-Gutierrez, Mherie Joy C.

David Diop
Coups de Pillion Negro Tramp Africa My Africa
Diop’s works in Coups de pilon (1956;

“Pounding”), his only surviving collection,

are angry poems of protest against

European cultural values, enumerating the

sufferings of his people first under the

slave trade and then under the domination

of colonial rule and calling for revolution

to lead to a glorious future for Africa.

That he was the most extreme of the Negritude
writers (who were reacting against the
assumption underlying the French policy of
“assimilation” that Africa was a deprived land
possessing neither culture nor history) can be
seen in his rejection of the idea that any good
could have come to Africa through the colonial
experience and in his belief that political freedom
must precede a cultural and economic revival.
That he was the most extreme of the Negritude
writers (who were reacting against the
assumption underlying the French policy of
“assimilation” that Africa was a deprived land
possessing neither culture nor history) can be
seen in his rejection of the idea that any good
could have come to Africa through the colonial
experience and in his belief that political freedom
must precede a cultural and economic revival.
In "Negro Tramp," a poem dedicated to Aime Cesaire and based

on Cesaire's description of an old man on a trolley, Diop uses

the image of the derelict man as a symbol for Africa under

colonial rule. The man is not to blame for his state; he walks

"like an old, shattered dream/A dream ripped to shreds.… naked

in your filthy prison/ … offered up to other people's

laughter/Other people's wealth/Other people's hideous hunger."

He expresses pity for Africans who have submitted to the

colonials' will, where they are "squealing and hissing and strutting

around in the parlors of condescension."

"Africa," which Diop dedicated to his mother, begins with an

exile's cry: "I have never known you/But my face is filled with

your blood." The continent at first seems to be someone with

a bent back breaking "under the weight of humiliation." But the

continent reproaches the speaker in the poem, calling him

"Impetuous son." Far from bowed and trembling, "this young and

robust tree,/This very tree/Splendidly alone … /Is Africa, your

Africa, growing again/Patiently stubbornly.…" The tree's fruit

"Bears freedom's bitter flavor," while round about the tree lie

"white and wilted flowers," perhaps a reference to the

colonials.
Africa my Africa This back that never breaks under the
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral weight of humilation
savannahs This back trembling with red scars
Africa of whom my grandmother sings And saying no to the whip under the midday
On the banks of the distant river sun
I have never known you But a grave voice answers me
But your blood flows in my veins Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the That tree over there
fields Splendidly alone amidst white and faded
The blood of your sweat flowers
The sweat of your work That is your Africa springing up anew
The work of your slavery springing up patiently, obstinately
Africa, tell me Africa Whose fruit bit by bit acquires
Is this your back that is unbent The bitter taste of liberty.
Diop’s strongest poetic device in this poem is that of personification.

He infuses Africa with human qualities, and talks directly to her. He

reinforces her humanity with the images of “beautiful black blood…

The blood of your sweat…. The sweat of your work …your back that

is unbent .” Diop is aware of the necessity of recognising Africa’s

past, however, he is careful not to bury himself and his imaginings of

Africa in that past. On the contrary, he prefers to think of a way

to get to a hopeful African future, free of the humiliation of

colonisation from Africa’s past.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/diop-

david-mandessi
https://allpoetry.com/poem/8562839-Africa-by-David-Diop
https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Diop