Can They Detain The Poem? is the third in a trilogy of poetry collections – When An Eagle Turns To Vulture, The Feast Of Virginity and Can They Detain The Poem? – in which the poet addresses the issue of individualism and loss of communal values in African. While the first two collections of the trilogy centers on the loss of Africa’s socio-cultural identity to the West, Can They Detain The Poem? is a wake-up call for Africans to rise up and take their destiny in their own hands.