Homeward -Bassey Ikpi-Analysis of the Poem

Homeward -Bassey Ikpi-Analysis of the Poem

About the Poet

Bassey Ikpi is a Nigerian born American poet who made her name as a word artist. At the age of four, Ikpi had to leave Nigeria to join her parents in Oklahoma. However she was never able to let go of her Nigerian identity. She became interested in performing her poetry while studying English at the University of Maryland. Her histrionic skills helped her to excel in the field of performance poetry. She suffered from bi-polar disorder and later on founded Siwe project to promote mental health among people. “Sometimes Silence is the Loudest Kind of Noise” is one of her famous poems. She also published a collection of essays titled I’m Telling the Truth But I’m Lying on the effects of psychic problems.

Analysis of the Poem

Homeward is a poem which talks about the loss of culture in a foreign land. The poem begins with a reference to the poet’s grandmother who is a representative of the Nigerian culture throughout the poem. The grandmother connects the poet with her Nigerian self. Her skin smells of Nigerian history. She reminds the poet of her childhood in Nigeria. The poet recollects memories involving her grandmother while she was in Nigeria. She says that she was taken to America on an iron bird. However when the bird returned with the girl, she was no longer the girl who went away from her grandmother. The white man’s language had destroyed her ability to speak her mother tongue properly. She finds it difficult to utter some of the words in her native language.

The poet says that she finds herself unable to express her love for her grandmother in their native language. The poet does not still believe that she belongs to America. She has not accepted America as her home. She feels that Nigeria is her true home. She wonders what she will teach her children. She wants to talk to them about the place that shaped her. She wants them also to consider Nigeria as their home. The poet feels that she has inherited the strength of women in her native country. However some of it has been lost in her life in America. Life in places like Oklahoma, Washington DC and Brooklyn has not helped her to remember her roots. However they have not made her forget Nigeria either. She feels divided between her American and Nigerian self. She feels that she is both and neither at the same time. While Nigeria asks her to remember her identity, America wants her to forget it. But for her past, future, children and grandmother, the poet wants to remember her identity as a Nigerian woman.