Forgotten Heroes - Martin Elorm Dogbo

Sitting under the big baobab tree
On day three
A day forbidden for us to go to the sea
I remembered the time and works of a people whom past time
Then promised them a future
Of greatness.
I watched their works as time permitted me
And for those time did not permit me
I heard.

When I murmured their names in so much melancholy
The birds of the skies
The fishes of the waters
The creatures of the lands seemed to know them too.
The sang while I sang sadly
For the days gone by
They mourned as I mourned more
Of heroes forgotten so fast.

Author Profile - Martin Elorm Dogbo

Biography:

Martin Elorm Dogbo Elorm is a journalist and features writer. He is currently working at Blue Skies Ghana Limited and is also with the National Media Commission (NMC) as a media researcher and monitoring officer. He loves learning more about different cultures and traditions of society.

Five Questions with Martin Elorm Dogbo:

1. From the poems of yours that we've profiled on this site, it seems that a major focus of your writing is on paying tribute to, and reviving, African tradition and legend. Would you say this is accurate, or simply a coincidence between a few poems? If it's accurate, why have you taken this on as one of your primary concerns?

Based on the few poems I have submitted, it is axiomatic for anyone to agree to this observation you have made. My style of poetry covers all issues of life and I try as much as I can to incorporate something African about most pieces I write: it could be about the tradition, culture, legends as well as myths of the African people. This is also true of my love poems. If Africans themselves do not pay tribute to, and revive their rich and beautiful traditions, who will? I would want to be forever remembered for this.


2. You've mentioned in the past that your work has caused you to live in many different regions of Ghana (four, at last count, I believe). How has this affected your image of the country? Your attitudes towards preserving Ghanaian culture?

The regions have shot to five, introducing the Volta Region. Although that is where my father comes from, it’s my first time going there after twenty-five years. Even though the norms, cultures and traditions of one society or ethnic group are not entirely different from others, I have observed there are some infinitesimal differences. My individual goal of preserving Ghanaian culture has not changed that much. Like any Ghanaian, I show hospitality to foreigners without any sense of xenophobia. I do not give preference to race, religion or nationality: I can only speak for myself. Like many well-cultured young people did some time ago, I offer my seat to the elderly and to pregnant women who were not fortunate to get a seat in the bus or train. I greet all neighbours and people I meet on the way, etc. These acts of virtue are dying out, but I believe their flames would revive with time when one person starts exhibiting them again. These are some of the things I do towards preserving Ghanaian culture.


3. Why did you choose to break the lines of this poem in the way you did? For me, it gives a loose, spare feeling to the poem. Was this your intent?

Loose? My intention was to make this poem simple and memorable. I chose every line for a purpose: each line is a continuation of a story that a previous line began. The story is narrated from two different angles in a pair of stanzas. In a bid to introduce some sort of “African-ness” to this poem, the first stanza was aimed at introducing the setting — a traditional Sabbath day chosen by the persona to contemplate. The next stanza was intended to express the persona’s feelings about the way people have ignored those who once made history. The persona laments the apathy in commemorating heroes dead or alive in our society.


4. It's been almost a year and a half since you were last profiled on OGOV. What has changed in your life in that time? In your writing?

Not much has changed. It’s just that my concentration was a bit shifted to writing news reports and articles. That’s my original profession.


5. Speaking of the long gap between poems, it was also almost two years between your first poems being submitted to OGOV and your second batch. Is this a sign of the rate of your creative output, or simply how often we see it? Do you write very few poems? If so, why do you think that is? If not, why are you hiding them away from our devoted readers?

When there is enough time, I write at least one poem a day. Everyone including family, friends and colleagues know that I devote more of my time to poetry than anything I do, though it does not even generate a stipend for me. One daily basis so far, each poem I write could be as short as a quatrain or as long as seventy lines. I, however, like to keep my poems short, simple and memorable, so the average number of lines I write is twenty. I hope with time our devoted readers will get pieces from me more regularly.

Contact Martin:

eldusty911(at)gmail.com

From the Archives: "Have Come Too Far" by Martin Elorm Dogbo

I have come too far
To this land.

A land rich of corn
To eat
Rich of wine
To drink.

A land where
I will do the chores
I would not have done
In my native town.

I guess I am doing these things
Because I want to return
With more goodies.


I have come too far
To this land,
A land across the ocean
Where I am lost of culture.

Here,
no one cares for one another
Especially a Nubian as I am.

Here,
I am either scorned
Or made the laughing stock.

I would not have taken all these humiliations
At a place I call home.

Home, is where folks
Would be there for me
Defend and fight for me.

I guess I am enduring all these
Because I would not want to return
Empty handed.


I have come too far
To this land.

Would I not be able to catch
What I am pursuing here,
Over there?

I could not cling unto that belief
I have come too far
To this land,
Too far to return with nothing.

Old poems at OGOV don't die, but live on in our archives! Every once in a while we will dust one off for our newer readers to enjoy. "Have Come Too Far" was orginally published on OGOV on August 23rd, 2008.

