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THE AWFUL DENTIST
By Jwani Mwaikusa
About the Author
Jwani Mwaikusa, in
1986 as an assistant lecturer in the then Faculty of Law. He was promoted to
Associate Professor of Law in 1999. He was the chairman of the Centre for Media
Studies, Research and Networking. Prof Mwaikusa, who was also a poet, had
published numerous articles and book chapters on a wide range of subjects.
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| Jwani Mwaikusa |
THE AWFUL
DENTIST
Jwani
Mwaikusa
He read medicine
Specializing in the tooth,
And graduated with honours
With new thesis
To cure the aching malady.
“Our teeth shall be alright!”
People chanted, welcoming his
services.
And he started work, prompt and
immediate.
They brought him all the teeth
they had –
Decaying teeth, aching teeth,
strong teeth.
And he started working on their
jaws
Diligently pulling out every
tooth
From the jaws of every mouth,
And they paid him with meat
Which now they could not eat.
And so went on the dentist
Making heaps and heaps of teeth
Useless! Laying them waste
Without fear that soon,
Very soon indeed
He would have no teeth to attend
to,
No tooth for which to call
himself a dentist.
INTRODUCTION
The word awful means something
terrible, dreadful, horrendous or extremely unpleasant. So “The
Awful dentist” is a poem by Professor Mwaikusa that depicts a terrible
and incompetent dentist who studies medicine specialising in dentistry. People
raise their hopes welcoming his service believing that at last their teeth will
be taken care of because they now have a specialist in dentistry. As he begins
his job they bring to him all the dental problems they have. Some have severe
cases, some have mild cases and others just need dental services. Finally they
get disappointed because the supposed saviour has turned out to be a disaster.
Regardless of the status of the teeth he pulls all of them out.
THEMATIC
ANALYSIS
DISAPPOINTMENT
The poem is generally about hopes
raised and disappointed. The poet shows a society that is suffering from dental
maladies. Finally they get a dentist who has graduated fresh from college
hoping that their dental problems will no longer be a problem. They chant welcoming him in great joy hoping
for a better future. As he begins working they get disappointed because his
mind is focused on pulling out every tooth brought to him. Even those with
teeth that needed only some cure were pulled out. Many people remained
toothless. This is the greatest disappointment. The poet says:
They
brought him all the teeth they had –
Decaying
teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth.
And he
started working on their jaws
Diligently
pulling out every tooth
From the
jaws of every mouth
In a way the dentist represents
those leaders who ask for votes and create greats hopes to the citizens but
when they get into the offices, the common people get disappointed.
EXPLOITATION/SELFISHNESS.
The dentist is selfish and uses
his education to exploit the common people, instead of using his education to
bring about a better life for them. As he started working he began pulling out
their teeth and made them incapable of eating meat. As a result they had to
bring him all the meat which they now could not eat.
Diligently
pulling out every tooth
From the
jaws of every mouth,
And they
paid him with meat
Which now
they could not eat
This represents leaders who
create worse conditions to the citizens so that they may exploit them in one
way or another. The citizens keep on paying taxes, fees and fines but the
services offered to them remain poor.
BETRAYAL
The dentist has betrayed the
people. Instead of using his education to help them cure their illness he uses
his education to exploit his clients. Many professionals and educated elites
have betrayed the common people who had waited for their services for so long.
Nonetheless, the poet shows that one day they will suffer from their own
actions. This is also a wakeup call for the leaders who exploit the national
resources not knowing that the natural resources are extinct. They can be used
up and they will no longer have anything to exploit anymore. The poet says.
Without
fear that soon,
Very soon
indeed
He would
have no teeth to attend to,
No tooth
for which to call himself a dentist
REPERCUSSION
OF FORMAL EDUCATION
One of the main characteristics
of African indigenous education is that it was community oriented, geared to
solving the problems of the community. The instructional activities were
therefore directed towards the social life of the community so as to prepare
the learners to fit in their community. Western Formal education on the other
hand has been preparing graduates with paper qualifications, high grades and
exceptional performance but they fail to transfer their knowledge to solve
societal problems. The dentist in the poem falls under this class of
professionals. He has good college grades but he cannot use his education
pragmatically to solve people’s problems in his community.
He read
medicine
Specializing
in the tooth,
And
graduated with honours
The society is disappointed
because they don’t see the relationship between his college performance and the
service he offers.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
a) What
is the poem about?
