Tail of the Blue Bird

Yaw Poku is the first narrator of Nii Ayikwei Parkes' novel, Tail of the Blue Bird. Poku narrates the novel in an interesting way: he uses a combination of English and the Ghanan language to describe what is going on in his village. In his narrating, it is clear that he lives in a very isolated village, and would not be what we consider today to be "modern". One quote of his that I found intriguing was "The tale English man calls history is mostly lies written in fine dye," (Parks, 2). I thought that it was an interesting take, and reveals the almost non-linear perspective of this narrator. He is clearly a man of tradition, when he describes the umbilical cord on page 2, and when he is upset with the policemen for not showing the proper respect. He talks in jointed sentences, for example when he addresses the policeman, saying "OK, listen. I no get plenty time. I dey house for Accra wey I get call say some woman find something for here wey e dey smell. You know something for the matter?" His superstition is further revealed when he sees the after-birth like mess, saying"I was not meant to see what I saw.. no one without the right powers was supposed to see it" I think Yaw Polu is going to be a very important character in the novel.
     The majority of the works we have read this year have had to do with the westernization of Africa. So far in the course, I believe we have yet to see a character as unwesternized as Yaw Poku. He is clearly an older man, and at this point in the novel I believe the story will focus around the coming of the European ideals into this small village. Yaw Poku, as an older superstitious member of the village, will most likely have an interesting reaction to these new ideas. He also provides a good contrast to the other narrator in the novel right now, Kayo. Kayo is a forensic chemist, and is a foil to Yaw Poku as a hunter. The two professions are complete opposites. The two are also opposites in there names. Together, these two narrators should provide an interesting viewpoint into the story that is about to unfold. So far in the story, there has also been an interesting combination of English language and the native langauge of Yaw Poku. This may be some literary technique used by the author. It will be interesting to find out why he used tese two languages together from him when he comes to visit us.