The Geez

his intelligence, he recognised how the record industry was exploiting Black musicians and signed contracts under different names to maximise his upfront recording income. Hooker’s playing style was so idiosyncratic that it was hard to pull in a backing band for him so he tapped his own foot to accompany his songs. His story never left me and as I read about more blues musicians – male and female – I was stunned by how hard they had to fight to earn what they were worth. Even worse, the (mainly) British musicians who later came to imitate them became rich overnight. Suddenly, the Robert Johnson myth of selling his soul to the devil at a crossroad in order to gain his incredible virtuosic gift didn’t sound like such a romantic idea after all. It sounded like erasure. These imitators, blessed with the means to buy guitars from early on, spend hours trying to master Johnson’s sound and, when they can’t, we start to hear about deals with the devil. It’s a story that doesn’t take into account the fact that Robert Johnson was ridiculed on stage early in his playing career, went away with the fire and fury of rejection and forged a sound that could no longer be ignored. It’s a similar story with Black musicians in general; their brilliance is linked to struggle, with no explanation for how every other Black person is not an amazing musician. No, these blues artists are geniuses who make the complex appear simple, who achieve greatness in spite of oppression and struggle and they deserve respect. If the song seems simple, play it again.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful for the friends who see me, the family who hold me and the Ga language that gave me my foundation in dreaming. Also for Ms G, thank you for all the space and spice you give me.

I’d also like to thank editors of the following journals where versions of the poems in the book appeared earlier: Cordite Poetry Review for “Seeing Eyes”; Miracle Monocle for “Defences” and a section from “Caress”; Obsidian for “Locking Doors”; The Rialto for “Trumpet”; and Johannesburg Review of Books for “Bottle” and “Tree of the Invisible Man”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer, editor and publisher, who has won acclaim as a children’s author, poet, broadcaster and novelist. He is the author of the poetry chapbooks: eyes of a boy, lips of a man (1999), his début; M is for Madrigal (2004), a selection of seven jazz poems; and Ballast (2009), an imagination of the slave trade by balloon. His poem, ‘Tin Roof’, was selected for the Poems on the Underground initiative in 2007, followed by the poem ‘Barter,’ chosen from his first full collection The Makings of You, published by Peepal Tree in 2010. His novel, Tail of the Blue Bird (Jonathan Cape, 2009), hailed by the Financial Times as ‘a beautifully written fable… simple in form, but grappling with urgent issues,’ was lauded internationally, becoming a bestseller in Germany and notably winning France’s two major prizes for translated fiction – Prix Baudelaire and Prix Laure Bataillon – in 2014. He is the author of two books for children under the name K.P. Kojo and has a collection of short stories, The City Will Love You, due from Unbound. Nii is the Senior Editor and publisher at flipped eye publishing, serves on the boards of World Literature Today and the AKO Caine Prize and produces the Literature and Talks programme at Brighton Festival.

As a socio-cultural commentator and advocate for African writing, Nii has led forums internationally, has sat on discussion panels for BBC Radio, and he founded the African Writers’ Evening series.