Africa (Maya Angelou poem) Literary Elements

The speaker is an omniscient narrator who has either witnessed the events being described or is aware of them. The identity of the speaker is unspecified, but one may assume that Angelou is speaking of her ancestors' history and perhaps even what she witnessed while living in Africa.

The poem is written in A-B-C-B meter.

“Deserts her hair” (metaphor) – A woman’s hair represents the soft sands of the African desert. The metaphor emphasizes the continent’s natural beauty.

“Golden her feet” (metaphor) – This metaphor is a bit ambiguous, as it’s unclear which part of Africa is “golden.” The speaker may be referencing the sun or golden fields. The mention of “feet” is equally ambiguous, but the overall message is that Africa is as stunningly beautiful as a woman.

“Mountains her breasts” (metaphor) – The mountains of Africa are characterized as a woman’s breasts. This metaphor depicts a woman as both sensual and maternal. Breasts can be considered sexual, whereas they are also a means of nourishing one’s young. Africa is represented as a kind of motherland in the poem, so the dichotomy of a woman as both sensual and maternal represents both the vulnerability of Africa when it was ravaged by oppressors and its status as a homeland that gave “birth” to its children, the African people.

“Two Niles her tears” (metaphor) – The area where the Niles River splits into two branches is given a sad connotation. Africa is not just a beautiful woman, but a weeping one. The continent will suffer, as the poem later explains.

“Two Niles her tears” (alliteration) – The repetition of the consonant “t” flows off the tongue, much like the tears of the woman figure/Africa. The “t” also creates a kind of “ticking” sound when read aloud, like the sound of a drop of water (or a tear falling).

“Sold her strong sons” (alliteration) – The repeated consonant “s” is a very heavy-sounding phrase, mirroring the heaviness and sadness of the event described.

“Remember her riches” (alliteration) – The repeated consonant “r” summons the listener powerfully to appreciate the beauty and worth of the African continent.

“Rime white and cold” (assonance) – The long “i” sound in “rime” and “white” read back-to-back creates a choppy phrase, like the choppiness of the sea. The events that are about to transpire will be stormy and turbulent.

Africa is depicted as a woman lying down with the repetition of the phrase, “thus she has lain.” However, the phrase bears two different meanings in the poem. At the beginning of the verse, African is reposing peacefully. The image is peaceful, like a mother lying down and embracing a sleeping child. Africa embraces its people, giving them comfort and richness with its diverse natural resources. However, once the “brigands” arrive and exert violence against the Africans, Africa’s “repose” is no longer peaceful. By the second stanza, one can see that the oppressors have knocked down the African people through slavery and violence. The continent is now suffering. By the poem’s conclusion, there is yet another example of irony: Although the white oppressors thought they had conquered the Africans, the sheer amount of suffering the Africans experienced actually motivated them to get up again and fight.

Political poetry, African-American poetry.

The setting is Africa, most specifically during the 1970s when the poem was written. At this time, many African colonies were gaining political independence, but South Africans were still struggling with racial segregation in the form of apartheid. When this poem was written, political tides were shifting and Africans were slowly regaining their identity and freedom.

The tone varies throughout the poem. The first stanza is peaceful and shows reverence, describing the continent’s beauty and peacefulness. The second stanza has an anguished tone, describing the invasion of the Europeans and the enslavement of the African people. The last stanza shows power and resilience, condemning the painful past but expressing hope for the future.

The protagonists are the African people. Their peaceful lives and traditions were upended by the invasion of European slave traders, the antagonists. On a grander scale, the protagonists are also the descendants of the Africans—African-Americans like Maya Angelou. These descendants later had to fight for their civil rights against the descendants of the European slave traders—their white antagonists in America.

The African content is being subjected to slavery and violence. Families are being ripped apart. Women are being raped and forced to bear the children of their white oppressors. Both men and women are being forced to do hard labor. Religious freedom has been taken away, and the African heritage is being threatened.

The second stanza is the climax of the poem. The European slave traders arrive on the African continent and act violently toward the natives. The Africans are killed, raped, and enslaved, falling to the ground—in a figurative sense—as the guns of the white oppressors shoot at them.

The use of the present continuous tense in the third and final stanza indicates that the African people will continue to resist their oppressors. Just as the Africans began to “rise” in the 1960s and 1970s and regain their political independence, the African-Americans of the same era began to fight for their civil rights in America.

The phrase, “took her daughters” is a form of understatement. African women were literally taken from their families, but the European slave traders went much further. These women experienced extreme sexual violence, and many of them bore children for their slavemasters. “Took” might, therefore, refer to virginity having been "taken"—in this context, by force.

The mention of the “two Niles” in stanza one alludes to the majestic African river—the longest in the world. Two are specified, as there is a point where the river branches off. “Churched her with Jesus” is also an allusion to the Christian teachings the Europeans enforced when they arrived in Africa.

“Jesus” refers to the Christian religion to which the Africans were exposed when the Europeans arrived in Africa.

The entire poem personifies Africa as a beautiful and vulnerable woman. The first stanza describes the majestic beauty of the continent by mentioning the physical attributes of a woman’s body. Africa is later “bled” by the guns of the slave traders in stanza two, as a woman might bleed if shot. In stanza three, Africa “screams” as a woman might do if she were to experience pain and despair. The word “history” is also personified, as the speaker describes it as being “slain.” The white oppressors have killed, or destroyed, the Africans’ history—their families, their traditions, and the heritage by which a people can be remembered in the future. However, Africa is eventually triumphant, as she “strides” confidently at the poem’s conclusion. The African people have lifted themselves up again to take back their power and their collective identity.

The metaphors used in the first stanza are examples of hyperbole. The description of the continent’s geography elevates Africa to the status of a beautiful woman. The image of the continent lying down—as mentioned in the poem’s one repeated phrase—illustrates both the peaceful repose and the battered condition of the African people. The personification of history as “slain” also suggests that the culture of the Africans was not merely taken away, but murdered.