AFRICAN POETRY
Examine the changes in the persona’s in “Expelled”
Explanation
Expelled is a poem which addresses problems associated with change in the persona’s life. The change is externally induced and it can be inferred from the poem that it is brought about by colonialism. The first two lines are suggestive: “We had traded in this market place competitively perfect /Till you came in the boat
…”. What is suggested here is an erstwhile communal life in which everyone understands the rules of the game, but not so any longer. The colonialists (you) virtually destroyed everything, material and spiritual. This fact is expressed in the lines: ‘cut our ribs, dried our cows’ etc.
The allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah completes the picture of the perversion and destruction that colonialism brings about generally.
At the personal level, it is suggested that the persona never overcomes the suffering colonialism inflicts upon his compatriots. He refers to his personal loss, as living in both poverty and penury, unable to pay his debtors who “tapped my rusty door”. Now he has become a pariah, as everyone avoids him while he himself plays hide and seek with death. Nature itself offers no consolation, as the “broken lines run across my face”, indicating his ageing too quickly. The last two lines with their image of the auctioneer hammering away the goods left behind are pathetic in their confirmation of the total deprivation that has become his lot.