African Poetry Essay

RICAN poetryTruthful and fruitful human experience forms the basis for pen face in any branch of literature. Conveyed by a words of outside(a) exchange, it can reach a wider audience for whom it becomes a utilitarian reference in times of need. The English language attained international prominence due to several reasons unmatched of the most important universe colonization. As in other countries of the Commonwealth, English was imposed on Anglophone Africa as a center of easy communication and administrative convenience.It is a diachronic irony that the same language serves the African writer in voice his thoughts and feelings to the sphere at large. While discussing the future of English, Simeon Porter observes, It bequeath develop to meet new needs and in that incessant reshaping and adaptation, every speaker and writer consciously or unconsciously depart play somewhat part. (181) Today, the prediction of Porter came true of African writing in English. It brought might and appeal to the English language by adding a large setting of new vocabulary and usage.Writing on the problems faced by the African English writers, Chinua Achebe the famous Nigerian writer says, The African writer should take up to use English that brings out his message without altering the language to the result that its value as a median(a) of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at fashioning out an English, which is at once unusual and able to carry his peculiar experience. (61) It is applaudable that the writers of Africa succeeded in accomplishing the above task set by Achebe, which is by any means non an easy one.Their successful integration of indigenous experience and expression in an alien tongue received worldwide acclaim. Their success proved, as critics deal Srinivasa Iyengar pointed out, A shot in the arm of modern English Literature has had to come from West Africans like Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Gabriel Okara. (16) The role of poe try, in African literature, has been highly effective in providing the people with the needful inspiration and the inevitable insight.The language of poetry, for the African people, is a source of learning and becoming mindful of their destiny that necessitates the knowledge of their ultimo, leave and the possible future. These and several other ideas fuelled African poetry in English.For the African poets, poetry became a powerful medium through which they conveyed to the world audience, not only their despairs and relys, the enthusiasm and empathy, the thrill of gladness and the stab of pain save alsoa nations history as it moved from freedom to slavery, from slavery to revolution, from revolution to liberty and from independence to tasks of reconstruction which further involve situations of failure and disillusion. (Iyengar, 15)When we say African Literature, we should, by obligation remember that, colonization was at its harshest in Africa. As history stands proof, it was highly exploited and savaged by the ambitious bloodless man. This experience is on the minds of all thinking poets. Despite get uhuru or independence, the bitterness returns again and again.The unforgettable colonial past comes angrily alive in a numbers by Kenyas poet Joseph K atomic number 18yaku thus, It is not as you suppose, your lands, your cars, your money, or your cities I covet It is what gores me most, that in my induce house and in my very own home you should eye me and all thats mine with that practiced, long-drawn, insulting sneer. (quoted in Iyengar, 30) In a verse authorize If you want to know me Noemia De Sousa writes ruefully of Africa, by effectively using the literary device of personification thusThis is what I amempty sockets despair of possessing of life a mouth torn open in an tormented wound a body tattooed with wounds designn and unseen from the harsh whipstrokes of slavery hag-ridden and magnificent proud and mysterious Africa from head to f oot This is what I am. (Narasimhaiah, 137) The much-brutalized juicy Continent is tellingly depicted in the succeeding(a) lines of a poem named The Shapes of Fear by Richard Ntiru. Like an arrested breathing place when breathing makes silence imperfect tense and the ear cannot differentiate amid the conspiratorial whispers and the winds singing. a twig in the courtyard snaps and report of a gun is understood. (Narasimhaiah, 137) Nigerian poet , the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinkas masterful irony skillfully conceals anger at the racist office in his famous poem, Telephone Converstion. After negotiating for a house on rent on telephone, he tells the landlady of his being a black African. He was rudely shocked when he was caught foully by the ladys query regarding his darkness thus HOW DARK? I had not misheard ar you light OR VERY DARK (Narasimhaiah, 149).The ill- mannered silence between the two is filled with images such as stench of rancid breath of public- hide-and-speak, R ed booth, Red- Pillar-box, Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar that subsume the age- old(a) and pipe raven consentless and violent colour- conflict. The theme of English superiority glares through David Rubadiris poem A Negro Labourer in Liverpool here(predicate) his hope is the shovel And his fulfillment resignation. (Narasimhaiah, 134) One of the most important phases in African poetry is Negritude, a powerful literary movement founded by Aime Cesaire of Senegal.Among other things, the Negritude poets favoured the theme of glorification of Africa. They worshipped anything African in scintillating rhymes. see red at in simplyice meted out to the colonized Africa is also one of the oft-repeated themes of their poetry. Heres an example