Analysis Of Maya Angelou s Poem, Africa - 1491 Words

Red stands for the blood lost; green for the land they took, and black pigment of the people of that great continent. These are the colors of the Pan-African flag, not simply a flag, but rather a symbol for all those whose origins begin in Africa. Maya Angelou’s poem, â€Å"Africa,† paints a portrait of the history of Africa. Her canvas depicts the beautiful landscapes with its people far and wide as well as those who were abducted from its shores. The three stanzas, which make up the poem, construct a story about a nation that was beaten, raped and left behind to die, and despite that was triumphant in the end. Maya Angelou’s poem is a tribute to the struggles and triumphs of Africa. Angelou refers to Africa as a woman throughout the poem. The use of the female pronouns creates a sense familiarity between poem and the reader. Drawing on their personal relationships with the women in their own lives. In the first stanza, Angelou sexualizes Africa by using personification, â€Å"thus she has lain,† creating an image of a woman lying in a bed. Angelou makes other references to woman by emphasizing the geography of African and connecting it to female body parts. The descriptive lines about Africa’s, deserts, riches, and mountains directly correlate to woman’s hair, feet and breast. This personification about Africa works so well because it creates this natural beauty of a woman’s body and Africa. By making Africa the image of a beautiful woman Angelou solidifies a pleasing image ofShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Post Colonialism 1742 Words   |  7 Pagesimplemented on them and the career of Maya Angelou, a black woman born in the h eight of racism in America, is a testament to the colonised population s vigour and power to endure.    In many of her protest poems Angelou expresses the overwhelming oppression of the black culture and cries out against a system that supports the economic oppression of blacks by the white majority. Born in 1928, Angelou s own parents would have experienced slavery, and, as a child of slaves, Angelou herself experienced the after