Tchicaya U Tam’si’s Lyricism
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 19
Tchicaya U Tam’si’s Lyricism
Tchicaya U Tam’si, who hails from Mpili in the People’s Republic of the Congo Congo and in France
Unfortunately, however, his poetry has not received much critical attention, either because he writes mostly in French which is not easily understood by many of his readers, or because his writings are not readily accessible to his prospective audience. This essay, therefore, seeks to discuss the thematic and stylistic aspects of his verse, not only to expand the corpus of his criticism, but to bring a better understanding and appreciation to his life and work.
I
U Tam’si’s verse focuses on a wide variety of subject matter, including nature, the indigenous African cultural tradition, Western colonialism cum Christianity, and other epistemological issues. In such poems as “Viaticum 1,” “Brush-fire,” and “Dance to the Amulets,” U Tam’si effectively celebrates not only the place of man in the universal scheme of things, but also nature’s interrelationships with each other.
Of his nature poems, perhaps none exhibits a deeper and more philosophical dimension than “Viaticum I”. This poem emanates from U Tam’si’s desire to celebrate the river both as a physical reality and as a symbol of man’s existential phenomenon.
The word “Viaticum” derives from the prayer usually offered in the Christian liturgy to the dying in order to expiate his sins and redeem his soul. Here, however, U Tam’si celebrates both the physical and spiritual forces of the River Congo. The river is personified and thus we see both its destructive and its redeeming power.
You must be from my country
I see it by the tick
of your soul around the eyelashes
and besides you dance when you are sad
you must be from my country1.
On the negative aspect, the River Congo is:
…the silences
reeking of iodine ravage us
with lechrous resolves
for my beardless conscience
ravage us alone
(SAP, p. 144).
The daring and confident boastfulness of the river is suggested by the forcefulness and the declarative tone of the opening lines:
They give you what they have eaten
and what they have not known how to keep
the shadow, like them, had a certain
reticence
I am full of spite with the sun
(SAP, p.144).
In the three passages quoted above, the contrary states of nature are dramatized through the symbolism of the river, with its “lecherous resolves” vis-à-vis its “reticence”. There are three powerful dramatis personae in all three passages, namely, the colonialists, who are referred to as “they;” the poet-protagonist, who is the speaker or narrator of events; and the river itself who interjects frequently with the declarative first person pronoun “I.” The purpose of this collective narrative is not only to add force to the poem’s lyricism, but to suggest how nature can be involving, inclusive, and comprehensive.
Moreover, the river, like the human being, has “eyelashes” and it can demonstrate qualities of “reticence” and sadness in behavior. The philosophical statement embodied in the fourth stanza of the poem is illuminating: “All of us from the same umbilical cord/But who knows where we fetch/ four awkward heads.” This expression connects all humans as one indivisible entity and, by implication, it is the universal law of nature which should be our guiding principle. Finally, the river, with its potent force, is projected in the image of a carnivorous animal “reeking of iodine ravage”. The repetitive employment of the word, “ravage,” suggests the destructive nature of the river in its daily habits.
Earlier in the third stanza, U’ Tam’si enunciates another illuminating philosophical principle: “We must have a dark corner somewhere/for our ancient orisons.” From this statement, we can understand that the world of nature is full of imperfections; it is also one of secrets and probabilities, where our strength and limitations are measured scrupulously and separated rigorously from each other.
In the poem, “Brush-fire,” U’ Tam’si extends the metaphor contained in the word “river” still further in his formidable description of the world of nature and being:
The fire the river that’s to say
the sea to drink following the sand
the feet the hands
within the heart to love
this river that lives in me repeoples me
only to you is aid around the fire
My race
it flows here and there a river
the flames are the looks
of those who brood upon it
I said to you
My race
Remembers
The taste of bronze drunk hot.2
In the passage quoted above, the imagery suggested by the “hands,” the “feet,” and the “heart,” recalls the biblical trinity of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Christ. In the natural state of affairs, however, the symbolism suggests the captivity to which the oppressed people – particularly the Black race -- has been subjected since antiquity.
