Reminiscences of War in Nimi Wariboko’s Songs of Childhood

Charles Ajunwa 

In this new collection of poems, ‘Songs of Childhood: Biafran War Memories’,  prolific poet and Director of the African Studies Centre at Boston University, United States, Nimi Wariboko unveils the grim experiences of the 1967-1970 Biafra-Nigeria Civil War from the  viewpoint of a six-year-old boy caught in the crossfire.    

Through the lens of a poet from the marginalised community, this poignant collection presents a long-overdue perspective on the Biafra-Nigeria Civil War as it sheds light on the untold stories of the minority people who bore the brunt of the conflict in the Niger Delta region, but the devastating impact of the war on their psyche, emotions, and bodies remains unacknowledged in existing narratives.

This anthology of 37 poems published in 2025 by Paperworth Books, Abuja, is a testament to the resilience and courage of the people as well as a clarion call to acknowledge the injustices of the past.  

Wariboko’s ‘Songs of Childhood’ is a powerful indictment of the historical erasure of the minority experience, where the dominant narratives of the war have conveniently silenced the voices of those who might have suffered the most during the civil war.

Structurally, the poems are of varying lengths. The poem, ‘Bullets, Boats and Palm-oiled Yam’ (Nigeria-Biafra War-June 21, 1968) constitutes 69 lines, 10 stanzas, and 3 sub-parts while ‘Abonnema Evacuation’ (Biafra War, June 21, 1968) is a single-stanza poem of only two lines: “The sadness in their faces at the waterside:/ Fishes on a dry, sand beach”, which aptly depicts the overriding themes of desolation and environmental degradation, involving human and aquatic lives. 

Noting that the collection is a historical document on the people of Abonnema, Nigeria, and the global community, Wariboko writes in the proem to this novel poetic journey: “What I have done is to pan the camera to the fate of the minority-Ijo group of the Abonnema people. Usually, glories of war are tales of grandeur, involving big people and big places… the ignored people and places suffer similar and even sometimes more gruesome fates” (p.13). 

‘Songs of Childhood’ is broadly structured into three parts with the subtitles, ‘Past Echoes’, ‘New Griefs’ and ‘Grief, endless grief’. Part 1 contains the following poems, ‘Biafulu is a Restless God’, ‘War Survivor (1968)’, ‘Mercenary War Pilot and a Boy’, ‘Bullets, Boats and Palm-oiled Yam’, ‘A Scared Six-Year-Old Boy in Biafra’, ‘Biafran-War Ijo Children (1968)’, and ‘Abonnema Evacuation’. Part 11 features ‘I am a Child, Save Me’, ‘The Recipe of Papaya as Yam’, ‘Fire From Heaven’, ‘Child at War’, ‘Fenibo’s Ghost Speaks’, ‘A Floating Corpse’, etc while Part III Grief, endless captures 17 poems, including, ‘The War is Over’, ‘Playing War’, ‘Knock on the Door’, ‘Some Kalabari Love Biafra’, ‘Blood of Freedom’, ‘Boy in a War Zone’, ‘Crabs Bear Witness’, ‘Wild Hatred’, ‘Memories’ and ‘The War is Over’.  

‘Past Echoes’ begins with a mythological poem titled, ‘Biafulo is a Restless God’ which narrates the exploits of a notorious sea god famed for destroying both European explorers and other voyagers. ‘Biafulo is a Restless God’ is in four parts, 12 stanzas, and 88 lines. It portrays Biafra as a corruption of Biafulo, a cannibalistic deity now “homeless” in a foreign land where he still haunts humans, using the victims as meat for his endless cooking: “Biafulo/ You are the god of endless becoming/ The mighty god that is always cooking…/But your delicious soup is never ready/ Your pot of soup is always bubbling…”  

The poet’s attitude to the Biafran cause and its proponents is revealed in the limerick, “Biafra” which reflects a tone of sarcasm: “Biafra/ a leap into a torment/ brief and unfinished like a nascent sun obscured/ by fleeting storm clouds” (p.54). The comparison of Biafra to a “nascent sun obscured” conveys a sense of lost potential and prospects. The persona’s somber and reflective tone indicates that the poet commemorates the loss, but criticises the decisions that led to it. The language of the poems suggests that the overall perspective is nuanced by the criticism of the Biafran war effort. However, even dramatic poems that depict the traumatic experiences of the persona’s in-group have a tinge of melancholy.  

