f Postcolonial poetry in English f

There is no question that the spread of the English language

globally had to do with the rise of British imperialism. The British
Empire began in the late 16th c. and expanded through the 17th, 18th
centuries to: the Caribbean, India, Canada, Africa, south Asia,
Singapore, Australia, New Zealand & even the United States.
Eventually by the end of the 19th c. and by the beginning of the 20th
c., the British Empire was spread over about a quarter of the land
mass of the world. At its height, it was one of the largest empires
in the history of the world. When it came to the Postcolonial
period, that‘s considered the aftermath of European imperialism,
Colonized countries started to use English language in a universal
way one reason ;to use it as decolonizing weapon that can be
turned on the others’( colonizers) heads, and another to establish
their ( the colonized) own mythology & culture. Also to propose it
as a cure for their own wounded history that was full of brutality,
massive death, destruction. They attempted to re- establish a new
culture & civilization that gives them a new birth, hope, for a better
future.

After granting independence , those ex-colonies started to

question about their own mythology & identity among the
others ( colonizers) ,their main concerns were : Nation , Culture,
Gender , Racism , Tradition and Modernity – that arose in response
to the effects of European imperialism . Consequently the only
way to repress these deep concerns, were manifested in literature
written in English. As they tried to fit themselves among English
literature as a kind of nationalistic, anti-colonialistic attitude.
Especially poetry , that was the broadest umbrella under which
these themes were discussed .Only Poetry has the uncanny
ability to present the complexity of a culture that has been
colonized & to present the self . Poetry is much focused,
concentrated than any other fictional works, as in few lines one can
get the whole meaning of complex subject matters. Hitherto
Postcolonial Poetry, major themes treated in it and the technical
styles used to represent it would be the star of the show here,
especially African Poetry.

The role of poetry, for instance in African literature, has been

highly effective in providing the people with the needful
inspiration and the necessary insight. The language of poetry, for
the African people, is a source of learning and becoming aware of
their destiny, the knowledge of their past, present and the possible
future. These and several other ideas fuelled African poetry in
English. For the African poets, poetry became a powerful medium
through which they conveyed to the world audience, not only their
"despairs and hopes, the enthusiasm and empathy, the thrill of joy
and the stab of pain...”.But also a nation's history as it moved from
" freedom to slavery, from slavery to revolution, from revolution to
independence and from independence to tasks of reconstruction
which further involve situations of failure and disillusion”.

A large proportion of African poetry in English in the

postcolonial period shows a preference for a language closer to
speech, rather than sticking to rigid literary diction and syntax.
They preferred free verse or ‘verse libéré’ rather than traditional
British pattern of meter & structure of stanzas. This technique was
one way of revolt, or freeing themselves from the imperialistic
effects, seeking their own identity .Also using colour imagery and
racist metaphors were of frequent use in their poetry .The use of
irony & sarcasm were extended in their poems as well as
paradoxical images, love and death, light & dark, night and day
.Which all functioned as an indirect way of decolonizing, revolting
against the state of nowhere that they reached. When one reads
African poetry, he finds that, colonization was at its harshest in
Africa. As history stands proof, it was highly exploited and
savaged by the ambitious 'white man'. This experience is on the
minds of all thinking poets. Despite getting 'uhuru' or
independence, the bitterness returns again and again.

One theme is the unforgettable colonial past and the

National identity which comes angrily alive in a poem by
Kenya's poet Joseph Kareyaku:

It is not as you suppose, your lands,

your cars, your money, or your cities
I covet...
It is what gores me most,
that in my own house and in my very own home
You should eye me and all that's mine
with that practiced, long-drawn, insulting sneer.

In a poem entitled "If you want to know me”, Noemi De

Sousa writes remorsefully of Africa’s apt themes of: poverty,
slavery & Racial discrimination, by effectively using
the literary device of personification, thus:
 This is what I am
empty sockets despairing of possessing of life
a mouth torn open in an anguished wound...
a body tattooed with wounds seen and unseen
from the harsh whip strokes of slavery
tortured and magnificent
proud and mysterious
Africa from head to foot
this is what I am.

Nigerian poet, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's masterful

irony, skillfully exploits anger at the Racist attitude in his famous
poem, "Telephone Conversation". After negotiating for a house
on rent on telephone, he tells the landlady of his being a black
African. He was rudely shocked when he was 'caught...foully' by
the lady's query regarding his darkness, thus:
“HOW DARK...?"
I had not misheard...
"Are you light?
OR VERY DARK..."