Author Profile - Martin Elorm Dogbo

Biography:

Martin Elorm Dogbo was born in Accra New Town, and has lived there most of his life.

He is a student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, where he reads journalism and some English language as well as French. On campus he is one of the founding members of "Poetry Bar" — a poetry club on campus which meets twice a month to give room for aspiring poet to display their talents.

Five Questions with Martin Elorm Dogbo (circa 2008):

1. How long have you been writing poetry?

I have been writing poetry for 10 years.


2. Who are your favorite poets? Which poets have most inspired and informed your work?

My favorite poets are Kofi Anyidoho, Mariam Brew Daniels (both from the 1970s edition of Efua Sutherland's "Talents for Tomorrow'), Lade Wosornu, Kofi Awoonor, Wole Soyinka, Oswald Mtshali and others.


3. What do you hope to accomplish with your poetry?

Everything.


4. Have you traveled outside of Ghana and experienced the pressure not to "return with nothing" first hand?

No. I write from the experiences of returnees who are mostly relatives.


5. You use repetition very effectively in this poem. Is repetition a device you use often in your poetry? What effects do you hope to have on your readers when you employ it?

I use repetitions most of the time. I feel it makes it easier for readers to memorize my poems.

Contact Martin Elorm:

eldusty911(at)gmail.com

Dipo - Martin Elorm Dogbo

Weep not
African child
Smile not
As you partake initiation into adulthood.
The old ladies will have a wrong perception
through their tirade.
They will lay a guilt trip on you.
Acquiesce.
Take this egg.
Eat!
Like the octogenarian with no teeth.
Tour this township
Like it is one of the tournament’s trophies won
With a bandana of clothes
Almost naked
The communities will see how matured you are.
The men will consider making you a spouse
The boys will have a good reason to lust.
Weep not
African child
Smile not
Womanhood has just arrived.

Author Profile - Martin Elorm Dogbo

Biography:

Martin Elorm Dogbo was born at Accra New Town, erstwhile Lagos Town, near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, Ghana. He has been moving from one region to the other due to the peripatetic nature of his job. So for, he has worked in four regions in Ghana and he is hoping to go beyond that.

He completed a degree in Journalism from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in 2009. He then worked at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in the Central Region as a part-timer from July 2008 to January 2009. He next worked with the National Media Commission (NMC) as a media researcher and monitoring officer.

With his poetry, he hopes to achieve change and also to give insight into real life situations, particularly in the Ghanaian environment.

Five Questions with Martin Elorm Dogbo:

1. Can you explain the Dipo ceremony for our readers not in the know? What inspired you to write about it?

The Dipo is a chain of ceremonies that mark the passage of girls into womanhood. It is practiced by the people of Krobo, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The ceremony or ritual has been in practice from an eon and has not lost its popularity despite the plethora of destructive criticisms leveled against it. At the beginning of the Dipo, each girl enters a ritual house, doffs her clothing, and is dressed partly naked by her ritual mother. The morning after shaving their heads, the girls carry their calabashes to the river to bathe. The washing ceremony is a purification rite to cleanse the body and spirit. This is followed by a ritual bathing, after which the girls are fed a special meal made from yam and palm-oil sauce prepared by their mothers. The beads, a highly cherished jewel of the people of Krobo, are worn around their necks. At the end of the ceremony, the Krobo girls dance for the chief together with other royals, relatives, and, most importantly, prospective suitors who gather to admire the exhibition of feminine grandeur and beauty. This is followed by other activities. Despite the influence of the Christian church in Ghana the Krobo people consider the Dipo ceremony their most sacred and cherished ceremonial tradition.

I was inspired by the awareness of the drowning of our rich and beautiful Ghanaian culture.


2. Do you think of this poem as being written primarily for people already familiar with the dipo ceremony, or as an introduction to it for the uninformed?

Even though I see it as a combination of both, it is more as an introduction to the uninformed, and most importantly as it is axiomatic that Western culture is gradually eating up the Ghanaian local culture.


3. The simple refrain in the poem, "Weep not / African child / Smile not", is striking. Was it the first part of the poem to come to you, or did it come along later in the writing?

It was the first part of the poem. Well, it is for two reasons: first, with people normally considering laughter or smile as a paucity of seriousness, “Smile not" is a warning seeking to enforce seriousness as the ceremony goes on; “Weep not” is to convince the persona not to cry (or be sad) since Dipo is not a bad practice at all.


4. It's been almost two years since we last heard from you. What has kept you away, and how have you been doing in that time?

I know and I apologize sincerely for that. Journalism, my profession, has been one of the reasons. The other is I am trying to write political prose and poems. These entail careful observation and much time.


5. On an unrelated note, how have you been enjoying the World Cup so far? What do you think of Ghana's chances?

It has been a quite unputdownable to me because a lot of my predictions and analyses have come to pass. Ghana to me, is the best team in Africa, and I think it is the hope of Africa as well. Ghana has come too far to return with nothing.

Contact Martin Elorm:

eldusty911(at)gmail.com