Prose

Examine The Leader and the led as a criticism of leadership in Africa

Bayanin Amsa

"The Leader and the Led" by Professor Niyi Osundare is an allegorical poem that avers the kind of leadership in Africa and what leadership ought to be. The poem establishes the cat and mice relationship that exists between African leaders and their followers.

The poet's African origin and the siting of the tropics as the meeting place of the animals unmistakably point Africa as the point of reference in the poem. The poet no doubt addresses the eyesore of leadership deficiency Africa as a continent is plagued with. Osundare first addresses the issues of bad leadership, leadership ineptitude, and gross misgovernance which have become the rallying cries for many short-changed African followers. The poet, as he does, examines the kind of relationship that exists between African leaders and their followers. He then typifies the type of leadership peculiar to African countries since their purported independence from European colonialists.

The poet uses the attributes, bodily features and predatory ability of some of the contending animals as proofs of the leadership inadequacies Africa is beset with. In "the lion" and "the hyena", Osundare shows African leaders as exploiters and oppressors. With their powers, they exploit Africa and its citizenry of resources and oppress the people they are supposed to lead. This makes them ideal replacements of their equally exploiting colonial masters. In the the typical ways of "the lion" and "the hyena", these leaders endanger the lives of those whom they have sworn to protect. In "the lion", the poet uses "the ferocious pounce of his paws" on antelopes as an analogy of the deliberate and calculated oppression of the citizenry by the machinery of the state. The poet also portrays the elitism of African leaders typified by the farness of the giraffe's eyes from the ground. African leaders are only close to the people before assuming power or when they are seeking for votes into elective posts. Once they assume power, they distance themselves from the masses. In "the zebra", the poet references the dubiousness and deceptiveness of African leaders. Using "the duplicity of his stripes" as a focal point, the poet posits that African leaders can not be trusted to do anything right or taken for what they say or on the face value because behind their sugar-coated lies are several ulterior motives. Like "the pack" of animals, the people are justifiably suspicious of their leaders' "duplicity".

No doubt, Niyi Osundare's "The Leader and the Led" has done justice in its depiction of the type of leadership in Africa. The poem figuratively describes African leaders as "ferocious", "lethal" in appetite, duplicitous, greedy, "riotous" and "trampling". The poem, however, offers insights on what ideal leadership is. It says ideal leadership embodies transparency, compassion, humility, legitimacy, the will to govern, the readiness to listen to the followers, and a balance between ideas on the opposite sides of the fringe.