The Song of the Women of my Land by Oumar Farouk Sesay is one of the recommended poems in the 2021-2025 UTME, WAEC and NECO Literature Examinations Syllabus.
Poet's Background
Oumar farouk Sesay was the son of Alhaji Alhusine Sessay and Haja Ouumou Kultun Sesay. He was born in Tokondi district in Freetown. He attended Magburaka Government Secondary School for boys and Ahmadiyya School in Freetown. He studied political science and philosophy at Fourah Bay College.
PLOT ACCOUNT/SUBJECT MATTER:
In the colonial era, women oppression, gender discrimination, inequality and enslavement were solidified across the continent. ‘’The song of the women of my land’’ is the song of a deep lamentation over the fate that has befallen women in Sierra Leone. It explores the image of a traditional lamentation. Women were put into cruelties and engage in agricultural activities and sing about the sufferings and agonies they pass through. Rural women are involve in managing forestry resources. At the same time, they are denied education and employment.
THEMES FROM THE POEM:
Women oppression and enslavement: Women constitute gangs of slaves that worked from dawn to dusk on the plantations. Their predicament is compounded by their song of sorrow.
The value of African songs: The poet describes the importance of African songs. In Africa, music plays an important part in the way people interact, celebrate and relate historical events. The entertainment from songs helped to relieve the people from agony and suffering in the land.
Lamentation: The song of the women of my land is a song of a deep lamentation over the fate of women in Sierra Leone. They groaned in pains and sang about it.
POETIC /LITERARY DEVICES FROM THE POEM:
Language: The choice of words is simple. The language is rooted in the culture of its setting. Words like ‘dereliction,’’ ‘’decapitate,’’ ‘’wriggle,’’ ‘’holler’’ are used to convey the story of oppression and lamentation.
Imagery: It is the creation of mental and audio vision in the mind of a reader. The imagery of slavery and servitude that existed throughout African history is created. The poet piles images of sorrow to evoke sympathy of the reader.
Repetition: This is when a word, phrase or sentence is used more than once in poem. The poet repeated some words, phrases and stanzas. ‘’Forlorn fields,’’ ‘’servitude,’’ ‘’ploughed,’’ ‘’women of my land’’ etc. were repeated to emphasize the pains the women passed through.
Alliteration: It is the repetition of same sound in poems. The alliterated words are: ‘’forlorn fields (f,f) lyrics, lost (l, l ), vast, voil (v,v).The used alliteration to enhance the musical feature of this poem based on mental and emotional torture of the women.
Simile: The poet compared the ways in which the wood-carver works in the designing of his wood with the memory of the women in Africa. ‘’Like a sculpture clipping away at bits of wood’’. Another one is ‘’like the women who died long ago’’ which means the death of good composers of African songs is the disappearance of good songs.
Personification: The words ‘’time’’, ‘’song,’’ ‘’tune’’ and ‘’pen’’ were personified by engaging in human activities. ‘’The stuttering lips of my pen’’ which means he has a speech impediment with its two lips.
Mood: This is an act of expressing ones’ feelings. The poet was in a sorrowful mood. It is this mood that gives vent to his lamentation about unwanted and unacceptable marginalization of Sierra Leone women that led to slavery and oppression.
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