Man is the central symbol from which all other natural phenomena like the “sea,” the “river” and the “flames” revolve and radiate. The African continent, from which all of this collective is discussed, is a metaphor highlighting the protagonist’s perennial quest in order to unite or connect with his natural habitat, his roots. Furthermore, the poet’s reference to the “fire,” the “sand,” and the “river” -- three of the traditional elements -- suggests his conscious desire to connect with the elemental forces of the natural world order.
The state of nature is also highlighted in the poem through the various idyllic references to all aspects of life, including the “river,” the “sea,” the “flames,” the “sand,” the “I”, the “you,” and the “race.” By employing all of these images and epithets, U Tam’si not only seeks to illuminate the provenance of his poetic art, he also demonstrates his affectionate and deep concerns for nature and man’s place in the universal cosmos. Finally, for all of his interweaving natural images, it is appropriate to characterize him as a lover and apostle of nature.
The beauty of the natural landscape -- that is, its colors, variety, grace, forms, illumination and reflexes -- is the subject of U Tam’si’s discourse in the poem “Dance to the Amulets.” Here the benignity of nature to humanity is carefully illustrated -- beginning from the time of conception in the womb, through delivery, and then from the growth and development of the human being until death:
Come over here
our grass is rich
come you fawns
gestures and stabs of sickly hands
curving then unripping of conception
one -- who? -- you shape my fate
come you fawns
over here the suppleness of morning
and the blood masked here
and the rainbow -- coloured dream the rope at the neck
come over here
our grass is rich here
my first coming
was the harsh explosion of a flint
solitude
my mother promised me to light.
(MPA, pp. 169-70)
O.R Dathorne remarks in his criticism of U Tam’si as follows:
U Tam’si’s verse attempts to create a special type of “spoken poetry” which gives his symbols free reign. The symbols are frequently startling and fierce and convey his defiant attitude to the vicissitudes of life. His symbols are used like repetitive devices in traditional African poetry, but instead of more repetition U Tam’si expands his images into a number of parallel meaning.3
Nothing can be more accurate about U Tam’si’s effective use of symbols than those contained in the last poem cited above. The expressions, “fawns,” “gross,” the “suppleness of morning,” the “rainbow-coloured dream,” the “rope at the neck” and the “mother” -- some of which are repeated – are important images and epithets which, on a higher scale of consideration, translate into important natural symbols of meaning:
For instance, the image “fawns” alludes to the protective caring, affection and support commonly extended to the baby at birth, especially by friends and family members. The word “grass” suggests food for nourishment and growth, important to man and animals. The “rainbow coloured dream” is a metaphor symbolizing human hopes and aspirations. The “unripping of conception” recalls the gravitational tear and wear and the oozing of blood during maternal delivery. All of the above natural images are powerful and penetrating: they reinforce the poem’s dramatic setting.
The word “mother” is perhaps the most important natural symbol of the poem. Nature and motherhood are identical twins, especially since the mention of one invariably recalls the other in the creative act. The place of motherhood in nature is also suggested through the poet’s affectionate references to her -- "you shape my fate,” “my mother promised me to light” (lines 6 and 16). It is appropriate that the poet should anchor or rest his argument on the role of motherhood; to have introduced her early in the narrative would have robbed the poem of its rhetorical and mimetic value.
II
U Tam’si’s treatment of the theme of the indigenous African culture is laudatory. For instance, in speaking about his work, he asserts: “I give more importance to cultural ideas.”4 Such poems like “Epitaph,” “Forest,” and “Viaticum II” attest to U Tam’si’s profound love of the indigenous African cultural heritage.
The poem, “Epitaph”, which echoes the mood and tone of Negritude, celebrates the Black man and his heritage. The Black man, U Tam’si notes, is the “man of bronze” – strong, sturdy, endowed with diverse admixture of “water salt and earth/of sunshine and flesh/bespattering the sun” (MAP, p. 59).
Yet he is simple, without ostentation, pretense, or hypocrisy. Unlike the other races of the world, the Black man has the ingredients and components of the other races of the world combined: the “red man,” the “yellow man,” the “white man.”. All this makes him the “unoxidized steel.” In content and form, this poem recalls Leopold Sedar Senghor’s “prayer to masks.”
