These three poems by Aliyu Kamal were especially chosen for The Bala Selection.
The Bala Selection is a bi-weekly poetry feature curated by Ismail Bala for Konya Shamsrumi, showcasing distinctive new voices and resonant works from across Africa and beyond. Through his discerning eye, each selection highlights the craft, music, and emotional clarity that define contemporary poetry in its most luminous form.
Ismail Bala is a poet, translator, and critic whose work bridges classical poetics and modern sensibility, and whose mentorship has shaped a generation of emerging African poets.
A Peg in a Hole
The landowner has grey hair.
Father is a pauper
and mother is adherent to the culture.
As a peg for his hole
the landowner finds me attractive
and douses their apprehension
by providing me with
the trousseau
and the well-appointed boudoir,
smashing the noisy mouth of the cricket.
Yet, the fire of love
lit by my poor boyfriend remains aflame.
It remains aglow
even after the servings of honey
I perforce offered the demanding greybeard.
My failure to reproduce
his own image
led him impatiently
to tender the letter.
Then the fire
snaps out –
my boyfriend marries someone else:
he can’t afford my overly sweet tooth.
The National Cake
He eats
and waxes corpulent
but then collapses and lies
spread-eagle on the pie.
His children chafe
at Oxon
but the fruit
has to ripen in the
hands of the monkey
before they are shown the ropes.
The electorate weave the rope
even while
the strongman puts
it apart.
The electorate squabble over crumbs
received courtesy
of the Big Man.
We will only know the
depth of the river
by watching he who waded in first.
The Panegyrist
The fearful Bull Elephant
without a mate.
The lion that spoils
for a display of its might.
The wily fox
that puts the gang in disarray.
Man among men
offering millet-balls
in return
of a barrage of stones.
The hero of a thousand victories.
The smoke that easily overcomes
without ado.
Yet, a superman
who deals profitably at the marketplace.
Pieces of iron ore
that defy mastication.
A knot that resists
efforts to be brought apart.
He resists
to be drawn into
pointless bantering –
and gets at the tortoise
by overturning it.
The dirt he fails to see
is the purity he doesn’t have to see.
The panegyrist pauses for applause –
I flung dust into his eyes.
About Aliyu Kamal
Aliyu Kamal is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Department of English, Bayero University, Kano.
In addition to a collection of short stories and poetry, he has published over a dozen novels in both Hausa and English.
