Vic’Adex’s poetry spans eleven years, blending raw emotion, vulnerability, and Nigerian cultural identity.
Adetimilehin “Vic’Adex” Inioluwa Victor stands at the crossroads of art, culture, and emotional healing. His journey, marked by personal pain, growth, and self-discovery, is encapsulated in two groundbreaking poetry collections, Poetry Has All My Pain and Love Through the Eyes of a Naive Village Boy. These works are more than poetry; they are an emotional odyssey, an exploration of trauma, love, and the complexities of Nigerian masculinity. Vic’Adex offers a rare dual narrative that takes readers from the shadows of grief to the tender light of hope and romantic innocence, reshaping the landscape of contemporary African literature.
A Journey Through Pain and Healing
For Vic’Adex, poetry is more than art; it is therapy, a tool for confronting pain and celebrating the lessons learned along the way. His two-book project is a profound testament to this belief. “These poems are memories, lessons, and turning points,” he reflects. “Each one is something I had to live through, feel through, and eventually write my way out of.”
Vic’Adex’s work unfolds over an eleven-year emotional journey. Poetry Has All My Pain offers a candid look into the darkness of his experiences, grief, father-wounds, depression, and generational trauma. It’s raw, brutal, and deeply personal. Poems like Dear Father, I Swore I’ll Never Be Like My Father and The Seduction of Oblivion explore the emotional terrains many men silently endure, uncovering truths that have long been hidden.
In contrast, Love Through the Eyes of a Naive Village Boy introduces a different emotional tone. It is a soft, tender reflection on love, innocence, and youthful idealism. The contrast between the two books creates a duality that defines Vic’Adex’s writing: a blend of vulnerability and strength, sorrow and hope, grief and longing. As he puts it, “Together, these collections are forty percent ache, sixty percent longing, two voices that needed each other to be complete.”
Confronting Nigerian Masculinity
One of the most striking features of Vic’Adex’s work is his candid exploration of Nigerian masculinity. In a culture where emotional vulnerability is often suppressed, his poetry speaks the unspoken. “Boys grow into men by developing allergies, allergies to hugs, to vulnerability, to asking for help,” he writes in Dear Father.
Through his words, Vic’Adex confronts the generational wounds that many African men carry. His poems expose the quiet agony of growing up emotionally unsupported and the internal struggles of breaking free from the painful cycles passed down from father to son. This exploration of masculinity is not merely a literary theme; it is a lived experience, one that resonates deeply with many men navigating their own emotional battles.
The Tenderness of Love and Innocence
While Vic’Adex’s earlier work explores pain, his second book shifts the focus to love in its purest form. Love Through the Eyes of a Naive Village Boy is a departure from the shadows. Here, the poems are filled with an innocence that restores wonder to the act of loving. The romantic longing, the hope, and the devotion in his words are reminiscent of a time when love was simple and untainted.
“Love is what I have for you, and love is what I’ll always have,” Vic’Adex writes in Love Is What I Have for You. His ability to write with childlike sincerity, while still maintaining depth and meaning, sets him apart in a genre often dominated by complex metaphors and abstract concepts. His portrayal of love is rooted in a simplicity that is both refreshing and moving.
Spiritual Honesty and Wrestling with Faith
Another distinguishing feature of Vic’Adex’s poetry is his spiritual vulnerability. He doesn’t present faith as a neat, packaged concept. Instead, he writes about it as a living struggle, an honest struggle with doubt, desire, and devotion. Poems like Dare I Call You Father and A Heavenward Confession show his spiritual journey as conflicted, raw, and deeply relatable.
“Break down the altar of arrogant self. Cleanse my chaos with coals of cedars,” he writes in Dare I Call You Father. This is not a perfect or idealized spirituality; it’s a genuine reflection of the complexities of faith, filled with both doubt and reverence. In his work, spirituality is not a literary ornament; it is a lived reality.
Crafting a Reader-Guided Emotional Experience
What truly sets Vic’Adex apart is his ability to craft poetry that serves as more than just an emotional release for himself; it’s a guided experience for his readers. Love Through the Eyes of a Naive Village Boy is not simply a collection of poems; it is a narrative journey, carefully constructed to take readers through a series of emotional phases. The book is divided into four parts, each part representing a different stage in the journey of love, from crush to heartbreak, to transcendence, and ultimately, devotion.
In conjunction with the book, Vic’Adex includes a guide titled How to Chart the Stars of Naivety, further deepening the immersive experience for his readers. This level of intentionality in structuring a collection of poems is uncommon, especially in African literature, and it shows Vic’Adex’s commitment to providing readers with more than just poetic expression; he offers them a blueprint for navigating their own emotions.
Poetry as Service
At the heart of Vic’Adex’s work is the belief that poetry should serve others. He writes not just for self-expression, but to give voice to those who may feel silenced. “If you have ever struggled to explain what you feel, I hope these poems give your silence a voice,” he says in his Preface. This reader-centered philosophy permeates his work, setting him apart from poets who focus solely on introspection.
For Vic’Adex, the true power of poetry lies in its ability to connect, to help others feel seen, heard, and understood. His collections are not merely artistic expressions; they are emotional maps for those navigating their own personal journeys.
A New Voice in Contemporary Nigerian Literature
In a landscape where vulnerability is often suppressed, Vic’Adex offers a fresh, compelling voice. His poetry is not just an exploration of self; it is a social and cultural commentary on the experiences of young African men, especially their emotional struggles, their capacity for love, and their desire for spiritual reconciliation. By blending raw emotional truth with Nigerian cultural identity, he is reshaping how contemporary African poetry is perceived and consumed.
If you’re looking for poetry that transcends mere art and delves deep into the human experience, Vic’Adex’s work is a must-read. His emotional honesty, literary craftsmanship, and ability to balance vulnerability with strength make him one of the most exciting voices in modern Nigerian literature.
To explore more of Vic’Adex’s poetry and connect with his artistic journey, visit the following links:
