Gladys Casely-Hayford’s Poetic Sensibility
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 20
Gladys Casely-Hayford’s Poetic Sensibility
Born in Ghana in 1950 and educated in Ghana, the Sierra Leone, and England, Gladys Casely-Hayford is important in African poetics, not only because she is a strong voice among the poets generally considered as the “pioneer poets,”1 but because the issues she addresses in her work—Christianity, colonialism, nature, and the enjoyment of life’s blessings-- are still relevant today in the past of her work and that of her contemporaries-- which include R.E.G. Armattoe, Dennis Osadebay, and Michael Dei-Anang-- D.R. Dathorne offers the following information:
In the hands of Gladys Casely-Hayford, the daughter of the first African novelist in English, Krio possesses all the authority of an established language. For her the English Language was only a medium of making trite observations… her histrionic language is out of all proportion to the sentiments, a flaw also noticed in the works of Armattoe and Osadebay… And like them she tended to moralize… that one ought to accept with Christian tolerance whatever life offers…2
An example of Gladys lyric which celebrates the virtue of the Christian ethos is “Rejoice,” a piece which although cast in the mode of Orthodox Christian hymnals, sheds significant light on her religiosity:
Rejoice and shout with laughter
Throw all your burdens down,
If God has been so gracious
As to make you black or brown
For you are a great nation,
A people of great birth
For where would spring the flowers
If God took away the earth?
Rejoice and shout with laughter
Throw all your burdens down
Yours is a glorious heritage
If you are black or brown.
(WAV, p. 5).
The principal image of the lyric on which it relies for its effectiveness centers around the word “burdens” which employed twice in the narrative (i.e., lines 2 and 10). The “burdens” which have haunted the Black man’s psyche include the burden of being born black; the burden of slavery; and the burden of rejection since antediluvian times.
The fact of being born black is a stigma from which the Black man has suffered and from which he may perhaps never quite recover. The question of skin color is compounded by the issue of slavery to which the Black man was subjected for centuries. With slavery the Black man was not only subjected to inhumane treatment, he was also transported to foreign lands to work in the mines and plantations.
With all of the above the Black man feels a sense of shame and rejection both about himself and the world in which he lives. This has consequently culminated in the burden of racial identity which has haunted him since the Mosaic-Christian period of the Fall. However, rather than succumb to sorrow and dejection, Gladys employs the word “Rejoice,” both as consolation on one hand, and as an alternative to the word “burdens” on the other hand. The cumulative effect of this effective use of language is therapeutic. Man must endeavour to accept, with grace and equanimity of spirit, the situation in which he finds himself. This is the moral didacticism of the poor.
The palliative images, “flowers,” “glorious heritage,” “laughter,” “great birth,” “great nation,” are employed to assuage the Black man’s burden of history in a world where, as W.H. Auden makes clear in his “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” the “poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed”.
Gladys in this poem views blackness as a source of beauty and blessing which should elicit “laughter” or joyfulness. For Gladys, the sense of grief with the Black man feels about his skin color, is misplaced and wrong, since it is an act of God. The reference to the authority of the Supreme Being is important. He is presented as the divine authority whose universe of nature cannot be challenged or questioned. This view has traditionally been the wise path to follow not only in Christendom but also in the African mythological culture.
The poem is addressed to her people, that is, the African because she is well aware of the fact that they are the ones who are mostly concerned about the quality of the skin color; a reason why some them engage in the unhealthy practice of skin-bleaching. To them, fairer people, especially among women, are generally preferred to brow or dark people.
Because the local African people to whom she addresses her poem are not sophisticated or elitist, Gladys employs the language of “common speech” to communicate with them. Also interesting are the images employed in order to uplift the spirit and emotions of the addresses: “you are a great nation/ A people of great birth/… Yours is a glorious heritage” (WAV, lines 5, 6, 9).
The theological and moral precepts and principles discussed thus far in the poem can be divided into three categories, namely obedience to God and his authority; love of humanity and nature; an abiding and increasing need to appreciate the virtues of life.
