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    A Far Cry From Africa by Derek Walcott

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    Rupam
    The document provides an analysis of the poem "A Far Cry from Africa" by Derek Walcott. It discusses how the poem deals with the violence and cultural clash during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya against British colonial rule. Through symbols like the landscape, flies, and worms, Walcott conveys how the violence has destroyed Kenya's natural beauty and portrayed Africans as less than human. The title "A Far Cry from Africa" represents the extreme difference between the expectation of Africa's natural paradise and the bloody reality caused by the conflict.

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    A Far Cry From Africa by Derek Walcott

    Uploaded by

    Rupam
    453 views2 pages
    The document provides an analysis of the poem "A Far Cry from Africa" by Derek Walcott. It discusses how the poem deals with the violence and cultural clash during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya against British colonial rule. Through symbols like the landscape, flies, and worms, Walcott conveys how the violence has destroyed Kenya's natural beauty and portrayed Africans as less than human. The title "A Far Cry from Africa" represents the extreme difference between the expectation of Africa's natural paradise and the bloody reality caused by the conflict.

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    A far Cry from Africa by Derek Walcott

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    A far Cry from Africa by Derek Walcott

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    The document provides an analysis of the poem "A Far Cry from Africa" by Derek Walcott. It discusses how the poem deals with the violence and cultural clash during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya against British colonial rule. Through symbols like the landscape, flies, and worms, Walcott conveys how the violence has destroyed Kenya's natural beauty and portrayed Africans as less than human. The title "A Far Cry from Africa" represents the extreme difference between the expectation of Africa's natural paradise and the bloody reality caused by the conflict.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    453 views2 pages

    A Far Cry From Africa by Derek Walcott

    Uploaded by

    Rupam
    The document provides an analysis of the poem "A Far Cry from Africa" by Derek Walcott. It discusses how the poem deals with the violence and cultural clash during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya against British colonial rule. Through symbols like the landscape, flies, and worms, Walcott conveys how the violence has destroyed Kenya's natural beauty and portrayed Africans as less than human. The title "A Far Cry from Africa" represents the extreme difference between the expectation of Africa's natural paradise and the bloody reality caused by the conflict.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    A FAR CRY FROM AFRICA BY DEREK WALCOTT

    “How can I turn from Africa and live?”. _Derek Walcott


    INTRODUCTION
    A Far Cry from Africa is a two-stanza poem by Derek Walcot that based around
    the struggle in Africa. The poem was first published in 1962. The tone of the poem is
    nostalgic. There is first person narrative in the poem. The poem is written in free
    verse.
    Derek Walcott was a Saint Lucian poet especially remember for his famous
    poem “Omeros”, “Names” and “A Far Cry from Africa”. He won the Nobel Prize
    in Literature. His writings are based on the epic theme of violence, cruelty, cultural
    clash etc.
    THEMES
    The main themes in the novel are violence, cruelty, cultural clash.
    Violence and Cruelty
    At the beginning of the poem, Walcott describes a wind ''ruffling the tawny
    pelt of Africa'' of Africa. The wind could be a literal wind which refers the Mau
    Mau revolt against the British and the bloody violence. British colonial officials
    labelled the Mau Mau a terrorist group and declared a state of emergency in 1952.
    Kenya is the most beautiful land in Africa. Poet describes the brownish-orange
    colours found in the landscape. The poet says that the wildlife and beasts rules the
    beautiful land. But the violence between the Mau Mau and the British changed the
    landscape and beauty of Kenya so much that is not longer recognizable. The poet tells
    that instead of noticing the bright natural colour, he see blood and dead bodies. The
    land is no longer a “paradise” but a place of bloody violence and death.
    The poet also describes that how African people have been historically
    portrayed as less than human, savages or beasts.
    He uses several symbols to represent violence. Walcott compares Africa to an
    animal with a “tawny pelt”. Here tawny means brownish-orange colours found in
    the landscape of Africa. So the tawny pelt represents the land as paradise.
    Walcott uses flies to symbolize Kenya’s Kikuyu tribe. He says that “corpses
    are scattered” through this paradise tat is filled with bloodsucking flies. The flies
    and the corpses symbolises how the violence has destroyed the beauty of Africa’s
    landscape.
    Walcott uses a worm to symbolize the British forces.
    POST COLONIAL POEM
    The poem as a postcolonial poem deals with the representation of the
    culture of Kenya’s Kikuyu tribe.

    THE CONCLUSION, TITLE


    The title indicates the extreme difference between expectation and reality. There
    is “a far cry” between its natural beauty and violence.

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