THE POETRY OF ESSA BOKARR SEY
      AN AERIEL VIEW PART 1
      By Hassoum Ceesay(National Archives-Banjul),

     Essa Bokarr Sey currently the Gambia's ambassador to Taiwan is among 
the Gambia's most prolific poets.Dozens of his work appeared on the Daily 
observer between 1992 and 1995and he is also a frequent contributor to high 
profile poetry websites such as Netpoets.com. Recently his debut anthology 
"The boat of thought" was published in Budapest by pricomm communications 
ltd.edited by Dr.György Suha.

The book is indeed formidable,comprising a selection of 110 of Essa's best 
poems.That it is acres larger than your typical anthology which is usually 
slim and mean in content.Essa's,however,is voluminous in content and 
variegated in themes.

In "The Boat of thought" Essa adresses all aspects of Gambian life,"The 
complete nature of his work cannot be overemphasised.It is a master piece 
based on deep observation and sound analyses of The Gambian society," writes 
Abdou Kolley in the preface to his engrossing anthology.

Indeed Essa's razor sharp description of his beloved country is 
definitive.His patriotism glows like an olympian torch in a poem like "Your 
political science in my conscience"p67;his ire at post independence failings 
by our leaders boils in a piece like "Thirty years of thundering blunders" 
p39,or "Greed" p43; his green credentials glitter in "desertification by 
who?"p.108;his idealism climaxes in "Good bye my native village,p42,"The dry 
season's footpath,p14,or "A farmer's son speaks"p.122;his mordant,if not 
cynical view of todays's dalasi raising rent-a-crowd functions is in "Irony 
at the funeral"p136;his contemporaniety flows in "The virus,," on Aids. 
Essa' poetry breathes The Gambia,it drips of Gambian society's 
experiences,aspirations and failures.

Robert frost's naturalism,Pablo Neruda's anger and Robert Burn's lyricism 
all converge in Essa's work;an enviable elitism.

Equally formidable as his thematic diction and style.He uses words not only 
to evoke sense and feeling but also to awl out rythm and sound. The poem 
"Culture" p31 for example,is a veritable harvest of alliteration,"Bring back 
the root";rhyme,"There we started,here we've deviated;assonance," "Brains 
are baked." He uses oxymoron as in "The noble smuggler" p33,or in "Our 
democrats are armed",to carricature villains;symbols as in "The paper 
Tiger"p61,to show the banality of violence whether in celluloid or on the 
ground.The personification in "foreign aid knocked on our door" p67 is 
palpable.

His language is simple,flowing neither obscurantist nor abracadabra like. 
His tone varies from unmitigated anger to sheen romanticism,in most times it 
is optimistic,in a few occasions despairing.Even the structure of his poems 
are not for nothing."Toys," p117,is arranged to adombrate the torso of a 
doll;in "I have a dream",the words are scatter to evoke the ragtak of 
dreams,the poem "Terrorism"p.81 has the out line of a slog, the terrorist 
ace.

Poetry has remained the bastion of Gambian written literature since Phyllis 
Wheatley in the 18th century,Lenrie Peters and the Ndaanan school in the 
1970s,Tijan sallah in the 80s and the Daily observer Generation of the 
1990s.

Essa's collection has put him firmly on the pedestal of being the most 
authentic voice of the Gambian verse in the past decade.

Indeed it is for this that the UNESCO assistant Director
General for culture,Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki,wrote may 2nd thus to Essa,"I 
appreciate the wisdom of your appeal to mind and soul.The many topics you 
speak of and the in ward look under your pen are of particular interest."

Published in the Gambia's Daily observer on june 24,2001.

NB:Folks,the book "The Boat of Thought" is currently available at The Gambia 
National museum.

This apart the writer Essa Bokarr Sey has also been dominating a column at 
the point news paper in 93,94,95
thus the story "Towards Home".Interested parties may as well pay the 
searching and copy fee at the point news paper's bureau in order to be able 
to taste the non-poetic stories of this Kuntaya born writer.

Ousman Jallow Bojang.

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