Expelled- Jared Angira_ Poem

Jared Angira

 

EXPELLED

We had traded in the market competitively perfect

till you came in the boat, and polished goodwill

approval from high order

all pepper differentials, denied flag-bearers

and cut our ribs, dried our cows

the vaccine from the lake

burst the cowshed, the drought you brought

planted on the market place, the tree of memory

I had no safe locket to keep my records

when Sodom burnt and Gomorrah fell

the debtor's records blared

the creditors tapped my rusty door

My tears flowed to flooded streams

and source the rivulets from my human lake

from my veins, my heart my whole

disposition of the last penny

the last sight of my fishing-net

Everyone avoids my path; I avoid death's too

pursuit in a dark circus

the floating garden in a gale

plants reject sea water, the sea water rejects me

I have nothing to reject

the broken lines run across my face

The auctioneer will gong his hammer

for the good left behind 

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Jared Angira's Expelled is a loud outcry against the
socio-economically destructive intrusion of foreigners into Kenya. It
could be argued, perhaps successfully, that the poem is a metaphorical
loaded gun, blasting away at the kind of devastating colonialism
practiced by the Europeans, particularly the British, in East Africa.
In the first stanza, the poet posits that the African natives,
represented by the plural personal pronoun in the first person 'we',
had enjoyed flourishing competition in their commerce prior to the
advent of the foreigners. The foreigners 'came in the boat',
strengthened by 'goodwill approval from high order'. In other words,
the approach of the foreigners and the penetration of the natives by
the foreigners, as could be inferred from this documentation, were
cleared through after a successful inveigling of the natives.
However, the impression of goodwill initially thrust upon the
consciousness of the natives was to be ephemeral. The foreigners came
with a purpose that was inimical to the economy of the natives in both
its conception and discharge. The natives were dispossessed of their
lands and cheated out of their means of sustenance ('cut our ribs,
dried our cows'). The poverty consequently induced was clearly
manifested in the marketplace ('the drought you brought/ planted on
the marketplace, the tree of memory').
The poet-persona, in the third stanza, chronicles his economic
devastation as rivaling the hardship probably faced by the survivors
of the ruinous episode of Sodom and Gomorrah (namely, Lot and his
daughters). He, however, 'had no safe locket to keep' his 'records'.
Those who had outstanding obligations to him – which they had no means
of satisfying – did not help his deprivations ('the debtors' record
blared'). Yet, those he owed wanted him to settle his account with
them ('the creditors tapped my rusty door'). The obvious intention of
the poet-persona in this stanza is to show the enormity of his woes.
The poet-persona's loss was of such proportion that he could not stop
weeping. His 'tears flowed in flooded streams and source the rivulets
from' his 'human lake'. The depth of his dejection, in this stanza, is
stunning, and the melancholy of his flow flows effortlessly into the
last three lines of the stanza. His 'veins', his 'heart' and his whole
strength have been expended on extricating himself from the quagmire
of the emotional and financial despondency engendered by the incursion
of the foreigners. Still, nothing could stop or slow his steady slide
into penury. His 'disposition of the last penny' was not helped by the
fact that he had caught 'the last sight' of his 'fishing-net'.
Since he is no longer of much economic benefit to anyone, everyone
avoids his 'path', and not wanting to die, he avoids 'death's too'.
This line bespeaks the irony of man's clinging to a life that brings
him nothing but woes. The entire stanza indicates that the
poet-persona is a total reject; and, the last stanza goes on to show
that his situation is so terrible that he has nothing to reject. If he
has anything remotely noteworthy left, it will not escape the
auctioneer as he 'will gong his hammer for the goods left behind'.
The whole poem is an extended metaphor of the financial hardship, and
the economic, cultural and emotional dislocations experienced by the
natives after the intrusion of the foreigners.

Source: mollusco.wordpress.com