from David Diops poem Africa. Africa, my Africa Africa of proud warriors in inherited savannahs. Is this you, this rear that is bent This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation This back trembling with red scars And saying yes to the whip under the midday fair weather.. That is Africa your Africa.That grows again patiently obstinately And its fruit gradually acquires The bitter penchant of liberty. (Narasimhaiah, 153) Dennis Brutus, a South African poet, was subjected to torture by a barbaric regime. His writing is full of images of love contrasted with images of death thus, Desolate Your face gleams up Beneath me in the dusk Abandoned A wounded dove Helpless Beneath the knife of love. (Quoted in Theroux, 2) Great feeling for Africa is matte up in Abioseh Nicols poem The Meaning of Africa thus Africa, you were once just a name to me So I came backsailing down the Guinea coast . You are not a country Africa, You are a concept I know now that is what you are Africa Happiness, merriment and fulfillment. (Quoted in Povey, 39) A poets affirmation of his love for Africa shines radiantly through the following verses. Dark Africa My cross is here Behold I see A rich warm glow in the East, And my day will so on be here. (Iyengar, 30) Deification of Africa is a fit topic for many another(prenominal) African poets. Perhaps this is their reaction to the self glorification and the civilizing zeal of the majestic powers of Europe.Bernard Dadies poem attains special significance viewed in that light. He says in a poem entitled I Thank God, I thank you God for creating me black. White is the colour for special occasions desolate the colour for every day And I have carried the World since the dawn of time And my laugh over the World, through the night creates The Day. (Narasimhaiah, 122) In Africa, the climax of the white mans civilizing mission displaced scores of native societies from their own cultural roots.The impact of the spread of Christianity combined with material benefits such as classroom education and well-paid jobs forced many Africans abandon their own corporate trust and adapt the religion of the pale-faced aliens. This situation is responsible for the natives to suffer fro m culture shock. Nevertheless, the native is expected to owe allegiance to his own tribal culture and tit Christianity for material benefits. This cultural confusion is well articulated by Mabel Segun in a poem thus Here we stand Infants overblown gathered between two civilizationsFinding the balance irksome. (Quoted in Povey, 39) Gabriel Okara expresses the same sentiments in a lyric thus When at break of day at a riverside I hear jungle drums Then I hear a wailing piano Solo speaking of composite ways. (Quoted in Gleason, 143) However, there are poets like Kofi Awoonor Williams of Ghana whose passion for past is expressed in his rediscovery themes with the help of extended rhythms as in the following lines. Sew the old age for us our fathers that we wear them under our old garments after we have washed ourselves.. ( The Anvil and the Hammer)again, Sew the old days for me my father Sew them so that I may wear them For the counterpane that is coming. (Quoted in Theroux, 4) He accomplishes the same excellence of evolving extended rhythms in poems like The Long Journey and My Song. Poetic excellence and rare innovative fictive ability are seen in Christopher Okigbo poems such as The Stars Have Departed. He says, The stars have departed The sky in a monocle Surveys the world under The stars have departed And I- Where am I? ?Stretch, stretch O antennae, To clutch at this hour, Fulfilling each movement in a upset monody. (quoted in Walsh, 48) Images that can evoke a situation beyond hope which are reminiscent of Eliots war poetry are perceptible in the following verses from K. Brews poem The Search. The past is moreover the cinders Of the present The future The smoke That escaped Into the cloud- bound sky.(quoted in Walsh, 50) nigh of the poets have realized the futility of fighting over issues such as race, revere and national identity. What more can be more illuminating than the enlightened poets words such as, You must leave the sifting litoral of self- seeking and deceitand erect far mightier mansions on the rock of ruddy soil. (Iyengar, 36)Lenrie Peters poems are short on the print but deep on ones mind like the one cited below Open the gates To East and West Bring in all Thats good and best. The memorable lines of Peters poem On a wet September Morning with their sheer dish antenna of imagery and the underlying thought of universal brotherhood celebrate the unity of the human family.To cite a few verses, The echo burst in me Like a great harmonic chord- Violins of love and happy voices The irreligious trumpet blastSwamping the lamentation of the horn Then the heraldic drums In slow crescendo rising Crashed though my senses Into a new present Which is the future. After this brief glance at African poetry, we realize that it is not simply an offshoot of British literary custom. espite the many disadvantages such as a scarred past, colonial trauma, expression in a contrasted medium, inability to travel abroad, unstable economic and political state of personal matters in their respective nations, lack of educational opportunities, the African poet has effortless originative capacity.It is an enriching combination of rich oral literature, native experience and imported tradition of writing in English that made African poetry a tremendous success both at home and abroad. The Black Orpheus (African Poets) is no longer an unknown or an unwanted quantity but a fascinating and often enviable and beneficent literary marvel from what was ignorantly termed as the dark continent.