Summary of the poem, “Ambush” by Gbemisola Adeoti

In the first 1-7 lines of “Ambush” by Gbemisola Adeoti, there is a picture of “a giant whale” that is so wicked it swallows all the tools used by the fisherman, thus “aborting dreams of a good catch.” Metaphorically, the Nigerian government nay-African leaders are the whale since their actions of mismanaging the people’s resources is an indication of dreams and hopes dashed. In this manner, therefore, the very resources, which the people depend on, have been unjustly “swallowed”.  Similarly, in lines 8-13, “the land” (Nigeria) is described as “a sabre-toothed tiger” so scary that only his “deep cry” make the “infants shudder home”.  In a way, these infants are the vulnerable citizens, the lower class, who owing to the frustrations from their government are left with no option except to find every possible means of escape from their leaders’ consciously manufactured “bayonets of tribulations”.


Suggested: Read the Analysis of The Virtuous Woman

In addition, lines 14-16 describe the land as a hawk, a giant one whose appearance enough portends dangers, kidnapping, stealing, and of course death. When it hovers over the sky, it makes all the little creatures below run for dear life. What is often left in the land is “unceasing disaster.” Like the hawk, the Nigerian rulers do not appear before the people except that they bring with them the instrumentalities of fear, civil strife and division based on religion and ethnic violence. However, when all of the terrors are unleashed in the land, the poor, suffering masses that have been denied access to necessities of life are the worst hit. In reactions, they are forced to revolt, for they have been pushed to the wall. Sadly, the poem ends noting that no matter what the people do, the land is so vast and versed in his wickedness and oppression that it would forever lay in ambush on their resourcefulness and opportunities.