Amaka Felly Obioji makes her poetic manifesto in these sublime lines in the 20th poem: ‘I think my heart is breaking,/ and poetry is the only stitch/ that can hold it together’, and amplifies her ‘dedication’ of the collection, Mother, Did You Call My Name? (Sevhage, Karu; 2024) to the women who came before her and those yet to come.

Obioji stands as a bridge between the ‘foremothers’, as a concept diametrically opposed to the prevalent ‘forefathers’ that reek of patriarchy that subjugates women. Foremothers is not a concept commonly used, but Obioji gives it agency as her work amplifies the past, present and future of women and all that they continue to go through and seeking a new deal.

Mother, Did You Call My Name? is divided into four parts – ‘Uproots’, ‘Goddess’, ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Mother, Did You Call My Name?’ that speak to the lived experiences of the poet persona, of things past, present and yet-to-come. In this journey of self-rediscovery, the poet recounts the past and its unsettling demons that she must fight to regain a foothold on herself. That struggle takes a long spell that she must overcome. This she boldly proclaims, ‘I write from the future, to remind you:/ everything good/ will come/ Good things are here waiting for you.’ The ‘you’ here refers to the poet persona who’s shedding her past struggles and emerging into a bright future, promising herself ‘good things’ that she’d been denied on account of her sex. In other words, her ‘uprootedness’ has come to an end.


https://guardian.ng/art/amaka-obiojis-mother-did-you-call-my-name-as-testament-to-female-self-discovery/