Introduction to The Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara:
The Mystic Drum is a notable poem by Gabriel Okara, one of Nigeria’s most celebrated poets, known for blending African cultural elements with modern poetic expression. The poem reflects the deep connection between traditional African life and the forces of change brought by modernity and Western influence.
In the poem, the “mystic drum” symbolizes the speaker’s roots, identity, and harmony with nature and traditional values. At the beginning, the drum produces enchanting music that attracts a beautiful woman, representing purity, simplicity, and natural beauty. However, as the rhythm changes, the woman transforms into a more complex and modern figure, symbolising the intrusion of civilization, materialism, and artificiality.
Through rich imagery and symbolism, Okara highlights the tension between tradition and modernity. The poem ultimately suggests a loss of innocence and cultural purity as modern influences disrupt the original harmony of life. It reflects Okara’s concern about the impact of Western culture on African identity and values.
Overall, The Mystic Drum is a powerful exploration of cultural conflict, identity, and change, expressed through simple language yet deep symbolic meaning.
Summary of the Poem “The Mystic Drum”:
Return to African Roots and Cultural Awakening:
Because of being an African, Gabriel Okara goes back to his roots in history, religion, culture and folklore. In African folklore, the beating of drums has ritualistic and therefore mystical significance. The beating of drum unites the mind and heart of the drum beater with the outer world of nature. The impact of beating the drum is not only seen and felt on the land but also in the water. As the drum begins to beat inside the head of the narrator. The native men and women cannot resist themselves from the over – powering effect of the tune of the drum. They begin to dance on the tune of the drum. They seem to be deriving much pleasure from the tune of the drum. Even the fish begin to dance in the water. Then the poet introduces the imperial element in the form of a woman wearing leaves around her waist. A woman of western culture to whom the narrator rears an intense feeling of love, is seen standing behind the tree with leaves around her waist. She also seems to be influenced with the magical tune of the drum. But instead of appreciating the rhythm of drum, she only gives a smile with a shake of her head. In fact, she shows an indifferent attitude at the rich culture of the Africans. It is her intense hatred that she does not have tender feelings for the Africans and their culture. Due to having a stem attitude for the Africans, she is unable to understand the narrator’s feelings of love. Hence, she does not respond his love.
Mystical Expansion of the Drum’s Influence:
The narrator furthers his beating of drum. (The drum is still continued to beat in his mind.) He feels its enchanting and mystic effect in surroundings. The magical sound of the beating of the drum gradually becomes louder. It spreads quickly in the atmosphere. Soon it makes its swift approach far and wide. It is so compelling that even the dead bodies arise from their sound and eternal sleep in the graves. Under the supernatural impact of the drum, the dead bodies begin to dance and sing with their shadows. But the lady who is a symbol of colonialism, is standing still behind the tree. She is wearing garland of leaves around her waist. She just observes the happening with the smile on her face. She hears the beating of the mystic drum. She sees the men and women dancing and singing with the tune of the drum, but she shows no interest in their culture. She looks at them with an indifferent attitude. She gives a jerk of her head as if mocking at their rich culture.
Unity of Nature and Humanity Through the Mystic Drum:
As the rhythm of beating the drum reaches on its summit and its miraculous impact is seen and felt far and wide, it brings great change in the surroundings. In the beginning, people begin to dance then the dead ones and now it is time for the natural elements such as sun, moon, the river gods and the trees to join the party. The African culture is so much in tune with nature that the mystic drum invokes the sun, the moon, the river gods and the trees begin to dance. The gap finally gets bridged between humanity and nature, the animal world and human world. The fishes turn men and men become fishes. But the colonial symbol, lady is found standing behind the tree. She is wearing the leaves around her waist. She only observes, but speaks nothing. She seems to be entirely indifferent towards their rich culture. She shows her great disliking for their culture. The way of her smiling with a shake of her head clearly indicates her contempt for Africans and their culture.
End of Mysticism and Rise of Western Imperialism:
Then the mystic drum stops beating in narrator’s mind. Its supernatural and miraculous impact in the surroundings goes to an end. Men become men and fishes become fishes. The trees stop dancing. The sun and the moon find their places. The dead go to their graves and sleep eternally. Life now becomes dry, logical and mechanical with the advent of Western Scientific Imperialism. In other words, once the beating stops, the rationality of western world lands and they start their ruling. The imperial eve seduces the native showing her half – eaten apple of science and progress. She wants them to commit the same crime she is suffering the consequence of. ‘Roots sprouting from her feet’ symbolises the western poisonous tree cementing its place quickly and firmly. ‘Leaves growing on her head instead of trees’ indicates deforestation. Her nose issues smoke which suggests the industrialization that west brings in the native. It pollutes the clean and pure environment in the name of development and progress. The lips part and what the narrator sees is the cavity belching darkness. Seeing the bad result of his beating, possibly the narrator believes his drum beating attracts the west, he packs his mystic drum and decides never to beat again.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem “The Mystic Drum”:
Introduction:
The Mystic Drum is an African poem both in content and form. Being an African, Gabriel Okara goes back to his roots in history, religion and culture and folklore. Through its image and symbol, rhythm and tone, the poem expresses the subtle nuances of an African experience. In a way, this poem justifies the modernist dictum. In African folklore, the beating of drums has ritualistic and therefore mystic significance. The beating of the drum unites the mind and heart of the drum beater with the outer world of nature. But the idea of cosmic unity in the poem does not last long. There is an end to this beating of the drum. The poem’s thematic emphasis is not upon how man and nature become one when the mystic drum beats within him; but it’s about the brevity of this experience. The return to the reality makes the poet sing: ‘never to beat so loud any more’. In the poem, there is the dialectic between tradition and influences. There is no overt references to the neo – colonialism or cultural imperialism.
