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Nairaland Forum / Entertainment / Literature / Sunday African Poetry Special: Africa By David Diop (3172 Views)
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Sunday African Poetry Special: Africa By David Diop by RothmasPop: 3:45pm On Dec 14, 2014 |
David Diop was born in Bordeaux, France, of a Senegalese father and a Cameroonian mother. He had his primary education in Senegal. He started writing poems while he was still in school, and his poems started appearing in Présence Africaine since he was just 15. Several of his poems were published in Léopold Senghor’s famous anthology, which became a landmark of modern black writing in French. He died in a plane crash, at the age of 33, in 1960. His one small collection of poetry, Coups de pilon, came out from Présence Africaine in 1956; it was posthumously published in English as Hammer Blows, translated and edited by Simon Mpondo and Frank Jones (African Writers Series, 1975). Africa Africa my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of the distant river I have never known you But your blood flows in my veins Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields The blood of your sweat The sweat of your work 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 But a grave voice answers me Impetuous child that tree, young and strong That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers That is your Africa springing up anew springing up patiently, obstinately Whose fruit bit by bit acquires The bitter taste of liberty. Commentary By the powers of imagination,Diop here calls forth three stages in Africa’s history: the pre-colonial days of proud warrior tribes,the colonial experience of subjugation and humiliation,and post colonial freedom and soverignty. The first seven lines present an idealised image of Africa.then follows a realistic picture of Africa’s experience of bitterness,despair and mockery under colonial rule. The last 8 lines present a future of hope built on some of the realistic elements of colonial experience: Africa as a young tree patiently springing up and gradually acquiring the bitter taste of liberty. http://popafrica.com/sunday-african-poetry-special-africa-david-diop/ 1 Like
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Re: Sunday African Poetry Special: Africa By David Diop by DancingSkeleton(m): 3:50pm On Dec 14, 2014 |
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Re: Sunday African Poetry Special: Africa By David Diop by RothmasPop: 10:03pm On Dec 14, 2014 |
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