The Grieved Lands of Africa by Agostinho Neto – Complete Poem Analysis
- The poem
- About the poem
- Structure of the poem
- Content Summary
- Content Analysis
- The title of the poem
- Language and Diction
- Mood and tone
- Literary Devices used in the poem
- Themes in the poem
The Grieved Lands of Africa
by Agostinho Neto
The grieved lands of Africa
In the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave
In the degrading sweat of impure dance
Of other seas
Grieved
The grieved lands of Africa
In the infamous sensation
Of the stunning perfume of the Flower
Crushed in the forest
By the wickedness of iron and fire
The grieved lands
The grieved lands of Africa
In the dream soon undone in jinglings of jailer's keys
And in the stifled laughter and victorious voice of laments
And in the unconscious brilliance of hidden sensations
Of the grieved lands of Africa
Alive
In themselves and with us alive
They bubble up in dreams
Decked with dances by baobabs over balances
By the antelope
In the perpetual alliance of everything that lives
They shout out the sound of life
Shout it
Even the corpses thrown up by the Atlantic
In putrid offering of incoherence
And death and in the clearness
Of rivers
They live
The grieved lands of Africa
In the harmonious sound of consciences
Contained in the honest blood of men
In the strong desire of men
In the sincerity
In the pure and simple rightness of the stars’
Existence
They live
The grieved lands of Africa
Because we are living
And are imperishable particles
Of the grieved lands of Africa.
About the Poem
“The Grieved Lands of Africa” by Agostinho Neto tells the traumatic impact of the 400 years of slavery, where Africans were sold and taken to distant lands of the whites (especially America and the United Kingdom). It also points to the subjugation of foreign culture, which Africans were made to imbibe, the exploitation of Africa in terms of labour and natural resources, as well as the pains brought by the years of colonization. These were the experiences of Agostinho Neto, an Angolan who lived through colonization, fought for independence, and managed the wars that followed the fight for freedom in Angola.
Poem Setting
The poem is set in Africa, which is evident from the title. The many centuries of the slave trade and colonization experienced by Africa and the pain and trauma they brought with them are experiences common across different countries of the continent. Africans were treated as beasts of burden, worked to the bone, and discarded at will for many years by the colonial masters and slave traders. This is quite disheartening and sure stirs deep grief in the oppressed people, even in the generations that did not experience the suffering. The xenocentrism continues to rage.
Lines 2 , 3, and 4 point to the transportation of slaves across the seas, the sordid scene, and the pains of those affected.
“In the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave
In the degrading sweat of impure dance
Of other seas”
And in stanza 2, lines 9 and 10, Neto points out that even modernization has its own chains around the people of Africa.
“Crushed in the forest
By the wickedness of iron and fire”
Through and through, “The Grieved Lands of Africa” by Agostinho Neto, set in Africa, purrs over an issue that affects the vast countries of Africa.
About the Poet
Agostinho Neto was born on 17th September 1922 and died on 10th September 1979. He hails from Bengo in Angola and studied medicine at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Although a catholic, his father was a Methodist pastor. He returned to his home country after his studies to practice medicine in 1959 and featured as a part of the MPLA. The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola– MPLA) was founded in December 1956 in Luanda by merging various groups, such as the Party of the United Struggle of Africans of Angola (PLUA). They fought for the independence of Angola. The early leaders include Mario de Andrade and, later, Agostinho Neto. The role Neto played in the fight for independence for his country from Portugal got him arrested and imprisoned several times. However, after independence, Agostinho Neto became Angola’s first independent president in 1975.
He is honoured by the only public university in Angola, the University of Luanda (Portuguese: Universidade de Luanda), which changed its name to Agostinho Neto University (Portuguese: Universidad Agostinho Neto). Also, Angola honours Neto as the father of modern Angola for his contributions to the country’s freedom and development. His birthday is a public holiday in Angola. He was married and had three children.
Structure of the poem
“The Grieved Lands of Africa” by Agostinho Neto is a lamentation poem written in 7 stanzas and 41 lines.
Stanza 1 – 5 lines
Stanza 2 – 6 line
Stanza 3 – 5 lines
Stanza 4 – 6 lines
Stanza 5 – 6 lines
Stanza 6 – 8 lines
Stanza 7 – 5 lines
It has no rhyme pattern and can be classified as free verse.
The poem opens with an introduction of the case that led to the title, African lands as the unfortunate victims of slavery and colonization, tracing the sad incidents from ancient to modern times. The slavery, the poet asserts, is still here, naming the victims “ancient and modern slaves” (Line 2).
