Voices in the Rainbow

In Voices in the Rainbow, the poet-protagonist sees himself as the "griot of a threatened tradition." The poems in this collection are therefore a heroic effort to rescue the ancestral oral tradition of bards and raconteurs from obsolescence by reinventing its tropes and techniques within the tradition of the written word. The use of musical accompaniment, of criers and choruses, and the resources and rhythms of song and chant as integral part of these poems lend them a multi-layered dimension which further reinforce the stylistic virtuosity displayed in the author's earlier award-winning collection of short stories, The Night Hides with a Knife. The delight of the present volume is that it presents us with a palimpsest from which we can read back through contemporary poetic forms to an archaeology of the most ancient of poetic forms and devices. The range of voices extend from T.S. Eliot to Okigbo and a broad spectrum of new Nigerian poets. Poems take off from other poems, spiral into yet other poets to create a veritable symphony of voices as harmoniously blended as the colours of the rainbow.


Praise for Voice in the Rainbow

"There is a sense in Otiono's Voices . . . of diverse influences, currents wide enough to hold Pablo Neruda and longer still to include Fela Anikulapo Kuti . . . There's more than a hint in this -collection of an eclectic spirit drawing from so many sources to etch his own vision with determined power."

- ThisDay

"Through this artistic experimentation the poet proves again the point that it is through a common humanity that a poet speaks to readers and listeners even in places and times other than his own. He comes out as a repository of communal memory."

- The Guardian

"In knitting a thread of images from. . .English and African modern poets and imagists a delicately woven experimental work is produced. . .The language darts outwards. . . It smashes and soothes like the cunningness of the mouse that bites. . .Otiono's global view in this work is unmistakable-as is his sense of humour and of love."

- Sunday Monitor Review


"Otiono reaches his greatest heights when employing alluring images to illustrate scenes of daily life which though are bizarre in themselves, have become too familiar and therefore shed the nature of their sordidness."

- Dapo Adeniyi, writer, film director and publisher of Position magazine


Otiono's uniqueness lies in his incarnation of the lilting voice of a raconteur and folk singer through which he transmits his message, and more so, in the expansive eclecticism of his allusions.

- John Otu, Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Arts at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, Nigeria