The Song Of The Women Of My Land By Oumar Farouk Sesay- Analysis
The Background Story To The Poem
The poem is borne out of the civil war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002.
The war began on 23rd March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) with support from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) forces, led by Charles Taylor of Liberia attempted to overthrow Joseph Momoh’s government.
This resulted in a civil war that lasted for eleven years and over fifty thousand people lost their lives.
The population of Sierra Leone then was about six million. The bone of contention there was the Diamond that the country was endowed with.
Women and children, being the most vulnerable, were the most affected. Women were forced into sexual slavery and forced marriages, while young ladies were captured, raped, and forced to take up arms.
“The Song of the Women of my Land” is a metaphor and the “Song” there refers to the travails and the horrendous abuses the women passed through during the war which they may not even like to reminisce about.
The Poetic Meaning Of The Difficult Words And Expressions In The Poem
Sculptor – A person who is involved in carving or shaping wood, stone, metal, etc.
Chipping – Small pieces of stone or wood
Chisels – To cut or shape wood or stone
Strips – To take off
Forlorn – A place where something tragic occurred.
Ploughed – To turn over
Terrain – Thought
Mindscape – Mind
Vast – Extremely large in amount.
Void – Empty space.
Servitude – A condition of being forced to obey another person (slavery)
Cuffed – Gripped
Dereliction – In – activity, neglect
Decapitated – Shortened
Epic – Long story.
Sponged off – Removed
Anguish – Suffering
Tyranny – Wickedness, unfairness.
Commune – Share emotions and feelings.
Epoch – A period in history.
Antiquity – An object from ancient times.
Scars – A permanent feeling of great sadness.
Lyrics – The words of a song.
Echoes – Repeats
Wriggling – Incoherent
Hollering – Shouting
Afield – Far
Stuttering – Stammering
Screeching – Unpleasant sound
Nib – The metal point of a pen
Theatre – Place
Scorned – Despised
Tenor – Low tone.
Dirge –A slow sad song.
This poem is a reference to the civil war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002 and it discusses the women of Sierra Leone and the agonies they passed through during the war.
The first four lines of the poem reveal to us that the war took place some years back and that the memory of what happened then is gradually fading away from them.
He compares the way time has made them forget the degrading events with a sculptor, chipping away at bits of wood.
“Like a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood,
Time chisels away bits of their memory”
The third stanza, lines 5 to 11 takes us to the arena of the war to reveal to us some of the inhuman treatments the women were exposed to.
Due to these cruel treatments by the warriors, their minds were disorganized and it was difficult for them to think like normal human beings.
The women were enslaved, sexually abused, and forced into marriages. The ladies among them were also raped and forced to take up arms.
The fourth stanza, lines 12 to 18 is about the women singing about what they were going through during the war to bring a little succor to them and ease them of the agonies and pains that had been meted on them.
This song also serves as a reminiscence for the generation yet unborn to fall back to know what happened during the war, hence the war has become an “antiquity” which is an object from an ancient time.
In lines 19 to 23, the poet refers to the effect of time on the song again. He says that time has taken away some of the words of the song and also makes them forget some of the ugly experiences they passed through during the war.
These make the song die and he compares it with some of the women who did not survive the war to tell the story but left back the song to tell the story for them.
“Yet time strips the lyrics and scars the tune,
Leaving a dying song
Dead!
Like the women who died long ago,
Leaving the song to tell the story of their lives”
In lines 24 to 31, the poet expresses how difficult it is to remember now vividly what the women passed through while being enslaved and dehumanized on their land. It is difficult to remember because it was not documented in any form.
The next stanza, lines 32 to 36 is about the content of this poem the lyrics of the song of the women of his land now form the incoherent verses of the poem that are written not in the local language, but in a foreign language (English) and composed outside the country (Sierra Leone).
The next stanza, lines 37 to 45 is about the experiences of the poet while composing this poem. He found it difficult to write the lyrics coherently in a foreign language, hence he is “stripped of lyrics like a scorned ghost. “
He thereby concludes that the women suffered a lot, died and the people are gradually forgetting what they passed through.
The poet says that this poem “is all that remains of the song of the women of my land. “This poem serves as a reminiscence of the inhuman treatment the women were exposed to at that time.
Themes
Forgetfulness: This poem opens on the note of forgetfulness in the first four lines. The event took place some years back, so time has taken away a bit of their memory to remember all they experienced then. This also had effects on the poet while composing the poem that he couldn’t write coherently.
Inhumanity: The women were exposed to all forms of inhuman treatment by the warriors. The women were enslaved, raped, incapacitated, and forced into marriage. The ladies also experienced all sorts of abuse. They were raped and forced to take up arms. The women were physically and spiritually dehumanized.
Succor: When the women were in great agony, to bring a little succor to themselves, they made a song of their horrendous experiences so that they would not feel the effects of the cruelty meted out on them.
Message: This “song” of theirs that contains their ugly experiences serves as a message to the generation yet unborn. Those who did not witness the events can fall back at the “song” to know what happened then.
