A Far Cry From Africa- Summary

In this poem the poet describes how he rejects the British culture and colonial ideology which belongs to the post colonial poetry. The title of the poem seems to suggest according to me that the poet is writing about Africa from a distance when he says “A Far Cry from Africa.” writing from the island of St. Lucia in Africa the poet feels that he is at a vast distance from Africa.  Mainly the poet is talking about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the early 1950s between European setters and the native Kikuyu tribe in what is now the republic of Kenya. The Mau Mau Movement of Kenya was a nationalist armed peasant revolt against the British colonial, its politics, and its local supporters.

Summary of the Poem 

Para-1
The Nation itself is compared to an animal maybe lion with a “Tawny pelt.” Tawny is a light brown to brownish orange colour common colour of the African Landscape. The word “Kikuyu” refers to the native tribes in Kenya. The Kikuyu are seen as the flies battening on the bloodstreams and the blood is on the veldt. People were killed and their dead bodies were scattered like cattle on the beautiful land of Africa, seen as paradise. 
The poet personifies the worm by those who are already dead by asking a question, “What is the use of compassion for those already dead”? 
The words “justify” and “colonial policy” clarifies that Walcott is describing the Mau Mau uprising against the British colonists in Kenya during the 1950s. Where the speaker seemed to blame the victims, he now blamed those who forced the colonial system in Kenya and polarized the population.  They cannot justify their action because they will never matter to the “white child” who has been killed just due to his colour.
Para-2
 Walcott later comes back to pictures of Africa’s wildlife, in a reminder that the ibises (long-billed wading birds) and other beast ruled this land long before African and European Civilization existed.  The poet also talks about an old hunting customs of natives walking in a line through the long grass and beating it to flush out prey. He talks more about the love for nation and nationality.
Para-3
  He tried to clarify that he only wanted to be African but he also loved the English Tongue. He then presented British as a superman and the African as a gorilla who is one of the powerful animals even though, the Africa tried to fight with British, and their practice for their own existence went to vain.  Later on, he tells that things had been changed. The cultural transmission couldn’t be avoided. Even in him, there is a combination of two blood ad culture couldn’t be discarded. The lines, “I who am poisoned with the blood of both, where shall I turn, divided to the vein?”, also tells he could leave neither his African nationality nor English Tongue.

Work Cited:

Poem:

A Far Cry from Africa By Derek Walcott - Poems | Academy Of American Poets

https://poets.org/poem/far-cry-africa

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/far-cry-africa