The poem “Africa” by Maya Angelou tells the history of Africa. The poem is broken up into stanzas that
illustrate different points in history. The first stanza is about the natural
beauty of the continent, and mentions the deserts, mountains, and Nile River
(3-6). This stanza starts out with the line “Thus she had lain” (1). In this
line, the word “lain” is unstressed, showing the passive and calm nature of Africa. In the last line, the work “black” is emphasized,
which shows that Africa was beautiful before
white intervention. The second stanza is a shift in the tone, and the topic
shifts to white intrusion in Africa. Angelou
mentions that people crossed the “white seas” (9), and she refers to the white
people as “brigands ungentled/ icicle bold” (11-12). Brigands have an obvious
negative connotation, and words such as “icicle” (11) and “cold” (10) have
connotations of lack of sympathy. The second stanza has trochaic meter to
emphasize the important words. Angelou says the white people “took her young
daughters/ sold her strong sons/ churched her with Jesus/ bled her with guns” (13-16).
In these lines, the natural stress is on the first words. This emphasizes the
cruelties that took place in Africa during the
slave trade and civilization missions.
The last
stanza switches to present day, and expresses a hopeful, optimistic attitude. Many
of the lines start with the word “remember” to show the importance of
acknowledging Africa’s history. The words
“pain” (19) and “losses” (20) are stressed to further show the importance of
the history behind Africa. In the line “now
she is striding” (24), the words “now” and “striding” are stressed to show the
improvement the Africa has made in the present
day. The last line, “although she had lain” (25), relates back to the history
of Africa and shows that Africa is still
prospering despite the cruelties that occurred.
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