Form 4 English – READING LITERARY WORKS

POEM: DEVELOPMENT

POET: Kundi Faraja

A man of the people

Enters his office

To sit on the throne

Of pearly and state

His stick of power

Across the table

He looks into the files

To see the demands

Of the millions of people

Who for years since Uhuru

Have just managed to survive

They ring out one message

Man of the people

You have always been telling us

What we need

Healthy centers

More schools,

Clean water.

Better transport facilities

Better living conditions

Do you plead incapable

To bring about development?       

I declare running

Better than walking

For a young and poor country

I plead fighting underdevelopment

Tougher than fighting

A winded Buffalo

With a pocketknife

I plead underdevelopment

Stronger than the blues of the sea

When the hurricane is at its height

I plead fighting underdevelopment

Tougher than combating colonialism

I see that it is more difficult

To maintain peace

Than to stop a coup d ‘etat

I plead to cry

Of the nation

More painful than the yell

Of a woman

As her husband dies of sickness

It’s more painful than the scenery

Of a woman

Dying in agony

In the soils of the greater python

Found in the African forest

How is development

To be brought

When the people to whom

We have entrusted power

Are corrupt?

I plead the stomachs of the privilege few

Greater than the Rift valley

They cannot be satisfied

With a normal share

I plead the thirst

Of the minority

Greater than of the Sahara

No rains can quench it

I reckon the minority

More sensitive to egoism

Than to national development

Nothing that is not theirs is of any interest

Their response to egoism

Is faster than camera film to light

But as slow as tropism.

To nation building

The majority plead

Exploited

Cheated

Disregarded

But brother

How is development

GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT A POEM

1. What is the poem about?

Ans: The poem is about development in countries.
This whole poem is about development as you read it from the beginning to the end.

2. What are the mood/ tone of the person? Why?

Ans: A person is not happy. He/she is sad and disappointed.
This is evident through the way a person complains about behavior of some leaders who are corrupt,
selfish and irresponsible such leaders lead the country into underdevelopment.

3. What does the poem egoism mean in this poem as used in Stanza?               

Ans: Egoism means selfishness. It is the act of putting one’s interest of the country.
According to the poem, egoistic leaders do not care about the interest of the nation instead they only care about themselves.

4. Trace the verses which reveal possible themes and tell what themes they carry

            a) ”When the people to whom

                 We have entrusted power

                  Are corrupt”

       The verses carry a theme of CORRUPTION

b) ”I reckon the minority

            More sensitive to egoism”

       The verses portray the theme of SELFISHNESS

c) ”The majority pleads

            Exploited

            Cheated

            Disgraced”

      The above verses depict themes of EXPLOITATION and BETRAYAL

NB: The two words

ANALYSIS OF A POEM

I) CONTENT

a) Themes found in this poem

1: SELFISHNESS

This is an act or behavior of putting one’s interest ethics interest,
it can also be explained as a behavior in which each one does not wait to share what he/she has with others.
To this poem a poet depicts selfishness as one of the obstacles for development in a society.
The leaders are more sensitive to selfishness than developing a nation; this is evident in the following verses;-

            “I reckon the minority

               Are sensitive to egoism

                Than to national development”

It is clear that when leaders are selfish, development is unlikely to take place.

2: CORRUPTION

This is an immoral act in which one is favored after giving bribes.
Corruption can be in form of sex,a material. In this poem, a person argues that it is not easy to develop a society if it is corrupt.

            Example: In the following verses a person reveals that

                        ” How is development

                       To be brought brother

                       When the people to whom

                       We have entrusted power

                       Are corrupt?”

Therefore a poem maintains that corruption hinders development.

3. CLASSES IN THE SOCIETY

In this poem, the person reveals two major classes in the society.

This person claims

            “…………plead the stomach

            Of the privilege few

            Greater than the rift valley

            They cannot be satisfied

            With a normal share”

According to the person. This is the class of those people who have an impression that they are better than other.

The person also argues that the minority are more sensitive to egoism than to natural development in the following verses.

            “I reckon the minority

               More sensitive to egoism

              Than to national development

               Nothing that is not theirs

                Is of any interest”

The second revealed by the persona is that of the majority who are exploited, cheated and disregarded to the last stanza, the persona argues that

               “The majority plead

                Exploited

                Cheated,

                Disregarded

                But brother

                How is development to come?”

From these verses it is obvious that the persona of this poem lives in a society which is divided in two classes, the upper one ruling the lower.

4. EXPLOITATION

This refers to the use of man power or materials of others selfishly. In this case, one person or a group of people benefits while others lose and suffer.
In this poem the minority leaders/ rules are selfish and exploit the minority

Example in the following verses

            ” The majority plead

               Exploited

               Cheated

               Disregarded

               But brother

                How is development to come?”

The person who belongs to the lower class complains that with the exploitation which in their society development is not likely to take place

5. POOR SOCIAL SERVICE

The persona discusses the social service in the society. Since independence, according to the persona, people have been demanding better living standard and improvement of social service. But after independence all their incapable of bringing development

Example: In the second stanza of the poem

            He looks into the files

            To see the demands

            Of the millions of people

            Who for years since Uhuru

             Have just manage to survive

            They ring out one message

            Man of the people

            You have always been telling us

What we need….

            Health centers

            More schools

            More schools

            Clean water

            Better transport facilities

            Better living conditions

From the above stanza development seems to be tough. Lacks of social service are indicators of underdevelopment. According to the persona, all these problems are caused by leaders who are not capable.

Example: “Do you plead incapable

                  To bring about development?”

MESSAGE/ LESSONS

A message/ lesson we get in this poem is that it is not easy to get development in a nation whenever there is egoism/ selfishness, corruption, exploitation, poor leadership and lack of unity. So we should fight against these evils in our respective society.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE POET

From the poem, It seems that a poet believes that poor leadership is a key hindrance to development. Poor leadership leads to other evils in the society.

ii) FORM

a) Type of a poem

– It is an open/ modern poem. The poem varies in the length of the verses/stanza, there is no clear pattern to explain the form of the poem.

b) The plot (structure) of the poem

-The poem has 12 stanzas with varying number of verses in each stanza.

c) Language/ diction

The language used in the poem is simple, ordinary, clear and straight forward, these is repetition of words for emphasis. For e.g. “I plead…….”

Words are carefully chosen to support the themes, for e.g. “Egoism”

Reflecting selfishness “minority” and “majority” reflective classes.

Code mixing (barbarism)-A poem uses a Swahili word “Uhuru” to refer to independence, in this case a word “Uhuru” is regarded by the poet to the very casual and well understood to the audience than in English word Independence.

Hyperbole e.g. “The stomachs of the privileged few greater than the rift valley”, “……the thirsty of the minority greater than that of the Sahara”

Personification

For e.g. in the forth stanza a country is given qualities of running and walking.

                        “I declare running

                         Better than walking

                         For a young and poor country,

–      Tone/mood/voice

The altitude of the persona is ironic, sympathetic, satirical energy or serious.
This is reaction to existing exploitation, selfishness and corruption. The persona hales the leaders who have these characters.

–      Rhythm pattern

The poem does not have a regular rhythm pattern.

–      Relevance of the poem

The poem is relevant to all developing countries like Tanzania and other developing countries in Africa and third world countries.

For example the persona

Claims:-

1.How is development

2.  To be brought brother

3.  When the people to whom

4.  We have entrusted power

5.  Are corrupt?

It is quite true that a country like Tanzania is faced by evils like corruption exploitation and poor social services due to poor leadership.

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