Poetry has always been an integral part of African culture, serving functional, occasional, and political purposes. From the court poets of Rwanda to the poets of the Akan tribe in Ghana, poetry has been a powerful tool for expression and storytelling.
Modern African poetry, which emerged after European colonization, often explores political, communal, and postcolonial themes, while also delving into individual and introspective experiences. In honor of the depth and range of African poetry, let's explore some of the best African poems of all time, from both pioneering and contemporary poets.
Pioneering Voices in African Poetry
In the 1960s, as Africa underwent decolonization, African writers and poets played a key role in writing new histories and envisioning a new era of change for the continent. Here are some influential figures who have left an indelible mark on the world of poetry:
- Maya Angelou: Popularly known for her 1969 memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou made literary history as the first non-fiction bestseller by an African-American woman.
- Gwendolyn Brooks: The first Black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize, Gwendolyn Brooks was an African-American poet and writer and the author of more than twenty books.
- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Frances wrote regularly against anti-slavery and was a regular abolitionist speaker.
- Lucille Clifton: Poetry, like many art forms, is a medium for conveying the complex experiences that make up what it is to be a human being.
Contemporary African Poets: Shaping the Future of Poetry
The legacy of these pioneering poets continues to inspire contemporary African poets who are using their voices to document history, advocate for change, and explore themes of identity, culture, and social justice. Here are some notable contemporary African poets:
- Dennis Brutus: A South African poet and activist, Dennis Brutus's campaign against apartheid led to South Africa's expulsion from the 1964 Olympic Games. His first collection of poems, Sirens, Knuckles and Boots, was published in Nigeria during his time in prison.
- Christopher Okigbo: Although he died more than 50 years ago, Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo has remained one of the most widely anthologized African poets. Before he was killed in combat fighting for Biafra in the Nigerian Civil War, Okigbo published three volumes of work: Heavensgate (1962), Limits (1964), and Silences (1965).
- Safia Elhillo: Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo has been one of the most prolific poets of the last decade. Her work examines longing in a postcolonial world, misogyny in Muslim culture, and creativity with man-made and male-dominated borders, among other themes.
- Vonani Bila: Vonani Bila is a South African poet and founder of the Timbila Writers’ Village, a meeting point and workplace for authors, translators, publishers, and cultural activists. His poetry explores the failures of government, the abuse of women and children, and the state neglect of HIV/AIDS, among other themes.
- Kofi Awoonor: Kofi Awoonor is one of Africa’s most widely recognized and accomplished poets. Awoonor’s poetry was deeply rooted in the poetic and oral traditions of the Ewe people of Ghana. He died in the Westgate shopping mall terrorist attack in Nairobi in September 2013.
- Ijeoma Umebinyuo: Ijeoma Umebinyuo is a Nigerian poet and writer whose love for storytelling came from spending holidays with her grandfather in Eastern Nigeria and listening to oral storytelling of Igbo folklore. Her poems explore themes around women empowerment, race, identity, and Black sisterhood.
- Ketty Nivyabandi: Ketty Nivyabandi is a Burundian poet, writer, and human rights activist who has lived in exile in Canada since 2015. Nivyabandi became interested in what she calls “artivism” in 2015 during Burundi’s constitutional crisis.
Notable Poems and Poets
Here are some specific examples of poems and poets that showcase the diversity and power of African poetry:
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- Wole Soyinka: When the Nigerian poet and playwright won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the Swedish committee noted how Wole Soyinka, “in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones, fashions the drama of existence.” Perhaps his most famous poem, Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation” is a sardonic commentary on racial politics.
- Okot p’Bitek: Okot p’Bitek’s “Song of Lawino” is widely regarded as one of the best modern African epic poems. A postcolonial critique on neocolonialism, the monologue-like poem is a long lamentation on how Western culture has permeated and affected African culture.
- Warsan Shire: Since the publication of her collection of poems, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, in 2011, Warsan Shire has become an instrumental voice for refugees and immigrants - from Somali to Syria, Mexico to Malawi.
- J.P. Clark: An ode to one of the largest cities in Africa, J.P. Clark’s “Ibadan” is popular for its sparse and succinct imagery in the stretch of only five lines.
