The Fulani Poet

It all started in the dusty, semi-desert town of Maiduguri (North-eastern Nigeria) where I performed my poems for the first time in 1995! After sharing Fulani Migration, participants at that one-week Poetry/Short Story seminar started to call me 'The Fulani Poet'. And the name has stuck!

Well, I am actually, unofficially, of Fulani stock hidden in the home and culture of the Bura people. And I like to share my life in simple poems. Every poem I share with you on this blog allows intrusion into my life! Let me try and explain that with this ultra-short simple poem:

POETIC!

What it is, I know not,
The majesty of words,
The beauty of sequence,
The force of eloquence,
Poetic!

What it is, I care not
So long as it’s a heart
That’s splattered over the scroll,
Heroic!

He dared intrusion into his life,
He bore the wrath of disapproval,
He carried the threat of rejection,
Poetic is heroic!

Kabura Zakama, Abuja, 4 October 2001