LITERATURE; AFRICAN POETRY: VANITY by BIRAGO DIOP.

VANITY by Birago Diop
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If we tell,gently,gently
All that we shall one day have to tell
Who then will hear our voices without laughter?
Sad complaining voices of beggars
Who indeed will hear them without laughter?  {5}
If we cry roughly of our torments
Ever increasing from the start of things
What eyes will watch our large mouths
Shaped by the laughter of big children
What eyes will watch our large mouths?  {10}
What hearts will listen to our clamouring?
What ear to our pitiful anger?
Which grows in us like a tumor
In the black depth of our plaintive throats?
When our dead comes with their dead  {15}
When they have spoken to us in their clumsy voices
Just as our ears were deaf
To their cries,to their wild appeals
Just as our ears were deaf
They have left on the earth their cries  {20}
In the air,on the water.
Where they have traced their signs for us blind,deaf and unworthy sons
Who see nothing of what they have made.
In the air,on the water,where they have traced their signs
And since we did not understand the dead  {25}
Since we have never listened to their cries
If we weep gently,gently
If we cry roughly to our torments
What heart will listen to our clamouring
What ear to our sobbing hearts?  {30}
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POEM ANALYSIS
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The poem opens with a rhetorical question asking, if Africans explain the causes of their predicament, who will hear them without laughing. The poem postulates that Africans' current state is as a result of the effects of colonialism when Africans neglected their culture and adopted the European culture. The poet presupposes that Africa is doomed thus,nobody will hear their, ''Sad complaining voices of beggars'' without laughing.
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In stanza 2, the poet laments further that if Africans ''Cry roughly'' of their torments which started from the colonial times which he refers to as, ''... the start of things'', he wonders who will watch their ''large mouths'' when they yell for help.
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In stanza 3, the poet continues to lament that nobody will be emotional (represented by 'heart') enough to listen to their 'clamouring' and if by chance, they realize their predicament and grow angry, nobody will hear them as he terms any late realisation and anger as, 'pitiful'.
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In stanza 4 & 5, the poet supports the reoccurring belief that the dead serve as ancestors and protect the living from evil forces. In these stanzas,the poet wonders that when the living dies (our dead) and meet the ancestors (their dead) whose advice has fallen on deaf ears and whose 'wild appeals' have been ignored, they (the living, now dead) would remember their warnings and regret not ever listening. The poet continues that they (the ancestors) left  their signs on earth, water and air for their ''blind, deaf and unworthy sons'' who see 'nothing' they have made.
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In stanza 6, the poet continues that since the Africans did not heed the advice of their ancestors, he wonders who will hear their 'sobbing hearts' when they 'weep gently'.
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FIGURES OF SPEECH
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1. Metaphor: In line 4, the poet directly compares the cries of Africans to the ''Sad complaining voices of beggars''
2. Simile: In line 13 - 15,the poet compares two unfamiliar things. The poet compares their 'pitiful anger' to a throat tumor.
3. Repetition: This is used in stanza 2 of the poem - ''What eyes will watch our large mouths''
4. Rhetorical question: This is used through out the poem for emphasis sake. E.g, ''What heart will listen to our clamouring?''
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MOOD AND TONE
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The mood of the poet is that of worry and pity and the tone of the poem is lamentation,condemnation and pity.
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THEMES
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1. Effects of colonialism.
2. Vanity of life
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Read also: THE PULLEY by George Herbert
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