Henry Barlow: 'Building the Nation'

Henry Barlow: ‘Building the Nation’

 

 

                        Today I did my share

                                    In building the nation

                                    I drove a Permanent Secretary

                                    To an important urgent function

                        5          In fact to a luncheon at the Vic.

                                    The menu reflected its importance

                                    Cold Bell beer with small talk, 

                                    The fried chicken with niceties.

                                    Wine to fill the hollowness of the laughs

                        10       Ice-cream to cover the stereotype jokes

                                    Coffee to keep the PS awake in return journey.

                                    I drove the Permanent Secretary back.

                                    He yawned many times in the back of the car

                                    Then to keep the PS awake, he suddenly asked,

                        15       Did you have any lunch, friend?

                                    I replied looking straight ahead

                                    And secretly smiling at his belated concern

                                    That I had not, but was slimming

                                   

                                    Upon which he said with a seriousness

                        20       That amused more than annoyed me,

                                    Nwanachi, I too had none!

                                    I attended to matters of state.

                                    Highly delicate diplomatic duties you know,

                                    And friend, it goes against my grain,

                        25       Causes me stomach ulcers and wind

                                    Ah, he continued, yawning again.

                                    The pains we suffer in building the nation!

                                    So the PS had ulcer too!

                                    My ulcers I think are equally painful

                        30       Only they are caused by hunger

                                    Not sumptuous lunches!

                                    So two nation builders

                                    Arrived home this evening

                                    With terrible stomach pains

                                    The result of building the nation -

                                    Different ways.

POET’S BACKGROUND

Henry Barlow, a Ugandan poet, is yet to be listed as one of the renowned African poets; this is one of the reasons why not much details can be said about him. It is, however, suffice to know that Barlow was educated at King’s College, Budo, Uganda (1936-48); Makerere University Kampala, Uganda (1949-53) and Oxford University, London, England (1959-60). He returned to Uganda to work in the Civil Service, where he became a Permanent Secretary in 1964. He has written many other poems besides ‘Building the Nation’.

BACKGROUND TO THE POEM

The poem is, in particularly, a reflection on the ostensible dutifulness of government functionaries in Uganda, and by extension, all other states of the world where mere ostensibly what remains in government offices. Using Uganda as an archetype, the poet cleverly exposes the wanton waste of office hours and the nation’s fortune over a useless official occasion, which is a now characteristic of the African political state.

In a subtle humoristic manner, the poet satirizes the detestable antithesis that is apparent in Uganda: some plough, others plunder; many are hungry, a few feed sumptuously.

THEME

The poem is critically opposed to the wasteful spending of government funds and official business hours. Though the criticism is taunted with humor; the message is made unequivocally that government officials are hypocritically ostensible. The two major themes that are prominent in this poem are (a) that both time and money that should be spent on really building the nation into a virile political state are wasted in extravagant leisure called ‘delicate diplomatic duties’; (b) those who really work in building the nation (represented by the poetic persona, a driver) are compensated with hunger, and those who are negatively building the nation (represented by the PS) feel sumptuously on the nation’s future. In a tone that is emotive, the poem seeks to ridicule the squander mania and ostensibly in government quarters.  

FORM AND STRUCTURE

The poem is divided into stanzas, though the stanzas do not have the same number of lines. Written in a simple narrative forms, the poem tells the story of a driver who drove his boss (a Permanent Secretary) to an ‘important urgent function’. The first stanza is what the rest of the poem develops – the funfair at the party, the return journey, and the aftermath of the ceremony for the driver as well as for the PS.

The poem narrates a story presented in the eye-witnessed account, and it is also dramatic in nature. This explains the use of personal pronoun ‘I and the use of dialogue in stanza 3 – 5. The use of dialogue and of the personal pronoun ‘I’ is meant to give the story in the poem both credibility and objectivity.

LANGUAGE AND TECHNIQUE

The language of this poem is that of unblemished everyday use of language. The lexical choice is simple and the syntactic pattern is far from being complex. The matter concerned and satirized in this poem is a public one, and it is meant for public consumption. Therefore, the poet cannot afford to dispense with pedestrian English, if he wants the message he presents to reach the common people. In fact, the persona himself is a common man – a driver.

The figurative language most conspicuously employed in the poem is alliteration – lines 7, 9, 10, 11, 23, and 24. Line 27 is an instance of use of irony. In terms of imagery, there are images of both poverty and affluence in the poem. This is a true reflection of every human society where the rich and the poor co-exist, though at different quarters of the society.

REVISION QUESTIONS

1.     Discuss this poem as a satire.

2.     What is the effect of the use of active voice in the poem?

3.     The theme of this poem is applicable to all the black African states. Discuss.

4.     In what ways has the poetic persona been able to infect his audience with his disgust for wasteful spending of government funds and official business hours?

5.     Government functionaries build their homes rather than the nation. Discuss in relation to Barlow’s ‘Building the Nation’.