AFRICA By: David Diop

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 Africa, tell me Africa Is this your back that is unbent This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation This back trembling with red scars And saying no to the whip under the midday sun But a grave voice answers me Impetuous child that tree, young and strong That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers That is your Africa springing up anew Springing up patiently, obstinately Whose fruit bit by bit acquires The bitter taste of liberty.

David Mandessi Diop (July 9, 1927-1960) was one of the most promising French West African poets known for his contribution to the Ngritude literary movement. His work reflects his hatred of colonial rulers and his hope for an independent Africa. David Diop was born in Bordeaux, France of a Senegalese father and a Cameroonian mother. He had his primary education in Senegal. He started writing poems while he was still in school, and his poems started appearing in Prsence Africaine since he was just 15. Several of his poems were published in Lopold Senghor's famous anthology, which became a landmark of modern black writing in French. He died in a plane crash in 1960.

Very Nice! I see it as a poem about a place or thing known of, but intimately unknown to the poet. like a father you know you must have, because you cannot be without one, but have never laid eyes on nor ears to the sound of his voice. Like a boy born blind trying to describe the physical beauty of his own mother. Africa exists because the poet is black; because people have told him that he, being black, came from slaves and that slaves, being black, came from Africa. Africa, then, is more what others have told the poet it is and less of what he himself wishes it to be. As I said earlier, very nice!