The Sea Eats the Land at Home by Kofi Awoonor
At home the sea is in the town, Running in and out of the cooking places, Collecting the firewood from the hearths And sending it back at night; The sea eats the land at home. It came one day at the dead of night, Destroying the cement walls, And carried away the fowls, The cookingpots and the ladles, The sea eats the land at home; It is a sad thing to hear the wails, And the mourning shouts of the women, Calling on all the gods they worship, To protect them from the angry sea. Aku stood outside where her cookingpot stood, !ith her two children shi"ering from the cold, #er hands on her breasts, !eeping mournfully. #er ancestors ha"e neglected her, #er gods ha"e deserted her, It was a cold $unday morning, The storm was raging, %oats and fowls were struggling in the water, The angry water of the cruel sea; The laplapping of the bark water at the shore, And abo"e the sobs and the deep and low moans, !as the eternal hum of the li"ing sea. It has taken away their belongings Adena has lost the trinkets which !ere her dowry and her &oy, In the sea that eats the land at home, 'ats the whole land at home.
The Sea Eats the Land at Home: Poem Analysis (ofi Awoonor, formerly known as %eorge !illiams , poem )The sea eats the land at home* is a rather long poem that uses multiple literary de"ices to tell the reader and e+plain the pain the author felt through losing his home. !illiams was born in !heta, %hana to 'we parents. uch of his early work is modeled after his grandmother, who was a dirgesinger a type of 'we oral poetry. Critic Derek !right reports, the poetry -both drew on a personal family heirloom and opened up a channel into a broader African heritage.- In Redisco"ery /0123 and 4etals of 5lood /06/3, Awoonor uses the common dirge motif of the -thwarted or painful return- to describe the e+perience of the !esterneducated African looking back at his indigenous culture. #is most famous poem from the first collection is -the !ea"erbird.- In it he uses the wea"erbird, a notorious coloni7er who destroys its host tree, as a metaphor for !estern imperialism in Africa. #e describes the bird8s droppings as defiling the sacred places and homesteads. #e also blames the Africans for indulging the creature. In the poem )The $ea eats the land at home,* !illiams uses imagery to portray water or the sea, symboli7ed by a "icious storm, as this e"il entity that destroys his home. The imagery !illiams uses actually helps picture the damage caused by the storm and the tone used helps me feel the emotional toll it may ha"e had on him. The whole poem itself is the personification of water into this beast that engulfs his home and destroys the precious belonging and memories of its, the land, inhabitants. )It has taken away their belongings Adena has lost the trinkets which were her dowry and her &oy, in the sea that9s eats the land at home,* !illiams :
