The religious imperative: a comparative study of Michael Echeruo's mortality and Christopher Okigbo's labyrinths

Abstract

This is a study that compares the poetry of Michael Echeruo in Mortality with that of Christopher Okigbo in Labyrinths with a view to establishing the extent to which religious views have shaped these poets' overall vision. It employs library research as its methodology and it is guided by the theoretical framework as advanced by F.R. Leavis. This approach foregrounds textual criticism through a close reading of the literary text and ultimately links the text to society. This is done through seeking to find out how the text makes a complex statement about human experience. More specifically, the study examines the centrality of religious abstraction in the poet protagonist's attempt to locate himself within a cultural-religious sphere he can identify as indigenous to him. It traces the poet-protagonist's conscious struggle and movement to relocate himself from the strictures and imprisoning experience of Christianity. In this way, the study also analyses the alienation that comes with Christianity and appraises the poet-protagonist's denial of this (alienation) in his acceptance of homecoming. The study also examines ritual enactment in the way it sanctions and gives impetus to the movement away from Christianity. Further it discusses how homecoming, as a "ritual return", is achieved through the poet-protagonist's reconstitution of his lost self and his acknowledgement of the realities of the ancestral religion and culture. Finally, the conclusion reveals that the poet-protagonist finds fulfillment in the totality of his ancestral heritage. lt is also concluded that every religious tradition is essential to that community that evolves it. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that through the poetic use of elements from traditional African religion, the poet-protagonist manages to validly portray and explain his experience of existence while retaining and expressing the totality or his consciousness and worldview.