Lesson 5.3.

AFRICAN LITERATURE

African literature, literary works of the African continent. African literature consists of a body of work in
different languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to literature written in colonial
languages (French, Portuguese, and English).

Note: You may also add some information, just get the citation/references.
(https://africasacountry.com/2020/08/african-literature-is-a-country)

About the Author

Rasaq Malik is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. His work has appeared in various
journals, including Michigan Quaterly Review, Poet Lore, Spillway, Rattle, Juked, Connotation Press,
Heart Online Journal, Grey sparrow, and Jalada. He is a two-time nominee for Best of the Net
Nominations, and was among the finalists for the 2015 Best of the Net. Recently, Rattle
Magazine and Poet Lore nominated his poems for the 2017 Pushcart Prize.

(Source: https://www.poemhunter.com/rasaq-malik/biography/)

Another World
by Rasaq Malik
In another world I want to be a father without
passing through the eternal insanity of mourning
my children, without experiencing the ritual
of watching my children return home as bodies
folded like a prayer mat, without spending my
nights telling them the stories of a hometown
where natives become aliens searching for
 a shelter. I want my children to spread a mat
outside my house and play without the walls
of houses ripped by rifles. I want to watch my children
grow to recite the name of their homeland like Lord’s
Prayer, to frolic in the streets without being hunted like
animals in the bush, without being mobbed to death.
In another world I want my children to tame grasshoppers
in the field, to play with their dolls in the living room,
to inhale the fragrance of flowers waving as wind blows,
to see the birds measure the sky with their wings.

(Source: https://peelsofpoetry.tumblr.com/post/177761868529/in-another-world-by-rasaq-malik-in-
another-world-i)

Interpreting the Poem (Creative Presentation)

How do you interpret the text? Write your interpretations of the different lines in the poem.
Lines Your Interpretation
In this interpretation this means that it's obvious what
the Lines meant about a Father who lives in a unresting
In another world I want to be a father without place; in which the Fathger wish that maybe in another
passing through the eternal insanity of mourning world he would be given a chance to see His child
my children, without experiencing the ritual again but not in a place where peace is not visible
of watching my children return home as bodies within the eyes of individual and a atmosphere where
folded like a prayer mat, peace cannot be attained.

So His wishes to see his children one's again living a

peaceful life without troubles lurking within every
corners of their surroundings fearing that they're lives
would be wasted in just a blink of an eye despratly
trying to survive the harsh Reality of our World Hidden
within it's deeper roots.

without spending my
nights telling them the stories of a hometown
where natives become aliens searching for
a shelter.
I want my children to spread a mat
outside my house and play without the walls
of houses ripped by rifles.

I want to watch my children grow

to recite the name of their homeland like Lord’s
Prayer,
to frolic in the streets without being hunted like
animals in the bush, without being mobbed to
death.

In another world I want my children to tame

grasshoppers
in the field, to play with their dolls in the living
room,
to inhale the fragrance of flowers waving as wind
blows,
to see the birds measure the sky with their wings.