Agostinho Neto, Angola and Africa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 15
Born in 1922 in the Angola town of Kaxikane , Agostinho Neto had his early education at Luanda Secondary school before proceeding to the University of Combra Angola Africa .
I
Neto’s political activism manifested itself early at Combria University Angola Angola
Neto’s verse is often classified as protest poetry, especially because of his strong opposition to racial injustice and colonial aggression and misrule. Several of his protest poems, including “Night” and “The Grieved Lands,” focus their theme on isolation, nostalgia, alienation, the desecration of ancient places, racial discrimination, and a litany of man’s inhumanity to man.
In the above poems, whose titles suggest the somber and dark faces of European colonialism, especially in Africa, there is appears to be a historical documentation of colonial injustice, what Walter Rodney characterizes in his work as Europe’s “underdevelopment” of Africa.1 Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier painfully note:
Much of the poetry from Portuguese Africa is little more than a cry of sheer agony and loss. These territories are still politically and socially in a condition from which most of Africa emerged many years ago. The tiny group of assimilades (about 5,000 in Angola Portugal
In “Night”, a work which recalls Wole Soyinka’s poem of the same title but whose theme and structure differ remarkably from each other, Neto discusses the agony of human existence against a backdrop of the Black man’s sordid experience. W.S. Mervin comments on the poem as follows: “In the best of his poems about Africa , he is at pains to reveal his own sitation as he glimpses it in the lives of other Africans.”3
True, this lyric speaks for all Black community. Images of blindness or darkness permeate the poem: the “dark quarters of the world without light nor life,” “I walk in the streets /feeling my way,” “stumbling into the servitude / Dark quarters,” the “world of wretchedness,” “I walk lurching,” the “unlit / unknown streets crowded,” the “night too is dark” Neto’s protest here is muted, with a deep sense of resignation and, like Milton’s protagonist in “On His Blindness,” he can only “stand and wait.”
It is appropriate to cite the entire poem in full for further analysis:
I live
In the dark quarters of the world
Without light, nor life
Anxious to live,
I walk in the streets
Feeling my way
Leaning into the shapeless dreams,
Stumbling into servitude.
--Dark quarters
World of wretchedness
Where the will is watered down
and men
Are confused with things
I walk, lurching
through the unlit
unknown streets crowded
with mystery and terror,
I, arm in arm with ghosts
And the night too is dark.
(IAL, p.143)
The historical narrative employed in this poem chronicles the Black man’s ordeal since the creation: including the period of slavery and servitude, the era of colonialism, the era of postcolonialism, and the modern period which is “newly imposed by the IMF, with its insistence on cuts in health and education services”.4
As a voice of reason and speaker both for himself and his race, the protagonist employs the first person singular pronoun “I” to document the bizarre experience which, more than anything else, lends credibility to his narrative:
I live
…
I walk in the streets
…
I walk, lurching
…
I, arm in arm with ghosts
(IAL, p.143)
Yes, a life of “arm in arm with ghosts” -- that is probably what the Black man must live with for the rest of his life. Also interesting is the poem’s title “night.” As a poetic metaphor, the word symbolizes everything that is evil or ominous about the negative forces which the Black man must encounter, especially in his interrelationships with the other races of the world. Further, that the Black man must walk alone in the “streets” that are “unlit” suggests the state of complete hopelessness of his existence.
Another poem which registers a similar note of protest is “The Grieved Lands,” where the entire African continent is viewed as having been abused, despoiled and wantonly dehumanized. In this lyric, Neto’s tales of horror and injustice and man’s inhumanity to man are carefully and painfully documented.
The background of the poem’s genesis derives from the Berlin conference of 1884 when, in the guise of Christianity and civilization, the major European powers partitioned Africa for colonization among themselves. The protagonist of the poem serves as a voice of reason and moderation or, if you will, a voice of protest against unfairness and injustice. He is the Master, Seer, or Prophet who sees the past and the future, agitating for fairness, unity and cooperation in order to cure the society of its malady in the body politic – perhaps what Abiola Irele means when he writes of “what appears to be fixation on the dialectic of tradition and modernity… a quest for a new direction for collective initiative, for the intellectual foundations for a movement of African renewal.”5
The victims of “The Grieved Lands” are the Africans themselves. The poem’s structure and its development clearly suggest this point of view. The poet begins by employing a historical paradigm of what was and what has been in order to lead his audience to a complete understanding of the context of his argument.
