"Speaking the Truth to Power”: Resisting the Dictator in selected Poems by Amal Dunqul and Odia Ofeimun

Abstract

In the twentieth century, there was a growing interest to examine the role of intellectuals and the result of their intellectual pursuits in changing their societies. Since literature involves an intricate mental complexity, it can be regarded as an intellectual pursuit that has a cultural and ideological impact. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to examine selections of poetry by the Egyptian poet Amal Dunqul (1940-1938) and the Nigerian poet Odia Ofeimun (b.1950) to track the consequences of the surrounding dystopian political atmosphere into their literary output. It also delineates their role as real intellectuals in the light of Edward Said's views. The two literary dissident figures, Dunqul and Ofeimun, explicitly adopt the perspective of "Speaking Truth to Power" as an ideology, fully speaking out their own thoughts regardless of the grave repercussions. Their poetry strongly antagonizes the increasing corruption and the cultural and political hegemony practiced by the postcolonial regimes in their newly independent countries. It denotes the function of the intellectuals in struggling against dictatorial regimes as perceived by different thinkers and theorists like Edward Said, Barbara Harlow, Michel Foucault, and others.