Not My Business

Not My Business-Niyi Osundare

The poem is centred around shared responsibility and the way that bullying or tyranny can carry on and grow if nobody opposes or stops it. The poem tells the story of the three different people who are victimised by the government and then the experience of the poem speaker. The poem is written by a Nigerian poet who believes that there is nothing better to write his poems based on the twisted politics in his country. The poem is very much based on a statement from Pastor Martin Niemoller who opposes Nazi's:

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”

The government are never named in the poem, only referred to as "they", but it is only assumption that they are soldiers of government working officers. Which, is in fact a society that the British human race are unaware of. 

As the poem progresses it is obvious that the importance or fatality decreases…