Much of the poetry that emerged from post-colonized Africa adhered to the Negritude movement, an affirmation of African soul. Primarily the British and French colonized Africa, creating language barriers between the city-states. Anglophone writers, such as Gabriel Okara, Kwesi Brew, and Christopher Okigbo, reminisced of their African roots in Britain's English language. French speaking Africans, like Leopold Sedar Senghor, a monumental leader of the Negritude movement, and David Diop, were referred to as Francophone poets. In reality, these two sub-groups are not as distinct as one may presume. Both the Anglophone and Francophone poets of colonized Africa use conflict, tone, symbolism, and point of view to express cultural hostility and celebration of African heritage.
The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down, an Anglophone poem by Gabriel Okara, reflects the disappointment of departing Africa, and ultimately African culture. Okara creates a dichotomy between America, where he was studying while he wrote Snowflakes, and his homeland, Africa. “And the branches winter-stripped and nude, slowly with the weight of the weightless snow bow like grief-stricken mourners as white funeral cloth is slowly unrolled.” The author uses symbolism of snow and earth to demonstrate how dead this new culture seems compared to his African roots.
Of course, the poem's point of view is biased, seeing as Okara is African by descent and in soul. The next stanza observes Okara dreaming of his past. By placing this vision in the form of a dream, the author expresses how unreal the sensation of reminiscing seems. “I dreamed not of earth dying and elms a vigil keeping. I dreamed of birds, black birds flying in my inside.” Okara emits a type of celebratory pride while musing over his homeland. In fact, a more weightless tone emerges in this stanza. The conflict of cultural hostility plays a significant role in Snowflakes.
“And I dreamed the uprooters tired and limp, leaning on my roots-their abandoned roots.” Okara must be referring to those Africans who voluntarily adopted European ideals after colonization. “But on their palms they balanced the blinding orbs and frowned with schisms on their brows-for the suns reached not the brightest of gold!” Once these Africans betray their heritage, Okara argues they will never be fully African again. The cultures are intertwined toward the end of Snowflakes.
“Then I awoke. I awoke to the silently falling snow and bent-backed elms bowing and swaying to the winter wind like white-robed Moslems salaaming at evening prayer, and the earth lying inscrutable like the face of a god in a shrine.” Okara uses a lighter tone than he does in the first stanza, both referring to his present culture. It seems as if the author has awoken from his dream and discovers Africa in his present environment. By imagining Moslems, an African symbol, in the American snow, Okara links his two cultures.
Piano and Drums, another Anglophone poem by Okara, focuses primarily on the dichotomy between European and African culture. “Then I hear a wailing piano solo speaking of complex ways in tear-furrowed concerto; of far-away lands and new horizons with coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint, crescendo.” The piano is the author's symbolism for European traditions. Okara downplays the authenticity of European culture by labeling it highbrow. “But lost in the labyrinth of its complexities, it ends in the middle of a phrase at a daggerpoint.”
Certain aristocratic customs of the Europeans are not welcomed in Africa, compelling Okara to devalue the effect of this culture. The author's tone, while commenting on European culture, remains degrading. However, Okara begins the poem by celebrating his African roots. “I hear jungle drums telegraphing the mystic rhythm, urgent, raw like bleeding flesh, speaking of primal youth and the beginning.” The drumbeat of raw emotion is a metaphor for African culture. “I'm in my mother's lap a suckling.” This also symbolizes the author's African roots. Okara is reminiscing of his homeland before colonization.
Again, the author's point of view is biased because of his attachment to African traditions. The cultural hostility comes to a screeching halt in the final stanza. “And I lost in the morning mist of an age at a riverside keep wandering in the mystic rhythm of jungle drums and the concerto.” The author finds himself lost in these diverse civilizations, unable to fit in with either extreme.
Black Woman, a Francophone poem by Leopold Sedar Senghor, reinstates the beauty of blackness in the minds of Africans. The point of view of Black Woman is that of a Negritude Movement leader, which explains the celebratory tone.
“I grew up in your shadow. The softness of your hands shielded my eyes, and now at the height of Summer and Noon, from the crest of a charred hilltop I discover you, Promised Land.” Senghor uses dark symbolism, like shadow, as a metaphor for African roots. At the same time, the author is acknowledging the cultural hostility by comparing dark images to summer and noon, representative of European civilization. Senghor also makes reference to the fact that the Europeans tried to erase African culture, but it will always be found. “Ripe fruit with firm flesh, dark raptures of black wine.”
