Not my BusinessNot my Business

Niyi OsundareNiyi Osundare

With a partner, think and talk about the following situations. Take notes on what you say and be prepared to report back to the group.

A friend of yours gets in a fight.

Do you help him/her?

Do you walk away?

Why? You know a pupil in your form is being bullied by another pupil.

Do you report it?

Do you ignore it?

Why?

People in other countries are starving to death.

Do you ignore it?

Do you give money to help?

Why? Now watch the video

Niyi OsundareNiyi Osundare• Nigerian poet and Professor of English at Ibadan University

• Not My Business was first published in a newspaper, The Sunday Tribune

• Osundare believes the press has enormous potential for reaching people

• In 1990 this poem was published in a collection of poems called Songs of the Seasons

• The idea of song is central to all the poems in this collection and to ‘ a country where every significant event is celebrated in song, drum and dance’

I wanted to capture the significant

happenings of our time in a tune that is simple, accessible,

topical, relevant and artistically pleasing.

Listen to the poem again

What do the first four lines of stanzas 1 to 3 tell you about:

• the things that happen to people the speaker knows

• the way the speaker feels about these things?Who do you think the ‘they’ referred to in lines 1 and 8 might be?

What do the last three lines of stanzas 1 to 3 tell you about how the speaker chooses to react to these things?

Akanni, Danladi, Chinwe: African names

Yam: a tropical, edible root crop – like a sweet potato

What happens in the last stanza?

How do you think the speaker feels now?

In what ways is Not My Business:

• about the lives of ordinary people• like a song? (Think about the features of a song, such as verse, chorus, rhythm and so on.)

What ‘significant happenings’ does Niyi Osundare portray in Not my Business?

The focus of the poem keeps shifting from the speaker to what is happening around him or her. Copy out and complete the following chart to show how the focus shifts.

LinesLines FocusFocus LinesLines FocusFocus

1-41-4 What ‘they’ did to What ‘they’ did to AkanniAkanni

15-1815-18

5-75-7 19-2119-21

8-118-11 22-2422-24

12-1412-14 25-2625-26

Look closely at the first three stanzas of Not my Business

• What is unusual about the way they are set out on the page?

• Why do you think the poet chose to set them out in this way?

• What is the effect of the repetition of lines 5-7?

• What is different about the form of the final stanza of the poem? Why might the poet have chosen to make it different?

Think about the words the poet uses and how they are placed together. Copy and complete the following chart, making notes on:

• what is unusual about the images • what the words suggest to you

The imagesThe images Notes on the imagesNotes on the images‘‘Beat him like soft clay’ (2)Beat him like soft clay’ (2) Violent image – simile, ‘like clay’, creates Violent image – simile, ‘like clay’, creates

picture of how they beat him – ‘soft’ suggests picture of how they beat him – ‘soft’ suggests he was physically broken but also mentally – he was physically broken but also mentally – no longer a hard manno longer a hard man

‘‘Stuffed him down the bellyStuffed him down the belly

Of a waiting jeep’ (3-4)Of a waiting jeep’ (3-4)

‘‘my savouring mouth’ (7)my savouring mouth’ (7)

‘‘Booted the whole house awake’ Booted the whole house awake’ (9)(9)

‘‘a lengthy absence’ (11)a lengthy absence’ (11)

‘‘No query, no warning, no probe’ No query, no warning, no probe’ (17)(17)

‘‘one neat sack for a stainless one neat sack for a stainless record’ (18)record’ (18)

‘ ‘ A knock on the door froze my A knock on the door froze my hungry hand’ (24)hungry hand’ (24)

‘‘my bewildered lawn’ (25)my bewildered lawn’ (25)

‘‘waiting in its usual silence’ (26)waiting in its usual silence’ (26)

What kind of person is the speaker? Brainstorm your ideas:

What you What you learnlearn about him/herabout him/her

What you What you think think about him/herabout him/her

By naming Akanni, Danladi and Chinwe, the poet suggests that the speaker knows them. Is it worse that the speaker keeps silent even when he/she knows the people who are hurt?

Osundare believes that for poetry to be effective people need to be able to recognise themselves in the poems.

Think back to the situations you discussed at the beginning of the lesson before you read the poem.

In what way could they be linked with the poem?

Can you see yourself in the poem?

When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler

attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned.

Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church – and there was nobody left to be concerned.

Pastor Martin Niemoller, a well-known anti-Nazi activist

The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it … And if we don’t, it will become deeper and angrier …

When an African child dies every three seconds, the developed world has a clear duty to act – no responsible leader can turn their back on Africa.

Tony Blair, British Prime Minister

If something bad is

happening, when should you ignore it

and when should you do

something about it?