African Poetry: Gabriel Okara’s Piano and the Drums – SS1 Literature-in-English Lesson Note (Third Term)

Piano and Drums is a poem by the Nigerian poet Gabriel Okara about the clash between African culture and Western civilisation.

• Drums: stand for African culture and its rich heritage.
• Piano: stands for Western civilisation.
• Result: the speaker ends lost between the two, unsure which culture to follow.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. give a short account of the life and writing of Gabriel Okara;
2. read the poem Piano and Drums and describe what happens in each stanza;
3. state what the piano and the drums symbolise;
4. explain how the arrival of Western civilisation affects the African way of life;
5. explain why the speaker is in a dilemma at the end of the poem.

Who is Gabriel Okara?

Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara was a Nigerian poet and novelist from the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta.

• Birth: he was born in 1921 in the Ijaw area of the Delta region of Nigeria.
• Education: he completed his secondary education in Nigeria, then developed himself by private reading and deep thinking.
• Career: he worked as a principal information officer in the Eastern Nigeria government service.
• Poems and stories: they have been broadcast, published in journals (especially Black Orpheus) and translated into many languages.
• Novel: The Voice (1964) shows his concern with creating an English that can fully express the African view of life.

What is the poem Piano and Drums?

Piano and Drums is a four-stanza poem in which the speaker hears African drums and then a Western piano. Each sound pulls him towards a different world.

When at breaks of day at a riverside
I hear jungle drums telegraphing
The mystic rhythm, urgent, raw
Like bleeding tree of speaking of
primal youth and the beginning,
I see the panther ready to pounce,
The leopard snarling about to leap
And the hunters crouch with spears poised;

And my blood ripples turns torrent,
topples the years and at once I’m
In my mother’s laps a suckling;
At once I’m walking simple
Paths with no innovations,
Rugged, fashioned with naked
warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts
In green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.

Then I hear a wailing piano
Solo speaking of complex ways
In tear-furrowed concerto;
of far away lands
And new horizons with
Coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint,
Crescendo. But lost in the labyrinth
Of its complexities, it ends in the middle
of a phrase at a dagger point.

And I lost in the morning mist
Of an age at a riverside keep
Wandering in the mystic rhythm
Of jungle drums and the concerto

What happens in each stanza?

The poem moves from the drums, to memory, to the piano, to confusion.

Stanza 1: the drums at the riverside

• Setting: the speaker is at a riverside at daybreak.
• Sound: he hears drums sending out a mystic rhythm, urgent and raw.
• Simile: the rhythm is compared to something bleeding, which shows its raw force.
• Images: he sees a panther ready to pounce, a leopard about to leap and hunters with spears poised.
• Meaning: the drums bring back the wild, natural life of early Africa.

Stanza 2: the return to childhood

• Feeling: his blood ripples and turns into a torrent.
• Memory: he becomes again a suckling child on his mother’s lap.
• Paths: he walks simple paths with no innovations, in green leaves and wild flowers.
• Meaning: African life is shown as simple, warm and close to nature and people.

Stanza 3: the wailing piano

• Sound: he hears a wailing piano, which speaks of complex ways and far away lands.
• Musical terms: concerto, diminuendo, counterpoint and crescendo show how complicated the music is.
• Mood: the phrase “tear-furrowed concerto” gives the piano a sad tone.
• Ending: the music is lost in “the labyrinth of its complexities” and stops “at a dagger point”.
• Meaning: Western culture is complex and offers no clear direction.

Stanza 4: the speaker is lost

• Position: the speaker is “lost in the morning mist”.
• Action: he wanders between the rhythm of the drums and the concerto.
• Meaning: he cannot settle in either culture.

What do the piano and the drums symbolise?

The piano symbolises Western civilisation, or European culture. The drums symbolise the diverse African civilisation and its rich cultural heritage.

What are the themes of the poem?

The main theme of the poem is the conflict between African and Western cultures.

• Culture clash: two ways of life meet and pull against each other.
• Nostalgia: the speaker longs for the simple, warm life of his childhood.
• Identity crisis: the speaker does not know where he belongs.
• Tradition and modernity: the drums stand for the old ways and the piano for the new.

What literary devices are used in the poem?

Literary devices are the techniques a poet uses to give meaning and feeling to a poem.

• Symbolism: the drums and the piano stand for two cultures.
• Imagery: the panther, the leopard and the hunters create pictures of the wild.
• Simile: the drum rhythm is compared with something bleeding in stanza 1.
• Contrast: simple paths and warm hearts are set against complex ways and far away lands.
• Musical diction: concerto, counterpoint and crescendo suit the piano.
• Free verse: the poem has no fixed rhyme scheme or regular line length.

How does Western civilisation affect the African way of life?

Western civilisation places the African in a state of confusion and slows the growth of his cultural life.

• Confusion: the incursion of Western civilisation into the cherished African way of life leaves the African unsure of himself.
• Slow cultural growth: the new culture retards the growth of the African’s own cultural life.
• Bitterness: the poet is embittered that Europe brought a strange culture which the people find hard to understand.
• Manner of arrival: culture is dynamic, but the new culture arrived with poor impartation and was spread swiftly by the invaders.
• Burden: this speed and poor teaching create a serious burden for the people on whom it was imposed.

The poet says: “Then I hear a wailing piano solo speaking of complex ways / in tear-furrowed concerto, of far away lands.”

Why is the speaker in a dilemma?

The speaker is in a dilemma because he must choose between two cultures and cannot tell which one to follow.

• African way: African dressing, worship, food and language.
• European way: European worship, dress, food, dance and language.
• Doubt: he does not know which culture is genuine enough to follow.
• Image of being lost: he is “lost in the morning mist”, wandering between the drums and the concerto.

Evaluation

1. Write a short account of Gabriel Okara’s life and writing.
2. What do the piano and the drums stand for in the poem?
3. Describe what the speaker sees and feels when he hears the jungle drums.
4. Why does the poet say the piano “ends in the middle of a phrase at a dagger point”?
5. Why is the speaker in a dilemma at the end of the poem?

Assignment

In your exercise book, explain in about one page how the arrival of Western civilisation affects the African way of life, as shown in Piano and Drums. Use at least two lines from the poem to support your answer.