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 classic collection "Mandela's Earth and Other Poems", and the recent "Mandela Comes to Leah", written purposely for this volume), along with the most recent long poem in five parts "A Humanist Ode to Chibok, Leah", published in English for the first time in 2019. The poem, and indeed the entire volume, denounces all forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism as opposed to secular humanism. Soyinka pays tribute to the girls abducted in Chibok and 15 year-old Leah Sharibu, one of the 108 girls abducted from Dapchi in 2018, 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 selected the poems (and the Author's Preface), curated the volume and wrote a short introduction. The Author's Preface was written purposely for the Italian volume. This is the first and so far only translation in any language of Soyinka's 2019 long poem A Humanist Ode to Chibok and Leah.