Derek Walcott’s "A Far Cry from Africa," published in 1962, is a painful and jarring depiction of ethnic conflict and divided loyalties. This poem documents the brutality of the freedom movement started by Kikuyu in Kenya and laments the senseless murder of children in the backdrop of this anti-colonial war. The popularity of the poem lies in the presentation of pacifism in the garb of lamentation for the innocent dead.
The opening images of the poem are drawn from accounts of the Mau Mau Uprising, an extended and bloody battle during the 1950s between European settlers and the native Kikuyu tribe in what is now the republic of Kenya. In the early twentieth century, the first white settlers arrived in the region, forcing the Kikuyu people off of their tribal lands. Europeans took control of farmland and the government, relegating the Kikuyu to a subservient position.
The ongoings in Kenya magnified an internal strife within the poet concerning his own mixed heritage. Walcott has both African and European roots; his grandmothers were both black, and both grandfathers were white. In addition, at the time the poem was written, the poet’s country of birth, the island of St. Lucia, was still a colony of Great Britain.
While Walcott opposes colonialism and would therefore seem to be sympathetic to a revolution with an anticolonial cause, he has passionate reservations about Mau Mau: they are, or are reported to be, extremely violent-to animals, whites, and Kikuyu perceived as traitors to the Mau Mau cause.
As Walcott is divided in two, so too is the poem. The first two stanzas refer to the Kenyan conflict, while the second two address the war within the poet-as-outsider/insider, between his roles as blood insider but geographical outsider to the Mau Mau Uprising.
Read also: Culinary Journey: Ethiopia
Just as the uprising was never cleanly resolved, Walcott, at least within the poem, never resolves his conflict about whose side to take.
Derek Walcott’s poem “A Far Cry from Africa” (1962) is set during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, when native Kenyans fought for independence from British colonial rule. The uprising was very violent on both sides of the conflict.
The poem addresses the internal dilemma within the speaker, who is confronting his own experience with colonization and identity. Although Walcott originates from the West Indies and much of his work queries the impacts of colonialism, the speaker of this poem is not explicitly Walcott himself.
However, much like Walcott, the speaker’s immense love for the English language and his deep respect for Africa’s many cultures combine with the speaker’s moral opposition to violence to create the poem’s central tension. The speaker feels torn between understanding the plight of the native Kenyans, known as the Kikuyu, and the exceedingly violent acts of warfare they inflict upon the British settlers.
On the flip side, the speaker’s love of the English language and literature creates an increasingly complicated dynamic with his disgust toward the British colonizers and their own violent and oppressive regime. The poem’s ending is essentially a stalemate, leaving the speaker’s confusion over his allegiances unresolved.
Read also: The Rise of Nigerian Basketball
The poem opens as a gentle wind blows the tall grasses on the savannah in Africa. The speaker likens the grasses to an animal pelt or some kind of fur. The Kikuyu, the native Kenyans engaged in a conflict with British settlers, move through the landscape swiftly, like “flies” (Line 2). There are corpses scattered around, despite the speaker comparing the land to paradise. A worm cries out to ignore the dead because they are irrelevant.
Meanwhile, scholars and well-to-do white people study statistics and create policies from their comfortable homes far away. The speaker ends the first stanza with rhetorical questions: What do the facts just mentioned matter to the people on the ground, living in this violent reality, like the white child of a settler family that was murdered in his sleep? And what does it matter to the native Kenyans that are treated as worthless and subhuman, much like the Jewish people were treated by the Nazis during WWII?
Stanza 2 shifts to farmers. The farmers thresh a crop, and the long stalks of grass snap in half and ibises fly into the air like dust. The call of the ibises is something older than civilization itself, heard from the rivers to the great plains, where animals graze and roam. It is interesting that the violence of animals feeding and hunting is viewed as the law of nature, yet men try to get closer to God by committing the same kind of violence and inflicting pain on others.
In truth, these men are just like animals, and their wars are a gory dance to the beat of drums made of corpses. The native Kenyans say they are courageous, but really it is just the fear that the white colonizers will kill them all and call it peace.
In the final stanza, the speaker remarks that, once again, a brutal inhuman need for war wipes its hands on an already filthy napkin. This napkin represents the dirty causes everyone is fighting for. And it’s a waste to care, just as with the atrocities that occurred during the Spanish civil war. Referencing racist stereotypes, the situation with the Kenyans and the colonizers is much like an ape wrestling with a superhero.
Read also: Nigeria's Thriving Music
But the speaker acknowledges that he is both of English and African descent, therefore he carries the blood of both parties in his veins. He wonders which side he should take and who he should support; but making that decision would be like carving himself into pieces. The speaker has no love for the British officers who enforced the colonial occupation, and compares them to sloppy drunkards.
The speaker ends the stanza with a series of questions. How is he supposed to choose between his deep connection to Africa and his love for the English language? Should he betray both parts of himself or should he become exactly what they have all become? How can he be okay with what the British colonizers or the Kenyan fighters are doing?
Themes in "A Far Cry from Africa"
Senseless killing, patriotism, anti-colonialism, and human dignity are some of the major themes of this poem. The poet laments that senseless killing continues in the name of rebellion or freedom movement in which the killers do not spare the children. The poet is against this senseless killing of children, whether they are British or Jewish. He states that despite this, he is to side with Africa, which is his homeland though he faces a tough dilemma. Also, this is his patriotism.
