The Protest Poetry of Rome Aboh: A Study of a Torrent of Terror

The legacy of the second generation of Nigerian poets like Niyi Osundare to contemporary writers is an uncompromising exposition of social and political realities, a passion for justice and equity for the suffering masses, and a belief that the prevailing repressive political system can and should be changed. In their acclaimed mission of the poet as a ‘righter’ of wrongs, recent Nigerian poets are generally continuing in the tradition of protest poetry: their sympathy for the masses is evident in their strident condemnation of societal evils; their methods are artistic and linguistic clarity and directness of expression. Rome Aboh, one of Nigeria’s most recent, third-generation poets, has joined the swelling voices of young poets with his debut collection of poems, A Torrent of Terror. This essay examines his poems in the light of the protest tradition bequeathed to contemporary poets by the older generation of dissident voices. It adopts both the sociological and formalist methods of literary criticism in evaluating his poems, both of which show that Aboh is not simply concerned with portraying the moral turpitude and soico-political decadence that bedevil contemporary society; he is also asking for a general overhaul of the system in ways that will ensure the enthronement of egalitarian and humanistic values. The objective of the paper is to demonstrate the functionality and relevance of contemporary Nigerian poetry.