400 Years of Servitude
August 8, 2020
About the Poems
Poet Oumar Farouk Sesay’s latest collection of poems titled, ‘400 years of servitude’ is a superb reflection on race relations. Poem after poem, the poet mourns the dehumanisation of man through slavery and shares an exile’s pain ofseparation. He mourns with victims of genocide and serves as a dissenting mouthpiece against racial inequality. Wherever men haggle over slaves at an auction block; deny humans their fundamental rights; and, wherever wreaths adorn tombs; be it at a farewell prayer or in the observance of a minute silence for lives claimed by ethnic cleansing for lives claimed by ethnic cleansing, this poet is there.His cry of universal pain starts from Eden to the mass graves of classical Greece; from the cane-fields of Missouri across the blood spills of the Atlantic; be it on a tour of the dungeons of Goree or at Bunce island; in a nursing home, or a New York subway; in a political speech or; be it in a newspaper caption or an excerpt from books; from quotes of writers or a TV subtext, or in a political campaign or song; this poet cries for humanity’s failure to accept his black children at the tableof brotherhood.There are songs of triumph over adversity as in, ‘The woman who danced’ and ‘I’m a man,’ both poems do pay homage to the resilience of the black race despite some ‘four hundred years of servitude.’Oumar Farouk Sesay is a Sierra Leonean poet, playwright, and novelist. He works in the private sector, and he is currently the President of PEN, Sierra Leone chapter. His poem, “Song of the Women of my Land,” is on the Literature-in English syllabus for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. 400 Years Of Servitude is his fifth collection of poems.“Suffering and injustice provide the oxygen or fertilizer for Sesay’s verses. They become the catalyst that spur him to compose poignant and beautiful poems. The poems in this collection are written to prick the consciences of all thosewho victimize others not only because of race, but also because of class, sex, etc. He sponges the four-hundred-year-old horror of slavery and welds it with the agony of racism and victimization with all their ramifications into a colossal picture of pain and suffering that seems to have no end”.Elizabeth L.A. KamaraLecturer, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra LeoneAuthor of To Cross for a Daughter and Other Poems.
Before The Twisted Rib
May 6, 2019
About the Poems
Every so often one encounters poems that speak to the wrath of memory. OUmar Farouk Sesay catalogues the bitter sinkers of his pain. From bone to blood, verse after verse, the collection mesmerises with a healing balm.Gbanabom HallowellFarouk’s collection of a hundred poems exudes overwhelming certainty, transience, resilience, lost moments, direful circumstances, the African plight, inspiration, national identity and cohesion, deep longing, celebration amongst others. This collection like the others “Salute to the Peasants”, “The Edge of a Cry” and “Broken Metaphor” are sure to rock and will continue to cement Farouk’s status as one of the foremost Sierra Leonean poets of the 21st century.
Available at Amazon.com
Landscape of Memories
Paperback – March 16, 2018
THIS IS A REVISED EDITION PUBLISHED IN 2018.
“Landscape of Memories” is about a town located on the edge of the diamondiferous Kono district in Sierra Leone that is blessed yet scared by the ills and gains of the diamond industry. Adama the central character and her husband Silakeh made a transit stop in the town on their way to Kono and the transit became a home that was hit by personal tragedy – the death of Silakeh in a mining accident. She survives the tragedy yet contends with the struggle to navigate the socio-cultural nuances of her adopted community as a single mother against the backdrop of her Muslim faith.Then a war triggered by bad governance and fueled by resources from the diamond industry came, putting the town at the epicenter of the war; the devastation was both physical and psychological, reducing a once prosperous community to dereliction. The struggle to rebuild the remains of their lives is at the core of the novel.
Available at Amazon.com
Broken Metaphor
Paperback – June 21, 2017
“Broken Metaphor” reminds of women who cry beautifully during funerals, communing with the lyrics of their souls the tragic dispositions of the human condition. The poems encapsulate the sad and the beautiful in the philharmonic of our lives. Farouk’s metaphors are like murals of beautiful birds with broken wings. The collection reads like some beautiful epitaph, or a poetic autopsy report on the causes of death of the beautiful — be it of people, or values, or landscapes.
The Edge Of A Cry
October 10, 2016
The title of this volume is, in many ways, a misleading one, as what is offered is vastly more than a cry by a poet consumed with issues of such deep resonance for all of us, that we soon forget the marginal Cry. If his pivot is the wounded knee of his homeland, Oumar Farouk Sesay’s poems not only heal that iconic image of Sierra Leone, they transform, in his searing consciousness and humanity, the land and its people, into a poetic affirmation of pride, resilience and hope. But there is more: we are invited to walk on the many roads that this poet has travelled, and see the complexities of other landscapes, listen to their songs and stories, and be amazed by the rich tapestries of other people, as he seeks to embrace them in his own admirable images and soaring music. With this volume, Farouk Sesay has advanced wonderfully as a poet and can lay claim to being one of the two or three finest Sierra Leonean poets of his generation. Syl Cheney-Coker Freetown, Sierra Leone Author of “The Road to Jamaica” (SLWS 2015)
Available at Amazaon.com
The Salute To The Remains Of A Peasant
Mar 26, 2007
Salute to the Remains of a Peasant
