Poems from Black Africa: Ethiopia, South Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Gabon, Senegal, Nyasaland, Mozambique, Sout

by Langston Hughes

A collection of diverse poetry, reflecting the history, traditions, and emotions of Africans, selected by the noted black poet

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1963

About the author

Through poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include Weary Blues (1926) and The Ways of White Folks (1934).

People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...

Reviews

[Cutler]

Where the rainbow ends
There's going to be a place, brother,
Where the world can sing all sorts of songs,
And we're going to sing together, brother,
You and I, though you're white, and I'm not.
It's going to be a sad song, brother,
Because we don't know the tune,
And it's a difficult tune to learn.
But we can learn, brother, you and I.
There's no such tune as a black tune.
There's no such tune as a white tune.
There's only music, brother,
And it's music we're going to sing
Where the rainbow ends.

[b.andherbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this collection of poetry on LP, and it is narrated by James Earl Jones! Amazing. I could listen to him all day. I'll be selecting a couple of the poems for my "storytime for grownups" library program.

[Sara-Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

YOU LAUGHED AND LAUGHED
AND LAUGHED

In your ears my song
is motor car misfiring
stopping with a choking cough;
and you laughed and laughed and laughed.

In your eyes my ante-
natal walk was inhuman passing
your 'omnivourous understanding'
and you laughed and laughed and laughed.

You laughed at my song
You laughed at my walk.

Then I danced my magic dance
to the rhtyhm of talking-
drums pleading, but you shut your
eyes and laughed and laughed and laughed.

And then I opened my mystic
inside wide like
the sky, instead you entered your
car and laughed and laughed and laughed.

You laughed at my dance
you laughed at my inside.

You laughed and laughed and laughed.
But your laugheter was ice-black
laughter and it froze your inside froze
your voice froze your ears
froze your eyes and froze your tongue.

And now it's my turn to laugh;
but my laughter is not ice-black
ice-block laughter. For I
know not cars, know not ice-blocks.

My laughter is the fire
of the eye of the sky, the fire
of the earth, the fire of the air
the fire of the seas and the
rivers fishes animals trees
and it thawed your inside,
thawed your voice, thawed your
ears, thawed your eyes, and
thawed your tongue.

So a meek wonder held
your shadow and you whispered:
'Why so?'
And I answered:
'Because my fathers and I
are owned by the living
warmth of the earth
through our naked feet.'

-Gabriel Okara

[Desca Ang · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You will get old here,
You and remorse.
We and love,
We shall go home."
-Half Sing, a folksong from Madgascar, as cited in Langston Hughes' Poems from Black Africa.
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Langston Hughes shows me that literature including poetry can be used as a tool to resist! I know that the products of literature may not be as tangible as others but still, it voices so many unspeakable things. Concerning Hughes, I really love his ability to criticise the social injustice in his era through his writings. .

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection as beautiful as it is painful to read, this should be a must-read on every poetry-lover's list.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://youtu.be/LZrggcjxMKk