Mwatabu S. Okantah. Reconnecting Memories: Dreams No Longer Deferred.

Mwatabu S. Okantah. Reconnecting Memories: Dreams No Longer Deferred. Trenton: Africa World P, 2004.60 pp. $29.50.

M'watabu Okantah's seventh book of poetry, Reconnecting Memories, establishes him as being a true Pan-African, Muntu-Kuntu energy poet, performer, professor, and human being. Muntu, a Bantu term, is defined in Muntu, the seminal work of Janhienz Jahn, as "... the [human] entity which has control of Nommo." Here, Nommo is the magic power of the original word/breath/sound. Jahn states, however, "It is more difficult to explain the modal force Kuntu. A modal force such as beauty is hard to imagine as an independently acting force." It is this interdependence (not only of beauty and laughter, but of ugliness and tears) that Okantah brings to the fore ground in his small tome of poems. The interdependence of Nommo, Muntu, and Kuntu, and in fact all pedagogy relevant to Pan-African culture is central to understanding the meaning of these rich poems.

Okantah defines himself as a poet, though his role as a professor is evident in his first poem, "the black experience." This concise poem encapsulates two semesters of teaching (a semester course in African history before the advent of the European, then a second in the African experience after the establishment of foreign conquerors):</p> <pre>

... African history is not the history of Europeans in Africa.

African time begins before the appearance of people who would call themselves white. </pre> <p>Moving to semester two,</p> <pre>

in this still strange, but familiar land, African ancestors wander, a people shattered into pieces now struggles to become whole once again; just inside the dark door of our silence,

our ancestors stand, whispering, trying to reconnect memories-- bringing water words rushing over us,

healing us black into one.... </pre> <p>This attempt to reconnect memories, to answer our ancestors' wandering, disturbed knocks at the door of our silence, sets the tone for this publication. The poet reconnects memories through diverse topics, including love, travel, and the exposure of postmodern global "politricks." All of the poems share one central theme: the pursuit of a Pan-African ideology.

Okantah's love poems illustrate roots and commitments. Discussing Negritude writers, Kofi Awoonor writes in The Breast of the Earth, "It is less in the theme than in the manner. Its center rests in the sensuality of the black woman; the self abandonment of love is part of the rhythm and emotivity, in the rhythmic beat in jazz, and in the swaying flamboyance of the Negro vision. These all will emerge to save the world." This influence is easily seen in Okantah's "song for Aminah':</p> <pre>

... like the moon, like the sun, we are one in the same sky--

when i met you i met my soul mate. inside your brown woman

black love i found safe space. </pre> <p>Indeed, it is as Diedre Badejo writes in the introduction to Reconnecting Memories, "Okantah proposes that if we are to heal then we must use the great Balm of Love that all great spiritual leaders summon."

Okantah's travel poems feature imagery reminiscent of the vivid poetry that Langston Hughes produced from his 1920's sea voyage. In "African Morning," Okantah conveys these images:</p> <pre> the cock i never see crows each new day to announce the sun. a goat bays,

his bell ringing just below the compound wall. morning birds

sing solitary music to clear Benin City air ... a woman sings as she draws water. Whitney Houston songs startle on the clock radio. African city sounds begin ... Nigeria. </pre> <p>Okantah's poems focus on sociopolitical and cultural themes; they are hard-hitting and unapologetic. Moreover, they ascribe to the three-pronged definition of "Black art" outlined by Dr. Karenga in The Black Aesthetic: they are "functional, collective and committing."

For example, in "can we talk about race,"</p> <pre> this is a poem for those white people who say you want to talk about race.

are you ready to hear this land has never been free? ...

can we talk about race? the real question is "can you bring yourselves to listen when black voices speak?" </pre> <p>Okantah's poem about 9-11, "red, white and bruised," addresses the concept of collectivity, "at Ground Zero, / there are those who wonder / if there is a God." Again, the interdependence of beauty and ugliness, laughter and tears, black and white are all brought out in his examinations of US social interactions.

Finally, these poems are committed to exposing, challenging, and ending the exploitation and underdevelopment of Africans throughout the world. In "a new sun rising," he writes:</p> <pre> the sun rises-- another day on the urban plantation awaits.... each day we see them, descendants of the field hands that have no more cotton to pick. ... the new plantation is bleak. what is this exslave's freedom that gives birth to spirit dead children </pre> <p>Geneva Smitherman writes in Talkin and Testify in that "The creator of black arts literature envisions himself or herself as a necromancer, a skillful manipulator of the art of shonuff black magic whose job it is to 'heal' black folks through the evocative power of art, and transform their suffering into constructive political action." Reconnecting Memories, Okantah's most recent work, marvelously asserts a new world African voice. In producing this thought provoking, well constructed, and inspired small book of poetry, Okantah firmly places himself in the Pan-African literary pantheon.

Idris Kabir Syed

Kent State University