Ńchéfù Road

Ńchéfù Road, an encyclopedic debut by Uche Ogbuji, reflects the polymath pursuits of its author, an Ìgbò-NaijAmerican poet, engineer, entrepreneur, DJ, and self-identified Third Culture Kid. In these poems, Ogbuji draws on his experiences living in Egypt, London, and Colorado; incorporates African, Nigerian, and his own family history; invokes Ìgbò, Greek, and Roman myths; and references contemporary musicians, such as Ice Cube and Kool & the Gang. The result is an eclectic assortment of long poems filling more than 100 pages, as well as an appendix of Ìgbò translations, enough material to fill several books. 

Many of the poems in this work feature predictable rhyme schemes, as in “Run It!” in which the poet contrasts myriad cultural influences:

Run me your logic of prank propositions,
Nine spheres of your seven loaf and fish tales;
I’ll take Ibn Rushd over your Uni Parisians—
Stigmata dogmata flush up your high swales.

Run this way wet dendrites of world-nerve,
Run Tiber, Alphaeus and Xanthos-Skamander;
Even hell and heaven are mine to explore
River-charmed skin plays sylph and salamander.

Such rigid end rhymes obscure the poem’s storytelling, while other lines end up sounding archaic: “Of after-death’s assizes, how shall I swear, deponent, / With so little gathered to show from my own journey?” 

Some of the most impactful moments in this collection occur in simple, straightforward lines, as in this telling description: “A river so wide its far bank is gossip of prophets.” And in “Mysteries of Harvest: Home,” we encounter a traditional recipe in easy rhyme that benefits from the speaker’s interjection:

Bounty by palm, 
Its wine-tap bole, 
Its kernel oil
For new roast yam; 

Surprise sweets trail
Of termite roast;
Earth on the nose—
Under giant snail;

Cashew for fruit
Then (careful!) seed,
The yard goat’s meat
With ụ́gụ́ shoot;

All slow-pot stew,
My love for you.