Obinna Chilekezi is a multi-skilled professional with background in library science, book publishing, finance and banking, marketing, and insurance. He had won the African Insurance Association award with one of his published books on Marine Insurance.

Chilekezi is also a poet, a writer and well accomplished insurance practitioner. But his love for writing, creatively, may not have seen the needed push, until fate and nature twisted his focus as a corporate insurance negotiator to an avid nature reader and writer made possible during a trip to the African west coast that however, became an intriguing sojourn turned creative mission.  As a poet, his poems have appeared in journals, newspapers and anthologies.

If you say this writer has become somewhat obsessed with the Gambian experience,’ you may not be far from it. Or, perhaps, you can as well say, Gambia brought out the most needed creative thrust in him.

In a man’s life, there comes a time, situation could prompt an action. And this goes with a saying by a friend that, “if you want to know a writer, put him in prison.”  To Chilekezi, his imaginary prison term was well orchestrated and served by a work trip to a serene clime, Banjul, where nothing could have distracted that knack to unleash the intellectual exercise he likes. However, as an opportunity to explore, he wasted no time to move into action, and the resultant effect is the amazing collection of poems upon poems, but more to extol the country and clime that gave him the opportunity to unleash.

Gambia, Gambia, Gambia!!! You may say, but what about Gambia. This is a small country in the West Coast of Africa. It is a fine quiet country that possesses the alluring magic of nature, so mesmerizing with its adoring weather, culture and people.

Chikelezi, came, saw and conquer with poetic wand. Any wonder his poems are all in affirmation to the peace of mind the environment gave him, regardless of the economic and political imbalance therein.

The book, ‘My Gambia and other poems’ was published in Nigeria in 2021 by LIBRETTO Publishers. The 78-page book was segmented into three parts: The Gambian Poems that has collection like ‘Good morning birds, Banjul, Laughter of birds, A beautiful bird in flight, Do birds too divorce,’ among others including ‘Sir Warrior even here’, a reminisce of the late Igbo highlife maestro whose music echoed in his ear like the birds in a foreign land at Banjul airport.

Others are “Other Poems Today” with collections like ‘I am a man, Abuja: Our city of unity, Boko Haram, Frustrated people, Oil money, Carry your sadness and others, while the third segment “Haiku” came with poems like Love renewed, Trading trust, The broken silence, Appreciate mom and others.

He has consistently shown his love for poetry through publications of poems such as My Son Chikeziri too died, Rejection and other poems and Half a Yellow Sun and other poems. Meanwhile, the Gambian experience started with ‘Songs of a stranger at the Smiling Coast’ followed by ‘Calligramme’ and the latest, ‘My Gambian and other poems.’

One unique thing about the west coast experience is the unflinching love and romantic experience Chilekezi had with nature, culture and the people in the city of Banjul, Gambia. He made his feeling known by repeatedly juxtaposing Banjul with Lagos where peace according to him is thwarted by the hullabaloo of a city that never sleeps…(This temptation great it is /Not be homeward bound /After a taste of Gambian waters /Never going back perched at the tail of Lagos traffic grief.

Speaking further, he said, (Look at Banjul/ Homes dotted a green, clothed by trees /And swans of birds swing /Up and down the day with joy /Just a city to settle in /Unlike manmade cyclothymiacs Lagos /Homeward I will be bound /Not without feeling of loss Of this city of grandeur /Oh, a city calm and green. With these, it is obvious that Banjul has peaceful effects on him.

Starting the poem with the wee time guest, “The Birds,” Chilekezi presented a feeling of serenity that the city gives.  (Good morning birds/ Kuku ble kuku, kuku ble kuku/ It is morning…) this is a typical picture of peace personified. Funnily, this version of peculiar bird hum is different in Igbo land where the wild parrot sings (Kuku kpara kuku, kuku kpara kuku…) mainly heard in the afternoon. However, the underlying fact is that you can’t fault the peace Banjul offers.

The dominant imagery in this first segment is bird. The poet did not hide his feelings when he said in his preface:  “I had not taken any particular interest in birds as I did during my visit to The Gambia in 2015. Since then I have visited the country more other times. Frankly speaking I had often beheld but never quite appreciated the beauty of these avian families as I do now,” stated Chilekezi.

According to him, “This all began with my reading of a tourist magazine published by the Tourism Board of that country on the night of my arrival. The serial had revealed that there were over one thousand varieties of birds in that country which prompted me to go out most evenings in search of these birds!

Birds, birds, birds, indeed!!! Beautiful birds and ugly birds – all varieties of birds as well as varieties of tweets! And varieties in their flights! At this juncture I must also confess that my knowledge of The Gambia was that of a small island, and the country of the poet Lenre Peters. We had read his poems and that of his great neighbour Leopold Senghor while in high school. This duo, using powerful imagination and strong feelings had conveyed African experiences through their poems and commentaries and by so doing reflected the African temperament of that era, being strong ancestral pride and sense of cultural unity,’ he said.

“Moreover, the serenity of the country and the hospitality of its people will remain an indelible memory that cannot be glossed over as such. It was from these great Africans and poets that I read about the beauty of the river Gambia. What a beauty to behold! I wrote the Gambian poems rather as a testimony of my presence in that beautiful country,” the poet added.

Other poems according to him, were written over the years and are being presented here as a complement to the slim volume from his presence in the Gambia.

However, some of these other poems contain contradictory feelings compare to the serenity the Gambia offered. In the case of ‘Abuja: our city of unity,’ this is a reflection of optimism that the word ‘unity’ should have been, to unite the diversity of nations that make up the country Nigeria, instead, dashed hopes from the leaders becloud the essence of the vision. (Our city of pride o’ Abuja /Beaming unity in diversity/ In a famished land of corruption/ And of hostage and Boko Haram killing/ Our city of hope o’ Abuja /A disarming fact of life – /Gushing forth fountains of hope/ In a subsidized thievery land /Yes, we celebrate This land in our great dream of peace /Unity, love and progress/ Abuja, our city of unity/ Our peace /As strong as Zuma rock will stand.)

Others like “The Public School, the Oil Money and Governance” all depict the shame of a country under bad leadership. Nigeria has battled leadership challenges over time. Elections after elections seem not to produce the desired leadership that will bring the meaningful dividends to the people. This has also been compounded by the new wave of crime: Kidnapping and banditry, followed by the minority group agitation for secession.

Obinna Chilekezi in this collection, a mixture of quiet life in the Gambia and the turbulence in his home country, tries to work on the psyche of his people to embrace unity in diversity.