Death: In the course of maltreating the women, a lot of death was recorded as not all of them survived the tyranny. Many were raped to death and the ladies that were forced to take arms and fight were killed because they were not trained to fight war.
“Like the women who died long ago,
Leaving the song to tell the story of their lives”
Vulnerability: The women and the children were the most affected entity during the war because they were the most vulnerable in any society.
Poetic Devices
SIMILE: This is the comparison of two things with the use of “like” and “as.”We have this in the lines;
1- Like a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood,
22- Like the women who died long ago,
25- Like their souls looking for lyrics
42- stripped of lyrics like a scorned ghost.
ALLITERATION: This device is well-used in the poem. We have it in lines;
POETIC 5- they sang in the forlorn fields
8- for memories of lyrics lost in the vast void of time
10- when servitude cuffed the ankles of their soul,
11- and dereliction decapitated epic of their lives.
12- With a song, they sponged off their anguish,
15- give lyrics to the tune of their lives,
16- cheat the tyranny of time,
19- Yet time strips the lyrics and scars the tune,
22- Like the women who died long ago,
23- Leaving the song to tell the story of their lives
24- Today the tune roams the forlorn fields
25- Like their souls looking for lyrics
26- To tell the tale of the servitude
28- Who ploughed their soil and soul
29- For a song to sing the story of their lives
30- The song of the women of my land
31- left in the memory of the wind.
32- Now feeding the verses of the poets, it echoes in the fields
35- In places far afield from the forlorn fields,
36- where the song of their lives died.
39- try to sing the song of the women of my land
40- In verses far from the theatre of toil
41- where they left a song that now roams the land
42- stripped of lyrics like a scorned ghost.
43- The tune tuning the tenor of my verse,
44- is all that remains of the song of the women of my land
45- Who laboured and died leaving a dying song:
46- The dirge of their lives!
PERSONIFICATION: In stanzas one and two, time is given the attribute of a living thing that chisels away the memory of the people that they forget the lyrics of the song of the women in the poem. It is also used in lines 9, 10, and 11 thus;
9- in those days when a song beheld their lives;
10- when servitude cuffed the ankles of their soul,
11- and dereliction decapitated epic of their lives.
Stanza five is also full of personification. “Time” and “song” are given the attributes of a living thing;
19- Yet time strips the lyrics and scars the tune,
20- Leaving a dying song
21- Dead!
22- Like the women who died long ago,
23- Leaving the song to tell the story of their lives
In stanza six, lines 24, 25, and 26, “tune” is given the attributes of a living thing;
24- Today the tune roams the forlorn fields
25- Like their souls looking for lyrics
26- To tell the tale of the servitude
Personification is widely used in stanzas seven and eight. In stanza seven, the lyrics of the women are personified as “feeding the verses of the poet,” “wriggling in rhythms and melodies,” “Hollering in distant tunes. “In line 36 of the same stanza, “song” is also personified; it is given the attribute “died.”
“where the song of their lives died.”
In stanza eight, the pen of the poet is well given the attributes of a living thing to illustrate the difficulties the poet encountered in writing the lyrics of the song in another language;
37- The stuttering lips of my pen
38- And the screeching voice of my nib
39- try to sing the song of the women of my land
METAPHOR: This literary device is used in lines;
7- of how they ploughed the terrain of their mindscape
12- With a song, they sponged off their anguish,
16- cheat the tyranny of time,
18- to give meaning to an epoch of antiquity,
24- Today the tune roams the forlorn fields
28- Who ploughed their soil and soul
35- In places far afield from the forlorn fields,
40- In verses far from the theater of toil
46- The dirge of their lives!
IMAGERY: This is an imaginative language that produces pictures in the minds of people reading or listening. We have the use of agricultural images in lines 7 and 28 of the poem;
7- of how they ploughed the terrain of their mindscape
28- Who ploughed their soil and soul
ENJAMBMENT: If we look at the poem critically, we shall see that the poem runs-on-line. The sense expressed in a line extends to the other lines.
REFRAIN/REPETITION: There is the repetition of “the song of the women of my land” in lines 3, 30, 39, and 44. The word “memory” is repeated in lines, 2, 8, and 31.
The word “forlorn” is repeated in lines, 5, 24, and 35. “Away” is repeated in the first three lines to show the extent to which the memory is being lost. “Song” is also repeated 14 times in the poem in lines 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 20, 23, 29, 30, 36, 39, 41, 44 and 45. The word “lyrics” is repeated six times in the poem in lines 3, 8, 15, 19, 25 and 42.
PARALLELISM: This is placing phrases or sentences of similar construction and balance side by side, or one after the other to maintain balance or reinforce each other as we have in lines 13 and 14 of this poem;
13- to behold their collective pain,
14- to celebrate their gains,
SYMBOLISM: This is the representation of a concept through symbols. In lines 1 and 2 of the poem, the symbols of “sculptor” and “chisels” are used to explain how far they have forgotten the lyrics of the song of the women.
1- Like a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood,
2- Time chisels away bits of their memory