In any serious discussion of contemporary Nigerian (African) poetry, the name of Niyi Osundare usually features prominently. This prominence is due in large part to his championing of an orally-informed, mass-oriented performance poetry, a unique poetic style described by African scholars as the “Alter/native Tradition” in contemporary post-colonial poetry. Not surprisingly, therefore, a burgeoning tribe of “singers” and poets has risen in Osundare’s wake, thus, invariably universalizing the distinctive stylistic/rhetorical hallmarks of his poetry. This short piece is an attempt to examine and evaluate the core features of Niyi Osundare’s verse