- Christopher Okigbo: Perhaps the most popular poem from one of Nigeria’s finest poets, “The Passage” appeared in Christopher Okigbo’s first poetry collection, Heavensgate (1962).
- Ben Okri: Although Ben Okri is famous for his novel The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize in 1991, his poetry has held an important place in modern African poetics.
Here is a table summarizing some of the key poets mentioned:
| Poet | Country | Notable Work | Themes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wole Soyinka | Nigeria | Telephone Conversation | Racial politics, cultural identity |
| Okot p’Bitek | Uganda | Song of Lawino | Postcolonialism, cultural clash |
| Warsan Shire | Somalia | Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth | Refugee experience, immigration |
| J.P. Clark | Nigeria | Ibadan | Urban life, cultural heritage |
| Maya Angelou | USA | I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Racism, identity, resilience |
| Christopher Okigbo | Nigeria | Heavensgate | Personal experiences, role of the poet |
| Safia Elhillo | Sudan/USA | The January Children | Postcolonialism, identity, misogyny |
| Kofi Awoonor | Ghana | Rediscovery and Other Poems | Tradition, politics, social commentary |
| Ijeoma Umebinyuo | Nigeria | Questions for Ada | Women empowerment, race, identity |
Over the last several years as a writer, reader, editor, and educator who teaches courses on global poetics, I have been deeply struck by the significant emergence of female poets with roots in Africa. While African fiction is widely known, poetry has been largely ignored, and the female voices, as is so often the case, have been poorly represented in publishing efforts. But in the quiet corners of the literary landscape, this group of women has been hard at work challenging and expanding our understanding of contemporary poetics.
In 2012 a group of poets, writers, and thinkers, led by Kwame Dawes, decided we would embark on an idea that some of us had been toying with for some time. What we hoped to do was to bring contemporary African poetry into the fold of contemporary anglophone literature, and with our tentacles reaching worldwide, we would base these efforts in the United States. Along with Dawes and myself we teamed up with Chris Abani, Gabeba Baderoon, Bernardine Evaristo, and John Keene along with, more recently, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers and Aracelis Girmay, to form an internationally recognized editorial team that could speak to the breadth and significance of African poetry.
We defined African as those born in Africa, those who are a national or resident of an African country, or those whose parent(s) are African. It was an idea that though somewhat audacious in scope was simple in concept. We would work to broaden the literary landscape and show the necessity of African poetry as a central agent in contemporary poetry. After all, when we talk about Africa and all of her diasporas, we are talking about a significant piece of the globe, a recognizable population. But the thing is this: at our core we wanted this idea, an idea straightforward in some ways, to be done in a considered and intentional manner, sustainable and with a global scope.
What existed of contemporary African poetry in the English language before this effort were largely single volumes championed by individuals who had broken through in one way or another, editors who had taken interest in an individual book, but few things systemic had been done before and nothing that allowed for a sustained effort aimed at longevity.
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And so we established the African Poetry Book Fund (apbf). This umbrella organization became home to the African Poetry Book Series; we started a debut book contest (the annual Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets); we created an annual chapbook box set of emerging African poets; we began publishing the collected works of iconic African poets and the midlist works of well-established poets; we, in partnership with poetry communities across the continent, established contemporary poetry libraries in Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda; we planted the seeds and began working on a digital humanities project that will highlight the breadth of contemporary African poetry worldwide; we laid the groundwork for a massive forthcoming anthology of contemporary African poetry; and, to date, have published nearly fifty African poets in internationally distributed and accessible books. And, I would argue, we have ever so slightly changed the face of contemporary anglophone poetry.
We have complicated the landscape of contemporary American poetry, given rise to the way American and other readers have access to African poetics, and have created viable and rich transatlantic communities of poets that have begun a deeply nuanced and engaged conversation with one another and with their literary siblings the world over. To be clear, I am biased, but I am afforded that right. This is not a scholarly endeavor; this is a project of passionate advocacy, of a craft-centered engagement intended to show all that poetry has to offer, intended to highlight the critically missing works of so many, and it is timely in a moment when such advocacy and reminders of our multiplicity could not be more necessary.
