An African Thunderstorm by David Rubadiri

1 An African Thunderstorm by David Rubadiri 1 From the west 2 Clouds come hurrying with the wind 3 Turning sharply 4 Here and there 5 Like a plague of locusts 6 Whirling, 7 Tossing up things on its tail 8 Like a madman chasing nothing . 9 pregnant clouds 10 Ride stately on its back, 11 Gathering to perch on hills 12 Like sinister dark wings; 13 The wind whistles by 14 And trees bend to let it pass. 15 In the village 16 Screams of delighted children, 17 Toss and turn 18 In the din of the whirling wind, 19 Women, 20 Babies clinging on their backs 21 Dart about 22 In and out 23 Madly; 24 The wind whistles by 25 Whilst trees bend to let it pass.

2 26 Clothes wave like tattered flags 27 Flying off 28 To expose dangling breasts 29 As jagged blinding flashes 30 Rumble, tremble and crack 31 Amidst the smell of fired smoke 32 And the pelting march of the storm. Pre-Notes The speaker describes the arrival of a fierce storm in Africa and reaction of the village women and children to it. Message The suddenness and violence of the storm and the destruction of the storm Tone dismay, fear, excitement and panic The rhythm throughout the poem and the exploding sound of thunder and brilliant flashes of lightning conveys the violent progress of the storm.

3 The pace of the words echoes the strength of the wind. Stanza Descriptions Stanza 1 & 2 Describes the storm as it gathers momentum Stanza 3 The impact the storm has on human existence Stanza 4 The poem ends with the storm breaking, but before it actually hits. The progress of pelting march of the storm tells the reader that this storm cannot be stopped and will be a mighty one. Definitions 1. Cloud: A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. Anything that makes things foggy or obscure from sight. 2. Plague: A wide spread affliction, calamity or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution (punishment).

4 A great nuisance; whatever greatly irritates. 3. Whirl: To rotate, revolve, spin, or turn rapidly 4. Perch(intransitive): To rest on something 5. Sinister: Evil, seeming to be evil 6. Din: a loud noise 7. Clinging: to hold very tightly, as to not fall off. 8. Dark: A sudden turn or fast movement 9. Whilst(while): At the same time 10. Jaggered: Something that is rough and harmful 11. Pelt(ing): To beat or hit, especially repeatedly. To rain or hail heavily FIRST ANALYSIS Stanza One The poem opens with the first line specifying where the wind is coming from. The wind in question, which is also accompanied by the cloud, is portrayed to have speed and strength: Clouds come hurrying with the wind Turning Sharply Here and there In this stanza, the wind is depicted as being destructive (line 6): Like plague of locust A plague of locust inflicts pain and destruction wherever it visits.

5 Take Egypt in the days of Moses for example. Line 9 tells the reader that the wind is not only destructive, but it has no specific direction or destination. Like a mad man chasing nothing A mad man has no focus in thought, dangerous to anyone around and moves often without a specific abode. Stanza two What can one make of a pregnant cloud ? The word, pregnant , added to the word, cloud, informs the reader that cloud carries more things that are yet to be unleashed. It moves in line (stately) with the wind and poses a threat (dark sinister winds). Gathering to perch on hills Like Dark sinister winds The last two lines of the stanza tells us that the wind make noise and forcefully subdue the trees.

6 The wind whistles by And trees bend to let it pass Stanza three and four In this stanza, the image of a village with children and women is created in the mind of the reader. Children appear to be screaming in joy, probably in anticipation of a rainfall or maybe the joy is triggered by the way the wind tosses things. Nonetheless, in line 21, the children cling to the back of women (their mothers). Looking at the meaning of the word, cling, and the context of usage, it seems that the children are equally afraid. As the sound of the wind roars and its strength forcing the trees to bend, clothes fly and fall from ropes and even from the women s body.

7 Clothes wave like tattered flags Flying off To expose dangling breasts For better understanding, try to imagine those windy period when the wind fling clothes off from the ropes and hanging places. Then, from line 30 to the end, it seems the pregnant cloud has delivered its offspring as lightening and thunderbolts strike. As jaggered blinding flashes Rumble, tremble and crack Amidst the smell of fired smoke And the pelting march of the storm SECOND ANALYSIS Stanza one From the west came the wind, would refer to Europeans who came from the West and are often referred to as the Westerners. The force of the wind depicts how they forcefully invaded Africa, tossing and turning up-side-down every African cultural value.

8 In this line of interpretation, it seems like a pestilence inflicted on the land. They authoritatively roar (whistle this might mean firing of guns) and the Africans out of fear bow to them and bend theirs ways to allow for the adoption of western culture. Like a mad man chasing nothing This could mean that they seem not to want anything in particular, but everything and to conquer all. This kind of dominance is evident in the French assimilation principle. Stanza two pregnant Cloud The first line of the stanza, shows that Africans have no idea about what will follow the Westerners visit, but, they know that there is more to the fierce visit of subjugation, and whatever it is that they have in mind hidden from Africans, it falls in line with fighting, conquering and subjugation of Africans.

9 The line below shows this. Ride stately on its back Gathering to perch on hills There is more to the above two lines: what is it that the colonial masters secretly comes with and goes on to stay in the high places (kings, people of influence or something similar). Stanza three This stanza tells us that once the white with their gun fire and war enter a village, the children are delighted to see them, but on seeing the destruction they inflict, the children clings to their mothers. The children could mean youths who are always the first to embrace change, and the women represents the elders. However, they start taking what they came for, causing move havoc on the land.

10 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 1. Describe the setting of this poem. (2) Rural African landscape village , reference to locusts, women with babies on their backs, hills , dangling breasts . 2. Describe the effectiveness of the similes in stanza 1. (3) The wind and the upcoming storm are compared to a madman who is erratic/unpredictable to emphasise how quickly and unexpectedly a storm can arrive and become violent. The wind is also compared to a plague of locusts destructive. 3. Identify and explain the figure of speech in lines 8-9. (3) Simile - The wind and the upcoming storm are compared to a madman who is erratic/unpredictable to emphasise how quickly and unexpectedly a storm can arrive and become violent.