Analysis of the poem “Africa” by David Diop within the context of Anthills of the Savannah.
Chapter 10 of Anthills of the Savannah, entitled, impetuous son, opens with a stanza from David Diop’s poem Africa, which is where the title of the chapter gets its name from, and from my initial instinct, is the key phrase in the poem, but the key question is what does this poem have to do with the social context of the story other than the fact that its named after the continent in which anthills is set. I also assume that this poem has some sort of relation to Ikem’s Hymn to the sun earlier on in the play.
Focusing for a moment on the word ‘story’, I notice that this poem has an element of the notion of storytelling within it, right from the…show more content… The tree referenced to in the poem stands for two things, one of them is an anthill, it remains the only thing living after all the flowers around it have “faded” to act as some sort of reminder. But the fact that the tree stands out as “strong” and most likely towering over everything else, the “young” stands alongside the “strong” to symbolize power, namely the power that the government has. And the faded flowers are the citizens of Kangan (Africa) suffering to survive, whilst the tree towers over them and most likely blocks all the sunlight from reaching them, but it also stands out “in splendid loneliness”, and cannot hide in the masses when the time comes to put the blame.
The line “That is Africa your Africa” gives an essence of the perpetuity of this cycle, that things aren’t going to change, that this poem was written about the colonists, and can still refer to the dictators of the era of the book and even to certain governments today, tells me that this is the way things are and how they will be which is what makes this short simple line stand out amongst the others.
The last three lines build on this essence of perpetuity, that even after one dictator or colonist is ousted, another will jump in to take their place. The use of the word “again” suggests the cycle is starting all over, and