Stanzas two, three, and four delve into the wickedness Africans have endured, the crushing of their dreams, the African lifestyle, the death of their people, and the grief the people bear. The stanzas also buttress that despite the dehumanization and trauma, Africans continue to thrive.
Then in stanzas five, six, and seven, Agostinho Neto contrasts the fierce spirit of Africans and their determination to live and the reality of the woes these lands have endured. He mentions the sincere desire of Africans to thrive and simply be a part of the earth.
Content Summary
In “The Grieved Lands of Africa”, Neto protests and laments the inhumanity that the colonial masters perpetrated in Africa following the 1884 Berlin conference, clothed in Christianity and civilization. Major European powers divided Africa and colonized the countries in Africa, an act that led to the oppression and enslavement of Africans and the carting away of many resources from the continent.
Angola, Neto’s home country, was colonized by Portugal, and he lived through this time, fought for his nation’s independence, and became the first president of Angola after independence.
The opening of the poem draws a link between ancient and modern slaves (stanza 1, Line 2). A statement that traces the subject matter of the poem through time and points out that times may have changed, but one thing remains: Africans were still enslaved.
The poem outlines the effects of the slave trade in stanza 1 and the part that civilization has played in perpetrating the ills of colonization in stanza 2. He mentions the penalty that those who stood against the colonial masters had to endure – jail, as the colonial master worked to stop them (Stanza 3/ Line 13) – “the stifled dream soon undone in jingling of jailer’s keys”.
He speaks of the life embedded in African ways, “dreams” and “dances” (Stanza 4). These, he believes, that even “corpses” of African slaves “thrown up by the Atlantic” also shout out this “sound of life” (Stanza 5).
Despite these witnesses to a life filled with oppression and suffering brought on Africans by no fault of theirs, Africa still holds “strong desires of men” who sincerely want to be free. Africans live with the pain, the oppression, and the trauma that the dealings of the slave trade colonial masters left. Therefore, the people are “grieved”.
Content Analysis – Stanza-by-Stanza
Stanza 1
The grieved lands of Africa
In the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave
In the degrading sweat of impure dance
Of other seas
Grieved
(Lines 1-5)
The first stanza begins by identifying the grieving people, explaining the cause of their grief – “the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave”. According to this stanza, this victimization is not something left behind, somewhere in history, but continues even in modern times. This is a pattern that began in ancient times, dating back to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The labours and sufferings that followed and how this and colonization have shaped the future such that slavery remains, but in a different form, “modern slave”, he calls it. For each case, Africans, or people from the lands of Africa, cross many seas in pain and labour. “Seas” here is both literal and metaphorical. Either way, this association, which Neto refers to as a “dance,” is “impure” and characterized by “the degrading sweat”. For no fault of theirs, the lands of Africa, which are the victims of these, are grieved.
Stanza 2
The grieved lands of Africa
In the infamous sensation
Of the stunning perfume of the Flower
Crushed in the forest
By the wickedness of iron and fire
The grieved lands
(Lines 6-11)
Stanza two describes the beauty of African culture and ways of life. It names a feeling it evokes an “infamous sensation”. However, this beauty has been crushed by the force borne of the wickedness of the source of the force, leaving the land grieved. Neto presented this figuratively:
– “Stunning perfume of flowers” describes African ways.
– “In the infamous sensation” points to Africans living their lives based on their unique customs and culture, and are excited about their lives.
– “Crushed in the forest by wickedness of iron and fire” compares the demolition and destruction of African social structure and culture to how forests are destroyed through burning and felling of trees. In the face of these tools of destruction, the tree is helpless. The colonialists imposed themselves on African lands, destroying things that made the people. This led to the loss of identity and related themes, themes that some other poets wrote about. For instance, Elizabeth Kamara of Sierra Leone wrote about the loss of identity of the people of Sierra Leone due to colonization in her poem, “New Tongue”.
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Stanza 3
The grieved lands of Africa
In the dream soon undone in jinglings of jailer's keys
And in the stifled laughter and victorious voice of laments
And in the unconscious brilliance of hidden sensations
Of the grieved lands of Africa
(Lines 12-16)
Stanza 3 bemoans the destruction of the African dream. The people sold into slavery, and the ones oppressed by the colonial masters, all lose their dreams and their freedom, and their joy is stifled. These slave masters and colonialists were excited and entertained by the pains of the people of Africa and motivated to stop them from attaining their dreams. This alludes to the slave trade and the ill treatment meted out to the slaves and the suffering and imprisonment sanctioned to those who led the struggle for independence across Africa, of which Agostinho Neto was one of those who bore this burden firsthand for Angola.
