CRITICAL AND LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS OF AFRICA BY David Diop KARNATAKA BORAD CLASS 9 ENGLISH

You are going to go through CRITICAL AND LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS OF AFRICA BY David Diop KARNATAKA BORAD CLASS 9 ENGLISH. Understanding a poem meticulously in its entirety is very important for a learner for scoring better in the exam. Efforts have been made to ensure a thorough critical and line by line analysis. Let us find CRITICAL AND LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS OF AFRICA BY David Diop KARNATAKA BORAD CLASS 9 ENGLISH

About the Poet:

David Mandessi Diop was born in 1927 on July 9^th in Bordeaux. He was a French West African poet. Anti-colonial touch is reflected in his creations. He was an essential part of the ‘Négritude’ movement. The poet wrote a small collection of poetry, that was called “Coups de Pillon” in 1956. He dreamt of a free Africa. He became the voice of lots of Africans then.

In 1960, on August 29^th, Diop died of a plane crash. He was only 33 years old then.

About the Poem:

The poem addresses the poet’s love for his native land, that is Africa. He has expressed his deep love for Africa all over the poem.

Structure of the Poem:

The Grass is Really Like Me

“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

The slavery of your children
Africa, tell me Africa
Is this you this back that is unbent
This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun
But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
That tree over there
In splendidly loneliness amidst white and faded flowers
That is Africa, your Africa
That grows again patiently obstinately
And its fruit gradually acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.”

There is no rhyming scheme in the poem.

Line by line analysis of the Poem:

Lines 1- 4:

“Africa my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river”

The poem beings with the poet saying that he originally knows nothing about the African land. He has got to know everything from his grandmother who would sing to him and tell him stories related to his native land. The usage of the phrase “ancestral savannahs” shows that the poets ancestry has to be traced to Africa even if he did not grow up there.

Lines 5- 6:

“I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins”

The poet is saying that he does not recognise the nation, since he grew up in a different country; but the blood is African and he could not have ignored that.

Lines 7- 11:

“Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery

The slavery of your children”

The “beautiful black blood” which streams in his veins portrays his African descent and shows the amount of love he has for Africa and his affection for it and its kin. The following stanzas are furious and accusatory as he focuses on that it is the blood and sweat of his kin which is flooding the fields to support others. By this, he is pointing a finger at the colonialists who abused Black individuals and utilized them as captives to benefit from their hard work.

Lines 12- 16:

“Africa, tell me Africa
Is this you this back that is unbent
This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars

And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun”

In these lines, he asks the Black public to face the torment and the embarrassment that they are enduring in their own land. He asks them to remember the majestic nature of their ancestors and fight back against all kinds of oppression. Notwithstanding this enduring, he encourages them to be solid and stay unbent and not let this break them regardless of the heaviness of their misery.

Lines 17- 24:

“But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
That tree over there
In splendid loneliness amidst white and faded flowers

That is Africa, your Africa

That grows again patiently obstinately
and its fruit gradually acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.”

In the last eight lines, the poet has symbolised Africa with a tree that would bear fruits and flowers again, in spite of various odds; just like African land, whose people would raise even after much torment and torture in various ways. The land would prosper gradually just like the fruits of the tree, and finally would taste liberty.

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Figures of speech used in the Poem:

Alliteration:

This is a figure of speech where closely associated words or corresponding words begin with the same alphabet in a sentence.

“Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields”

Personification:

Personification is a figure of speech in which animals, or other inanimate objects are credited with human feelings, emotions and abilities.

“Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields”

Anaphora:

It is a figure of speech, where various sentences or verses begin with the same word.

“The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery

The slavery of your children”

Important word meanings:

Impetuous: Acting quickly without thinking.

Splendid: Majestic.

Obstinately: Stubbornly.

Whip: Lash

Theme of the poem:

The Africans have been tortured a lot since a long time. The central theme of the poem is the poet’s love towards his native land Africa, even when he was brought up in a totally different country.