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  • Analysis of Africa by David Diop

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    Joshua De los Santos
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    The poem uses apostrophe and assonance to address Africa as if it is a person. It refutes the French assumption that Africa had no culture or history by mentioning proud warriors and the poet's grandmother's songs. Lines like "Your beautiful black blood irrigates the fields" represent Africa as a slave that was physically exploited. The repetition of "the blood of your sweat" emphasizes the buildup of colonial oppression. The poem questions Africa about yielding to colonialism and uses alliteration to convey assertiveness. It suggests Africa's suffering under colonialism could foretell Senegal's submission to neo-colonialism after independence. The ending lines paradoxically associate liberty with bitterness but ultimately communicate that independence is worth achieving through sacrifice

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    The poem uses apostrophe and assonance to address Africa as if it is a person. It refutes the French assumption that Africa had no culture or history by mentioning proud warriors and the poet's grandmother's songs. Lines like "Your beautiful black blood irrigates the fields" represent Africa as a slave that was physically exploited. The repetition of "the blood of your sweat" emphasizes the buildup of colonial oppression. The poem questions Africa about yielding to colonialism and uses alliteration to convey assertiveness. It suggests Africa's suffering under colonialism could foretell Senegal's submission to neo-colonialism after independence. The ending lines paradoxically associate liberty with bitterness but ultimately communicate that independence is worth achieving through sacrifice

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    1K views1 page

    Analysis of Africa by David Diop

    Uploaded by

    Joshua De los Santos
    The poem uses apostrophe and assonance to address Africa as if it is a person. It refutes the French assumption that Africa had no culture or history by mentioning proud warriors and the poet's grandmother's songs. Lines like "Your beautiful black blood irrigates the fields" represent Africa as a slave that was physically exploited. The repetition of "the blood of your sweat" emphasizes the buildup of colonial oppression. The poem questions Africa about yielding to colonialism and uses alliteration to convey assertiveness. It suggests Africa's suffering under colonialism could foretell Senegal's submission to neo-colonialism after independence. The ending lines paradoxically associate liberty with bitterness but ultimately communicate that independence is worth achieving through sacrifice

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    Within “Africa”, the poet addresses the land as if it is a real person, and this denotes the use of

    apostrophe. The poem exhibits assonance which is essential in a free verse poem.
    “Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs”
    “Africa of whom my grandmother sings”
    “On the banks of distant rivers”

    These lines refute the “assumption underlying the French policy of ‘assimilation’ that Africa was a
    deprived land possessing neither culture nor history” Diop has ‘never known Africa’ and her struggles
    firsthand in the way that his predecessors did as he was born in France and lived there for most of his
    life. Nonetheless, his father and mother were Africans, their ‘blood flows in his veins’ which is why he
    spent a significant time living and teaching in Africa.
    “Your beautiful black blood irrigates the fields”
    He then goes on to line 7 which utilizes alliteration to add forcefulness to his conviction. It is through
    the struggle and hard work of Black people that the encountering nations like France were able to reap
    the harvest and build domains. Thus, Mother Africa is represented as a slave that was physically
    abused and exploited economically.
    This continuity of oppression is exemplified through parallelism with the run-on lines:
    “…The blood of your sweat
    The sweat of your work
    The work of your slavery
    The slavery of your children…”

    The lines become memorable and emphatic as they give off a sonic effect and signify the buildup of
    colonialism in African history.

    The poem shifts from a praise and observation of Africa’s situation to a questioning of her decision to
    yield to colonialism. The speaker demands that Africa tell him if this is her, ‘…this back that
    is bent/ This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation…” These lines utilize alliteration which
    conveys the enquirer’s assertiveness.

    Diop’s anthropomorphic inclination is greatly expressed when Mother Africa’s back is ‘trembling with
    red scars [as she says] yes to the whip under the midday sun’. The personal suffering of the mother is
    symbolic of the fear of the African nation, traumatized by colonial experiences.
    The lines could even foretell the disastrous and exploitive consequences to come out of the 1958
    Referendum where Senegal submitted to neo-colonialism, that is, maintained cultural and economic
    ties with France, under the leadership of the nation’s first president, Léopold Senghor.
    The poem ends with interlaced rhymes and a rising cadence which gives a pleasing effect, indicating
    that the poem has finally arrived at a thoughtful and substantial conclusion. The ending lines are
    paradoxical for one would not associate liberty with bitterness, yet, it has a ring of truth to it.
    Independence is often a goal achieved through sacrifice, coups, chaos and hardships. Nonetheless,
    the poem ultimately communicates that the fight is worth it; the African mind must exercise more
    national optimism and turn away from colonial resignation in the walk towards socio-cultural and
    economic revival.

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