It presents him with this dilemma to decide whether he is with the settlers or with the natives, and comes to the conclusion that colonialism is the worst in that it continues to find out justifications for its stay after giving justification to the violent attackers to continue killing and further fuel the war of justification. These cyclical progressions of arguments destroy human dignity and prolong the senseless war and vituperation showered as a result of it.
There are many clashes in this poem. The first image signalling conflict is the hint of a storm brewing in the opening lines where Kikuyu flies feed upon the land and maggots upon dead Mau Mau. Here is the first of several culture clashes: pro-Mau Mau pitted against anti-Mau Mau Kikuyu. And within this, a subconflict also exists between those Kikuyu believing that the rights of the individual (“these separate dead”) do not necessarily violate those of the group and those convinced that individual rights do violate group rights (the Mau Mau philosophy).
In lines six through ten, there is also the clash between the culture of those outside the uprising and those killed by it, outsiders (“scholars”) with the luxury of judging the conflict, and insiders (victims) for whom no explanation is sufficient.
Violence and Cruelty: The wind “ruffling the tawny pelt of Africa” refers to the Mau Mau Uprising that occurred in what is now independent Kenya, roughly from October 20, 1952, to January of 1960. During this span, the white government called an emergency against a secret Kikuyu society that came to be known as Mau Mau and was dedicated to overthrowing the white regime. Against the backdrop of a cruel, long-lasting British colonialism erupted the more short-term cruelty of Mau Mau insurrection.
It is the violence of Mau Mau that most disturbs Walcott, apparently because it makes Africans look even worse than their British oppressors. There were many stories of Mau Mau violence directed at whites, the animals owned by whites, and at other Kikuyus who refused to join Mau Mau. The violence was especially grisly since many of the Kikuyus used a machete-like agricultural implement, the panga, to kill or mutilate victims after killing them.
One such murder-one that Walcott could be describing in “A Far Cry from Africa”-was reported of a four-and-a-half-year-old white child. And on March 26, 1953, in the Lari Massacre, Mau Maus killed ninety-seven Kikuyu men, women, and children, apparently for collaborating with the British.
Before Mau Mau, one gets the impression that Walcott was not so torn between Africa and Britain; he may have viewed British colonialism as arrogant, ignorant, and cruel, and Africa as victimized. But then, when Africans themselves turned violent, Walcott was torn and could not so easily side with Africans against the British.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in "A Far Cry from Africa"
Derek Walcott’s use of literary devices is unique. He showers them on his thematic strands to make his poetic output strong. Some of the major literary devices analyzed below show his skill.
Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession, such as the sound of /c/ in “carrion, cries.”
- Anaphora: It is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of the verses. The poem shows the use of “How can I” in the last two verses.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /a/ in “Corpses are scattered through a paradise” and the sound of /o/ in “Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /w/ in “A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt” and the sound of /s/ and /b/ in “The violence of beast on beast is read.”
- Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows very good use of formal and poetic diction.
- End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. Derek Walcott has used end rhyme in this poem, such as pelt/veldt or flies/paradise and cries/seize.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Derek Walcott uses imagery in this poem, such as “Corpses are scattered through a paradise”, “What is that to the white child hacked in bed?” and “Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break.”
- Irony: It means to the contradictory meanings of the words used in different contexts. For example, the verse, such as “upright man / Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain” shows how an upright person seeking divinity when he wants to cause pain to others. This is an apparent example of irony.
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. The poet used different metaphors, such as the colonel of carrion is a worm in military terms.
- Personification: It means to use human attributes for inanimate things or ideas. The poet personified necessity saying that it wipes its hands on the napkin.
- Rhetorical Questions: It means to use questions not to elicit answers but to stress the main idea. The poem shows the use of rhetorical questions at the end of the first and the third stanzas, such as,
- Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
- Betray them both, or give back what they give?
- How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
- How can I turn from Africa and live?
- Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows ABABCDEFGE in the first stanza, and the next two stanzas have a different rhyme scheme.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are three stanzas, with the first having ten verses, the second eleven, and the last twelve.
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols, such as bloodstream, dead, corpses, and hacked to show the bloodbath continuing after the civil war or rebellion.
- Tone: It means the voice of the text.
The following table summarizes the key literary devices used in the poem and their effect:
| Literary Device | Example from Poem | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Metaphor | "tawny pelt / Of Africa" | Compares Africa to an animal, suggesting a wild, untamed nature. |
| Simile | "Kikuyu, quick as flies" | Compares the Kikuyu people to flies, emphasizing their swiftness and perhaps their perceived insignificance. |
| Juxtaposition | "Corpses are scattered through a paradise" | Contrasts the beauty of Africa with the brutality of the conflict. |
| Symbolism | "worm, colonel of carrion" | The worm symbolizes death and decay, highlighting the grim reality of war. |
| Rhetorical Question | "What is that to the white child hacked in bed?" | Challenges the justifications for violence by focusing on individual suffering. |
| Imagery | "drunken officer of British rule" | Creates a vivid image of colonial oppression and moral decay. |
A Far Cry from Africa
By Derek Walcott
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
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?
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.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.
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.
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?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?
Popular articles:
tags: #Africa
