Social Criticism in Remi Raji’s Wanderer Cantos

Abstract

Modern Nigerian poetry has continued to respond to the socio-economic and political realities of the country, especially in the last three decades. Remi Raji, one of the third-generation poets in Nigeria, partakes in this versification. Unlike the travelogue and medical perspective from which the collection has been read, this article examines Wanderer Cantos, the latest volume of poetry by Raji, with a view to showing how the collection also partakes in social criticism within the larger tradition of Nigerian poetry. Relying on insights from Social Criticism Theory, the analysis of selected and relevant poems from the collection shows that political violence and gangsterism, electoral anomalies, oppression, economic sabotage, banditry, activism and resistance, and social decadence characterize the Nigerian society of the collection. In spite of this infelicitous representation, but in consonance with Social Criticism Theory, the article concludes that Raji anticipates positive change by envisioning hope for his country.