AFRICAN POETRY
Discuss the clash of cultures in Okara’s “Piano and Drum”.
Explanation
Considering their essentially peculiar features, the two cultures referred to in the poem seem to be strange bedfellows.
On the one hand, there is the authentic, indigenous African culture characterized by a certain simplicity in its rural setting. This is the culture with which the poet is familiar and thus captures with nostalgia. It is the culture identified with simple unsophisticated music as portrayed by its “jungle drums”. Its rustic and idyllic setting is also vividly captured by the images of the riverside and the animal kingdom such as the “panther ready to pounce” and “the leopard snarling about to leap”. The images extend to those of the pastoral world, such as the hunters that “crouch with spears poised” and the “green leaves and wild flowers” along simple paths made by “hurrying feet and groping hearts”.
On the other hand, there is the new and alien culture. This is identified with an entirely strange musical expression -“a wailing piano” with complex and complicated tunes, speaking of a new dispensation with its strange and mechanically sophisticated musical register of ‘tear-furrowed concerto coaxing diminuendo” and “crescendo” etcetera.
Trapped between these two diametrically opposed cultures, the poet is confused and in a state of dilemma. This is because the two cultures are patently incompatible.
There is no doubt, however, that given the contrast between the warmth, vigor and dynamism of the traditional culture, and the coldness, ‘heartlessness’ and distance of the new culture, he will gravitate towards the former.
Points to note:
(a) The diametrically opposed cultures symbolised by the piano and drum.
(b) The distinct elements of the two cultures – African and Western as described by their music.
(c) The distinct effects produced by the music of these two culture, i.e. the evocation of the vigour and pastoral simplicity of African vis-a-vis the cold, heartless and mentalistic culture of the west.
(d) The confused state of the persona and his inclination to go for the warmth of African music and culture.