Customer Reviews

Nile River Woman: The Very First Poems

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Nile River Woman by Kola Boof

There are 52 spare but vibrant poems that make up Book I, Every Little Bit Hurts and Book II, I love My Man, in Kola Boof's tome Nile River Woman. If you like journeying to the core of your essential nature, being swept into the hidden places in the heart, mind and body then take off your clothes, sit in the dirt, recite and be reborn with Kola Boof!

Kola Boof was born Naima Bint Harith in Omdurman, Sudan, Africa. She was orphaned at the age of eight when her parents were murdered in front of her for speaking out on slavery in the Sudan. Kola was adopted by an African-American family and raised in the United States. Her bi-cultural and bi-continental upbringing make her words a bridge African-Americans can tread, from the fairyland of our Africaness as experienced in America to the core of our African soul in it's raw majesty in Africa. Kola Boof's poetry contains no politically correct jargon, it allows the lowest of the low to have a voice, or as she says two voices. These voices speak from the sacred space of the womb. These, here-to-fore, silenced voices illuminate and elevate all who will hear its message. These voices speak of self-love, the duty of righteous leadership, sacred motherhood and the mother's power to heal.

Kola Boof's purity of heart and earth-based vision deflect the attempts of others to defame her. She becomes the voice of innocence, an eternal virgin/woman/mother, a vessel filled with memories that pave the way to forgiveness of self and others. She speaks the words we say to ourselves, alone, at night. Kola's poetry raises the bar for 21st Century womanist thought; redeeming our hair, our breasts, our vaginas, and our bodies through her imagery. Kola's truth is spoken though men and institutions attempt to stifle and kill her. Perhaps the knowledge that, `you can not kill what gave birth to you', spurs her on, under girded by love of Africa and the African. These revelations strip her bare line by line and we rejoice with her. My favorite poem is `I Am My Own Daughter.' Please, step up and dive with Kola Boof into the Nile!

Review by Iya Abiye

This is the second book I've read by Sudanese-born Kola Boof and although I thought her fantastic short story collection "Long Train" was angry, this poetry collection is even angrier, not to mention highly sexual.

Angry or not, I consider "Nile River Woman" a masterpiece.

This is what New World Beat Poetry is all about. Passion, restraint and lots of genuinely lyrical footnotes about issues and subjects that many of us don't know anything about.

Granted, as a White Male, there were moments in the book that I felt bad for the racism and hostility that Boof feels towards Arabs, Men and Whites, I totally understood her pain and was completely impressed with her ability to convey even the largest, most complex issues with just a few well positioned words. Her ability to evoke visions through both beauty and nightmare is impeccable.

She's not only a talented fiction writer along the lines of James Baldwin and Alice Munroe (read "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin"), she's also a brilliant poet with a very unique voice. This is raw poetry, for sure, but it's also the most compelling and exciting poetry collection I've read in years. There's nothing else like it. 5 Stars all the way!!!!

In her debut book of poetry, NILE RIVER WOMAN, Kola Boof presents a strikingly emotional and somewhat controversial view of the world through the eyes of an intriguing and remarkable woman. To fully understand the depth of her writings, the book tells a bit of Boof's biography. Born in Africa as Naima Bint Harith, Kola Boof was orphaned at an early age when both her parents were murdered for their activism against slavery. She then moved to America where she spent her formitive years. Returning to Africa, she became an activist, a feminist, Osama bin Laden's mistress, and generated so much controversy that she was ordered to death.

NILE RIVER WOMAN contains 52 emotionally charged poems, which tackle issues such as religion, slavery, racism, and feminism. Although at times the poetry is graphic and explicit, it conveys just how much the author has had to endure. While I may not agree with Boof's political ideologies, the intensity of her writings and the knowledge of all that she has endured made this one of the best books of poetry that I have read in a while.

Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Deep-rooted pains of African women, the betrayal of Black Mothers by their African Kings, the growing dehumanization of all the Black Man's sins, and Kola's raw, passionate, layered dreams. This book is essential to all Africans and those willing and open enough to learn about Africa as seen through the eyes of Black Women. Here presented is the trials and tribulations, hopes and dreams, fears and disappointments of the African Woman's seams. She is beautiful, Black, witty, and strong, vulnerable, powerful, unforgettable, a norm. At long last, Kola speaks uncanny truth, revealing a history of African struggles in classic and new poems. Stunning, riveting, captivating, and sad. This book is for those who need to hear the truth, feel the truth, and spread the truth. Bless your heart Kola.

I had the opportunity to hear Kola Boof's lecture this past week at CAL LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY. I was blown away by her beauty and her presence. Plus she's brilliant. I consider her to be one of the few artists and writers I know who is brave enough to refuse "assimilation" and do it openly in their work.
That is why I have to give this book, and her autobiography "Diary of a Lost Girl" 5 STARS each.

