In this narrative rooted in soil and spread by whispers, Nii Ayikwei Parkes brings a metaphor of resource-rich countries to vivid life in prose peppered with nods to fairy tales, twentieth century music biographies, and politics headlines, asking the question: what is the price we pay to have a place to call home?
This stunning new collection from Nii Ayikwei Parkes features poems which embrace play, love and the ephemeral such as water bodies, blood/heritage, history and gossip; and a healthy dose of music and popular culture. Concerned with the phase of life sometimes referred to as the midlife crisis, The Geez navigates the blurred lines between age and youth; the real and the imagined; what is seen and what is – what catches the gaze and what lies beneath. Conceived in four sections, the collection moves from play, to love, to gossip and - finally - to explorations of the intersections of self and contemporary culture, including a segment inspired by blues legends, riffing on the myth of the crossroads, as well as an eleven-part love letter to the African diaspora – specifically African-Americans, whose sacrifices have contributed to the still-suppressed freedoms of Black folk globally. A number of the poems in The Geez are written in a form called the Gimbal, which was developed by Nii – initially to work through his enduring grief at the loss of his father. It evokes the workings of a gyroscope – spinning but stable –a state that echoes the liminality that anchors this collection.
Sonokrom, ein Dorf im Hinterland Ghanas, hat sich seit Jahrhunderten kaum verändert. Hier spricht man noch die Sprache des Waldes, trinkt aphrodisierenden Palmwein und wandelt mit den Geistern der Vorfahren. Doch eine verstörende Entdeckung und das gleichzeitige Verschwinden eines Dorfbewohners stören die ländliche Ruhe. Wäre nicht die Geliebte des Ministers in den Fall verwickelt, wäre er schon längst ad acta gelegt worden. Der Gerichtsmediziner Kayo, der nicht unbedingt an Übersinnliches glaubt, wird mit der Aufklärung beauftragt. Als die Situation immer unfassbarer wird, müssen Kayo und seine Ermittler einsehen, dass westliche Logik und politische Bürokratie ihre Grenzen haben.