Africa


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[] This is a link to a page that very briefly tells about slavery in Africa and African slaves. "Between 800 and 1500 AD, countries of Europe began to do a great deal of slavery with the nations of Africa." I felt that this was an important thing to emphasize because this poem seems to talk about slavery, but never really says the words "slavery" or "slave". The key words in this poem that seem to link to slavery are: "took her young daughters sold her strong sons churched her with Jesus bled her with guns." [] This is a map of Africa and where slaves were taken from during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The different colors show the different countries and areas of Africa that was used during that time. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was the trading, primarily of African people, to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most enslaved people were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa and taken to North and South America. They were taken there to work as unpaid laborers on sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton plantations, in gold and silver mines, in rice fields, or in houses to work as servants.

[] This is a link to the definition of a "brigand". I thought that a brigand was something other than what it actually was. A brigand is a bandit or robber of some sort. So in this part of the poem when Angelou says "brigands ungentle" she is saying that the robbers are not friendly or amiable but part of her pain**.** Knowing what this word meant was some what important because it added on to the pain and struggle of Africa, showing that Africa had many difficulties to overcome.

__** ​ My Analysis ** This video really helps you understand the video more, just by the way she reads the poem and by the pictures that are added with the poem. This poem, in my opinion is talking about slavery in Africa. Africa in this poem is not only a continent, but also a girl or woman. This poem is very interesting and moving to me because it talks about the struggles of Africa. These struggles could be of the girl or woman that the author describes, but it can also be the struggles of the actual country, like slavery. My favorite part of this poem is the first stanza where Maya Angelou describes Africa as a girl and her features as apart of the earth or nature. " Thus she had lain sugarcane sweet deserts her hair golden her feet mountains her breasts two niles her tears. Thus she has lain Black through the years**__."__**
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I think that Maya Angelou's highest and best purpose for this piece of writing is to point out the suffering of Africa as a country and what it has gone through. In this poem Africa also represents a woman, and it tells about her pains and sufferings also. In my opinion this poem had a hidden message about slavery. The poet's other purpose may have been to send out awareness about slavery in Africa. I think that Maya Angelou wrote this poem because many of her writings are based on women's suffrage, and this was another piece of her writing that told the world of women's rights and suffrage, not only in Africa but also in many other countries. I think that the poet was VERY successful in explaining the struggles of Africa the country and the women. In the very end of this poem Maya Angelou tells the readers that even though she (Africa) had been through so much, she had finally found peace. She writes: Now she is rising remember her pain remember the losses her screams loud and vain remember her riches her history slain now she is striding although she has lain.
 * __​Poem's purpose:__ **