Although the poems are predominantly narrative, the poet stylistically crafts in diverse types, including allegorical, dramatic, didactic, and lyrical poems. The poem, ‘Crabs Bear Witness’ instantiates allegorical poem as shown in the title and following lines: “I doubt if anyone/ believes crabs talk/ to people/ concerning their plight/ in war/ I am afraid/ you will never believe me/ if I say they do…” Nimi Wariboko masterfully weaves these intriguing lines of poetry, using an array of poetic devices, metaphoric language, musical devices such as rhythm and rhyme, and a preponderance of alliteration in most of the poems.  

Set in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the poems chronicle the harrowing war experiences people of the region had, including bombings, forced evacuations, refugee camping, hunger, betrayals, and executions, highlighting historic places like Abonnema, Nyemoni, and River Sombriro, Niger, Abuan, and Ogonokom as epicenters. The poet explores the central theme of post-war trauma through poems like “The War is Over” which ironically depicts a deep sense of loss as the “Boy” withdraws to himself because “The war went away with his world/ And with the absence, his tongue twisted…” The first stanza of the poem mirrors the pitiable state of the persona: “We return, Boy says nothing/ No one guesses something’s wrong/ Daily, after school, he sits by the window/ Says nothing, stares blankly into the sky/ By himself/ Six, without the excited garrulity of infancy” (p. 46).

In “At Ogonokom Refugee Hall”, the poet unveils the pathetic plight of the Abonnema IDPs, highlighting theme of homelessness through the following lines: “Tears cascade down weary faces/ Each trickle, a tale of terror/ Mothers, eyes bleak, splay on the floor/ Minds tethered to a new fate/ in wait for the messiahs/ Children laugh, unaware/ Driven out of our homeland/ The Abuans received us as kin/ We arrived, broken refugees/ stripped of charm and grace…” (p. 62). 

However, the last stanza of the poem portrays the theme of hope, indicating the possibility of a relief: “And all mothers wailed, mourning Abonnema/ praying for the Nigerian troops to return them to their hearth/ that their children can eat roasted plantain and fish” (P.62). Ironically, the expected rescuers heightened their suffering as this excerpt from “Wild Hatred” reveals “For weeks, searing odium spread/ the town while the Nigerian troops played/ blind but raped our girls” (p. 57).

The page dedicated to ‘More Praises for Songs of Childhood: Biafran War’, Wariboko’s writing prowess was commented on by other great authors like Nduka Otiono, award-winning author of DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono; Prof. Ahmed Yerima, award-winning Playwright; Michael Afenfia, poet, novelist and author ‘Leave My Bones in Saskatoon; Fallou Ngom, Professor of Anthropology at Boston University and author of ‘Beyond Africa Orality: The Ajami Poetry of Serin Mbay Jaxate (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2025); and Olufemi Vaughan, Alfred Sargent Lee ‘41 and Mary Ames Lee Professor and Chair of Black Studies, Amherst College. Author of Letters, Kingship, and Social Mobility in Nigeria. All the authors praised Wariboko for putting together his recollections of the Civil War as a boy.

The Foreword was written by Adiyi-Maryins T. Bestman, Professor of French Literature, poet and Literary Critic, Writer-in-Residence, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Bestman in his first paragraph painted a picture of hopelessness. Hear him: “A provocative investigation into the insanity called the Biafra-Nigeria war, Songs of Childhood is a memorable testament. An unforgettable metaphor of the brutal assault on the psyche, destiny and freedom of choice of the marginalised ethnic minorities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, an area paradoxically doomed by the oil boom, dispossessed, impoverished, vulnerable, neglected, orphaned, restive, oppressed by restless internal coloniser, recklessly plundered with impunity by insatiable, ferocious, external predators.”

How can he forget so easily. Wariboko, known for his humble beginnings in the Acknowledgements page, thanked the Kairos, Utibe Hanson (poet) and Okey Ndibe (novelist), for “editing, friendship, and words of support.”

“For years, Okey wanted me to tell the stories in this collection. Utibe was fascinated when he heard some of my stories and insisted that I record them on tape. I recorded them and proceeded to translate them into the idiom of poetry,” Wariboko enthused.