The "ill- mannered silence" between the two is filled with

Racial images such as ;'stench of rancid breath of public - hide-
and-speak ,Red booth, Red- Pillar-box, Red double-tiered,
Omnibus squelching tar' that subsume the age-old and
hopelessness and violent colour-conflict. He also used the
Capitalization style in writing words donating colours, for
emphasis.

One of the most important phases in African poetry is

Negritude, a powerful literary movement founded by Aimé
Césaire of Senegal. Among other things, the Negritude poets
favored the themes of: Nation, Glorification of Africa. They
worshipped anything African in sparkling rhymes. Anger at
injustice given to the colonized Africa is also one of the oft-
repeated themes of their poetry. Here's an example from David
Diop's poem "Africa.”, hence:

Africa, my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs....
Is this you, this back that is bent
this back that breaks under the weight of
humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying yes to the whip under the midday
sun.....
That is Africa your Africa
That grows again patiently obstinately
And its fruit gradually acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.

Dennis Brutus, a South African poet, was subjected to

torture by a cruel regime. His writing is full of significant technical
imagery of love contrasted with images of death, thus:
 Desolate
Your face gleams up
Beneath me in the dusk
Abandoned
A wounded dove
Helpless
Beneath the knife of love.

Brutus’ affirmation of Themes of: Love for Africa and

Hope shines radiantly through the following verses by the use of
light & glowing images as a signifier of Hope:

Dark Africa!
My dawn is here;
Behold! I see
A rich warm glow in the East,
And my day will soon be here.

Adoration of Africa is a fit topic for many African poets.

Perhaps this is their reaction to the self glorification and the
civilizing zeal of the imperial powers of Europe. Bernard Dadie’s
poem treats the Racism theme in a different way; he considers it a
blessing, through using contrasting colour imagery. He says in a
poem entitled "I Thank God",

I thank you God for creating me black.

White is the colour for special occasions
Black the colour for every day
And I have carried the World since the dawn of
time
And my laugh over the World, through the night
 creates
The Day.

Some of the poets have realized the futility of fighting over

issues such as Race, Self-Respect and National identity. What
can be more illuminating is seeking on contrary ; Economical,
Industrial development, in order to flourish their present and
future instead of living in the ashes of the past.Lenrie Peter's
poems are short on the print, but deep on one's mind like the one
cited below:

Open the gates

To East and West
Bring in all
That's good and best.

Whereas memorable lines of Peter's poem "On a wet

September Morning" with their sheer beauty of visual , auditory
imagery .Through which he’s celebrating the themes of: Universal
brotherhood & the oneness of the human family ; encouraging
globalization & seeking a better future through trade & unity
among all countries of mother earth . He’s encouraging his
readers to forget the past with all its misery & to enjoy the mirth of
the present & the future.
 The echo burst in me
Like a great harmonic chord-
Violins of love and happy voices
The pagan trumpet blast
Swamping the lamentation of the horn
Then the heraldic drums
In slow crescendo rising
Crashed though my senses
Into a new present
Which is the future.

After this brief glance at African poetry, we realize that it is

not simply an offshoot of British literary tradition. Despite the
many disadvantages such as a scarred past, colonial trauma,
expression in a foreign medium, inability to travel abroad, unstable
economic and political state of affairs in their respective nations,
lack of educational opportunities. The postcolonial poet still has
effortless creative capacity. It is an enriching combination of oral
literature, native experience and imported tradition of writing in
English that made African poetry a tremendous success both at
home and abroad. The 'Black Orpheus' (African Poets) is no longer
an unknown or an unwanted quantity but a fascinating and often
enviable and beneficent literary marvel from what was ignorantly
termed as the 'dark continent'.To conclude the word post in post-
colonial poetry doesn’t just mean after but it also means around,
through, out of, alongside and against & that’s how postcolonial
poetry was presented. And it goes without saying that Postcolonial
Poets succeeded in entertaining our wit and presenting their
original gems on the crown of English literature.
RAn Academic Research on
Post colonial PoetryR N

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DMade by: C R
RRiham ashraf ahmed D Mohamed.
R SHROUQ YOUSSEF ZEKRY. N

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N R D R
D Bibliography:
Jahan Ramazani, The Hybrid Muse: Postcolonial Poetry in
English (2001).
Ismail S Talib, The Language of Postcolonial Literatures:
An Introduction (2002).

Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Post colonialism (1998). R N

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