The poem depicts a mother in a refugee camp tenderly caring for her sick son, who is slowly dying. Despite the despairing conditions around her with other mothers who have "long ceased to care", she still holds onto a faint smile and memory of motherly pride while precisely combing his thin, rust-colored hair, in a final act of love before his impending death like "putting flowers on a tiny grave".

1. A Mother in a Refugee Camp
Chinua Achebe

2. A Mother In A Refugee Camp
No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget. . . .
The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother’s pride. . . . She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-colored hair left on his skull
And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part it.
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.

3. • He was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic
• Interested in African politics
• He wrote the influential novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ which sold 12
million copies and is the most widely read book in modern
African literature.
Chinua Achebe

4. • Social Justice
• Love
• Pride
• Innocence
• Death
Themes

5. • Written in free verse. There is no rhyme scheme.
• There is only one stanza – Achebe uses ellipsis to progress his
message.
• The simplicity of the structure and language allows you to
focus solely on the content – Achebe wanted to make us aware
of, and to think about, the life refugees had to live.
Structure and Form

6. The stanza is shorter in comparison with the other stanzas.
This signifies that even though her son’s life is short and
there is little time left, she won’t give up or lose hope.
This short positive stanza indicates that there is very little
hope or goodness in the lives of the refugees – most of
their life is like the struggle depicted in the second stanza.
Portrays a compassionate
mother. The child is unnamed,
making the child universal.
Foreshadowing makes us
aware that inevitably the
child will die and its mother
will have to forget.
Language
Another alternative
interpretation can be
biblical, symbolising Mary
and Jesus. Mary watched her
son die horrifically like
mothers are doing in refugee
camps.

7. Unlike all the other mothers who
have given up hope and accepted
the fact that their children will
die and they can not save them,
the mother in the poem still has
that little glimmer of hope. This
makes both the mother and the
poem itself, even more tragic.
Language
Physical description of the dying
children, creates a sense of emptiness
and desperation – life in the refugee
camps is a bitter ‘struggle’ for survival,
which most lose.
Contrasting references to time. In
the first part, there is ‘soon’ which
gives the sense that time is running
out. The second reference to time is
‘long’ which describes the situation
– the suffering has been going on
for a long time. Most mothers had
given up with this a long time ago
and had just resigned from
motherhood and hope.

8. The combing signifies her mother still not
giving up complete hope and showing
happiness that her child is ALIVE. Contrast
to the poem as a whole because of the
slight happiness present – makes the scene
even more touching and tragic.
The mother is faking her smile due to the
overwhelming sadness she has to face in
order to keep her mind off the harsh truth.
The word ‘ghost’ is repeated in order to
emphasise the point the child is dying.
Connotation of death. The “ghost of a
mother’s pride” relates to the memory of
happiness she had with her son before they
were in the camp and before her son got
sick.
The word “skull” also emphasises death.
Shows how unhealthy and how sick the child
is.
Language
Rust suggests
decay.
We can see how
much the mother
appreciates every
single little detail
about her child
because she wants
to absorb as much
of her child as she
can.

9. In these final lines the poet
compares the mother combing her
child’s hair with the act of putting
flowers on a child’s grave. Both are
acts of love and show how the
mother is caring for her child.
The poem ends with the word
“grave”. Again, the word carries
connotations of death. Ends the
poem on a morbid note to drive
home the message that refugees
need help/support.
The word “flowers” paints a
positive image. This contrasts very
sharply with the “grave” in the
next line.
Language
The adjective ‘tiny’
emphasises how this is
children dying, which
goes against the natural
belief that parents
should outlive their
children.

10. Throughout the poem, Achebe uses a variety of sensory descriptions to describe the
conditions and suffering that they have to face on a daily basis.
Examples are:
‘odours’
‘diarrhea’
‘unwashed children’
‘eyes’
‘blown empty bellies’
‘washed out’
‘dried up’
Achebe combines touch and smell by using the
technique synesthesia. An example of this is “the
air was heavy with “odours”, as “heavy” relates to
touch and “odours” relates to smell. Another
example is “singing in her eyes”. This is effective
as it emphasis the conditions that they have to
face at the camp.
Language - senses