In terms of the Black man’s contribution to the human race, it is he alone who has borne the burden of history, carried the cross, and shed the blood of shame and sacrifice without complaining, and without reward or compensation. Abiola Irele comments on the negative impact which Western colonialism has wrought on the indigenous African culture:
The combined effects of the humiliated feeling of colonial dependency and of the cultural malaise flowing from these dislocations have determined something of a standard trope of the African imagination in which Africa , associated with the security of origins, is represented as being violated by on aggressive and unfeeling Europe.5
The Black man’s selfless service to the cause of humanity is not without divine reward, however: consequently he enjoys the warmth and comfort of the tropical “sunshine,” and the gift of “song,” without the usual complaining and “lamentation” often associated with sustained human suffering and sacrifice.
The characterization of the poem as “Epitaph,” is appropriate and interesting: it suggests the legacy which the Black man has bequeathed to history and posterity since antediluvian period. Blood, sweat, and tears have flowed from the body and brows of the Black man without his remonstration: herein lies the compelling beauty of this poem.
U Tam’si also celebrates other aspects of Black beauty and culture in the long poem, “Forest ”. Organized into four parts, each of them has one positive thing or the other to say about the tropical forest belt. Section one, which contains 18 lines, describes the “bush land/where roots at arm’s length/go seeking rich earth.” The inhabitants of the forest land include the “tree,” the “bird of paradise,” the “orchid,” the “bindweeds,” the “sun,” and the “earth”.
Part two, which consists of 13 lines, goes on to speak about the process of growth and development. It begins by naming “spring,” when the planting season begins and proceeds to explain that “water and hormones” are provided as nourishment in order to facilitate growth and development. With the sun’s rays beaming on the soil, we get an auspicious, fertile farmland good for sowing.
Part three departs from the freshness and lushness of vegetation and the farm products of parts one and two, and speaks about the universal process of decline and decay (the “victims burial mound,” “my dead returned through them,” (SAP, p.149).
Part four focuses more on the protagonist’s self-revelation about love and human persecution against a backdrop of the vicissitudes of life. Here negative images are counterbalanced with positive ones, apparently to highlight the opposites in nature (e.g., the “chemical formula/will dissolve me more violently than leprosy” versus “I will remember/my first still-born love”).
As is characteristic with U Tam’si, he discusses his argument through circumlocution or indirection. For example, in the concluding fourth section of the poem, he speaks about the “blacks of Louisiana” and the “Jews of Dachau” -- two groups in the United States and Germany respectively who have suffered from the scourge of discrimination and persecution, primarily on the basis of their race or skin color. The fundamental point U Tam’si is making is that, every race or nationality, has its uniqueness, and its particular contribution to make toward human civilization. The fact that he begins the poem with his celebration of the forest region -- one of the significant geographical settings of the African landscape -- suggests the importance which he attaches to the indigenous African culture.
III
If we turn now to U Tam’si’s treatment of the theme of Western colonialism, we soon discover that it is discussed from two levels of meaning, namely, his attack of colonialism, and his criticism of Christianity: the latter is the offspring of the former. U Tam’si offers a scathing condemnation of both institutions.
In the poem “The Congo is Myself” -- a profound memorial in honor of Lumumba -- U Tam’si lampoons the colonization of the country and the consequent assassination of the Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, by Joseph Kassavubu with the support of Belgium, the colonial power.
I myself will be the stage for my salvation
already velvet breaks the silences
with evanescent wings
which snow upon the oil lamp
Slobber within the masks will serve better for this carnival
than grinning on a thousand different notes,
But since I have only one face
over that alone shall I pass my hand.
The flat horizon of this country splits my heart
If I recoil everything bristles suddenly
I will stay at the gate with the wind in my side
but with tornadoes in my belly
I tear at my belly
Neither sea wrack nor iodine
nor the very algae have so much
tenderness in their caress
as my leaps knew once
before the earth was insulted
by a galloping herd of ventriloquist jackals!
