Letter to My Unborn: Poetry Book (Ngozi Olivia Osuoha) ISBN 978-1-988827-30-8
Legacy poems
This book represents a legacy in poems - moral, ethical and practical education in verses.
In Robin Wyatt Dunn's words:
Osuoha's language reads like a stilted nursery rhyme, doubly insisting both on the rights of the white settler to determine the destiny of her community (the book is dedicated to God and is scattered throughout with various Christian homilies), yet its deeper intention is profoundly anti-colonial, and a sharp critic of the state:
Osuoha observes:
The world violates covenants
And desecrates every altar
Yet they all are communicants
And none is a defaulter
Here, everything is fake
And anyhow, they fail brake
Drop not your guard.
These poems are a mix of compassion and angst, a homely mother reciting her rhymes who is concealing her deep mistrust and rage at the history which has raped her language and culture, insisted on its rights to do so, and continues to oppress her country and environment.
But, as she observes, it is not ultimately the white settler who is to blame, but the world: we are all implicated in this suffering and desecration.
***
Each poem in beautiful rhyme representing a letter addressed to her unborn child and safely placed in a file from a caring and protective mother is a skillfully crafted piece of work by the Nigerian poet Ngozi Olivia Osuoha. The poems act as codes of conduct for childhood, adolescence and adulthood and can be collectively taken as a guide for facing the ups and downs of life. Original, captivating, heart touching and soul stirring Letter to My Unborn will certainly leave imprints of permanent ink in the readers’ mind long after it has been read. This is truly a poetry collection of all-time, a shining star on each book lover’s shelf.
– Vatsala Radhakeesoon
author of Depth of the River