Please comment on the poetic devices used in "Africa my Africa" by David Diop.I am a desperate parent who never did literature trying to make my...

Diop's strongest poetic device in this poem is that of personification.  He infuses Africa with human qualities, and talks directly to her.  He reinforces her humanity with the images of "beautiful black blood... The blood of your sweat.... The sweat of your work ...your back that is unbent ."  The purpose of using personification is to make readers empthasize more with the plight of Africa.  To be just a continent is too abstract - to be a human is more personal.

Diop also uses imagery to allude to the injustice Africa has suffered from.  "This back trembling with red scars
And saying no to the whip under the midday sun" is an allusion to the slave trade and to colonization from European colonies.  He also uses imagery, however, to prove that Africa is stronger than what she has suffered, for her "back is unbent....[and] never breaks under the weight of humiliation."

Diop finally uses symbolism to describe post-colonial Africa.  He points out a young and strong tree, "Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers."  This is Africa after the colonizing European countries have left.  Africa will go strong and her "fruit" - her children - will acquire "the bitter tasts of liberty."  The liberty is bitter because of the injustice that caused it to once be absent from the continent.