The poem explores the poet's internal conflict arising from his mixed heritage. As someone of both African and British descent, the poet is torn over how to feel about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya against British colonial rule. He is disgusted by both the brutal violence of Mau Mau against white settlers and the unjust colonial system that polarized society. The poem depicts the poet's inability to fully identify with either side due to his dual background, leaving him isolated and unable to find resolution.

1. Derek Walcot (1930- March 2017)
A Far Cry from Africa 1962
• Born & died in Saint Lucia, the West Indies.
• His grandmothers = both black, & both grandfathers = white.
Had a twin brother
• 1st
published poem, “1944” = 14 years old (44 lines of blank verse).
• 19 years old: Self-published 2 volumes, 25 Poems (1948) & Epitaph
for the Young: XII Cantos (1949) (influenced by fx Shakespeare, T. S.
Eliot & Ezra Pound).
• Attended the University of the West Indies.
• 1951 published the volume Poems.
• 1957awarded a fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation to study
the American theatre.
• Published numerous collections of poetry in lifetime fx The Poetry of
Derek Walcott 1948-2013), White Egrets (2010), Selected Poems
(2007), The Prodigal: A Poem (2004), Tiepolo’s Hound (2000).
• He founded ‘Trinidad Theater Workshop’ + also wrote several plays
produced throughout US: The Odyssey: A Stage Version (1992);
• 1st
collection of essays, What the Twilight Says: published in 1998.
• Walcott won many honours the Queen’s Medal for Poetry. “Sir”
• In 1992, Walcott = first Caribbean writer to receive the 1992 Nobel
Prize in Literature.
• 2015: received the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry’s Lifetime
Achievement Award.
• During the period of greatest Mau Mau activity, Walcott was
attending university in Jamaica.
School/movement = FORMALISM Key Words:Culture, hybridity, identity, origin, in-betweenness, dilemma
o TITLE: idiom: “a far cry” = an impossible thing.
A) title suggests poet writes about African subject from a distance. He feels he =a vast distance- literally & metaphorically from Africa.
Being well-educated = distance from conditions in Africa.
B) meaning the real state of the African ‘paradise’ = far cry from the Africa we read about in descriptions of gorgeous fauna & flora.
C) idea of Walcot hearing the poem as a far cry coming all the way across 10000 of miles of ocean - cry coming to him on the wind.
o Theme: Split personality. Ethnic conflict & divided loyalties.
Agonizing & didactic personal poem
o A Far Cry from Africa by Derek Walcot deals with the theme of split identity & anxiety caused by it in the face of the struggle in which
the poet could side w neither party. About the poet’s ambivalent feelings towards the Kenyan terrorists & the counter-terrorist white
colonial government, both of which were 'inhuman', during the independence struggle of the country in the 1950s. The persona,
probably the poet himself, can take favour of none of them since both bloods circulate along his veins. It is the violence of Mau Mau
that most disturbs Walcot, apparently because it makes Africans look even worse than their Brit-ish oppressors
o He has an English tongue which he loves & same time, can’t tolerate the brutal slaughter of Africans w whom he shares blood & tradi-
tions. His conscience forbids him to favour injustice. He =state of indecisiveness, troubled, wishing peace & harmony in the region.
o Walcot = pro-African & pro-Kikuyu but anti-Mau Mau, is pro-English (as in culture & language) but anti-British (as in colonialism), an
outsider to the conflict, but an insider in the sense that within his body exist both English & African blood. While both pro-revolution-
nary & anti-violent, he cannot defend the uprising or completely condemn it
o Animal imagery: important feature. Violence of the nature or “natural law” of animals killing each other to eat & survive is acceptable;
Beasts come out beter than “upright man” since animals do what they must do, any do not seek divinity through inflicting pain.
o Walcot feels foreign in both cultures due to his mixed blood. His hybrid heritage prevents him from identifying directly w one culture.
 creates a feeling of isolation.
o Just as the uprising was never cleanly resolved, Walcot, at least within the poem, never resolves his conflict about whose side to take
o He portrays the cruel imperialistic exploits of the British without creating sympathy for the African tribesmen.
o An unfavourable description of the British: “Only the worm, colonel of carrion cries/ ‘waste no compassion on their separated dead'.”
‘colonel’ = a punning on ‘colonial’ !
o At the time poem = writen, the island of St. Lucia = still a colony of Great Britain.
CONTEXT
Post-Colonial
 Kenya: The British government then took over administration in 1895,
calling the area a “protectorate.”
 Mau Mau Uprising: extended & bloody battle, which began in 1952, It was
put down — some say in 1953, 1956, or 1960 — without a treaty, yet the
British did leave Kenya in 1963.
 The state of emergency finally ended end in 1960, likely well after W.
finished writing poem. Presid. Kenyatta: released from prison in 1961.
 During uprising btw European settlers & the native Kikuyu tribe in what is
now the republic of Kenya. Early 20th century, first white settlers arrived,
forcing the Kikuyu people off of their tribal lands. Europeans took control of
farmland & the government, relegating the Kikuyu to a subservient
position. One faction of the Kikuyu people formed Mau Mau, a terrorist
organization intent on purging all European influence from the country, but
less strident Kikuyus attempted to either remain neutral or help the British
defeat Mau Mau.
 1 murder = reported of a 4,5 old white child. On March 1953 (Lari
Massacre) Mau Maus killed 97 Kikuyu men, women, & children, for
collaborating w the British.
 Saint Lucia: From 1958 to 1962, the island: Member of the Federation of the
West Indies. Associated State from March 1967; Independence from the UK
Feb. 1979  16 years after Kenya gained independence.
