity is arguably the central theme of “Feigning Rebel”. This is encapsulated in the recurring question: “are you real revolutionaries or feigning kings waiting for crowns?” (l. 2-4; 45-47). It questions whether those who present themselves as champions of change are truly committed to their ideals or merely using revolutionary rhetoric as a means to gain authority.
This scepticism is informed by the people’s previous bad experience with past revolutionaries who have used fiery speeches to sway people to get them in power, only to retract their promises. The disconnect between their words and their actions is exemplified by the contrast between their fiery speeches at night and their changed behaviour at daybreak which is mellowed by their desire for personal power.
Coming from this experience of cyclic deception, the people question the authenticity of new revolutionaries and the very ground upon which the revolutionary ideas are founded. The disillusioned people have learnt to look beyond inspiring rhetoric and question the true motives of those claiming to fight for change.
Theme of Power Corruption
Another theme projected in “Feigning Rebel” is the power corruption. The poem portrays how the pursuit and acquisition of power can corrupt individuals, particularly those who initially present themselves as revolutionaries or reformers.
We see how the allure of power transforms passionate advocates for change into the very thing they once opposed. This is evident in lines 27-30:
“By daybreak those fires are gone quenched by the seductive dew of a dawn of ambition”
They are enticed by power and ambition embodied by “seductive dew” that extinguishes revolutionary fervour. We equally see a shift from idealistic rhetoric to the realities of governance and self-interest in the transformation from night to day. The poem describes the transformative journey of “masked rebels of the night” (alternatively “friends of the poor”) to “prostrating apostates” who have not only abandoned their principles but have submissively embraced the systems they once criticised.
Understandably, not all the revolutionaries are deceptive at first; some were genuinely interested in change and common good until they were swayed by the allure of power. Alternatively, the poem describes how the structures of power corrupt even those who initially seek to change them.
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