Vanity
If we tell, gently, gently
All that we shall one day have to tell,
Who then will hear our voices without laughter,
Sad complaining voices of beggars
Who indeed will hear them without laughter?
If we cry roughly of our torments
Ever increasing from the start of things
What eyes will watch our large mouths
Shaped by the laughter of big children
What eyes will watch our large mouth?
What hearts will listen to our clamoring?
What ear to our pitiful anger
Which grows in us like a tumor
In the black depth of our plaintive throats?
When our Dead comes with their Dead
When they have spoken to us in their clumsy voices;
Just as our ears were deaf
To their cries, to their wild appeals
Just as our ears were deaf
They have left on the earth their cries,
In the air, on the water,
where they have traced their signs for us blind deaf and unworthy Sons
Who see nothing of what they have made
In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs
And since we did not understand the dead
Since we have never listened to their cries
If we weep, gently, gently
If we cry roughly to our torments
What heart will listen to our clamoring,
What ear to our sobbing hearts?
BACKGROUND
The title, “Vanity”, literary means having immense interest in one’s appearance, achievement or material things. But, as the title of this poem, it figuratively refers to Africans’ penchant attitude towards material things often imported from the western world at the expense of African culture, value and identity.
From his biography, one will understand that Birago Diop has travelled wide and has had a lot of encounters and experiences with other Africans apart his fellow Senegalese. Thus, he composed the poem based on his experience on the current prevailing and inimical African way of life.
At the advent of White men on the coast of Africa, the ancestors saw their motives and its futuristic effects on African identity, abhorred it and advised the coming generation to do same. Contrary, the subsequent generations held deaf ears to the advice.
Then, at the dawn of independence in some African countries, it appeared that Africans, especially those who worked with white government officials, have adopted the ways of the colonial masters. They have become so materialistic and cruel that they would do anything to remain affluent and in power. Turmoil, political chaos and mismanagement everywhere. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer; no sense of value for the beauty in African way of life. It is against this backdrop that Diop penned this poem of lamentation. He recalled that the ancestors hard early warned of it, but Africans snubbed their pleas.
SUMMARY
Stanza 1
The poem opens with rhetorical questions asking, if Africans complain and explain their predicament, who will hear them without laughing. The poem presupposes the notion that Africa is already impoverished, and is swimming in a state of squalor, hence, the poetic persona metaphorically compares them with beggars.
Stanza 2
Here, the poetic persona laments that if the prevailing negative condition of Africans get worst, he wonders who will look at us as we open our mouth widely to cry and plead for help.
Stanza 3
“What hearts will listen to our clamouring?” This first line of stanza 3 is a rhetorical question that harbours the word “heart” which symbolizes emotion, love and care. The poetic persona is trying to tell us that he can’t even pinpoint any person that is full of love and care, who is emotional enough to pity Africans. Indirectly, the poetic persona is saying that no emotional person will pity Africans because, they are the cause of their problem having, ignored the advice of their ancestors.
Stanza 4
“Our dead” and “their dead” in line one of this stanza refers to African ancestors and colonial nationalists (our dead) and European ancestors and past leaders (their dead) respectively, who have met each other, probably through Trans Saharan/Atlantic trade and slavery. As a result of this contact, African ancestors saw the inimical consequences of aligning with the white men and cried out to them – the then and future generations – to reject the white men’s way of life. But, Africans gave “blind deaf’ ears to their pleas.
Stanza 5
Having ignored the voice of the ancestors, Africa’s economic and political decadence will persist. When we – the Africans – cry for help, no heart or ear will pay attention to us.
Concisely, the poem emphasizes that the suffering of Africans is their hand made. They have ignored the advice of their forebears, rejected their ancestral ways and embraced the tradition of the western world at the expense of African culture. Unless we return home, things will remain the same and will soon get worse, prophesizes the poetic persona.
Litionary 