The belly
always with that sickening warmth
as of the charnel-house
(MAP, p.58)
The allusions to Western colonialism in the poem include: the “velvet breaks the silence,” the “evanescent wings/which snow upon the oil-lamp,” the “masks,” the “flat horizon of this country splits my heart,” “everything bristles suddenly,” the “tornadoes in my belly,” the “earth was insulted,” and the “ventriloquist jackals.”
Of the coloniast scourge and menace, nothing can be more telling than its characterization as the “masks,” which connotes the deceitful and hypocritical way in which Africa was partitioned for political and economic reasons by the European powers. Of the colonialist impunity and crudity, no imagery can be more effective than the epithet “earth was insulted.” Finally, the expression “ventriloquist jackals” completely highlights U Tam’si’s contempt and disregard for the European colonizers.
Also of interest is the epithet the “evanescent wings,” which suggests the speed and rapidity with which the European colonizers ravaged and plundered the country. The reference to the “flat horizon of this country,” which “splits my heart,” suggests the disproportionate manner in which the country was colonized -- a source of worry and pain to the poet.
The title of the poem, “The Congo is Myself,” suggests U Tam’si’s patriotism. Later, he elaborates by speaking of the “wind in my side” and the “tornadoes in my belly” -- both of which suggest the degree to which he feels tormented by the deplorable state in which his country is thrust.
U Tam’si mentions the word, “belly,” thrice: in the first reference he speaks of the “tornadoes in my belly;” in the second he writes, “I tear at my belly;” and in the third, he says, “the belly/always with that sickening warmth.” Collectively, all three references highlight the sense of revulsion which the poet feels towards the colonial Belgium
The image, “snow upon the oil-lamp,” alludes to two distinct institutions: the Western civilization or colonialism, symbolized by the “snow,” and the indigenous African culture, symbolized by the “oil-lamp.” The syntactical use of language here suggests the way in which European colonialism has successfully conquered Africa and acquired its cultural heritage.
The poem derives its intensity through the deft employment of metaphor. The poem’s title, “The Congo
IV
European colonialism and Christianity go hand in hand: one is the product of the other. With colonialism comes Christianity. Similarly, the Christian missionaries helped to foster or promote the spirit of colonialism. Professors Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe describe the concomitant influence which colonialism and Christianity have on each other. On the negative impact of the Christian religion, they note: “The European powers used missionary educational policy and cultural influence to further their economic and political interests in the name of progress.”6
In his lyrics U Tam’si discusses Christianity from several negative perspectives: At times he attacks its hypocrisy; at other times he attacks its corruption and other evil practices; and at still other times, he attacks Christianity and the world it seeks to reform through divine blessing.
For instance, in “The Scorner” he makes a veiled parody of the Christian religious system. The poem’s title, “The Scorner,” alludes to the way and manner in which the early Christian missionaries denigrated Africa and its religious practices for what they characterize as ill-informed or barbaric. By an irony of fate and circumstances, however, it is the Christians themselves who have become the subject of scorn for their failure or inability to live up to expectations. In this poem, Christ and Christianity are under scurrilous attack:
…
Christ I laugh at your sadness
O my sweet Christ
Thorn for thorn
We have a common crown of thorns
I will be converted because you tempt me
Joseph comes to me
I suck already the breast of the Virgin your mother
I count more than your one Judas on my fingers
My eyes lie to my soul
Where the world is a lamb your pascal lamb -- Christ
I will waltz to the tune of your slow sadness.
(MAP, p. 57)
In this poem Christ, the biggest name in Christendom, is mercilessly ridiculed, as is the Christian religion which he symbolizes. The protagonist, that is, the speaker in the poem, sees himself -- and by implication all those who are reviled or attacked for their religious beliefs -- as wearing the same “thorns” of persecution. The didacticism of the poem is clear enough: it is a message to the Christian brethren to be careful about attacking others who do not share their religious beliefs, lest they themselves soon become the victim of persecution, for, as the philosophical aphorism reminds us, “what goes around comes around.”
