African Poetry

The Dark Continent by Mthoko Mpofana

Africa my beginning, Africa my end. I was born here and I will die here
Africa you bear my hopes and fears
Poverty, famine, crime and AIDS are words which plague Mother Africas name
These demons bring me shame
While people try to make Africa better, a few let the hardship overpower them
Shame on them
They give up hope and go about their knavish ways
Even though theres hope on the horizon, be that as it may
They continue to destroy what little Mother Africa has
Africa is no longer what she was
Mother Africa is weeping
Yet a new dawn may be creeping
Mother Africa and her children are beautiful, they know their place in nature
Even though hardship may corrupt good nature
In the name of ALL that is good, I hope Africa will rise one day
And well stop the suffering before she frays
The words upon a famous poet, I hear
Africa my beginning, Africa my end. I was born here and I will die here

The speaker in this poem talks about how the he was born in Africa and that they
will die in Africa and that he loves Africa but he knows Africa is struggling right
now with many things. This poem has a lot of personification in it because it gives
Africa human traits calling it Mother Africa and saying how Mother Africa is
weeping because it wasnt what it used to be. The speaker also talked about how he
hopes Mother Africa and her children will rise one day and stop all the suffering.