The grieved lands of Africa
in the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave
in the degrading sweat of impure dance
of other seas
grieved.6
Very few stanzas in the African poetic discourse can match the lyricism of the above lines. The logical exposition, the ethical dimension, and the emotional thrust of the images employed are lucid, precise and profound. The protagonist of the poem is logical and convincing as he reminds us that the predicament of the black man can be traced to antiquity when he was enslaved, not by any innate faults of his, but apparently because of the capricious nature of his captors.
Furthermore, the protagonist’s ethical perspective is one of candor and integrity: he stands for the truth and would not condone nor compromise evil. Finally, the emotional thrust of his argument, as suggested by the precise rendition of such negative images and metaphors like “grieved lands,” “fearful woes,” “degrading sweat,” and “impure dance” is strong and effective. The protagonist’s believability is not in doubt.
If lines 1-5 of the poem can be characterized as the introduction to the poet’s argument, lines 6-34 will certainly be the middle section of his narrative, where he develops his thesis. Here positive and negative images are employed to counterbalance each other. Several of these images do not only stand out as images, they also illuminate or clarify the poet’s argument. For example, the “flower” that is “crushed” in the “forest” is certainly the African continent, while the “wickedness of iron and fire” that commits this heinous act of destruction symbolizes the Western colonizers (MAP, p.6, lines 8-11).
Another important image centers around the “dreams” of the Africans whose determination and fortitude are reflected in the pattern of refrains symbolized by the “honest blood of men,” the “strong desire of men,” and the “sincerity of men” (lines 31- 33). The poet’s anger and frustration and the emotional anguish which he feels about the Black man’s intolerable situation are vividly illustrated through these expressions.
In this middle section of the poem, Neto speaks of the “corpses thrown up by the Atlantic /in putrid offering of incoherence and death” (lines 25-26). This expression suggests the punishment meted out to the African slaves who were beaten or starved or killed and consequently were emptied into the ocean, their final resting place.
Mention must be made about the significance of the poem’s title, “Grieved Lands,” which alludes to the oppressed peoples of Africa who have witnessed or seen their lives, their assets, their culture and their humanity vanish or destroyed on the altar of Western colonialism.
In the poem’s concluding stanza, Neto re-iterates the Black man’s innate will and desire to conquer all odds and survive:
They live
the grieved lands of Africa
because we are living
and are imperishable particles
of the grieved lands of Africa .
(MAP, p.7, lines 3-39)
The poem derives much of its effectiveness from the frequent employment of repetition, which contributes immensely to its dramatic and emotive intensity. For example, the epithet “The grieved lands of Africa ,” is mentioned seven times (lines 1, 6, 12, 16, 29, 36, 39), while the expression “They live” is mentioned twice (lines 28 & 35). But as O.R. Dathorne points out:
Most of Neto’s poems are carefully reasoned efforts; they are not just outpourings of an unrestrained emotionalism…Neto’s reasonings bolster the attitudes and transmutes the grandiloquent public statements into murmurings of a refined sensibility.7
II
“African Poem,” “Hoisting the Flag,” and “Kinaxixi” are lyrics which celebrate Africa , its peoples, and their cultural heritage -- what is sometimes referred to in the African critical milieu as the Mother Africa theme. In this group of poems the mood and canon of the African cultural heritage, the glories of the African past and the promise of the future are carefully acknowledged and documented. Also generally acknowledged and celebrated is the ethos of individual worth and personality.
Furthermore, various aspects of the African topographical contours and landscape, including its beauty, grace, grandeur, or integrity are highlighted or acknowledged. Also highlighted are specific aspects of human nature or the uniqueness of the African personality: For instance, the man with his special courage or bravado; the woman with her gait, grace and courtesy.
The lyric, “African Poem,” discusses some of the above features highlighted about the continent.
