“Local Earth On An Expensive Soil” Review of Loveth Liberty’s Spoken Word Poem ‘Locah Geh’ By Sa’id Sa’ad

Locah Geh is a masterpiece that takes different dimensions of what we call today ‘contemporary African poetry; lyrical, narrative and descriptive. It began with soft beats that molded into beautiful sounds of melodious blues music or rather a thrilling R&B. The lines and the manner of the writing fits both what could be called performing poem and the written poem. That’s the peculiar quality that this piece was able to maintain.

Loveth began the poem with the lines;
”Locah Geh (Local Girl) na (was) the first child of Africa,
She is a gorgeous goddess that glows wherever she goes,
A proud and pretty petal
A black rose that grows from the dark coals of underrated Africaness.”
These lines depicts the worth, value and power of great African women. The author tries to describes with wonderful imagery what is visible about Africaness. She went further to unfold beautiful lines that portray beauty and color including going to the extent of describing the body. The beauty of these line is how she expressed them to what African’s especially Nigerians will relate. A good example was where she said;

”She possessed the best behind you can ever imaging.
Locah Geh (Local girl) na (is) Mercy Johnson,
With that coca cola bottle kind of curvy…..”

The author went on to describe the African mode of eating first, then some local African and Nigeria dishes. The way she blend the mode of eating and the example of dishes makes her piece interesting. Especially how it goes with the nature of a lyrical rhymed poem. The stanza began with the lines;
”She no dey (don’t) waste her time
On fork and knife
When face with the plate of pounded yam
She no dey (don’t) do yanga, she dey chop (eats) banga, fufu, ofensala, ewedu, amala, tuwon shinkafa.”
These are variety of dishes, mainly Nigerian local dishes. The author tries to bridge the gaps between the ethnicity, where each person from the major ethnic groups in Nigeria can relate to one or more food from their tribe. Loveth continue to unveil the culture if true African women, those who in her words are ‘well bred, quite educated, (those who) never said farewell to the words of their brethren, she no dey (don’t) panel-beat her tongue, she no dey (don’t) stress herself to impress foreign ears.

”Have you seen locah geh (local girl) wind her waist?
As she rigorously wriggles her hips to the thundering rhythm of the Afro beat, Fuji, highlife.”

The author makes an excellent punchline when incorporating languages such as Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba in one context of description and further call names of different characters from same context.

Locah Geh is a masterpiece that best described the entirety of a great African Women first, then Nigerian women. The author used the phrase (Local Girl) in the context to express the manner of which the other parts of the world see African women.

Sa’id Sa’ad is a short story writer, spoken word artist and an essayist. He is the coauthor of the poetry collection ‘ReUnion’. He was the 2018 Peace Panel Short Story Prize Winner, 2018 NFC Essay Award Winner and was shortlisted for the 2017 Positive Naija Essay Prize. His works have appeared in Better Than Starbucks, Praxis Magazine, The Arts Muse Fair, Huda Magazine and elsewhere. He loves travelling and exploring new culture, loves history and artefacts.