Abstract
This article reflects on the intersection of temporality and cosmopolitanism through a reading of Niyi Osundare's long poem Days.[1] The article argues that Osundare constructs temporality as an evolutionary and relative category by showing the fusion of an African temporal order with modernity's temporal model. It further contends that the fusion is emblematic of the hybrid and integrative disposition of postcolonial poetry which allows for a constellation of the indigenous and the western. The article demonstrates that although indigenous African templates of time reckoning may not have originally aligned themselves with the seven-day week equation, such indigenous modes have since been subordinated by the imposition of the Gregorian Calendar. It therefore explores the intersection of this brand of postcolonial temporality in the discourse of cosmopolitanism, arguing that by privileging the symbolism of timing, Osundare's long poem does a critique of contemporary global relations.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.13023/disclosure.25.6
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Olaoluwa, Senayon
(2016)
"Day by Date: Postcolonial Contention and Cosmopolitan Temporality in Niyi Osundare’s Days,"
disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory: Vol. 25, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13023/disclosure.25.6
Available at:
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure/vol25/iss1/7
