Eyoh Etim’s Afro Rococo (Light Verses) adds another significant milestone to his prolific creative acumen. He is a versatile scholar-writer and the author of Alien Citizens, Don’t Marry Angelica (novels) and Songs of Our Time, Virtual Chants (anthologies), among others. His latest book of poetry Afro Rococo (Light Verses) blends pleasurable innovations and is, no doubt, insightful, refreshing, inspiring and, to lovers of poetry, enjoyable. The artistic voice in this collection resonates the cantata musicality and declensions that attune to the vibes of metaphysical tradition, postcolonial musing, and contemporary angst, while the architectonic of its compositions resonates George Hebert’s, Mai Wada’s styles and others’. You just can’t drop this book until you’ve read the last of its lines. The budding poet holds a lot of promise and demonstrates passion and focus in every piece of his artistic offering.
David Ekanem Udoinwang, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Akwa Ibom State University
Fellow, African Humanities Programme of American Council of Learned Societies (AHP/ACLS)
In this refreshingly postmodernist voice, Eyoh Etim takes us on an emotional yet extraordinary journey of the heart, life in postcolonial Africa, death, learning, unlearning and relearning. With a shocking clarity of voice, the poems are testament to the light-heartedness of a young and fresh mind, powerful, diverse, challenging and uninhibited in form.
Dr Monica Udoette,
Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Akwa Ibom State University
After the breakout success of the last collection, Virtual Chants, Eyoh Etim returns with an even more enduring tale of the sad occurrences in the world in general and Nigeria in particular. In Afro Rococo (Light Verses), the poet beams his searchlight into the society and challenges the elements of post-colonialism explicable in bad governance, injustices, oppression and marginalisation, hypocrisy, exploitation of human and natural resources, among others. Afro Rococo (Light Verses) extols virtues like honesty, humility, loyalty and gratitude which are dear in our time and clime. The anthology evokes a strong mental imagery of a journey on spike-and-thorn-decorated road. Hope, at this point, comes to the rescue as the poet preaches justice for the downtrodden and freedom for the people. Poems in this collection are timeless and sure to captivate readers globally. Etim’s themes are just as timely as they are potent.
Uman Anderson,
MA Candidate, Department of English,
University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria.