There on the horizon
the fire
and the dark silhouettes of the imbondeiro trees
with their arms raised
in the air the green smell of burnt palm trees
On the road
the line of Bailundo porters
groaning under their loads of crueira
in the room
the sweet sweet-eyed mulatress
retouching her face with rouge and rice-powder
the woman under her many clothes moving her hips
on the bed
the sleepless man thinking
of buying knives and forks to eat with at a table
On the sky the reflections
of the fire
and the silhouette of the blacks at the drums
with their arms raised
in the air the warm tune of marimbas
On the road the porters
in the room the mulatress
on the bed the sleepless man
The burning coals consuming
consuming with fire
the warm country of the horizons
(MAP, pp.198-199)
In the above poem, Neto employs appropriate images and metaphors to discuss his deepest insights and convictions. For example, the word “country” as employed in the poem, suggests Angola Africa and its Black race.
The spectacular beauty and phenomenon of the Black race is suggested by the “sweet-eyed mulatress /re-touching her face with rouge and rice-powder,” the “woman… moving her hips / on the bed,” and the “sleepless man thinking / of buying knives and forks to eat with at a table.”
The poet is so excited about the human and natural resources of the Black man that he takes his audience along to see his “horizon,” the “road,” the “room,” the “sky,” the “bed,” the “dark silhouettes of the imbondeiro trees,” the “line of Bailundo porters,” the “drums” and the “warm tune of marimbas.”
The fact that Western colonialism -- through its “smoke” and “fire” -- would wreak so much havoc and devastation on the beautiful landscape scenery described above, not only beats our imagination but heightens the lyrical and dramatic effects of the poem. Furthermore, the poem’s title, “African Poem,” conveys and connotes the poet’s affectionate love of Africa .
In terms of style, Neto employs the free verse measure, whereby he uses stranzaic structures which are not strictly defined but allow him to discuss his themes freely and unobtrusively. He also employs repetition which is reflected in his repetition of “fire” imaginary as discussed earlier; the effect of this aesthetic literary device is to elaborate and deepen the tone and tenor of his argument. Finally, he employs irony as suggested by the beauty and dignity of Africa’s cultural heritage, which is carefully and adroitly illustrated, in contrast to the dark epiphany wreaked on Africa by the Western colonial domination.
The poem, “Hoisting the Flag” continues with the celebratory tone and mood of the previous poem discussed above. Here specific people and objects are listed or named for praise or adoration. For example, the most important image of the poem -- the “flag” -- translates into a symbol of national pride and identity.
Similarly, heroes and heroines of the past, who contributed immensely to the national course in Angola
The mood of joy during the country’s independence celebrations is not in doubt, as suggested by the following images and expressions: “voice gladdening with hot rhythms of the land / through nights of never-failing Saturdays,” “sacred and ancestral music / resurgent in the sacred sway of the Ngola’s rhythm,” the “resurrection of the seed.” the “dynamic symphony of joy among men,” and “certainty / more than goodness -- it was love.”8
Just as Neto celebrates the heroes and heroines of the patriotic people of Angola as well as its cultural, physical landscape, so also does he eulogise those who have lost their lives, such as “Benge, Joaquim, Gaspar, Ilidio, and Manuel” (SAP, p.82, line 30). In the last stanza, Neto pays glowing tributes to several people -- including civilians, soldiers, poets, and others -- whose patriotic struggles have culminated in the realization of political freedom, the Angolan independence:
Men’s strength
soldiers’ courage
poets’ cries
were all trying to raise up
beyond the memories of heroes
Ngola Kiluangi
Rainha Jinga
trying to raise up high
the flag of independence
(SAP, p.83)
III
In his book The Black Man’s Burden, E.D. Morel gives a complete analysis and expose of the Black man’s physical, moral and spiritual struggles in order to survive or redeem his battered image and humanity. For example, in describing the Black man’s inhuman treatment during his transportation across the high seas by the “luckier races” or their agents, he notes:
The slaves could not turn round, were wedged immovably, in fact, and chained to the deck by the neck and legs…not infrequently would go mad before dying of suffocation…in their frenzy some killed others in the hopes of procuring more room to breathe.9
Against such painful and heart-wrenching conditions like discrimination, hunger, isolation, name-calling, beatings, and lynching, the Black man -- out of social necessity -- must find some ways to achieve happiness or redeem his image, or ameliorate his pains -- what Dathorne would call “the truest poetry of revolt, of the search for origins, of the rejection of European values.”10
Neto discusses the theme of human struggle, survival, and regeneration in such lyrics as “Friend Mussunda,” “Kinaxixi” and “Farewell at the Moment of Parting.” In these poems, the protagonist, whose life has been under the radar of intense social pressure (through no fault of his), finds joy and happiness in the comfort zones of friends, family members, and in the African socio-cultural milieu.
