A Far Cry From Africa is Derek Walcott’s commentary on British colonial suppression of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya and how it represented his divided loyalties between “the English tongue I love” and his African heritage. The poem functions on many levels.
It simultaneously serves as reportage, political commentary, and historical analysis. The poet is of mixed African-European heritage, and to him, the conflict — which featured atrocities being committed on both sides — represents a kind of internal turmoil. First, some historical context and background on the Mau Mau rebellion and its suppression are necessary.
The Suppression of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya
The Mau Mau uprising started around 1952 when it was becoming obvious that the British would grant independence to Kenya. It was started by a Kenyan tribe known as the Kikuyu. It was a guerrilla campaign against Europeans and Africans deemed to be their allies and collaborators.
By the end of it, 32 European civilians and over 1,800 Africans were killed by the Mau Mau. However, the toll was far greater on the Mau Mau side. To win the war against the Mau Mau, the British colonial authorities resorted to widespread torture and arrests, as well as internment camps. These camps have been compared to concentration camps in NAZI Germany.
It has been only recently that the true scale of this suppression was brought to light. For example, the historian Caroline Elkins claimed that up to 1.5 million Kenyans were detained in a network of detention camps. However, official numbers claim that it was 71,046. By the end of the rebellion, 3,000 Mau Mau fighters were tried in special courts; 1,574 were convicted; and 1,090 were hanged.
1. A summary of A Far Cry From Africa
“A Far Cry From Africa” is included in Selected Poems, a collection published in 2007. The poem exists simultaneously as a misanthropic assessment of violent human nature and an expression of the identity crisis that Walcott suffers as a colonized person of mixed heritage.
The poem is made up of three stanzas and is a commentary on the Mau Mau rebellion and the brutal British suppression of it. The poem is written in a kind of loose Iambic pentameter. The language used is natural and flows freely with frequent enjambment.
The first stanza begins with describing what appears to be a Kikuyu attack against White settlers and the African tribes allied with settlers. Walcott begins by setting the scene with the African landscape.
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa . . .
This is a description of the grasslands or Serengeti plains that Kenya is famous for. Throughout the poem, the landscape is more than just a setting for a conflict between Kenyan Mau Mau and British colonial officers.
Another noteworthy attribute of the first stanza is the political commentary. The language used in that regard is striking:
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?
Walcott appears to downplay the rational explanations of the politics behind the war and the atrocities taking place. Instead, the focus is on the innocent lives being lost. This includes innocent civilian settlers, such as “the White child hacked in bed” and the Kikuyu, who are described as “savages, expendable as Jews.”
Now, there is a dichotomy here. A White child being hacked in bed is of course horrific. However, this does not compare to the thousands of native Kikyu who were detained in killed. After all, by the end of the war, only 32 Europeans were killed, whereas close to 11,000 Mau Mau and other forces were killed. The poet seems to be suggesting that it is not a numbers game and instead focuses on highlighting the irrational brutality on both sides.
This prepares us for the second stanza, where the poet moves away from the specific politics of the Mau Mau rebellion and tries to make a grand statement on the barbarity of human nature. Instead, by the second stanza, the poet transforms it into a scene where an ancient cosmic battle is being enacted. It is the battle of human nature versus animal nature: a war between human compassion and barbaric brutality, where brutality keeps winning.
Let us look at a few lines that show this:
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization's dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain
The author is claiming more or less that humans can be less than animals in how they treat each other in times of war. “Violence of beast on beast” is done out of necessity. Animals kill to eat as part of “natural law.” However, man who is supposedly divine and above it all “inflicts pain” for the sheer hell of it.
In the last stanza, the poet localizes the poem by referring to the politics of the Mau Mau rebellion, but this time connects with other historical conflicts, namely, the Spanish Civil War. Striking imagers is used to illustrate this point:
Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
The poet mentions the Spanish Civil War as an example of two sides committing atrocities against each other and who as a result, did not deserve our compassion. The current Mau Mau rebellion is seen in the same light. The image of a gorilla wrestling with a superman invokes the image of one side with inferior weaponry going up against a modern and well-armed industrial power destined to win. That would be a fair assessment of the difference between the Kikuyu guerilla forces and modern British military forces.
The author also uses language effectively to describe his divided loyalties between Britain and Africa. Africa is portrayed as a vital source of his heritage, whereas Britain is portrayed as the source of the language that has defined his life and career as a poet:
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
2. Themes in A Far Cry From Africa
There are two major themes in the poem. They can be summed up as:
The violence endemic to human nature
Divided colonial identities
These will be discussed in turn below.
a. Man’s violent nature
We can see evidence of the poet’s misanthropic view of all humans as being essentially violent in nature with phrases such as “upright man seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.” He is saying that men are even below animals in their need to hurt each other.
He uses rhetorical devices in a stunning manner to get that point across. For example:
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum
He uses the African background and landscape as the background for making his pronouncement on the violent nature of man. And this would seem appropriate as Kenya is often cited as one of the locations where our ancestors evolved into the humans that we are today.
He sets the scene through a train of images that connect the scenic African Serengeti landscape with the brutality of beasts on beasts and eventually upright man inflicting pain. So, although the poet might be commenting on either a current or recent historical event, the context is timeless and began “since civilization's dawn.”
b. Divided colonial identities
Derek Walcott was born in 1930 on the island of Saint Lucia when the country was still a colony at the time. In fact, St. Lucia was still a colony during the events of the Mau Mau Rebellion.
The poet sees the English language upon which he has built his life and career as an inheritance from British colonial rule. Nonetheless, he is aware of just how violent and unjust this regime can be and has frequently spoken out against it.
We can tell as much in the lines “ I who have cursed/The drunken officer of British rule . . .” The poet also sees Africa as part of his heritage and an essential part of himself, which he cannot do without.
In the end, the poet is faced with the dilemma of coming to terms with the violence of the Britain that gave him the language he loves and the violence of an Africa that he cannot live without.
The title of the poem "A Far Cry from Africa" has a double meaning. It could simply mean the poet trying to make meaning of a horrific and complicated event taking place in faraway Africa as a member of the African diaspora. It could also mean that the romanticization of Africa that he has absorbed is being questioned and shaken as a result of these horrific events that implicate the Mau Mau.
3. Rhetorical devices used in the poem
The poem is remarkable in the way it uses imagery and metaphor. Each stanza of the poem begins with a stunning image and metaphor. Walcott seeks to begin every stanza like a movie with a string or train of images.
For example, the first stanza begins with an image of "wind . . . ruffling the tawny pelt/Of Africa" a concise description of the Savannah grasslands of Africa. This is followed by alliteration such as "only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries."
In the second stanza, rushes shift into a "white dust of ibises whose cries/Have wheeled since civilization's dawn." Immediately after this line, we see "the camera" move from "the parched river" to the "beast-teeming plain."
In the last stanza, we cut from all this nature imagery and shift to "brutish necessity" wiping its hands on "the napkin of a dirty cause." Each stanza besides this imagery is loaded with brilliant metaphors or personification. In the last stanza, British colonial rule is personified as "The drunken officer of British rule." In the second stanza, wars dance to the tightened carcass of a drum.
The poem does a superb job of balancing the use of natural speech patterns with rich and dense imagery and metaphors. There is something quite conversational about several lines in the poem. For example, "Betray them both, or give back what they give" is simple rhetorical repetition that does not seem at all out of place amid all the rich imagery of the poem.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, September 18). A Far Cry From Africa | Analysis & Summary. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/a-far-cry-from-africa-analysis-summary |
コメント