Thematic Analysis of "You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed"
Most of the African poetry deals with chaos, problems, destruction and suffering faced by the black people when they were dominated by the whites. The lyrics are an expression to regain the essence, purity, values and the innocence of the African culture that has been destroyed by the colonial experience. The poetry depicts that the suppressed are trying to retrieve the loss. (Fatima Amir)
According to Brenda Osbey,
"It is with publication of Gabriel Okara‘s first poem that Nigerian literature in English and modern African poetry in this language can truly to have begun."
"You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed" is a poem by Nigerian writer Gabriel Okara. Gabriel Okara, in full Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara, Nigerian poet and novelist whose verse had been translated into several languages by the early 1960s.
Okara’s poetry is based on a series of contrasts in which symbols are neatly balanced against each other. The need to reconcile the extremes of experience (life and death are common themes) preoccupies his verse, and a typical poem has a circular movement from everyday reality to a moment of joy and back to reality again.
This poem focuses on how white people laughed at African people. There is loss of happiness due to conflict of the African cultures with the Western cultures, subjugation of the African people accompanied by loot, rape and pillage, the loss of identity of the African people, their homes being devastated, the imposing of the cultural norms of the colonizer on the colonized and the imposition of the colonizer’s language on the colonized. The literature of the African people talking about their state of freedom in the pre-colonial times contrasted with their state during the colonial times and then the promise of freedom in the deplorable state of affairs holds for them. Here is the poem,
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 "omnivorous 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 rhythm 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 laughter was ice-block 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-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 fie 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."
Now let's see some of the themes of the poem :-
1) Racism :-
In the poem we see the white people think they are the colonised persons and they are superior. They don't think about other races. As the poet writes, they don't respect other cultures. By doing that they are underestimating other races and other cultures. They (white people) were tortures black people not only physically but mentally also. They are laughing on black people, at every activity they laugh at. First they were used to control them physically but after colonialism they were tortures them mentally.
2) Cultural Conflict :-
There is conflict between Western culture and African culture in the poem. Western culture accepted materialism and the life connected with it. But African culture became independent, so most of the things are still not at that level. White people take themselves as superior and black people as inferior. They think they are colonised and they are sent by God to colonise these inferior people. That is why they are laughing at them. Because they are still not using modern things, but they are happy in their culture. They have a connection with nature. That we can see in this line,
"Because my fathers and I are owned by the living warmth of the earth through our naked feet."
So it represents their barbarian life and they are happy with it. But when these white people started laughing at them, that feeling was shared here by the poet.
3) Modernism :-
As we know that Western culture is developed by many materialistic things but many of barbarian areas are more connected with nature, they are not using materialistic things. So the white people compare their natural things with their material things. For example,
In your ears my song is motor car misfiring stopping with a choking cough
As well as the word 'car' is used thrice in the poem, that reflects the major satire on materialistic things. In the poem the poet also satirises the upper class people, because they use these luxurious things to attract people. So we can say that poet make satire on materialistic things.
4) Colonialism :-
Third world countries are colonised by British and white people. Africa was also a colonised country. So it is obvious that the white people control them physically. They can't do anything without their permission. But after independence the impact of the white people remained on the mind of people. So there is mentally control also by white people. And the white people also started thinking like they are superior, so others might think that they are not white so they are inferior. Fanon says that
In colonizers world white represents purity and black represents evil.
That was the mentality of all. So Okara used this theme also in the prom.
5) Nationalism :-
In response to the laughter of white people, the poet said that they are not rude as they are, but they have something special with nature and that is why they do not laugh at others. African people have their traditional dance. Poet uses the word "Magical Dance" because when they dance they forget the pain and sadness. Further poets talked about the connection with mother earth. They have the living warmth of the earth. Why is it so connected with them ? Because they walked with naked feet. It represents the rawness and purity of the heart. So the theme of nationalism is seen in the poem.
References
Amir, Fatima. “A Postcolonial Critique of Gabriel Okara‟s Once Upon a Time, You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed and Piano and Drums.” An International Peer-Reviewed English Journal, vol. 1, no. 2, May 2021.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skins, White Mask. NewYork, 1967.
1182 words
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