Analysis Of Africa By Maya Angelou - 768 Words

Beauty, Struggle, and Rise: The Journey of Africa Maya Angelou’s â€Å"Africa† is an exceptional poem that talks about the injustices faced by the Blacks during the 18th century. In fact, the poem takes the readers back to the slave trade and the many difficulties it brought to Africans. Each stanza of the poem symbolizes a particular characteristic/stage related to Africa. While the first stanza describes Africas physical features, the second and third stanzas demonstrate the struggles of the continent and hope for a better future, respectively. Thus, the usage of personification, metaphors, repetition and imagery in Angelou’s poem portray the three distinctive stages of the African continent in a remarkable manner. The first stanza†¦show more content†¦With the help of wordplay such as â€Å"churched her with Jesus† (15), Angelou illustrates how thousands of Africans were forced to convert to Christianity resulting in them abandoning their own a ncient, cultural, and spiritual beliefs. â€Å"Bled her with guns† (16) is another example of imagery used by the poet to depict the fatal killings and inhumane treatment of Africans by European colonizers. Altogether, the second stanza exemplifies the collapse of Africa through imagery, metaphors, and wordplay. To demonstrate how Africa has been consistently ascending from its downfall and tortuous history as a continent, Maya Angelou makes use of metaphors, personification, and repetition through the third stanza of the poem. She repeatedly refers to Africa as a woman with the use of personification and in the context of â€Å"now she is rising,† (18) found in line one of the third stanza, she compares how a woman would rise from her past and troubles to the continent of Africa changing positively. Angelou also takes advantage of repetition in the lines â€Å"remember her pain/ remember her losses† (19-20) to emphasize how much horror the people of Africa had to face in the past due to European-imposed imperialism. Line four of the third stanza employs personification and a metaphor by stating â€Å"her screams loud and vain† (21) where the poetShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Africa By Maya Angelou769 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Africa† is a poem written by Maya Angelou which expresses the grave injustice done to Africa by the Europeans. Through her words Angelou is able to express the pain, suffering, and hope felt by the people of African during this time. The poem speaks to the beauty of Africa, goes into the injustice it has faced, and the hope that it has to one day go back to how it was. Three stanzas hold the words of Angelou, each filled with several literary techniques such as metaphors, rhyming, and personificationRead MoreAnalysis Of Maya Angelou s Poem, Africa1491 Words   |  6 Pagesorigins begin in Africa. Maya Angelou’s poem, â€Å"Africa,† paints a portrait of the history of Africa. Her canvas de picts 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 throughoutRead MoreAnalysis Of Inaugural Poem By Maya Angelou767 Words   |  4 Pageschose to examine was the Inaugural Poem by Maya Angelou. 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The final poem that relates to the concept is from the pen of Maya Angelou, a great African American writer whose works include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and the screenplay for Georgia, Georgia (MayaAngelou.com). However, for this topic in particular the focus shall be placed on one of her many poems written throughout her life. The poem â€Å"Africa† is a short, twenty-five line poem detailing the ordeal of slavery that was the enslavement of Africans backRead MoreSexual Violence And Gender Based Crimes1877 Words   |  8 PagesUltimately, the Court must reflect a gender neutral approach whilst bringing sexual violence to the spotlight to improve the struggle against these crimes. On the 12th of January 1993, in front of a white-male dominated crowd, civil rights activist Maya Angelou read the words ‘history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again’. 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