Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time
Gabriel Okara (1921–2019)

98yrs
He was a world-famous African writer hailing from Nigeria. He worked as a

journalist, radio broadcaster and a newspaper editor. He basically wrote about how culture shock
caused problems in African society. He was awarded the Common Wealth Poetry Prize in 1979.
This poem, composed in free verse style (irregular versification), depicts the traumatic circumstance faced
by native Africans due to the impact of western culture on their age-old African culture. The poem is
constructed employing first person narrative perspective as Okara expresses how he feels about the drastic
changes that occurred in the society of native Africans. He presents the poem in the form of a one-sided
conversation or a dramatic monologue in which he speaks to his son. The title ‘Once Upon a Time’ suggests
how much longing and yearning the Africans must have to go back to their former culture that was full of
sincerity, simplicity and hospitality. The poem seems to function as an eye-opener to the whole society to
realize the value of their age-old culture, customs and social etiquette. Okara expresses his concern for the
corruption of their society with frustration and further attempts to covey his regret as he himself was a
victim of westernization. He was obliged to adjust to a sophisticated western life and consequently he
bemoans the pathetic situation in which he has found himself and his own people existing in a helpless way.
The themes of the poem
Coming under the main theme ‘society’ the poem seems to convey several specific themes as well.
 Culture clash
Before the colonization of Africa, the native people had their own indigenous tribal culture which was built
up based on virtues like wholeheartedness, friendliness and honesty. But, with the arrival of colonizers their
simple society underwent drastic changes as they gradually began to embrace western culture and Christian
religion. The mixture of their own culture and the newly-found western culture confused the natives when
Africa gained independence and was decolonized. They were bewildered not knowing: what exactly their
identity was; who they were; how they should have behaved and which way they should have turned to for
guidance etc. They were completely at a loss since the culture clash had made them quite helpless leaving
them without proper identity.
 The detrimental effects of exposure to other cultures
The worst thing that happened to their society was that they gradually began to forget their good nature,
sincerity and simplicity as they started copying the western ways which only showed a sort of artificiality,
superficiality and dishonesty. They began to laugh only for the sake of laughing not showing true,
wholehearted feelings.
eg:- “they used to laugh with their heart

and laugh with their eyes;
but now they only laugh with their teeth,”
 The deceptiveness of the modern day humans
Present generation people deal with the society in a very superficial way as they do not bother to
maintain good relationships based on honesty and true feelings. The theme that modernization compels
people to become insincere is conveyed by the poet with a feeling of bitterness. Highly westernized and
modernized people behave in a very artificial way as they do all sorts of things and speak a kind of
showy language only to deceive others. Introducing oneself, leave taking, treating guests and behaving
in different situations etc. are all done without any warmth or affection. They are unreliable and
hypocritical in their attitudes since they only pretend that they are sincere but in reality they are not so.
The English collocations borrowed from the British are used in a mechanical way only to gain personal
advantages and benefits in a selfish way by modernized Africans.
“Feel at home.” - The speaker does not really want the guest to feel at home in his house.
“Come again” - The speaker does not want the other to come again.
“Good bye” - The speaker may really feel happy that he got rid of the boring person so he might actually
mean “Good riddance!”
“It’s been nice talking to you.” - The speaker might say this after feeling really bored with the other person.
All these mechanically uttered English collocations show that people have become utterly deceptive as their
true feelings are not expressed genuinely.
Not only that, people in the modern society seem to wear different faces like wearing different dresses for
different occasions with a fake, ‘fixed portrait smile’ which also show how deceptive they have become with
hypocrisy and indifference.
“home face, office face, street face, host face, cocktail face. . .”
 The disappearance of the innocence of childhood with the advent of adulthood
The persona of the poem, the father, implores his son to teach him how to laugh and smile in the way he
used to do ‘once upon a time’ as he had forgotten to do it properly now. The new sophisticated western
and modern manners he has learnt have made him forget the age-old good virtues. But his small son
seems to retain the good things as he is not yet corrupted and his innocent childhood is still capable of
conducting himself with good values.
The techniques available in the poem
 Irregular versification
The lines of the poems are not composed to a certain meter or rhythm or rhyme scheme so we call this
type of a poem as free verse. This structure is more apt in conveying the confused mentality of the poet
along with his emotional frustration and regret toward himself and his own people.
 Contrast
The difference between the past that is referred to as ‘once upon a time’ and the current circumstance is
quite obvious as Okara seems to be embittered and dis-heartened with the modern and western way of
life that lacks hospitality, sincerity, wholeheartedness and overall satisfaction.
 Metaphor
The use of the metaphor ‘ice-block-cold eyes’ exaggerates how coldly people behave towards each other
because their eyes don’t exhibit any warmth or emotions such as affection and wholeheartedness.
 Pun (Word Play)

 Simile
like a fixed portrait smile
my laugh in the mirror shows only my teeth like a snake’s bear fangs!
Prepared by Prasad Rathnasekara
[BA (Eng), MA (Linguistics), Music Visharad (Vocal) Contact on 071 8617810

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Gabriel Okara (1921–2019)

He was a world-famous African writer hailing from Nigeria. He worked as a

The themes of the poem

 The detrimental effects of exposure to other cultures

eg:- “they used to laugh with their heart

 The deceptiveness of the modern day humans

 The disappearance of the innocence of childhood with the advent of adulthood

The techniques available in the poem

 Pun (Word Play)

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