In “Friend Mussunda” the protagonist pays glowing tributes to the cherished memories of a worthy friend who, in both times of joy or sorrowed, offered him support and companionship. Mussunda and the protagonist, at one point in time, were up in arms together against a common enemy:
The sadness of those days
when we were there
with mangoes to eat
bewailing our fate
and the women of Funda,
our songs of lament,
our despairs,
the clouds of our eyes
remember?
(IAL, p.147)
At other times, it was Friend Mussuda who made the difference and saved the day, apparently dying while making it possible for the poet to live in order to continue with the armed liberation struggle:
To you
I owe my life
to the same devotion, the same love
with which you saved me
from the constrictor’s embrace
To your strength
which transforms the fates of men
To you
friend Mussunda, I owe my life to you.
And I write
poems you don’t understand!
can you imagine my anguish?
Here I am
friend Mussunda,
writing poems you don’t understand
(IAL, p.147)
The repetition of the line the “poems you don’t understand” (lines 31 & 35) is ironic; it suggests the immutable fact of life: the dead are dead and thus do not participate in the affairs of the living nor do they enjoy the truth and wisdom which poetry offers. Furthermore, because poetry cannot excite the soul, the dead are perennially insulated from understanding the poetic rhythm of life -- thus corroborating Auden’s aphorism that “poetry makes nothing happen,” in his celebrated lyric “In Memory of W.B. Yeats.”
Nonetheless, the fact that the living will continue to live in accordance with the enduring standards and legacies of the dead -- which is the poem’s central premise -- endows Neto’s poetic art with remarkable authenticity. The lyric derives its dramatic intensity through constant allusion to the events of history (e.g., the role played by the “women of Funda,” line 14), the use of repetition (e.g., “the god of death has made / you whom the god of death has made, made,” lines 7-8), and by his frequent employment of the first person pronoun “I,” which is mentioned seven times (lines 1,3,19,29,30,33,37). The impact of these diverse prosodic devices is remarkable and profound.
In “Kinaxixi,” Neto reminisces on the plight of the Black man and arrives at the significant conclusion that, despite inimitable odds, man can relate to the tranquil countryside of nature and find an alternative to his otherwise battered and painful past. Here images of joy and sorrow interact and commingle with one another in order to promote balance and a sense of tranquility.
I was glad to sit down
on a bench in Kinaxixi
at six o’clock of a hot evening
and just sit there…
…
And I would see the black faces
of the people going uptown
in no hurry
expressing absence in the
jumbled Kimbundu they conversed in
I would see the tired footsteps
of the servants whose fathers also are servants
looking for love here, glory there, wanting
something more than drunkenness in every
alcohol
(IAL. P.148)
The above lines completely capture the solemnity and delight which comes about in the natural concourse of life: the high and low, the ups and downs, and the vagaries of human existence. Here, at least, we glimpse at the tempo of human understanding, harmony, compromise and sobriety. Here the mood is one of nostalgia, reflection and recollection. The simplicity vis-à-vis the rough and tumble of life are vividly assessed and analyzed, but it is the extraordinary synthesis of peace and love in nature that predominates.
