Review: “Take A Listen” by Mala Iwa
Take a listen is a spoken word poem written by Mala Iwa to awaken a political consciousness in all Nigerians. The poem the poem is very interesting because of the rhyme and rhythm. Even though the rhyme scheme is irregular.
The tone is pleading, begging the masses to “Take a listen”. The mood is that of anger, frustration and sadness. The writer expresses his anger and frustration over the seriousness of the situation, which is bad governance and leadership. He also accuses the masses of aiding and abating these ill behaviours. On bad governance, he said we have rulers instead of leaders, which depicts a form of dictatorship. He laments on how they spend so much time in hotels while people in the villages are suffering.
There is a need to hold our leaders accountable by voting them out when they do not act right.
He ended by calling on Nigerians to vote wisely, as that is the only way to get rid of this vermin that has eaten deep into our society.
While “they try to institutionalise us” we are here fighting each other. The writer said “I refuse to be the ride” which is a conscious decision that every Nigerian needs to make. “Let our conscience speak”, even as we vote, we should let our conscience guide us into voting right.
The diction went from simple to hard. For some, they’ll have to check their dictionaries to get the meaning because it is strongly worded. E.g trajectory, amalgamated, institutionalise etc.
He seemed to have used so many interesting figures of speech which is very clever on his part because it added to the beauty and aesthetics of the poem. There was pun, enjambment, repetition, assonance, metaphors, personification, irony, sarcasm, imagery and soon.
From the title, “take a listen” is personification. Listen is an action, not something you can hold. It is abstract.
“Please” was repeated so many times to emphasize the seriousness of the writers tone.
In the line “please and please” and it’s ensuing lines, the writer used pun to play with words in a meaningful way. Also in “you push me to the back of my mind that even Stevie wonders”, “you go to bore whores while people in the villages need bore holes.”
There was an allusion to Stevie wonder, “that even Stevie wonders”. Sarcasm was employed in “I thought you’re supposed to be a leader, but you make my mind wither.” It is also an irony that the same people who are supposed to help us are the ones damning us to our fate. It is an irony that they are drilling holes in whores instead of the villages. It is an irony that “they are smiling on the TV while the masses are out there checking the strength of the TV.
“I will bleed till my plea is heed” assonance was used to add to the rhythm of the piece.
PGD which is power greed pride was used to symbolize politicians and political parties in a satirical manner.
The imagery is strong as it presents a vivid picture in the mind of readers and listeners.
Vera Bony