Differentiate Between Africa By David Diop And Africa By Raphael Armattoe

David Diop (1927-1960) wrote a poem titled "Africa" and Raphael Armattoe (1913-1953) also wrote a poem titled "Africa". This post intends to view the difference between the idea of both poets as regards the title "Africa".

David Diop's poem "Africa" talks about the colonial and slavery of Africans, at the middle of the poem he wrote: "The work of your slavery/Africa, tell me Africa/ Is this your back that is unbent/ This back that never breaks under the weight of humilation/ This back trembling with red scars/ And saying no to the whip under the midday sun" Diop further pers<!--more-->onified the African continent as an angry elder who was aware of the impending revolution, and chided him for thinking rash thoughts.

On the other hand, Raphael Armattoe in the poem "Africa" talks about Africans irrational embrace of western lifestyle than African culture. In the poem, Raphael was addressing a lady who he taught was sad but the response of the lady made him realise that she wasn't sad but sick and dying due to arrogance and nonchalance of the people around. If the poem is to be viewed from its connotative meaning, the lady Armattoe was addressing is Africa, and Africa (as the mother of Africans) was feeling cold and numb because her children were dying as a result of not listening to the ways of their mother, Africa.

Another difference to note is that David Diop's "Africa" was longer in length than Raphael Armattoe's "Africa".

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry (the Leo with wings flying) 

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Analysis Of River By Gert Vlok Nel

Gert Vlok Nel wrote the poem "River" as if a letter to a lover at a very long distance; in that wise, the major theme of the poem is love. The first five lines (first stanza) of the poem portrayed the poet comparing the means of getting to his lover to that of river navigating before getting to the sea:
"River, o river you’re the deepest word that I know
I could navigate by you to the sea and to her in the
hope that I would win her heart,
but desert is the word by which
I must journey to win her heart"

Gert Vlok Nel journeyed through Pretoria to end his journey at Beaufort West after he had claimed in the second stanza of the poem that his love awaited him somewhere in Cape. Until the end part of the poem, it became clear that the distant lover of the poet was dead not at all on earth:
"Last night I slept in Beaufort West
in the Wagon Wheel

Motel wanted to call you
say that I am dreamless
seamless world-weary and had had enough and
want to come and sleep in your arms forever
like a boat on the bed of the sea"

The refrain that ended the poem seemed the poet had a weeping tone and made him look as if with a mourning heart:
"Last night I slept in Beaufort West
Last night I slept in Beaufort West
Last night I slept in Beaufort West"

Let's look at how the poem rolled its reed. He was at a point in Pretoria with a woman different from his lover so he decided to meet his true lover who was somewhere in Cape.
In his quest, he got to Bloemfontein with happiness and optimism and even mentioned that his journey was no longer far (Bloemfontein is a major city and the judicial capital of South Africa):
"Last night I slept in Bloemfontein
was happy I had got so far in one day was
happy there were still
flowers for hikers to pick (wanted to call you) was
happy love will not pass
me by was happy it’s only another 1000 km here from the Cape"
According to the fourth stanza, the poet then described his experience of spending night in Colesberg. His notion was intense, since the garage was entirely a prostitution's den and he symbolised the changes in the country with the sites of those crying and those laughing:
"Last night I slept in Colesberg
across from the garage where the prostitutes turned
what the uncles brought around
& hiking back to the Cape in the long
night I saw some
crying I saw others singing maybe about that
mixed feeling that turning around brings"

The setting of the poem can be considered South Africa because of the lists of places the poem speaker passed many of his nights Pretoria, Cape, Bloemfontein, Colesberg, Beaufort West, etc. naijapoets.com assumes that Gert Vlok Nel didn't specify any strick rhyme or rhythm in the poem, it just flowed in it narrative form. Besides the use of refrain, the first stanza has metaphor, "wrong city with the wrong woman" is an alliteration found in the second line of the second stanza, "like a boat on the bed of the sea" is a simile found in the sixth line of the fifth stanza.

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

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Describe The Feelings Of The Poet In Dry Your Tears Africa By BernardDadie

Like every long travel (the case where someone has been away for a very long time) part of the feelings such a person will develop are naka ot so different from the ones the poet developed before writing or composing this poem.

Bernard Binlin Dadie, an ivorian poet, wrote this masterpiece to prove to Africa,his motherland, that he had compared home and abroad and realised that home is better; he even mentioned how waste of time, travelling has been in line 3 and 10; "Out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys"

The feelings of the poet in "Dry Your Tears, Africa" brought about the following themes: the theme of assurance, nost
algia, futility and the themes did cloth the poem with reality.

Before taking a deep examination into the themes poem, let's briefly look at the form the poem took. The poet made use of very simple dictions which are everyday words. The five stanza poem carried uneven lines per stanza but no end rhyme occurred.
Beautiful poetic devices like repetitions, symbolisms, etc were the recipes in the poem.

The theme of Assurance radiated throughout the poem, stanza 1, 2, 3 and 5 have it. This assurance can be divided into two, namely the assurance of returning home and the assurance of hope for better tomorrow."Dry your tears, Africa!/Your children come back to you" was repeated in stanza 1 and 5 to maintain the fact that there was no going back on the issue of returning home; then stanza 2 revealed how the poet and his fellow African sojourners planned to sail or fly home "Through the crest of the wave and the babbling of the breeze"
The assurance of hope for better tomorrow was evident at the final part of the poem:
"Dry your tears, Africa!
Your children come back to you
their hands full of play things
and their hearts full of love.
They return to cloth you
in their dreams and their hopes."

The theme of Nostalgia is always cropping up in any discussion of home and abroad. Whenever a traveller remembers how home used to be, he/she wishes to be home. After the poet compared in stanza 3, "We have drunk/From all the springs/of ill fortune/and of glory"; he remembered how home was and confessed in stanza 4:
"And our senses are now opened
to the splendour of your beauty
to the smell of your forests
to the charm of your waters
to the clearness of your skies
to the caress of your sun
And to the charm of your foliage pearled by the dens".

The Theme of Futility in chasing glorified greener pastures only to find out that life is not a bed full of roses. The poet brought the thought to the mind of the readers make the readers understand that there are two sides to every coin of travelling: ill fortune and glory. He concluded that his travels were "fruitless journeys".

At this juncture, the feelings of the poet must have been understood to be resentful based on the above descriptions.

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings, the candidate of heaven)

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The Tether Will Suffer The Wear And The Tear

NOTE: "The tether will suffer the wear and the tear" is a handsome funny poem written by Akoli Penoukou; a Togolese teacher, poet and businessman born 1953. Akoli has been a motivator and mentor to many adults and youths (both home and abroad) with writings and way of life_ not excluding his alluring smile. It wouldn't be a hyperbole to say Akoli Penoukou is currently the Wole Soyinka of Togo because he's an icon.

POEM:
Tether which inhibited us in barter
Tether which revoked our God-image
Tether which banished our patriotic rights
Tether which hindered our exodus
Tether of delusion

 
Tether of genocide
tightening noose of a tether
suffocating noose of a tether
neck-breaking noose of a tether
life-quenching noose of a tether
like a hangman’s
tether-noose which took away our voice
tether tightened by mammoth hands
mammoth hands powered by hearts of stone
hearts of stone activated by robot minds
but each time comes the wear and the tear
the wear
and
the tear

 
the tether-noose which limits and suffocates us
will again suffer the wear and the tear
the knots will slacken like a landslide
the noose will become a toothless tiger
the noose of the enemy will inevitably wear out
and we can continue our march towards light.

Rewritten March 10, 2001

The poem is from poetropical poetry website

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