 Welcome to today's program. I am Dr. Pallavi Kugai of Krishnakanta Handic State Opera University. Today I shall take up Unit 8, title Chenyua Chipe, a mother in a refugee camp. This is the poem prescribed for you and in this video we shall be discussing the major themes, style and language employed in this particular poem. The course is Jail English Semester 1, Block 1. So let us quickly begin. Starting with the table of contents, learning objectives, major themes, style and language. Let us sum up questions to check your progress and the references. To provide you the learning objectives, after going through this third and final video of Unit 8, the learner will be able to explore the relevant themes pertaining to the poem, grasp the style and language employed in the poem and appreciate the core message contained in the poem. So let us quickly come to the major themes that are evident in the poem. The first theme is the consequences of war. War and its trailing consequences leave individual lives shattered and paralyzes the life of a nation. In the poem, we find a reflection of a tragic condition in a refugee camp, which is universally true in most of the refugee camps after civil or national wars. I am sure you would agree with this. The learner may have read or heard on how refugee camps are set up in the hours of human crisis, in order to accommodate it and provide human relief or aid to those who suffer during communal or ethnic clashes, natural calamities or disasters. The refugee camp described in the poem is one such temporary shelter or settlement provided to those who are displaced from their homes during the civil war. Thus, the context of the present poem is the Nigerian Civil War, which had taken place from July 1967 to January 1970, for almost three years costing millions of civil life. This civil war, also known as the Bifurian War, was an internal war fought in the home soil between Nigerian forces and a newly formed Republic of Bifur. Bifur was home to majority of the Igbo people and their assertion of an independent state carved out from the Nigerian map had fueled the civil war. Achipe supported Bifur and recorded the history of the war in his last work titled There was a Country, a Personal History of Bifur 2012. At the end of the civil war, the Nigerian forces weakened the strength of the Igbo people on the Bifurian side. This particular period had witnessed widespread sickness and starvation, death and suffering, a fragment of which is mirrored and captured in the poem. Another theme is motherhood. The relationship of a mother with her children is always special, which is also universally true. One of the most amazing moments in a woman's life is motherhood. The poem reflects a mother's fortitude even during a time of great loss or crisis. When her happy world shatters into fragments, she is left in utter shock and disbelief with a turn of fate, with a turn of circumstances. Yet, unlike the other women in the refugee camp who surrendered to their fate, much as they want their children to survive, this strong woman goes about her daily duties towards her son, even as she fears that she would lose him too. The biblical image of Mother Mary with infant Jesus who was nailed to the cross for the salvation of mankind expresses the kind of pain that a mother goes through and the tremendous sacrifices a mother has to make sometimes. Given the circumstances of disease and suffering in the refugee camp, the mother fears that her child may not survive the hardships for too long. In her thoughts, she cherishes the special moments that she had spent when her son before her world was pulled down, much similar to that of countless mothers. This also reminds one of the heartbreaking cries of mothers who lost their soldiers and the soldiers' sons in the war time. Thus, the mother in the poem is in a similar position who senses the looming danger or threat to her son's life, but does her best to take care of his vulnerable condition as best as she can in their crisis. There are times when we take the little everyday moments for granted and realize how special they are when we wish to relive them once again. This same happens to this unfortunate mother who cannot wish her son's sufferings away, even if she wishes to and is almost at the edge of losing hope of finding a new breath of their life that they had once known together. Now coming to your style and language employed in this poem, the poet of Chinnu Achibi, much like his writings, bears special reference to historical, political and sociocultural contexts as also reflected in poems like A Mother in a Refugee Camp and Christmas in Bifuram, among others. Achibi provides an insight into the African sociocultural traditions, indigenous cultures and tribal ways of life through most of his writings. The present poem is a fragment of wartime in Nigeria and reflects how war can completely shatter innocent lives. There are many whose lives are paralyzed during and after wartime as reflected in the lives of the children and women lodged in the confines of a refugee camp, totally displaced from the comfort of their home. The poem opens with the first image of Mother Mary and the infant Jesus, which is a universal representation of mother and child, as also represented in the famous paintings of the classical masters. The central figure in the poem is that of the mother who represents the sacrifices of motherhood and the extent of suffering as a refugee during wartime. Some of the weird images that remain with us long after we finish reading the poem are that of the mother's quote-unquote ghost smile of children with quote-unquote washed out ribs and quote-unquote blown empty bellies. Also the images of the once happy mother getting her son ready for school and the same mother uncertain if her son would live long to go to school again to dream of a new future, compel the reader to imagine what it is to lose a happy life to an unhappy nation that calls for war. Her eyes speak volumes as the poet captures how she holds her happy memories quote-unquote in her eyes that are now stilled with her dramatic experience. The happy songs that she once hummed in her happier days were silenced, leaving only a trace of its memory. The transition from her former life to the present is captured simultaneously in the poem. At the end of the poem we confront the image of a grave with tributary flowers and through the use of the closing simile. The poet conveys a mother's dying hope. Thus in the economy of a few words Chinu Achibe strongly expresses his political sensibility towards a mother's dramatic experience. His use of language is simple yet powerful and the poem is a testimony of the suffering confronted by innocent people during wartime. This brings us to the end of the video. Let us quickly sum up this particular unit that we have discussed. After a thorough study of the unit you'll be able to discuss the life and works of the African poet and writer Chinu Achibe. The text of the poem, a mother in a refugee camp captures the ground reality of war-torn conditions and the common sufferings of the afflicted. The major themes emerging from the text of the poem have been elaborated and the analysis on the poetic techniques have been provided for your detailed study. Also, the unit will enable the learner to press the code message of the poem as reflected through vivid flashes of images. This brings us to the questions to check your progress starting with question number one. What is the context of the present poem? Question number two. Name the volume in which Achibe had recorded the history of the bifurne war. Question number three. Who is the central figure in the poem, a mother in a refugee camp? Explain why? Question number four. What is the image that you find at the end of the poem? Here's a reference. I hope you'll also go through the B.A. English Graduate Self-Learning Material, that is the SLM of Jail English, block 1, unit 8, semester 1. I wish you all the best. Thank you, dear learners.