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.
http://blogginginparis.wordpress.com/2004/08/22/afrique-africa-by-david-diop-1927-1960/
So you like this poem. Learnt at a young age yet enduringly inspiring and increasingly profound.
An ‘impetuous son’ like unto yourself has modified the 15th line to read ‘No’ to the whip. I solemnly agree. The whip may be corrupt leaders feeding fat on the wealth of the land, the whip may be the continued extraction and retraction of knowledge, the whip may be the instability that causes sorrow and disillusionment which continues the abeyance of development. Whatever the whip may be, our generation says ‘No!’.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi friend, I came to your blog while I was working on David Diop for my blog. This is one of my most favourite poem.
~Ganesh
Simon, I didn’t modify it. I copied it from that link.
Ganesh, nice to know. please be kind to drop a link to your blog when you are through with.
David Diop’s poem has been a motivation to me even though very few of his poems survived the airplane crash that killed him at the young age of 33.
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Oh coming back after a long! The link to David Diop is linked with my name on the above comment (not this one, this will go to my wordpress blog)!! Sorry, took almost 2 years to come back!