Flames and Fire from Africa: Flames and Fire from Africa, Poems

This is a collection of poetry by African poet Macaulay Oluseyi Akinbami who gives voice to the inspiration, pathos, love and anger – a complex brew of feelings - of his Continent emerging into the 21^st Century.  While the poems were written to be performed on the streets of Lagos with the rhythms of this sprawling great African city in the background the vision is cosmic and global.    There are suggestions of Blake but also of the profound Christianity inherited by the author from his pastor father syncretized with the ancient beliefs of his country of Nigeria.   This poetry is a collection of radical philosophical musings on the place of mankind in the Cosmos, presenting itself in the form of love morals, death, life, mysticism and pain.   The poetry also addresses the norms of the society using the popular poetic device known as “hide and say.”

As revolution adapts radicalism, the subjects in this book are apt, practical and romantic while inspired by the concrete experience of the poet they relate to the vital issues of the day and universal values from the multifaceted prism of Africa.