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MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave My subconscious Leaks out A past I have long buried Marching under Drenching rain Draining heat Heavy escort Fenced in on every side By howling, vicious guards At...

      

MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At the
crack of dawn

Miles from home
An unbroken file of men and women, Boys and
girls
Heading north

To Kirinyaga Forest trench White-
washed

In colonial propaganda
Loyalised
Venomed
Against blood-brothers A
raving guard Slashes at
Mumbi
As she halts
To shift her bundle From
shoulder to breast
“ In the name of Ngai I get
you bwana,
Spare my child!” she cries
On the slopes of the sacred mountain „ Ngai
sanctuary –
His children bend Low
Slaving Hungry Weather
beaten Crushed with
blows Digging day-long
A grave

A trap
For brothers In the
forest

A twenty –foot gulf Separates
Blood from blood
Grinning the expose Rows
of spikes That lie waiting
To crucify
Him who dares plan A
reunion

Curfew starts at sunset Away back in
the trench Journeying back in the
dark Cries of hungry children Tear
mother's hearts
While fathers
-castrated- Tamely
listen
And gaze at their toes
Survivors arrive At
midnight
At first cock-crow The pot

leaves the fire At third cock-
crow The daily March Again

begins.....
Under the sweat of Today
labour
We forgive the past
Impossible to forget
Questions
1. Explain the meaning of the title of the poem
2. What is the main theme of this poem?
3. What does the speaker reveal about the guards?
4. explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem:
(a) “Bundle” (line 25)
(b)“ a twenty-foot gulf separates blood from blood”(lines 43-45)
(c) “- castrated_” (line58).

  

Answers


Faith
1. The people are taken forcibly to dig trenches which will cut off those in the forest
and prevent them from crossing to the other side where the village is. The trench,
which if filled with spikes, is a trap for the freedom fighters in the forest, in case
they venture into the “restriction villages” to untie with their families. The poem is
called „Digging Our Grave? because it is the villagers themselves who are digging
what will be graves to their own sons, brothers and fathers, who are a part of
them. It is as if they are digging their own grave.

2. The main theme of the poem is oppression. The people are harassed and beaten
into submission. An alternative answer is exploitation, as the people are victims of
„forced labour? with no compensation or pay.
3. The guards, who have been indoctrinated by their colonial masters, obey their
orders with zeal. They have been poisoned against their own race and are used to
persecute them: “venomed against blood-brothers a raving guard slashes at Mumbi....” (Stanza2).

4. (a) The “bundle” is the child that Mumbi carries on her back. She wants to shift it
to her breast so that it can feed. It is probably slung in a shawl and resembles a
bundle of clothes.
(b) The twenty-foot gulf refers to trench which has been dug to keep out the
freedom fighters who have gone into the forest to carry on the war against the
colonial forces. The trench is 20 feet deep. It is supposed to separate the freedom
fighters from their blood relatives.,
(c) At one level, the men may have been literally castrated by the colonial forces.
But at a deeper level the fathers are referred to as castrated because the system has
rendered them impotent. They cannot reduce the suffering of their families. They
have no means of fending for them and no weapons to fight. They bend their heads
in shame.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 08:17


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