“The new voices [of Africa], such as Tayo Olafioye, are a clear example of the break with the idyllic verses Africa was singing. There is now a new voice...that makes for dramatic tension in the poetry suggesting a dialogue between poet and political Other. The enemy is no longer simply white rule and the colonizing aspects of Christianity. We are under native elite propped up by the former colonial power as mere compradors. This breed is the real and visible enemy: the man who was my schoolmate, with whom I shared living space, and the banter and bustle and adventures of youth....Yet political tyranny is not the only theme we find in [this] present collection. The tender moments of family reunions; speculations about dying; remembrance of kinder days gone by, kinder days of the present; marital bliss...The poet lets us share the landscape of his mind-states as he travels from place to place, from his base San Diego, California; the shifting states of mind in a restless soul. All these features come to us assertively--in a driving diction...a compelling diction with muscle and enthusiasm.”

-Es’kia Mphahlele
Writer, Professor Emeritus, Doyen of African Literature, Lebowakgowa, South Africa

“The Parliament of Idiots is a remarkable collection -- sad, ominous, dreadful, and passionate. It is a paradoxical mixture of the tremors of an anguished soul and the zealous clamors of a dejected patriot.... This is a collection that seeks to tell it all, to bare it all, and to unmask the masquerades in Nigerian contemporary leadership and governance....Tayo Olaifoye’s Parliament of Idiots is an inimitable example of a Nigerian tale told from afar but possessing all the ingredients of a home-crafted masterpiece....The collection will make some Nigerians laugh, but one hopes that it will make all Nigerians think about our purpose as a nation in the 21st century, our sense of direction as a race, and the true meaning of patriotism and national service to our land.”

-Professor Ernest N. Emenyonu
University of Michigan at Flint

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TAYO OLAFIOYE’S latest collection of poetry is Town Crier (AWP). He has won many awards and is a member of PEN international and the Association of Nigerian Authors.

CATEGORY
Poetry/AFRICA