So, as I take stock of the work we have done over these last five years, I realize that we have made accessible the immense and significant works of so many contemporary poets both on the African continent and in its varied diasporas, and in that process we have specifically seen the cultivation of the female voice as an unquestionable barometer of the health and vibrancy of these poetic traditions. And so I wish to highlight here a group of anglophone African women poets, most of whom we have published, most of whom have lived or do live in some diasporic reality, all of whom are changing the way we read and engage poetry in English. Women who have cultivated their craft without bounds, borrowing and sharpening from every corner of the globe; trading on the stories of their own mothers, shaving at the verse of the canonical Europeans, building on the power of American poetry, challenging the language of the colonial and the patriarchal; our sisters who have dissolved the expectations set to limit them and have instead shown us a boundless verse.
I begin with the iconic Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo as a way of necessary context. A pathbreaker coming of age in the 1960s, Aidoo is an elder stateswoman of contemporary African poetry, and her work can be seen in its incredible breadth in After the Ceremonies: New and Selected Poems, edited by Helen Yitah (2017). In the tradition of so much of West African poetry, Aidoo often writes poems of praise and naming, directed to individuals and places, a way to address the realities of life (both human and otherwise) head-on through her poems. One such poem is the beautiful long piece “Ghana: Where the Bead Speaks.” In this lyrically playful poem, Aidoo illustrates the idea that the bead (often used for various rituals and divinations) shapes the lives of contemporary Ghanaians, that this object is more than an object, that it is a talisman of sorts, or perhaps more accurately, a kind of barometric mirror for day-to-day life.
Aidoo is followed by many incredible poets in the generation after hers, poets who took the framework she provided and continued to complicate and stretch the possibilities. One such person who comes to mind is the Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, whose most recent book is When the Wanderers Come Home (2017). In Wesley’s poetry we see the immense power of a poet working to express the human complexity and grief of a nation and her people often defined by war. Wesley is a poet working to find language that can help show the fractures and fissures of a postwar nation and the personal realities of displacement and return. This sentiment is beautifully illustrated in her poem “What Took Us to War”.
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As we then begin to look at the next generation of poets, we see an incredible bourgeoning and further expansion of craft, especially by many who were raised in diaspora, poets like the Eritrean, Puerto Rican, and African American poet Aracelis Girmay. Girmay’s most recent book, The Black Maria (2016), dives into a meditative exploration of the refugee migrations from East Africa to Europe and creates a poetic migration for the reader to see, again, the internal humanity of these people who have so often been relegated to the position of media subjects. And perhaps what we see most in Girmay’s work is that understanding of the intricate nuances of human inflection, the things that make us viable and resonant. Her poems often pull at these intricate nuances and establish a relationship between speaker and subject that is at once quiet and urgent, pressing and vibrant. But her poems are also populated by a people rooted in an antediluvian space, made rootless, or perhaps sent in search of new roots, by the political changes of a postcolonial globe. They are forever resilient regardless of their tribulations. And when we meet these people in her poems it doesn’t take much time to see that each of them has tucked away the ancient roots that make them whole. That each of them carries a culture and a land within them. They keep trees and flowers in their pockets, frankincense and bread flower in their shirtsleeves, stories and language in their mouths, and the seas they have traveled in the pools of their eyes. This is a poetry destined to make us as readers whole, to tear asunder our misconceptions of what it means to be alive on this earth, in this moment as members of a continuum. It forces us to engage one another and the earth we occupy with a firm footedness and a light but anchored spirit.
As we then begin to look deeper at the work of emerging poets, the “future continuous,” as Girmay puts it, we find a group of women who have clearly immersed themselves in the study of poetics well beyond their individual spheres and generations, poets who have made it a habit to borrow from the best elements of contemporary poetry. We are introduced to writers like Ladan Osman from Somalia, whose debut book, The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015), is a book of vision and investigation. Layered with the testimony and collision of the Somali diaspora in Middle America, this is a book that privileges the optics of the otherworldly while remaining deeply rooted in the female body of the present. Hers is a poetry with a piercing gaze, always looking, finding beauty in the fading light, reconciling our sense of humanity in what is always askew.
