Abdulai Walon-Jalloh

A Review of Salone Poetry Abdulai Walon-Jalloh

This seminal volume, which is a commission from Sierra Leonean Writers Series (SLWS), explores the poetry of eight Sierra Leonean poets (Moses Kainwo, Oumar Farouk Sesay, Ambrose Massaquoi, Ahmed Koroma, Sheik Umar Kamarah, Elvis Gbanabom-Hallowell, Mohamed Gibril Sesay and Syl Cheney-Coker). The work is a subjective perspective of the author's appreciation of several hundreds of poems contained in the eight volumes published by SLWS between 2000 and 2018. The appreciator is an author of two volumes of poetry and a play. This survey is an attempt to position Sierra Leone poets and poetry of the millennium on the global stage and to also contribute a complementary resource to poetry appreciation in Sierra Leone and elsewhere. It is envisaged that this volume will not be the last but a forerunner or trailblazer for other volumes to follow. The author hopes that this volume will increase access to Sierra Leone Poetry (SLP).