Ode laica per Chibok e Leah

Abstract

The volume contains two short poems by Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka -- "No, He Said!", dedicated to Nelson Mandela, from the Author's 1988 well-known collection "Mandela's Earth and Other Poems" and the recent "Mandela Comes to Leah", written purposely for this volume -- and the Author's 2019 long epic poem "A Humanist Ode to Chibok, Leah" denouncing all forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism as opposed to secular humanism. Soyinka pays tribute to the girls abducted in Chibok and to 15 year-old Leah Sharibu, one of the 108 girls abducted in 2018 from Dapchi, comparing her firm refusal to renounce her faith to Nelson Mandela's refusal to compromise his moral stance on Apartheid while held captive on Robben Island. The poetry in the book appears en face in the original English and in the Italian translation by Alessandra Di Maio, who also curated the volume and wrote a short introduction. The Preface by the Author to the Italian volume appears only in Di Maio's translation.