The speaker
The speaker/narrator of the poem is an unidentified person with an omniscient, or all-knowing, point of view. The speaker may have witnessed the events described in the poem, or perhaps is simply aware of these events and is relaying the history of Africa. She conveys great empathy and compassion for its people and expresses hope for the continent’s future.
Africa
The continent itself is personified throughout the poem as a beautiful woman. Various geographical features such as deserts, mountains, and rivers are described as the features of this woman. She is both oppressed and powerful, broken and triumphant. Africa is represented as a mother land—specifically, the mother land of Angelou’s ancestry.
The listener
The listener/reader is unspecified. The speaker appears to be relating the story of Africa to most anyone who is willing to listen. She is asking the listener to remember the pain of Africa’s past and to recognize that Africa will rise above its troubles once again. The speaker is asking all of humanity to recognize the atrocities that have taken place in her motherland.
Brigands
“Brigands” is a synonym for bandits. The brigands referenced in the poem are most likely the Europeans who colonized Africa and changed the lives of the natives dramatically. They invaded the continent, killed many natives, and enslaved countless others by taking them to the New World. Those who remained in Africa were subjected to the rules and religion of the Europeans. The brigands robbed the Africans of their way of life and, in many cases, their actual lives.
Daughters and sons
The daughters and sons are the Africans who were taken or tormented by Europeans. Both men and women were subjected to abuse and hard labor when enslaved, and many women were raped and bore the children of their masters. The use of the words “daughter” and “son” as opposed to “woman” and “man” emphasizes that families were torn apart. Without daughters and sons, there are no future generations. The African people are in danger of dying out if family units are dissolved.
Jesus
While Jesus is often depicted positively in other Angelou poems as a source of faith and spiritual comfort, the context is different in this poem. In this verse, Jesus represents the religious beliefs that the Europeans forced upon the Africans. While spirituality may have given many slaves hope and comfort, such Christian ideals were still imposed on the Africans. They lost their spiritual heritage and had a foreign one imposed on them. Jesus therefore represents the religious oppression of the Africans.