Stanza 4
Alive
In themselves and with us alive
They bubble up in dreams
Decked with dances by baobabs over balances
By the antelope
In the perpetual alliance of everything that lives
(Lines 17-22)
Neto, in stanza 4, states that Africa remains alive despite the challenges and efforts to bring it to ruin. So the stanza opens with the word “alive” (Line 17). The lands of Africa are not just alive but also bubble with dreams (Line 18), and decked with dances, the same culturally flavoured dances by the baobab trees (Line 19). This shows that African people refuse to yield their spirit to pain and trauma. They refuse to let go of who they are. The use of words like “baobabs” in line 20 and “antelope’ in line 21, Neto captures the essence of the lands of Africa, choosing a plant and animal native to them, things unique to the people.
Lastly, the people dance “in the perpetual alliance of everything that lives”, a testament to the vibrancy and energy that comes with African dances. Despite their dreams being crushed, they sing and dance and shout out in hope for a better future.
Stanza 5
They shout out the sound of life
Shout it
Even the corpses thrown up by the Atlantic
In putrid offering of incoherence
And death and in the clearness
Of rivers
(Lines 23-28)
In stanza 5, Neto expressed how the fate of African transported to European countries for slavery who died at sea does not discourage Africans from shouting out their hope for life and the African ways. These dead slaves he described as “corpses thrown up by the Atlantic” (Line 25). The putrid stench of the corpses and death is incoherent with the sound of life, which the people of Africa make. This shows that Africa may never recover from the damage the slave trade and colonization did to it, or may take so many generations to come to glimpse true freedom.
Stanza 6
They live
The grieved lands of Africa
In the harmonious sound of consciences
Contained in the honest blood of men
In the strong desire of men
In the sincerity
In the pure and simple rightness of the stars’
Existence
(Lines 29-36)
Neto maintains that Africans live and continue to hold strong to their lives and beliefs. Their sincere desire for freedom manifested in their fight for independence. Africans sacrifice for their survival and the lives of their generations to come (Line 31-33). They fought for their child to rise and shine as “stars”, simply existing without any apologies (Lines 35-36).
Stanza 7
They live
The grieved lands of Africa
Because we are living
And are imperishable particles
Of the grieved lands of Africa.
(Stanza 37-41)
“They live” opens stanza seven. This is a repetition of the opening for stanza 6. Neto concludes that despite all that has happened and their effects on Africa, causing her people to grieve, Africans continue to live. They live focused on sustaining not just their lives but their heritage. This asserts that the grieved lands of Africa will not die, nor is it dying.
“Because we are living
And are imperishable particles
Of the grieved lands of Africa.”
(Lines 39-41)
The Title of the Poem
The title “The Grieved Lands of Africa” is positioned to capture the grief of a people who were subjected to four hundred years of slavery, being captured, sold, and carried away to many far places around the world. As if this were not enough, their lands were divided and colonized by foreign countries for another one hundred years.
Neto carefully chose the words in the title to condition the hearts of the readers to expect the content of the poem – the suffering of the people of these grieved lands, their pains, struggles, oppressions, hope, and fight for freedom.
Although the poet hails from Angola, he did not restrict the poem to his country’s experience only. The title shows that all the lands of Africa that had experienced these inhumane acts of the slave traders and colonial masters bear the same losses and trauma. These lands grieve
- The loss of their people (sold as slaves or killed for opposing the colonial masters, and to war as they fought for independence).
- The loss of their culture (the colonizers forced their language on the people, desecrated altars in favour of a different religion, changed their clothing and styles, etc).
- The loss of their natural resources and economic power (natural resources from the lands of Africa were carted away to other countries, African arts were sent to museums abroad, even the earnings of the African lads are held in banks abroad, etc).
Therefore, cementing the relevance of the title, “The Grieved Lands of Africa,” and the word “grieve” was repeated many times in the poem.
Language and Diction
To portray the grief of Africans, Neto chose words and expressions that make clear allusions to the cause of the harm that grieved the lands of Africa. Examples include:
- “tearful woes of ancient and modern slaves”.
- “the wickedness of iron and fire”.
- “jinglings of jailer’s keys”.
The simple terms used in the poem make it easy to read and understand. With words carefully crafted to expose the effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonization, Neto was able to drive home the message of the poem – the grief of the lands of Africa.
Mood and tone
The mood of the poem is somber, reflective, and persistent. The mood is created by the tone of the poem, which is mostly somber and sad, laced with pain and hope. The mention of slavery and the wickedness perpetrated by the slave masters to crush the people demonstrates agony and the intolerable situation in which the lands of Africa find themselves. Yet, speaking of the dances and shouting out “the sounds of life” (Stanza 5) speaks of hope for a better tomorrow despite the present circumstances.