I am from somewhere, in Africa.
I am from Eastern Nigeria
a region where foods speak our traditions.
where roasted yam means the New Yam Festival,
is used to celebrate the New Year,
to celebrate the god of yam.
I am from Igboland
where pounded yam is the emblem
of a good beginning,
where a nursing mother eats pounded yam
with ogbono soup
to revive strength,
and to celebrate the naming of her new child.
I am from Eastern Nigeria,
where the power of the wrestler
comes from Akpu and egusi soup,
a region that eats Abacha
to celebrate harvest season
when Abacha is used to tell about
the birth of cassava, the time of cassava
which tells the representation of Abacha
and it becomes the new beginning of cassava,
the rebirth of a season.
I am from a region, a land
where garri tells a new moment
of life, where we eat to survive
the long time of harvest.
I am from the Eastern part,
where okpa tells our logo
and it becomes our breakfast.
I am from Eastern Nigeria,
where every food feeds
our traditions.
Oliver Sopulu Odo is a Nigerian writer who has been published by Okada Books. His poetry has been published in the fifth edition of the Chinua Achebe Anthology as well as the End SARS Anthology 2020, organized by the society of Young Nigerian Writers. He was a contributor in the J.J. Rowling Anthology, 2021. Oliver was longlisted in 2022 for both The Green We Left Behind Contest, organized by Arts Lounge Literary Magazine, and the Spectrum Poetry Anthology. He won the Kepressing Anthology prize (Rebirth) in 2022. He can be found on instagram at oliver_sopulu_odo and on Facebook at Oliver Sopulu Odo.
the Decolonial Passage 