MINES OF HIS MIND: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE WORKS OF TAYO OLAFIOYE

Owonibi This book contains a rich deposit of ideas and the consequent social commentary that arise in the complete works of Tayo Olafioye in prose, verse and critical formats. By associating Olafioye s work with a mine, the editors hope to reflect the multiple connotations of such a device, for a mine could also be a metaphoric representation of a bomb that devastates. It is explosive, incendiary, death-laden and finally, in some senses, cleansing. In terms of poetry, a bomb from the mind of the writer is powerful and effective and could be, for example, atomic or nuclear as Olafioye himself suggests, or as suggested in other contexts a cement block in the words of Amiri Baraka or a grenade as Soyinka asserts. Each of these interpretations can be drawn as implications from the lessons that arise in contemplation of Tayo Olafioye s The Parliament of Idiots, A Carnival of Looters, Critic as Terrorists, Tomorrow Left Us Yesterday, Dining with The Spirits, A Stroke of Hope, My Heart Swims