II
Another lyric where Gladys discusses similar fundamental Christian principles is “Nativity,” whose title recalls the ancient biblical city of Jerusalem
Divided into two major parts, the first section (lines 1-9), focuses on the immediate and sudden delivery of the baby into a beautiful world of joy and wonderment. Here almost all natural phenomena, including the mother, the father, the bards, coverage in order to honor and rejoice for the birth of the new baby. The images “native hut,” “wrapped in blue lappah,” “home-trained deerskin hide” and the “heavens rang” vividly recall the occasion of Jesus birth in Jerusalem
In the second part of the poem (lines 10-29), the poem carefully and painstakingly leads us into several details usually associated with the arrival of a new baby: the presentation of “gifts” to the mother; the visit of friends and family members from far and near; and the celebration and thanksgiving that follow thereafter. Of particular interest here is the attention paid to the new baby but to the parents as well:
They put pink lilies in his mother’s hand,
and heaped for both the first fruits of the land.
His father cut some pal fronds, that the air
Be covered to Zephyrs why he rested there.
Birds thrilled their hallelujahs’ all the dew
Trembled with laughter, till the Babe laughed too.
Black women brought their love so wise,
And kissed their motherhood into his mother’s eyes.
(WAV, p. 8).
There is total and complete excitement everywhere above lines. Earlier in the poem, Gladys not only images which suggest that Christ could possibly been a black baby (e.g., “black birds,” “black and “black mother’s breasts,”) but graphically red images and metaphors often associated with Christ birth in Jerusalem
In the poem “Freetown Freetown
Then threw the rich remainder in the sea
Small inlets cradled He, in Jet black stone
Small bays of transcient blue He lulled to sleep
Within jet rocks, filled from the Atlantic deep.
Then God let loose wee harbingers of sing.
He scattered palms profusely over the ground
Then grew tall grasses, who in happy mirth
Reached up to kiss each palm tree that they found.
‘This is my gem! God whispered; ‘this shall be
To me a jewel in blue turquoise set’
Thus spake the mouth of life’s Eternity;
There God couched, lion-like, each mighty hill.’
Silent, they keep their watch over Freetown
Silent-
(WAV, p. 6).
The beauty of Freetown is suggested by several positive images which are employed to characterize its geographical setting, including the “inlets,” the “Atlantic deep,” the “palm tree,” and “life’s Eternity.” However, while it is the beauty and charm of Freetown
The expression, “Then God let loose wee harbingers of song,” is doubly important. First, it suggests the fact that, after God’s creation of the heavens and the earth, humans were then created to reap the fruits of creation. Secondly, that God enjoins man to spread the message of hope and salvation through the gift of “song”. The word “Freetown His Creation --Freetown--
Gladys spent a good part of her life in Freetown
The lines, “Thus spake the mouth of life’s Eternity/There tranquilly lies Freetown, even yet/Then God couched, lion-like, each mighty hill,” extend the graphic details and illetyllic description of Freetown. Furthermore, they echo as well as recall Wordsworth’s powerful celebration of London
There are other things of interest about the lyrics they include the poet’s employment of personification (e.g., “He made thy soil alone”), biblical diction (e.g., “thy,” “Eternity”); and the couplet measure (e.g., “sleep and “deep,” “hill” and “still). Finally, the word “Freetown
III
Closely allied to the Christian theme which Gladys explores, is that of European colonialism. Unlike several African poets, Gladys does not dwell on European misrule or mistreatment of Africa and its cultural values and orientation. Rather she recognizes its existence but believes that the African-- with his spirit of forgiveness and forbearance-- can have beyond injustice and inequity in order to attain ultimate spiritual salvation:
The above spirit underlies Gladys plea in the poem “Rejoice,” where she exhorts her readers, albeit indirectly, to embrace the situation in which they find themselves in life-- whether such a situation arises from racial discrimination based on skin-color or from other circumstances.
True, Gladys’ criticism of European colonialism is muted. For example, in the poem, “My Africa,” she can only pray that “race prejudices”-- which are the product of colonialism-- be destroyed in order to promote progress and prosperity:
Oh land of tropic splendour, engirded by
the seas,
Whose forest-created mountains lift heads
unto the breeze,
May patriotism render its praise on sea
and shore,
Till Africa, great Africa becomes renowned
once more.
