Friday Poetry: The Reunion by Niyi Osundare

We started school the same day
and together bore the flaying fury
of the teacher’s ceaseless cane
together we parroted the ABC
till we scribbled our first broken letters
in the whiteman’s tongue
We shared the same meatless meals
and took turns in your first khaki trousers
we took the same entrance examinations
to “institutions of higher learning”
and saw enthusiastic hands
beckoning us to come
But poverty pinned you down
as those beckoning hands grew
dimmer in your waterlogged eyes
you vanished to the backwoods,
saved the agony of welcoming us
in our white-upon-blue uniforms
and smart canvass shoes
on our first proud holiday;
saved the agony
of losing out in the vocabulary war
spiced with Latin phrases you never knew
I visited your house
and saw your little brother
fashioning kites with
your Pictorial English Grammar
and I knew how far, how very far
you had gone
Later
I went to the university
where I wore three-piece suits
and ate sumptuous dinner in mortar-board
the university
where strange factories manufactured
“rulers of tomorrow”
the university
where Europe’s books smashed
the gourdlets of my manhood
and splashed the juice in desert caves

Then
To Europe and America
coming back home with a bagful of papers
gold-lettered and silver-sealed
a piece of which attracts royal posts
and princely mansions
on Victoria Island
After so many years
here you are, scorched like a sponge
granite hands and a back bent
by toil and want
after so many years
stooping to ‘sir’ me
who once shared your tattered mat
So many things have stood between us
so many I cannot count all
on the trembling fingers of time;
the Atlantic which swallows
a million dreams still feigning
a smooth face
the Atlantic lined with numberless skeletons
of betrayed hopes
So many things
including this gleaming Volvo
through whose tinted windows
your dirty-white dansiki
looks like an indigoed robe
whose sonorous hum shuts out
the screams of children
pestering parents for food
unreachable in the market
So many things
including innumerable treacheries
of my new class
who do nothing but
swallow everything:
their broken promises
and your shattered dreams
their city palaces
and your village shacks

We must smash this wall
built of the inequities
of class and crime
then shake new hands
over the ashes of severance

The poem "The Reunion" begins with the poet's persona reflecting on their shared history with someone else denoted by "we." Niyi Osundare skillfully uses figures of sound like alliteration with the use of /s/ and /f/ sounds in the opening stanza. The title itself foreshadows the motif of separation in the poem, where reunion arises from such disconnection.

The poem delves into their school days, vividly describing how they endured the teacher's canes together. The poet brings realism to the context by depicting the challenges faced in the Nigerian schooling system, where children start by reciting the ABC before learning to write them down. The existence of poverty is highlighted through phrases like "meatless meals," intensifying the gravity of their poor circumstances.

In the second stanza, the theme of separation and deferred dreams emerges as poverty hinders the persona's friend from pursuing higher education. The poet expresses sympathy when he sees his friend's educational efforts being turned into kites by his little brother.

The persona continues his education to the university level and returns home with academic achievements, symbolized by a "bagful of papers gold-lettered and silver-sealed." However, education becomes a barrier, causing separation between the persona and his friend.

The theme of reunion is introduced in the eighth stanza when the poet's persona finds his friend worn down by toil and want. The poem also addresses issues of class and inequities, highlighting how excellence in education can earn respect but may also create divisions.

Ultimately, the poet calls for smashing the walls of class and inequities, expressing a desire for equality and unity. The poem serves as a reflection on the distinctions between people and the potential consequences of such differences.