Given that Dawes is offering a general introduction, it is unrealistic to expect him to provide a rich variety of very stories, but I think something now being called African poetry is not served well by being framed through an ill-defined African orality combined with an equally ill-defined U.S. hip hop tradition (there are, after all, many hip hop traditions).
I am worrying this problem of the Introduction because this chapbook series is, right now, probably the most important print project in African poetry. Not only is it providing opportunities for African poets, but it is also introducing African poetry to many new readers. Dawes is an influential figure in African poetry, so any claims he makes about it will shape how that poetry will be received. Introductions matter. As a student of poetry, I turn to introductions to find out how to engage with a body of work. Different introductions provide different kinds of access: socio-historical context, aesthetic provocations, political challenges, competing definitions of poetry and poets and, most of all, ways to enter into worlds that can feel foreign and intimidating.