May God walk on her mountains and in her
plains be peace
May laughter fill her valleys and may her
sons increase;
Restored be strength and beauty and visions
of the past;
Till Africa comes once again into her own
at last.
Destroy race prejudices, break down the
bar of old
Let each man deem his brother of more
wealth than gold,
Till tribes be merged together to form one
perfect whole,
With Africa its beating pulse and Africa
its soul
O Lord as we pass onward, through evolution
rise
May we retain clear vision that truth may
light our eyes,
That joy and peace and laughter be ours
instead of tears
Till Africa gains strength and calm,
progressing through the years3.
What immediately arrests our attention in the above poem is the spirit of patriotism and price of race of Africa . Here Gladys’s affection for her indigenous African background is unquestionable, especially in light of the pernicious effect of European colonialism which apparently is ravaging the continent. For instance, unlike Kofi Awoonor (e.g., “We have found a New Land,” David Diop (“The Vultures”), Agostinho Neto (“Hoisting the Flag”) and others who reject or denounce with venom European colonialism for its misrule of Africa, Gladys can only pray for Africa’s glorious regeneration and revival: “May patriotism render its praise on sea and share/Till Africa, great Africa becomes renowned once more”).
Finally, Gladys’s sense of “good will and good moral character,” as evinced by the following lines, further highlights a sensibility which eschews violence, retaliation, and vindictiveness:
May God walk on her mountains and in her
plains be peace
May laughter fill her valleys and may her
sons increase…
May we retain clear vision that truth may
light our eyes.
IV
Nature, for Gladys, is an enduring reality which is eclectic, comprehensive and pervasive. In the poems which she writes to celebrate nature, Gladys demonstrates her keen awareness of the inevitability, greatness, and beauty of the natural world order. She understands nature completely and celebrates it fully as she knows it. Her love of nature extends from the smallest object to the greatest object. Her title subjects, for example, include God, “My Africa,” “The Vulture,” “Nancy,” “The Ant,” “The Leaf,” “The Lizard,” and “Dawn”.
In each of the objects of nature which she addresses, Gladys demonstrates her full affection for God and the objects and situations which he creates. She describes her subjects with great insight and care: For example, “The Vulture’s the untidiest bird that I have ever seen”; the ant is the “daintiest… Her waist was slim and narrow”; and “The Lizard… a handsome lizard… nodded twice to make his meaning plain/Glanced up at me with wee bright eyes.” Here is Gladys’s description of “Dawn”.
Dawn for the rich, the artistic and the
wise,
Is beauty splashed on canvas of the skies,
The brushes being the clouds that float
the blue,
Dipped in the breeze for paint, and washed
by dew.
But down to those who bathe the night in
tears,
Squeeze sustenance from hard unyielding
years,
Is full of strange imaginings and fears.
The dawn renews the terror of the day
Where harassing uncertainties hold sway;
And pain held in surcease through brief
hours of rest
Roars up its head in its unceasing quest
To wear out body, brain and mind and soul
Till death is a resolve, and death is a goal.
For those death holds no beauty, dawn no
light,
For day is hopeless, dawn is struck with
blight.
We can conclude by making the following general remarks. Although Gladys’s work, like that of her contemporaries (that is, the “pioneer poets”) has been attacked for its initiatives of the Romantics, her work has merit since the themes she explores-- especially Christianity, God, nature, and colonialism-- lead us into the workings of her mind and art. Furthermore, the simplicity of her diction, her experimentation with the krio dialect, no less than her candor and sense of goodwill endear her immensely to her audience.
Notes
1. See Donatus Ibe Nwoga, West African Verse: An Anthology Chosen and annotated (Great Britain : Longman Group, Ltd., 1967), p. 5. Further quotations from the anthology will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as WAV, followed by the page numbers.
2. O.R. Dathorne, African Literature in the Twentieth Century (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1975), p. 161.
3. Called from the internet; August 1, 2014
Works Cited
Dathorne, O.R. African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota
Casely-Hayford, Gladys. “Rejoice,” “Nativity,” “Freetown Great Britain
________. “My Africa ,” Culled from the Internet, August 1, 2014.
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