Dear Society, Ekio Aziba – Poetry

by Aida Oluwagbemiga.

I came across Dear Society for the first time, in 2021 at the Abuja Literary Society (ALS) Open Mic at Hilton Abuja. What remains vivid from her performance is the icy precision of her words—cutting deep and cold like a knife—and the silence that enveloped the room when she took the stage.

At first glance, she didn’t look like much: a girl under 5’6″, with dreadlocks and an unsmiling seriousness that radiated through her attire. Sylvia Plath might have smiled more. What lingered long after I forgot her face was the anger. It rivaled Peter Van Houten’s bitterness and echoed Mary Shelley’s dark imagination—dark enough to create Frankenstein.

In poetry, my personal guide through the wilderness is the Irish theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama, whose work helps soothe the cascading emptiness life often throws at us. But nothing prepared me for hearing an original piece by Dear Society.

While her words are just as gripping on the page, they are ten times more powerful performed. Her haunting voice lingers long after the last word has been spoken.

Ekio Aziba, better known as Dear Society, begins every poem with the titular phrase. Using a letter format, she addresses societal issues with clarity and urgency.

Hailing from the Niger Delta—a region she describes as “on the fringe of the Atlantic”—her words are not only beautiful but also piercing, hitting nerves and demanding consciousness. She inspires empathy and challenges us to rethink our values, reminding us of the power in collective action.

Aziba is one of Abuja’s most promising poets, standing alongside talents like Loveth Liberty. She made her debut this October at the Lagos Poetry Festival, cementing her place as a rising star.

Eden by Dear Society

Come rain

Come flood 

Come riverbank

Wet the hinterland and swallow the Delta 

Erect dikes crisscrossing the plain

Come salt water 

Come muddy lakes 

Come peat and untrained soil

Come terrestrial havoc that ends in praise;

How plump the strokes

How muscular the levees

Come shrub and crop;

You bulbous bend

You coconut, you cocoyam, you raffia,

Rotting in harmony.

Come child 

Feel earth underneath your feet,

Seed moist ground.

Come heat

Come sand

Come naked and reverent 

Nurse crystal drops with your tongue 

Breathe until fallow

Stir the wind.

Come idle days, unending,

Waiting for all to wash away. 

The Multi-Hyphenate Poet

What sets Aziba apart is her ability to evoke raw emotions in her performances—whether tears, anger, or pain—through a seamless blend of acting, writing, and performance. It’s rare for a poet to master all three, making her a true multi-hyphenate artist on our radar.

If you’ve seen Dear White People, Aziba embodies that spirit: dreadlocks, barely any makeup, and a commitment to being the activist, woke black girl her words demand her to be. There is no separating Dear Society from Ekio Aziba; they are one and the same.

Her poem Color Green highlights the urgency of climate action, while her lyrical voice adds a captivating beauty to her words.

A frequent participant at the Abuja Literary Society, Aziba picked up the mic for the first time in 2021, debuting with a piece on climate action. She recalls her first performance as remarkable and remembers freezing during her second, at the Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALitFest).

Her favorite concept is “the optimism bias,” and her biggest inspiration comes from the Holy Spirit. She often quotes the Bible, referencing books like Philippians as her creative compass.

Aziba admires Derek Walcott for his structured poetry and draws inspiration from consuming the work of others, which shapes her own writing.

In Nigeria, the poetry landscape is home to names like Bash Amuneni, Romeo Oriogun, Dike Chukwumerije, and Maryam Hassan Bukar (Alhan Islam). These contemporary poets are moving beyond traditional themes of sunshine, rainbows, and rain to confront pressing issues such as politics, insecurity, Pan-Africanism, corruption, failing infrastructures, gender dynamics, and climate change.

Through her performances, Aziba aims to reawaken a society numbed by these challenges. Her poetry is not about crying over our collective issues but confronting them with art, empathy, and action.

In her hands, poetry becomes a mirror for society, urging us to listen, reflect, and act.