This week I have been immersed in African Literature and I have been reading Poems of Black Africa, edited by Wole Soyinka. The anthology, although lengthy, is filled with beautiful African verse and I thought I’d share one of my favourites. The poem is titled African Poetry by Agostinho Neto.
Out of the horizon
there are fires
and the dark silhouette of the beaters
with arms outstretched,
in the air, the green smell of burning palms.
African poetry
In the street
a line of Bailundu bearers
tremble under the weight of their load
in the room
a mulatto girl with meek eyes
colours her face with rice powder and rouge
a woman wriggles her hips under a garish cloth
on the bed
a man, sleepless, dreams
of buying knives and forks so he can eat at table
in the sky the glow
of fires
and the silhouette of black men dancing
with arms outstretched,
in the air, the hot music of marimbas
African poetry
and in the streets the bearers
in the room the mulatto girl
on the bed the man, sleepless
The burnings consume
consume
the hot earth with horizons afire.
Agostinho Neto was born in Angola to a pastor and a professor. Neto studied medicine at the University of Lisbon and was a practicing physician. He was imprisoned on a number of occasions for his political activity with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. After Angola became independent in 1975, Agostinho Neto became the newly independent nation’s first president.
Thank you for reading.