 Spanish Civil War (1936–39): military revolt against the Spanish Repub-lican
government. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire
country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought w great ferocity on both sides.
The Nationalists (rebels) received aid f Fascist Italy & Nazi Germany. The
Republicans received aid from Soviet Union, as well as from International
Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe & the US. The rebels w
Generalissimo Francisco Franco won.
Lines 1-3=
Setting on the African plain, or veldt.
Africa: compared to perhaps a lion w a “tawny pelt.” (light brown-brown-
ish orange). Colours in photographs: light brown & yellow.
“Kikuyu” - a native tribe in Kenya. – Karen Blixen/Isaac Dinesen.
Idyllic portrayal of the plain quickly shifts; Kikuyu = flies (buzzing around
the “animal” of Africa) who are feeding on blood (present in large enough
amounts to create streams.)
Lines 4-6=
Shatters image of a paradise many associate w Africa  describing a
landscape littered w corpses. Adds a sickening detail by referring to a
worm living in this setting of decaying human flesh. The worm’s advise to
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!” is puzzling in that it
implies the victims somehow got what they deserved.
Lines 7-10=
Words “justify” & “colonial policy,” + context clarifies the exact event 
the Mau Mau Uprising.
Where earlier, speaker seemed to blame the victims, he now blames
those who forced the colonial system onto Kenya & polarized the
population. They cannot justify their actions, because their reasons will
never matter to the “white child” who has been murdered — merely
because of his colour — in retaliation by Mau Mau fighters or to the
“savages,” who — in as racist an attitude as was taken by Nazis against
Jews — are deemed worthless. (“Savages” = controversial term - derives
from French word sauvage = wild,  now wholly derogatory in English.
Walcott’s use of “savage” functions to present a British colonialist’s racist
point of view.)
Lines 11-14:
He returns to images of Africa’s wildlife, reminding the ibises (long-billed
wading birds) & other beasts ruled this land long before African or
European civilization existed. Describes a centuries-old hunting custom of
natives walking in a line through the long grass & beating it to flush out
prey. This killing for food = set against the senseless & random death that
native Africans & European settlers perpetrate upon each other.
Lines 15-21
Animals kill merely for food & survival, but humans, having perfected the
skill of hunting for food, extend that violent act to other areas, using force
to exert control —superiority over — other people; they seek divinity by
deciding who lives & who dies. Ironically, wars btw people are described as
following the beat of a drum (instrument made of animal hide stretched
over a cylinder.)
W. says for whites, historically, peace = not the result of compromise w an
opponent, but a situation arrived at because the opposition = crushed &
cannot resist anymore.
Lines 22-25:
Lines = difficult to interpret  appear b aimed at those judging the Mau
Mau uprising from a distance — observers somehow accepting brutality as
necessary while aware of a dire situation but wiping their hands, or
refusing to become involved. He seems to condemn such attitude by
comparing the Mau Mau Uprising to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).
France & Great Britain wanted to avoid another war that would engulf all
of Europe, so they introduced a non-intervention pact that was signed by
27 nations. Nonetheless, the Nationalists were aided by Germany & Italy.
The Loyalists fought valiantly but outmanned, lost territory, & were
eventually defeated. Line 25 = a cynical view of the Mau Mau Uprising as
just another colonial conflict where gorillas (negatively animalized
Africans) fight w superman - a negative characterization of Europe.
Lines 26-33
Change of scene from that of Africa  that of the poet. Being a product of
both African & English heritage, W. is torn, because he does not know how
to feel about the Mau Mau struggle. Certainly is not satisfied w the stock
response of those from the outside. W. = as sickened by the behaviour of
Mau Mau just as he has been disgusted by the British. By the end, the
poet’s dilemma is not reconciled, but one gets the sense that Walcott will
abandon neither Africa nor Britain
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Stanza 1
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt (an act of hurling something at someone)
Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: (the decaying flesh of dead animals.) COLONEL = Pun on COLONIAL.
‘Waste no compassion on these separate dead!’
Statistics justify & scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy,
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews? Expendable=Kenyans.
Stanza 2
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break (grass-like plants)
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain. (be full of or swarming with.)
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.
Stanza 3
Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Upon the napkins of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa & the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter & be cool?
How can I turn from Africa & live?
Enjambment
Enjambment + caesura
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment
Enjambment + caesura
caesura
caesura
caesura
caesura
6-10: the clash btw the culture of those outside the uprising & those
killed by it, outsiders (“scholars”) w the luxury of judging the conflict, &
insiders (victims) for whom no explanation is sufficient.
Powerful opening line that sets
the tone & motion for the whole
poem. Opens w a horrible scene
of bloodshed: ‘Bloodstreams’,
‘scattered corpses,’ ‘worm’
From the cultural clash on the continent of Africa,
the poem moves to the battlefield within the poet
— a place less violent but more complex, since W.
is, at the same time, on both sides & neither side.
W. uses diction, ambiguity, imagery, juxtaposition, structure, & conflict
to show implications of the violent persecutions & injustice of European
colonization of Africa & the residual problems that remain far after the
end of colonial policy; namely internal struggles.
W. tends to cover the ground he wants
to talk about point by point & some-
times w what we might call caricatures,
or images verging on caricature
His image of Africa may strike a bit
innocent, but it seems idealistic & uplifting
image that more or less generalizes the history of English,
European, & African wars. This powerful image: coming to the
penultimate point of the poem, Walcott says basically that
everybody dances, everybody gets emotionally intoxicated w the
egoism of taking sides, everybody in that kind of situation is
listening to a drumbeat of some kind or another.
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