Ńchéfù Road

By Uche Ogbuji

Poetry

Ńchéfù is Igbo for forgetting, misplacement. These are poems of a child born in the age of decolonization, and specifically in the very aftermath of the sort of destructive civil war colonial policy made inevitable in the exploited parts of the world. These are poems of a child who was raised as his parents were compelled through a whirlwind of global travel, who eventually came to realize he must first forgive himself his muddled identity before the great rivers of his bloodline will forgive him.

Uche Ogbuji, more properly Úchèńnà Ogbújí, was born in Calabar, Nigeria. He lived in Egypt, England and elsewhere before settling near Boulder, Colorado. An engineer by training and entrepreneur by trade, he fell in love with poetry and spoken word performance at university in Nsukka. His chapbook, Ndewo, Colorado garnered a Colorado Book Award, and a Westword Award. His work fuses Igbo culture, European classicism, American Mountain West setting, and Hip-Hop.