The poem is about an awful dentist who studies medicine specialising in
dentistry and the society raises hopes that at last their teeth will be taken
care of by this dentist. The clients are finally disappointed because instead
of helping them cure the malady he began pulling out their teeth and laying
them useless.
b) What
type of a poem is this?
It is a freeverse/modern poem as it does not follow all the strict rules
for composing poems. It can also be termed as a Lyric poem as it expresses the
feelings of this citizen towards the awful dentist.
c) Describe
the form/structure of this poem.
The poem is made up of three stanzas with considerable variations in the
number and length of verses in every stanza.
Ø
Stanza
one has 5 verses/lines of uneven length.
Ø
Stanza
two has 10 verses of uneven length.
Ø
Stanza
three has 7 verses of unequal length.
d) Comment
on the rhyming scheme.
The poem has irregular rhyming scheme with exception of the 4th
and 5th couplets in the second stanza that have a regular rhyme;
Diligently pulling out every tooth
From the jaws of every mouth,
And they paid him with meat
Which now they could not eat.
e) What
is the tone and mood of the poet?
Both the tone and mood of the poet are sad and disappointed. The poet
shows the disappointment the citizens have when the dentist performs contrary
to their expectations.
f) Who
is the persona? How do you know?
The persona is an observer
who reports about the service rendered by the dentist to the optimistic society
but he ends up disappointing them. “They brought him all the teeth they had”. This line shows that the persona is not one of them
but he observes as a third part.
g) Comment
on the language use.
The
language used is simple and easy to understand. The selection of words is also
carefully done to pass the message across. The words “graduated with honours”
suggest that this dentist is expected to be competent in his area of
specialization. As a result people “chanted welcoming his services” showing
the hopes they have for him. The words “decaying
teeth, aching, teeth and strong teeth” are included to show the diversity
and intensity of their maladies. Some are very severe, some are mild, and yet
some are still strong. The word “useless!”
is postponed until the last stanza not only to show how he turned their teeth
useless but also to show that the people discovered rather later than sooner
that his service was also useless.
Figures of speech and musical devices
The poem has the
following figures of speech and poetic devices.
Ø
Irony- the poem shows a
situational irony since what happens is not what was expected. The irony
appears in the following phrases.
v
“And graduated with honours” - someone
who graduates with honours is expected to be competent in his area not like the
dentist depicted in the poem who makes heaps and heaps of teeth useless.
v
“Diligently pulling out every tooth” in
its strictest sense the word diligence
means showing care and effort in your work or duties.
The poet shows that this dentist was diligently pulling out every tooth. This is
an irony because the dentist was not diligent in his work. Instead of curing
the aching malady he was pulling out the teeth and making them useless
regardless of whether they are severely affected or not.
Ø
Poetic license.
“And so went on
the dentist” for “And so the dentist
went on...”
Ø
Reiteration...
Making
heaps and heaps of teeth
(the word heaps is repeated for emphasis)
Without
fear that soon/Very soon indeed (the word soon is repeated for emphasis)
Ø
There is internal rhyme and end-rhyme in some verses.
v
Internal rhyme is shown in this verse. “Decaying teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth” (the sounds in these
letters “ng” and “th” in this line bring about music in
the poem.
v
End rhyme is shown in the 4th and 5th couplets of the
second stanza in which the words “tooth”
and “mouth” rhyme, but also “meat” and “eat” do rhyme.
Ø
Consonance. There is repetition of the final consonants in the
following line;
Decaying
teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth
h) What
are the messages we get from the poem?
Ø
Don’t
trust someone because of his certificates. Paper qualification may be
irrelevant in solving the immediate problems of the people.
Ø
We
need to check our curriculum content for the purpose of modifying it or else we
will be producing useless graduates.
Ø
Exploitation
and betrayal are not good in our society. This dentist was creating a mechanism
for the people to give him meat (resources) because they could no longer eat it
as they were toothless.
i) Is
the poem relevant to our society?
ü
The
poem is relevant to Tanzania today since we have many graduates who have
graduated with honours from colleges, and universities but fail to apply their
knowledge in their working fields.
ü
Many
professionals have acquired irrelevant education by cramming the theories of
western philosophers but they cannot be implemented in our societies to solve
our problems.
ü
Also
some professionals create mechanisms for poor people to give them money by
setting almost impossible conditions for getting the services unless you have
offered something (corruption). Many people are disappointed by the educated
elites we have since their education is not used to create solutions but they
use their education to create more problems and turn them into opportunities.
Good job teacher
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