SILENTLY FALLING SNOW

Gabriel Okara pens a poem which is a symbolical personification of the struggle for world domination and power.

The snow flakes sail gently down

The snow flakes sail gently

down from the misty eye of the sky

and fall lightly lightly on the

winter-weary elms. And the branches,

winter-striped and nude, slowly

with the weight of the weightless snow

bow like grief-stricken mourners

as white funeral cloth is slowly

unrolled over deathless earth.

And dead sleep stealthily from the

heater rose and closed my eyes with

the touch of silk cotton of water falling.

Then I dreamed a dream

in my dead sleep. But I dreamed

not of earth dying and elms a vigil

keeping. I dreamed of birds, black

birds flying in my inside, nesting

and hatching on oil palms bearing suns

for fruits and with roots denting the

uprooter's spades. And I dreamed the

uprooters tired and limp, leaning on my roots -

their abandoned roots -

and the oil palms gave them each a sun.

But on their palms

they balanced the blinding orbs

and frowned with schisms on their

brows – for the suns reached not

the brightness of gold!

Then I awoke. I awoke

to the silently falling snow

and bent-backed elms bowing and

swaying to the winter wind like

white-robed Moslems salaaming at evening

prayer, and the earth lying inscrutable

like the face of a god in a shrine.

- Gabriel Okara

In verse 1, Okara writes of the defeat of one superpower by another, the sky, representing America bears children as snow flakes and the elm tree, opponents America has defeated, bears winter-stripped and nude offspring. Okara was in America when this poem was written. This defeat is carried out slowly and gently. The defeated elms and their offshoots or branches (a long list including Hitlere's nazi Germany, Communist Soviet Union) bow in defeat, like grief-stricken mourners, for what they have lost: their children killed in battle, economy destroyed etc. Okara makes us believe that after defeat, America makes sure they do not rise again. He gives us an image of the earth, or the gods of these countries, their leading lights, (America's is democracy and capitalism, Hitler's was nazism; Soviet's was atheism and communism) as never dying, that is, their philosophies and teachings will never die completely but after defeat by America, a funeral cloth is placed over their history, they are forgotten.

His use and deliberation on the word slowly makes the reader realize that he is perturbed and astonished at the skill of the American powers in ensuring they maintain their supremacy in world affairs.

But then, why the use of snow flakes? Because they are white as snow; they maintain a posture of chastity and innocence, whether in diplomacy or politics, and believe they have a right to serve as the world's police.

Towards the end of the verse, Okara tells us that Africans are not in contention for super power status or for military and scientific leadership, so they are protected somewhat from the winter-cold of the snow flakes. They have the protection of a heater. These heater places Africa on a military and scientific slumber, dead sleep, an action that is diplomatically carried out like the touch of silk cotton (the brain drain on Africa) and this is done repeatedly, again and again, like water falling.

The poet reflects on African future (a dream) in the second verse. Black birds, or african-americans, help africans to profit and earn foreign exchange from their natural resources; these african-americans also do benefit from their efforts of nesting and hatching on oil palms. The oil palm was a source of foreign exchange for Nigeria before the petroleum was discovered. Okara makes us sad here as he dreams and prophecies that these natural blessings would one day be a cause for trouble. Trouble makers or uprooters will want to destroy and use up our resources but because they are plentiful, in much supply, they keep denting the / uprooter's spades or their efforts to destroy or use them up quickly.

These natural resources are also blessings to africans, providing them with educated or enlightened offsprings, suns. These suns frustrate the efforts of the uprooter who is already tired and limp by scorching them in their tired state (the oil palms gave them each a sun), tiring them out more quickly in their evil ambition. It is a sad fact and prophetic that these uprooters or those against african progress, will be africans themselves: uprooters...leaning on my roots - / their abandoned root -.

These africans will corrupt the educated ones who make up the ruling class as they balanced the blinding orbs. Blinding orbs looks like a direct allusion to Jesus Christ's accosting Paul on the road to Damascus. The strategy used is divide and rule (schisms), turning one against the other. How ironic that when these derailers thought the educated elite were worth the fight, they frown to discover that they were not bright enough to realize what was happening; the suns reached not / the brightness of gold!

After the dream, in the last verse, Okara believes generation will come and go and these state of affairs will continue: the elms will keep on bowing to America, submissive to the end. One thing he would never know. How did America achieve this feat? How was this silent and slow domination of the world carried out? The gods, whether American, that of the defeated elms or African, gives him an answer; they are inscrutable.

One recurring word image in Okara's poem is that of personified objects giving birth or issuing forth something: the sky to snow flakes, elms to dead leaves and fruits, the heater to sleep, black birds to young on oil palms, oil palms to suns and roots to uprooters. It gives one the impression that the scene described here will go on from generation to generation, passed on to the children of these players.