According to Countee Cullen, Africa means home to African Americans because it is a continent where they would not be discriminated against because of their color. Africa means the awakening of the African Americans after being oppressed for such a long time when they were working as slaves in America. Africa means the consciousness of having a particular way of doing things. This is because the African culture has so many events which are carried out seasonally.
Africa means love to the African American society because it recognizes everybody in the society. They hold celebrations for the birth of children, for marriage, for funeral events among the many occasions that they host. People live as brothers and sisters in Africa and they are always ready to help out. African Americans view Africa with admiration because it is rich in culture and traditions. Africa is full of hardworking people and it is just like any other continent.
However, some African Americans refuse to be associated with Africa because it is not so developed. African Americans have a very strong connection with America other than Africa because they do not like to associate with their heritage. The Americans have the power to overcome the barriers put forth for them by the colonialists. Africa, to the African Americans, means living at the present time with the knowledge of the past events so that they can prosper. This way they will not lack to discover where they have come from and know where they are going. The African Americans have negatively changed how things are done in the African society because of urbanization and westernization which has crept to Africa.
Africa provides spiritual needs to the African Americans because it brings them close to their ancestors who must be pleased in order to provide fertility, rain, and growth of the societies. Africa means suffering to the black Americans because Jesus Christ is known to have suffered for mankind and hence the close relationship between misery and blackness. It is for this reason that Countee Cullen refers to Jesus as the black Christ. Africa also refers to the gap that is inexistent amid the man who is contemporary and aware of the cultural heritage and the world which is parched and not reproductive when compared.
Civilization is negatively used because it is referred to as abandoning the cultural heritage and adopting the westernized way of life which clashes with many African traditions. The African Americans have discovered their African roots and have stopped using creams that lighten their skins making them look white. Nowadays they have even made effort to study some African languages such as Swahili. The purpose of these two poems is to enable the readers to think about people’s color and where they come from. Racism accompanied by gender discrimination affects African Americans among other minority populations in the United States.
Countee Cullen takes the African Americans on a journey to discover their heritage and also makes a lot of effort in seeking recognition from the society that is largely dominated by white people. To know their heritage was important because it was accompanied by cultures that the white people needed to be aware of. They also had their own special way of doing music and of symbols which were to show that they were human. They wanted the whites to treat them like Americans in spite of the different skin pigmentation. By the time this poem was written, the African Americans were having challenges in acknowledging where they had come from because they wanted to adopt the American culture
Ignoring their own culture was losing their identity and that is why Countee Cullen did this poem to remind them of who they were and where they had come from. The poem is about how black Americans view the world and the hustles that they go through as they struggle to fit in. Africa was known to be ancient and barbaric and to a very large extent, it was inferior. Gwendolyn brooks refer to black Americans as Africa. She takes her readers on a journey to the discovery that Africa is a community. The poem to the Diaspora brings attention to Americans the existence of African Americans and what they stand for.
African Americans would be motivated to return to Africa by civilization and better economies. If Africa was to become developed like the way America is then they would surely come back. African Americans are hard-working people and returning to Africa would make the economies better. The African Americans have an attitude towards the whites because of ethnic discrimination. Better leadership would also motivate them to come back because it would put an end to wars in Africa.
African Americans are associated with all the social evils in America especially dealing with illegal businesses such as drug trafficking and other crimes especially homicides. They can do so much in Africa other than to keep struggling in a society in which they are the minority is viewed negatively.
According to Gwendolyn Brooks Africa is associated with the worship of gods and this is discussed as a characteristic to show how backward they are. Africa is known to be a slave to religion even though the majority of them fall in the Christianity religion. African Americans are not less good than whites because they have shown excellence in the schools. If there is anything that the Americans can do the African Americans can do it even better. This is proof enough that they do not have to keep proving to the Americans that they are equally better.
African Americans should create awareness of the African culture to the whites and to the other races so that there can be a mutual understanding in the world. When Africa was being liberated blackness symbolized unity and they refused to be oppressed because they believed they had equal rights as the blacks. The liberation brought about divisions in culture and in languages. Barriers were created geographically to restrict movement and the differences in a religion created disloyalty in the relationships that tribes had with each other.
Today Africa means being poor and it is for that reason that they are discriminated against and also the reason why the African Americans do not want to associate with Africa. The wars in Africa over resources and power need to stop so that Africa can be habitable. This way the African Americans can associate with it and have a reason to come back. Since Africa is characterized by so many tribes the conflicts on ethnicity have risen in the risen past and are pushing people out of Africa.