TO MY FIRST WHITE HAIRS

                                           -Wole Soyinka

                               Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright, novelist and critic, is the first black African writer to get the prestigious Nobel prize for Literature in 1986.As an African poem, his ‘To My First White Hairs’ presents the basic African theme of black vs white in a modernist expression using image and symbol in its own special way.Soyinka presents a picture of a black man’s thick curly black hair in hard, concrete and objective images in the first half of the poem. The sudden appearance of the three white hairs interpret time announcing the arrival of old age. The three white hairs itself is also a major symbolic figure in this poem. It speaks of the presence of the white people in the black majority of the African community. Finally the poet expresses a wish that the black and white hairs together may knit a nightcap of wisdom for his old age that is the reunion of the black and white people.

THE MYSTIC DRUM

                              -Gabriel Okara

                            Gabriel Okara, a Nigerian poet and novelist has infused his poetry with images of his Nigerian places, traditional rituals and writing it with the ideas and syntax of his native language, Ijaw, with English vocabulary and grammar. His poem ‘The Mystic Drum’ is African in both content and form. In African religion and folklore, drumbeating is a ritualistic process. It has also a mythical significance. By talking about this ritualistic process, the poet goes back to his roots in history, religion, culture, and folklore. The poet uses lots of images and symbols to intensify the mysterious power of the drumbeating. The beating of the drum unites the mind and heart, or rather the thoughts and feelings of the drumbeater with the external world of nature. It shows the intensity of the drumbeating and the unity of the people of Africa.

VIRGINITY TESTING IN SOUTH AFRICA: RE-TRADITIONING THE POSTCOLONY

                                     The article “Virginity testing in South Africa: Re-traditioning the postcolony” is written by Louise Vincent from the department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa. This article discussed about Umhlanga,a ceremony celebrating virginity. In South Africa it is practiced by the Zulu ethnic group who live mainly in the province of Kwazulu Natal. Due to some problems among the Zulu community, there was a fall in the ceremony of celebrating the virginity test for some years. Then the practice of virginity testing made a come back some ten years ago at around the time of the country’s first democratic election and coinciding with the period when the HIV pandemic began to take hold. In 2005, the South African parliament passed a new children’s bill which will prohibit virginity testing of children. This article raises many questions against the new democratic orders of the state related to the virginity test.

MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR

                                      -Chinua Achebe

                            ‘Marriage is a Private Affair’ is a short story written by Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, short story writer and poet, whose fiction has made English speaking readers familiar with the Ibo tribe’s culture since Achebe belongs to the Ibo tribe. He is deeply interested in the beliefs and traditions of the Ibo tribe. In ‘Marriage is a Private Affair’, a short story he wrote while he was a student at Ibadan, he talks about two young people Nnaemeka and Nene in love who try to break away from social traditions and pressures. Through this story Achebe also presents the conflict between a father and son when the latter chose a bride outside the Ibo tribe. The conflict is between the progressive outlook of the son and the orthodox attitude of the father.