I'm not the most sensitive brotha down with the "women" issues and stuff, but this woman and her books have unhinged me. I feel like a part of me is waking up from reading her. My favorite poems in "NILE RIVER WOMAN":

"THANKSGIVING DAY"--TIGHT--every black family should adopt this
for the holidays.

"EVERY LITTLE BIT HURTS"---deep

"THE CHILDREN WITH AFRICAN HAIR"--man, man!

"MY MASTER, MY HUSBAND"--just plain sensuous for lovers

"I CAN DIE"--another good one for lovers

"BINT IL NIL"--some serious DEEP thoughts on religion

"CHRISTMAS ON THE NILE"--amazing yall

"ESTHER ROLLE"--I love this poem! It's a salute to the mother on "Good Times".

"FLY AWAY SLEEPING"--the deepest poem in the book (*NEW CLASSIC), but it gets tough competition, because this whole book is pretty deep.

"BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE"--Absolutely Classic!!

"TO BE INVISIBLE"--this poem is just COLD. I love it.

"BLACK BEAUTY'S TOTEM"--I read this one to my woman cause she's a black Queen and I love her.

I just want to say that it's not everyday we get to hear the perspectives of Black people who come from Egypt and Sudan as the gifted Ms. Kola Boof does.

Her poetry is not only sublime, but her themes are highly original and her voice is so raw and full of thunder that many thin-skinned folks just can't get it. Others, who hate Kola Boof for her political and social views, are totally scared that she is going to be heard and understand by the masses.

This is a masterful poetry collection that dramatically and emotionally exposes the true heart of a very brave African woman. Poetry doesn't get any better than this.

A BLACK MAN.

this s**t is off the muaf***n hook!!! my teacher was read'n this book and we was all like yeah, yeah nodd'n with our mouth wide open. we couldnt believe the truth in these poems! you can onley read to get what i'm saying but kola boof is one bad sista. its so many good poems in here i cant hardly name my favrite one. much props to my african homegirl.

this book is off the f***'n chain fa show! bout time the (real) voice of the black woman could be heard!

A collection of poems by Kola Boof. Kola herself says "'Nile River Woman' was my earliest, angriest book, and it will be interesting to see whether or not a White woman can really review it." Does Gracie get it? Yes. No. Maybe so.

I don't know how any woman can read, and not feel how Kola bleeds ~ not realize that it is our blood too. But if it's the sorrow that haunts, it's the strength that awes.

White, black, green, you'll be moved if you read with your soul.

As a white American woman, I may not know or fully understand the violations. I may not fully appreciate the experiences which the author has endured. But reading her words, it is possible to recall my own pain ~ and Kola's words pry such wounds open ~ and multiply it for events such as she shows me. Her pain is not my pain. To pretend such would be a lie. But her pain becomes one with my pain... the energies touch... and sitting alone in my quiet space with them all, I care for them all ...and I pray for a Goddess to come carry them all away.

Are there angry, accusatory lines which point themselves at me? Yes. No. Maybe so. At my whiteness, yes. At me as a person directly, no. As a privileged person, who by my white American-ness, can be seen as a threat? Maybe so. Does this anger me? Yes. But it is not the anger of a defensive person. Rather it is the anger of an activist. The anger of a woman, a being, a spirit that feels shame at what horrors exist, and knows that in order for it to end, we must all first see and acknowledge it.

I do not need to be responsible for what someone else has done, but I am responsible for my choices: Am I to turn a blind eye, to twist words, or join the revolution where we all may dance.

If you can be larger than what divides us, yet smaller than what holds us together, as people, then you will enjoy Kola's poems. Yes, 'enjoy.' For like a good cry with a dear friend, the release brought of sharing shows more than sorrow. It's an expression of trust to speak the truth, even through the pain: Where there is integrity, there is hope.

(Condensed Review)

Yes, she's had a rough life. Does that make her poetry good, or even bearable? Unfortunately, no it does not. It would indeed appear that reviewers are praising this author for having survived many difficulties rather than taking an objective look at her poetry.

When I read poetry I really don't care about the author's personal history. I only care whether the poetry is worth reading. This is not. Reviewers who write excessively about the author's personal travails, her gender or her race, rather than discussing the meat of her writing, are impliedly admitting that the poetry is not worth discussing.

I was washing the dishes the other day and some of the poems from this book kept interrupting my thoughts. Ditto driving in the car to pick up my son. This is a new classic if for no other reason than it will shake you up "racially" and "sexually". The poems are not only spare and powerful with many double meanings, but they're also relentlessly personal and will hit too close to home for some readers. Overall, this book oozes with pain, beauty and rage. What makes it a spectacle is that the author doesn't care about what people thinks. She bares her soul and it is a glorious soul.

HIGHLIGHTS:

"Got a Moon Above Me"
"I Am My Own Daughter"
"Fly Away Sleeping"
"THanksgiving Day"
"Baby It's Cold Outside"
"Nile River Woman"
"Bint il Nil"