In terms of style, the poet employs the first person pronoun “I” to articulate his discourse. Although this poetic device runs contrary to T.S Eliot’s theory of the impersonality of the author, yet it has its unique importance: it is the most important mode of believability in literary discourse as the author can bear witness to his own personal testimony. Furthermore, as Michael Skau makes explicit, “The use of the first person in poetry traditionally becomes a device for universalization --- whoever considers the life of a man finds therein the history of the species.”7
Another poem which attacks the Christian orthodoxy is “Viaticum 2.” In this lyric U Tam’si makes satiric references to the Christian mode of baptism, whereby the cheeks of those baptized are lapped several times by the officiating priest. The reference in the poem to the “dirty hand” (line 16) suggests the poet’s complete disdain for the priest. The “cheeks,” as employed in the poem, is a symbol of compliance, submission, or demagoguery which U Tam’si completely rejects. It has it origins in the atrocities committed through slavery by the early church fathers who tacitly supported and promoted it.
The metaphor, “The soul of my desert -- Anne!,” is interesting. The Christian religion, to the poet, is the cause of much of his unhappiness, as the metaphor suggests. The direct reference to “Anne,” that is, the St. Anne’s Cathedral in Brazzaville
Dirty with the colour of three histories
My cheeks like two hills
Where the tree of my laughter had sprung.
The algae glide over my cheeks
a slatmaker there draws her ration of real salt
The saltmaker is she to whom I give
my other cheek
Anne has the foul cheek of a saltmarker!
Ah let them take my cheeks also
in exchange for a good easy sleep
so that I may yet keep
the night upon my soul!
(SAP, p. 146)
What can we finally say about U Tam’si and his poetry? He explores a wide variety of poetic themes, including the celebration of nature and the indigenous African cultural values, and a scathing repudiation of Western civilization. Finally, he employs irony, satire, the first person pronoun “I”, repetition, symbol, and significant images and metaphors to elucidate, clarify, or illuminate his subject matter. Gerald Moore comments on not only his enduring legacy as a poet, but on his remarkable ability to integrate diverse literary sources and images in order to meet his poetic objective:
One thing is certain: U Tam’si is a poet of some importance and the most prolific black poet of French expression to appear since Cesaire --- Apart from their consistency of style his poems exhibit a complex system of interdependent imagery, so that the particular images of each poem often feed the significance of those in surrounding poems. This characteristic makes each of his books very much a whole, to be read and evaluated as such.8
Notes
1. See A Selection of African Poetry, Introduced and annotated by K.E Senanu and T. Vincent (Burnt Mill, Harlow: Longman Group, 1976), p. 143. All citations from this Anthology will be included Parenthetically in the Text as SAP, Followed by the Page Number(s).
2. See Modern Poetry from Africa , eds. Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier (London: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 169. Further Citations from this Edition will be included Parenthetically in the text as MPA, followed by the page number(s).
3. O.R Dathorne, African Literature in the Twentieth Century (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1975), pp. 289-90.
4. As cited by O.R Dathorne, African Literature in the Twentieth Century, p. 289.
5. Abiola Irele, The African Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Black Diaspora (New York : Oxford University
6. Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe, The Companion to African Literature (Oxford , Bloomington & Indianapolis : James Currey and Indiana University
7. Michael Skau, “The Poet as Poem” Perlinghettt’s Songs of Myself,” Concerning Poetry, Vol. 20, 1987, 57.
8. Gerald Moore, “Surrealism and Negritude in the Poetry of Tchikaya U Tam’si” in Introduction to African Literature: An Anthology of Critical Writing, edited by Ulli Beier (Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex, UK: Longman Group, Ltd., 1979), p. 110.
Works Cited
Dathorne, O.R. African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota
Irele, Abiola. The African Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Black Diaspora. New York : Oxford University
Killam, G.D. & Ruth Rowe. The Companion to African Literatures. Oxford , Bloomington , and Indianapolis : James Currey and Indiana University
Moore, Gerald. “Surrealism and Negritude” in Introduction to African Literature: An Anthology of Critical Writing, ed. Ulli Beier. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex , UK
Moore, G. & Ulli Beier. Modern Poetry from Africa . London
Skau, Michael. “The Poet as Poem,” Perlinghetti’s Songs of Myself, Concerning Poetry, Vol. 20, 1975, 57.
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