Brathwaite is relating the history of South Africa, of the continent itself and the people who have lived there. He accomplishes this in three parts. The first is titled "Bermudas." Starting all the way at the beginning of time, he describes the oceans and the evolution of fish into animals on land. Africa quickly becomes a land rich with jewels, mountains, vegetation, and unlimited unspeakable natural beauty. After ten thousand years people appear. Early civilization is concerned with food, shelter, and travel. Meanwhile, the earth continues to change. Land masses shift under the water's surface until the tectonic plates settle where humans know them now.
"Bread" is the second section. Brathwaite continues his description with the development of society using the metaphor of bread. Life is shaped according to the natural resources of the land. Bread is placed on the table, just as people are forming an economy and farming. The Christian religion, probably brought by early European missionaries, makes an appearance with the reference to Isaac. The proposed sacrifice mentioned is that of the environment to human progress, but Isaac is spared just like the earth is preserved as humans learn more about conservation and agriculture.
Generations pass. Society advances to the point of self-reformation. Africa is consumed with wars. Needing relief, people turn more seriously to religion. The bread is finished. To prevent it going stale, the bread must either be eaten or water added. Water takes the form of moral regard. The people continue to fight and starve and sell one another as slaves. Balaam, the prophet who refused to listen to God until his donkey reprimanded him in speech, makes an appearance. He is the characterization of the humans: stubborn and refusing to talk to one another. As morality declines even further, technology advances. Sexuality is the ruling force, demonstrated in a wife waiting for her unfaithful husband to return home. Now there are cars and electricity and mass production. People lose hope, becoming increasingly cynical.
"Soweto" begins with the arrival of the twentieth century. Hollywood exists now, and the people are shown a white-washed depiction of African life. Africans are depicted as a primitive people, savages. In South Africa, Soweto is a town which became critical during Apartheid. It is the place where Brathwaite sets the rebellion of the native Africans. Through animal imagery again, the people are depicted rising to correct the false image of themselves they see being propagated. Slavery in Africa isn't outlawed in some places until the mid twentieth century. During this period of oppression, the slaves endure captivity, murder, violence, and more.
Then there is world war. Germany brings the war to Africa in its quest for world domination. Along with the rest of the world, Africa watches the destruction resulting from Robert Oppenheimer's research: the atomic bomb. The Third Reich falls, and focus returns to the homeland. Racism in South Africa culminates in the establishment of strict segregation under Apartheid. Little black children watch their heroes murdered by the white police force for no reason. Finally, In Soweto, the uprising begins. The native Africans overthrow Apartheid city by city until the violence has ended.
The clash of religion and rebellion comes to fruition in the 1960s. The language breaks down here most likely in imitation of the postmodern movement's emphasis on fragmentation and freedom of form. Additionally, Africa itself is fragmenting into small nations with the end of colonization. This process is fraught with war and death. The youth are forced to leave school to become soldiers. Following the model of America's hippy revolution, the young people look for a release in the form of drugs. Generations had smoked marijuana as part of Rastifari tradition, but now the youth seek out the enlightenment of their grandparents from the same drug without the religious implications. They're angry.
Brathwaite switches directions at the end. Going back in history, he covers the Herero revolution. The Germans had conquered the Herero people in Nigeria. In the bloodiest massacre the land had ever seen, the Germans took their land by force. Farther back, there are references to Queen Sheba in Egypt and the Rastafari in Ethiopia. In 1904 the few surviving Herero regain their freedom and overthrow the German invaders. The language breaks down at the end into single words or short phrases. How will the world end? From nuclear bomb to volcanic eruption, the poem ends with a pronouncement of fate: boom.
