Renowned poet, journalist and Director of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Abuja, Dr. Emman Usman Shehu is set for the public presentation and launch of his new book, ‘Footnotes For A Native Land’ in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
The event, according to the organizers, is slated for Saturday, July 25, 2026, at the Book Section, Port Harcourt Club 1928, 30, Forces Avenue, Old GRA, Port Harcourt, by 1:30PM, and admission is free.
A release by the Book Section of Port Harcourt Club 1928 says that ‘the event promises stimulating intellectual discourse, an engaging book review, and an opportunity to interact with distinguished scholars and lovers of literature’.
Top dignitaries expected at the event include Sir Engr. Henry Okolie, FNSE (Captain of the Book Section), Isaac Yongo (the Book Reviewer) and Sir Ibitoroko Solomon Ogan, JP, MNIM, Ph.D, who would serve as the Moderator.
ABOUT THE BOOK
‘Footnotes For A Native Land’ is the fifth major poetry collection by one of Nigeria’s most enduring and committed poetic voices, Emman Usman Shehu.
Published in February 2026 by Topaz Books, Abuja, this 62-poem volume arrives as a powerful literary intervention — a series of urgent, deeply felt annotations on the state of our nation more than six decades after independence.
Written with the maturity of a poet who has spent nearly four decades bearing witness, the collection opens with intimate poems that court the muse in distinctly Nigerian spaces — offering palm wine to elusive memories dancing on Abuja’s red dust and kissing truth in the chaotic marketplace of Kantin Kwari.
From these personal beginnings, Shehu widens his lens dramatically. A striking sequence on breaking silence moves from kolanut-weighted restraint and elder-enforced muteness to the liberating flood of voices in village squares and river mouths.
The collection then confronts the hard realities of contemporary Nigeria: the grinding toil of workers, fuel subsidy removal and its punishing queues, political betrayal, the “harvest of denial” in the face of banditry and insurgency, brain drain, and a land that continues to drink its own blood.
Yet Shehu balances these lacerating critiques with profound cultural affirmation. Poems such as “Unfading Pits” (celebrating Kano’s ancient indigo dye traditions) and “Ramparts Of Earth” (honouring the resilience of traditional mud walls) remind us that something enduring and noble still lives in our heritage.
The poems reach a haunting crescendo in “A Land That Drinks Its Blood” and “Poem For A Flag,” before closing on a contemplative, almost prayerful note with the philosophical suite “Nunc Dimittis.”
For an audience in Port Harcourt and the Niger Delta, this book carries special resonance. Shehu does not shy away from the ecological wounds of oil exploration, gas flares that turn night into a flickering hell, and the paradox of a region rich in resources yet thirsty and poisoned.
At the same time, he speaks to national unity, invoking ancestral voices from the Delta creeks alongside those of the Sahel and the East, calling on all of us to heal a fractured country.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emman Usman Shehu (an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Bayero University, Kano and the University of Nigeria Nsukka) is a poet, playwright, journalist, educator, and founder of the Abuja Writers’ Forum.
He is currently the Director of the International Institute of Journalism, Abuja.
His previous collections — Questions For Big Brother (1988), Open Sesame (2005), Icarus Rising (2017), and The River Never Returns (2022) — have established him as a writer who combines lyric grace with unflinching socio-political engagement.
With ‘Footnotes For A Native Land’, Shehu, who hails from Maradun in Zamfara State, consolidates his reputation as a contemporary griot who refuses to let Nigeria off the hook, yet still dares to hope.
The forthcoming launch in Port Harcourt is significant. It brings Shehu’s national conversation to the heart of the Niger Delta — a region whose struggles, creativity, and resilience are woven into the fabric of this important book.
‘Footnotes For A Native Land’ is more than a poetry collection. It is a mirror, a lament, a love letter, and a call to conscience.
Dr. Shehu and his team invites everyone to listen, to reflect, and to join the conversation that Nigerian literature continues to courageously lead.
He gladly welcomes everyone to the launch of ‘Footnotes For A Native Land’.
