Half and Half of A Dream by Nimi Wariboko

Half and Half of a Dream explores our fascination and fear of dreams, examines the ressentiment that frames political dreaming, and raises questions about the validity of diasporic dreams of identity, time, and place using poignant metaphor and imagery. This poetry collection, in its Walcottian approach, captures the desire to return home and the realities of living in the diaspora, even while criticizing the socio-political factors that force individuals from their homes and create hardship for those who remain. This is a work of technical control, sustained by a vision of human flourishing, outcome of fundamental concerns with simultaneous continuity and discontinuity, rapture and rupture, hope and hopelessness, or unity and division.

Half and Half of a Dream is a magnificent exploration of the validity of individual dreams. The collection explores the intricate relationship between individual dreams and the enduring pull of a diasporic past. Rooted in the poet’s longing for their homeland, it transcends nostalgia, examining the dreams of the past, present, and future through affecting imagery and introspective questioning. As readers navigate the landscapes of memory and aspiration alongside the poet, they are compelled to confront their own dreams and the intricate roots from which they spring.

—Jumoke Comfort Verissimo, award-winning poet and novelist. Author, i am memory.

Wariboko’s new poems are prayer songs of love and despair for his country and continent that are lined with hope and his fingers crossed.  They burst with empathy, local energy, lyric beauty, and hard truth imagery of the past, the present, and different pathways for the future.  Africa is always promising.  Let’s hope Wariboko’s dreams come true.  The louder we sing these poems the better chance we have.

—Kevin Gallagher, poet, editor of spoKe (a poetry journal), and author of And Yet it Moves.

A masterpiece collection… Half and Half of a Dream is a poetic representation of the Nigerian society, garnished with cascading metaphors and movingly evocative imageries. Wariboko, through vivid language, rich imageries, personifications, and extended metaphors, captures the depths of sociopolitical realities of the nation in this collection, examining the fragile balance between dreams and disillusionment, and the perilous influence of religion on the African continent.

—Professor Toyin Falola, renowned historian.