WEEK 3: “Grieved Lands” – Agostinho Neto

i. Themes and Content Analysis of “Grieved Lands”

ii. Poetic Devices of “Grieved Lands”
Learning objectives
identify and discuss the main themes in the poem.
state the poetic devices in the poem

THE POET
Agostinho Neto was born in 1922 in the Angola town of kaxikane. He had his early
education at Luanda secondary school. Thereafter, proceed to the University of
Combria, where he obtained his medical degree, Agostinho’s bitter experience
with the Portuguese colonial administration in Angola hardened his hatred of
European colonialism in Africa generally.
Agostinho is the first democratically elected president of independent Angola, a
former colony of Portugal. This was made possible through his activities in the
movement of liberation of Angola (MPLA). He was indeed a true freedom fighter.
Neto’s poems can be classified as protest poetry, based on his strong opposition
to racial injustice, colonial aggression and total misrule.

THEME

1. The Aftermath of colonial Oppression: The poet describes the endless

negative effect of colonial injustice to the people of Africa “In the tearful woes of
ancient and modern slave in the degrading sweat of impure dance of other seas
grieved’’.
2. Grieve, sorrow and poverty: The poem’s title, ‘the grieved lands of Africa’
shows how degrading Africa has been made to be. It is worrisome that the
conditions Africans found themselves tend to get worse by each passing
moment.
3. Exploitation: Like other Africans, the Angolans were subjected to intensive
exploitation by their colonial masters the Portuguese. The title seems to suggest
that Africa is grieved because of the various injustices done to its lands. Africa is a
beautiful country “flower” that has been crushed by “iron and fire” or the
modernization brought about by industrial Revolution.
4. Frustration and Hope: Even though things are bad people still shout for life.
Even though they’ve been taken advantage of the continent and its people still
live in their desire and simplicity. The “grieved lands” still live because the people
are living. The people are the enduring parts of Africa. No matter how bad it’s
been Africa still lives.

CONTENT ANALYSIS
The Grieved Lands is poem of 42 lines with seven uneven stanzas. It is
a free verse. The Grieved Lands presents the uniqueness of Black race and their
resistance to slavery and colonial rule. It belongs to the group of poems which
advance the unique beauty of the Black race and the dominant strength of being
Black. The poet draws from the realistic nature of Negritude (a movement which
celebrates and promotes the uniqueness and dominance of Black race to other
races popularly propagated by Léopold Sedar Senghor).
In the poem, The Grieved Lands the poet presents African race as an imperishable
race and African land as a land that can withstand anything; Lines 40 -41.
The first three stanzas talk about the degradation of Africa by slavery,
imperialism, colonialism and Westernization. The poet uses these stanzas to decry
the effects of Western influence on Africa. Line 2 “In the tearful woes of ancient
and modern slave” In this line, the “ancient” refers to the physical slavery when
men and women were forcefully moved out of the Land of Africa to different
parts of the world. The “modern slave” refers to the present psychological and
mental slavery in Africa and among Blacks, where Africans or Blacks depend on
the West for aids and solutions. This is seen as the psychological acceptance
of Western values, culture – dressing, lifestyle etc as the standard of measuring
success and achievement.
In stanza two, the poet decries the elimination of the valuable culture, beauty,
custom and land of Africa by the colonialism and westernization. He figuratively
presents this through the symbol of “flower” and “forest”. This is seen in lines 7 –
10 “In the infamous sensation of the stunning perfume of the/Flower/ Crushed in
the forest/ by the wickedness of iron and fire”… ‘Iron and Fire’ refers to the fierce
way the colonialist and imperialist imposed themselves on Africa. These moves
destroyed the beautiful flora and fauna of African land hence they grieve. The
ever blossoming African beauty and teeming African youth, customs and culture
represented by ‘Flower’ were crushed by civilization which made Africans lose
their identity. ‘Crushed in the forest’.

In the third stanza, the poet bemoans the destruction of African dreams. All those
blacks sold into slavery had their dreams in life but were stifled out by slavery
while the Africans under the colonialist administration were exiled
to prevent them from attaining their dreams in their father’s land hence the land
grieves for her children. The poet was sent to Cape Verde for exile amidst his
struggle for the Liberation of Angola. This was the fate of most other African and
Black nationalists fighting for the liberation and independence of their countries
from other parts of the continent. Line 13 ‘In the dream soon undone in jinglings
of gaolers’ keys’.

The fourth stanza down to the seventh presents the resilient spirit of Africa in the
face of oppression. The poet speaks of hope and survival. The poet posits that
Africa is notwithstanding the years of her subjugation to European powers. The
poet reveals this in lines 23 – 25 “They shout out the sound of life/Shout it/ even
the corpses thrown up by the Atlantic”. The poet indirectly reveals that the death
of slaves thrown overboard during the slave trade era calls on her children to
wrestle back power from the colonialists and imperialist. Their shouts give birth to
a rejuvenated Africa.

In the sixth stanza, the poet maintains that the innocent blood of Blacks shade
during slavery and the quest for independence of African are sacrificial to the
survival of the Black nations. Hence new stars are rising from strong desire of men
to repossess the land and appease the grieve land. The poet concludes by stating
that Africa is an indefatigable part of the earth which cannot be annihilated and
Angola is great part of it. Lines 40 – 41 “Because we are living/and are
imperishable particles”. Instead new stars will emerge which help in the
transformation of the world as we have seen in the world today.
POETIC DEVICES
Metaphor
Line 3, “In the degrading sweat of impure dance” referring to the slaves being
forced into imperial ships with whips and torture which leads to bitter dance.
Line 4, “Of other seas” refers to the Westerners (Colonialists and imperialists)…

Paradox
Line 14, “And in the stifled laughter and victorious voice of laments”
The poet reveals how the colonialists feel when they jail or exile a nationalist – as
happy and excited about suppressing another resisting voice unknown to them
they have raised another nationalist in the process while the jailed nationalist is
depicted as being undone by the actions of colonialist but his/her lament is with a
victorious tone that marks another achievement in the struggle for freedom.

Personification
The Grieved Lands the title of the poem is personified to cover all the nations of
Africa.
Line 12, “By the wickedness of iron and fire” referring to European powers
domination of Africa.
Line 23, “…decked with dances by baobabs over balances” The poet talks about
the excitement that African display in the midst of oppression which is one of the
reasons they survived years of oppression.

Alliteration
A prominent device deployed by the poet is alliteration. It is the recurrence of
all the consonant sounds at the initial position of word groups close to one
another on the same line. The alliterative use as evident in the poem include:
ancient and (line 2), “of other” (line 4), “jingling of jailer’s” (line 13), “victorious
voice” (line 14), “Decked…dances by baobabs… balances” (line 20).

EVALUATION
1. Discuss slavery as a theme in the poem, the Grieved Lands.
2. To what extent is the poet concerned about slavery in his motherland,
Africa.
3. Examine the use of poetic devices in the poem.
4. Examine the thematic pre-occupation of the poet in his poem, The
Grieved Lands.
5. Critically examine the main concern of the poet in the poem.