After the sun had set
lights would be turned on and I
would wander off
thinking that our life after all is simple
too simple
for anyone who is tired and still has to walk
(IAL, p.148)
No poem, that is, conveys a stronger emotional range and intensity among Neto’s lyrics than “Farewell at the Moment of Parting.” This poem projects a sensibility and vision of a kind, that is to say, of people or someone we can rely on for support and love and guidance, especially during a period of danger or crisis in our life. In our tortuous and perilous journey through life, man is generally pleased to know that he has friends, family members and other people in his support. This is the central message of the poem.
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Arranged into seven irregular stanzaic structures, the lyric navigates the Black man’s historical experience in space and time, and arrives at the significant conclusion that, for him to overcome his predicaments and prevail, he must adopt a policy of unity, brotherhood, love, harmony, and togetherness among the members of his race, his kith and kin.
Several of the poem’s images are penetrating and interesting and deserve elucictation. For example, the image “mother,” which is mentioned thrice in the poem (lines 1,2,27), symbolizes someone who can look after your welfare at all times. The image, the “naked children of the bush sanzalas,” recalls the myth that Africa is the perennial dark continent of the universe. The metaphor, to “burn out our lives in coffee fields,” recalls T.S. Eliot’s famous line “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” in his celebrated poem, “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock.” And, above all, the image “you taught me to wait and to hope” (line 3), is an important aphorism for the Black man -- indeed, for all of humanity --that time and patience heal all wounds, all unpleasant memories.
What do we learn from Agostinho Neto’s verse? First, apart from his judicious employment of diverse prosodic devices he is deeply passionate about human nature and the need for man to cultivate the spirit of love, unity, and cooperation in order to overcome the challenges of life. Secondly, as a highly patriotic poet, he writes not with bitterness but with truth and understanding in order for his people to resist the scourge of European colonial domination. Finally, he solicits and appeals to all classes of people --civilians, soldiers, poets and others -- to come together from all parts of the African continent and fight, in order to celebrate the joy and reward that flow from the success of liberation struggles and man’s indomitable will to overcome all odds.
Notes
1. See Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1972)
2. Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, Modern Poetry from Africa (Harmondsworth, Middlesex , England : Penguin Books, Ltd., 1976), pp. 23-24. Further quotations from this anthology will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as MPA, followed by the page number(s).
3. W.S. Mervin, “Agostinho Neto: To Name the Wrong,” in Introduction to African Literature: An Anthology of Critical Writing (Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex , UK
4. See Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry (London and New York: Penguin Books, 1998), xxiv. Further citations from this anthology will be included parenthetically in the text as MAP, followed by the page number(s).
5. Abiola Irere, The Africa Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Black Diaspora (New York : Oxford University
6. See Gerald Moore and Ulli Beir, The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, p. 6.
7. O.R. Dathorne, Afrcan Literature in the Twentieth Century (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1975), p. 260
8. K.E Senanu and T.Vincent, A Selection of African Poetry (Burnt Mill, Harlow, England: Longman Group, 1976), pp. 82-83). Further citations from this anthology will be included parenthetically in the text as SAP, followed by the page number(s)
9. E.D. Morel, The Black Man’s Burden (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969), p.17. Elsewhere (pp. 156-157) he elaborates on the mistreatment of the slaves on the islands and on their death rate: “The procuring of the Angolan slaves for the ‘cocoa Islands ’ was one thing. The treatment in the plantations was a distinct problem of its own … it is acknowledged that 4,000 deaths occurred among contracted laborers on the Islands in 1915, and even then there is a balance of 4,246 unaccounted for, on the basis of the Portuguese statistics of imported and exported labour for the year.”
10. O.R. Dathorne, African Literature in the Twentieth Century, p. 259.
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Works Cited
Dathorne, O.R. African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis , Minnesota : University of Minnesota
Irele, Abiola. The African Imagination. New York : Oxford University
Mervin, W.S. “Agostinho Neto: To Name the Wrong,” Introduction to African Literature: An Anthology of Critical Writing. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex , UK
Moore, Gerald & Ulli Beier. The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry. New York
Morel, E.D. The Black Man’s Burden. New York
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa . Washington , D.C. : Howard University
Senanu, K.E. and T. Vincent. A Selection of African Poetry. Burnt Mill, Harlow , England
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