Name: Cristine Jane D.

Robledo

Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

Grade & Section: 11-Stem B

Teacher: Ma’am Mildred Pimentero

EVALUATION

A.
1. David Diop and Masaoka Shiki are poets, from what country?
David Mandessi Diop was a French West African poet known for his
contribution to the Négritude literary movement. His work reflects his anti-colonial
stance. While Masaoka Shiki, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru, was a Japanese poet,
author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure
in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000
stanzas during his short life. He also wrote on reform of tanka poetry.

2. Explain the lines:

That is your Africa springing up anew
springing up patiently, obstinately
Whose fruit bit by bit acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.
The Author compares the Africa to a tree, rising from the ground, but still
with their feet touching the ground, starting once more in a positive way, that there
will be a long battle to come but they will patiently wait and unbend for their
ascending, and they will achieve the freedom and liberty they want no matter how
bitter the taste in getting it.
B. Explain the above poems in the terms of genres and traditions.
The poem of Masaoka Shiki is a Ha traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku
poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the
middle line has 7 syllables. Because Haikus are such short poems, the poem above
is written about things that are recognizable to the reader.
The genre, for me, of the Africa my Africa of David Diop is Creative non-fiction
for he uses many literary techniques to create a factually narrative poem. The
traditions can also be seen in the lines where Africans became slaves of the
colonialism and their sweat, blood and hard work is what fed the other people.
Their hardship became the sacrifices for the abundance of other people and they
experience torture, in what the line, “this back that never breaks under the weight
of humiliation, this back trembling with red scars and saying no to the whip under
the midday sun”, their tradition also shows that they are proud warriors in ancestral
savannahs, and the old people there used to sing on the banks of the river.
C. What do you think is the impact of Africa my Africa as message, to
the world?
The impact of the poem Africa my Africa by David Diop gives a huge
impact on awareness about the sufferings of the African people, where
they experience not just humiliation, but also torture, unfair treatment
and the rob of their rights. They had a long battle and this poem serves
as a start that the African people, even if their skin color is different from
yours, is as precious as the black soil who nurture plants to grow. This
encourages them to stand never bent their backs towards success no
matter how painful it is just to bear the fruit of what they are fighting.
They strive for their freedom and rights, and they will get it.