Thought – content:
The drum beats inside the narrator. Fishes dance in the rivers and men and women dance on the land to the rhythm of the drum. But behind a tree, there stands an outsider who smiles with an air of indifference at the richness of their culture. However, the drum still continues to beat rippling the air with quickened tempo compelling the dead to dance and sing with their shadows. The outsider still continues to smile at the culture from the distance The African culture is so much in tune with nature that the mystic drum invokes the sun, the moon, the river gods and the trees begin to dance. The gap finally gets bridged between humanity and nature, the animal world and human world, the hydrosphere and lithosphere that fishes turn men and men become fishes. But i later as the mystic drum stops beating, men become men and fishes become fishes. Life now becomes dry, logical and mechanical. Leaves starts sprouting a kind of parched rationalism, smoke issues from her nose and her lips part in smile. Ultimately, the narrator is left in belching darkness. He is completely cut off from the hears of his culture, and he packs off the mystic drum not to beat loudly anymore.
Theme of the Poem:
Gabriel Okara’s The Mystic Drum can be read on three levels. It is a love lyric. The love meets its tragic end. If the poem is taken as a love poem, it can be said that once he knows her lady love better and gets closer to her, he gets to know her nature, incompatibility with him. Therefore, he drops the idea of building a long – term relation. However, colonialism is replete large, compare to theme of love though Okara comments:
“This was a lady I loved. And she coyly was not responding directly. but I adored her. Her demeanour seemed to mask her true feelings: at a distance, she seemed adoring, however, on coming closer, she was, after all, not what she seemed.”
Second level is the three stages of knowledge we pass through, conventional knowledge, intimate knowledge, and the knowledge gained through experience. The third level of reading is colonialism that is the main point. The beating of the drum in African culture often symbolises the celebration or ritual, but in this poem, the drum is beating inside the head of the narrator. The native men and women dance on the tune of the drum. In the second stanza, the imperial element is introduced in the form of woman wearing leaves around her waist. It is not suggested directly but once we read the entire poem, it becomes evident that she is symbol of colonialism. She just observes the happening with the smile and shake of her face.
Structure of the Poem:
The poem has three different parts – an initial phase of conventional knowledge when men are men and fishes are fishes; (line 1-15) a middle phase of more intimate knowledge when men are no longer fishes (lines 16-26) and a final phase of ‘substantial knowledge’ when men are once again men and fishes are once again fishes, with the difference that at this phase, the beloved lady of the lyric is depicted as ‘standing behind a trace’ with ‘her lips parted in her smile’. It is more decidedly a philosophical poem in which the dynamics directions and management of ‘the mystic drum’ of passion that beats in the poet’s inside are dramatically re-enacted. At the initial level of conventional knowledge (lines 1-7), the speaker sees people as people and fishes as fishes. At this level, the love relationship between the lover and his beloved is still at a primary phenomenal and mundane level of innocent physical and sexual attraction. As at the end of the first and second phases, the beloved is no longer simply ‘standing behind a tree/ with leaves around her waist’, only smiling ‘with a shake of her head’. She is no longer silent but active, combustive, mysterious and even ominous. At this climax of his emotional and epistemological invitation, the lover finally decides to pack his mystic drum turning away from an over – excited involvement in love relationships, determined never to beat so loud anymore. The mystic drum and the transformations are projected to the personality of the beloved who acquires extra – ordinary powers that effectively transform her into a supernatural being, indeed a goddess, invested with the powers ‘of things of the ground’ (earth) of ‘the eye of the sky / the sun and moon’ (heaven) and of the ‘river gods’ (water).
Images and Symbols:
The Mystic Drum presents images of a ritualistic culture where, for example, ghosts, spirits, the dead ancestors, the natural and supernatural, commingle and intermingle. There is, in this poem, a poignant dramatization of a bizarre world order where cultural images and symbols— including folktales, song and dance, myths and lullabies— predominate on a continuum. The poem’s title, especially the word ‘mystic’, easily suggests the poem’s cultural orientation. So also, are the images contained in the ‘drum’, a traditional musical instrument; the tree is, a symbol of where and when offerings are conducted; ‘the fishes’ and ‘the river god’ are traditionally objects of religious and fetish worship. Collectively, all of these images not only enhance the poem’s cultural base, but they energise its lyricism.
The lady (the outsider) stands for Western Imperialism that has looked down upon anything Eastern, non – Western, alien and therefore, ‘incomprehensible for their own good’ as ‘The Other’. The outsider, at first, only has an objective role standing behind a tree. Eventually, she intrudes and tries to weave their spiritual life. The ‘leaves around her waist’ are very much suggestive of Eve who adorned the same after losing her innocence. Leaves stop growing on the trees but only sprout on her head signifying ‘deforestation’. The refrain reminds us again and again, that this eve turns out to be the eve of Nigerian damnation. The term ‘smoke’ is also suggestive of the pollution caused by industrialization, and also the clouding of morals. The ‘belching darkness’ alludes to the futility and hollowness of the imposed existence.
Style:
In term of style, the poem is a narrative, in which Okara recalls the mysticism of the indigenous drum and the profound effect which it has on him. Further, the poem contains the employment of supernatural and spiritual object and phenomena (like the ‘roots sprouting from her feet and leaves growing on her head’); there is also the use of repetition as a refrain (like the expression, ‘But standing behind a tree’ which is repeated thrice, as is the expression, ‘she only smiled with a shake of her head’).