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THE POET AND HIS ANCESTORS:  

A STUDY OF SELECTED AFRICAN POEMS 

 

Andrew Ibeawuchi Nwagbara 

Department of English Language and Literature 

NnamdiAzikiwe University Awka 

Email: dewnigo4@gmail.com 

ai.nwagbara@unizik.edu.ng 

 

Abstract 

The notion of the ancestors is a reoccurring index amongst adherents of 

traditional religious worship. Some poets of African descent have however 

used the ancestral motif to craft excellent poeticized narratives. These poets in 

their poems have exalted the ancestors to levels of eminence. This paper 

traces the relevance of the ancestors in the cosmology of the cultural and 

religious milieu of the African people. It discusses the use of the ancestral 

theme in Kofi Awonoor’s “Songs of Sorrow I and II”, Birago Diop’s “Vanity” 

and “Viaticum” and Kwesi Brew’s “Ancestral Faces”. The Magical Realism 

literary theory is in tandem with the sentiments expressed in these poems. The 

views of these poets tally with the pre-eminent status the traditional religious 

believers confer on the ancestors.  

 

Keywords: Ancestors, Magical Realism, African worldview 

 

Introduction 

Who are the ancestors? In African tradition past and present, it is believed that 

the human soul remains alive even in death. This belief cuts across various 

religions, but more pronounced amongst the adherents of the traditional 

religion. Richard Gehman agrees with this view and asserts that this belief 

system is common amongst “most African peoples from the earliest times 

(Gehman, 105)”. For Yusufu Turaki “the ancestors hold a place of pre-

eminence in the traditional society. If they are not worshipped, they are at 

least highly revered (Turaki, 34)”.While citing Steyne, he asserts that life has 

no meaning apart from ancestral presence and ancestral power. T.N.O 

Quarcoopome sees the ancestors as “the heroes and heroines of the various 

tribes (Quarcoopome, 43)”. 

 

Apart from occupying prominent status in the lives of African people, the 

ancestors perform diverse functions for the living. Smart Ninian’s view is that 

“ancestors are generally assumed to be interested in some way in the 

continuance of the line, so the gift of offerings to them is a means of 

promoting the fertility both of human beings and of the environment (Ninian, 

36)”. Gehman’s opinion is that the prominent role the ancestors perform for 

the living is that of serving as intermediates between man and God. To Turaki 

mailto:dewnigo4@gmail.com


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the ancestors are the “most powerful, basic and primary component of the 

kinship system in an African community (Turaki, 176)”. Quarcoopome 

believes that the ancestors possess extra-human powers and “with these 

powers they are able to intervene in the lives of the living members of the 

society (Quarcoopome, 43)”.Despite their roles as the intermediates between 

man and God, they perform the sacred duties of being the guardians of public 

morality. To Quarcoopome they perform the role of adjudicators in the affairs 

of the living and prescribe appropriate punishment for those who disobey “the 

norms of the society with diseases, crop failure etc.” (43) On the other hand, 

their off springs who behave well are rewarded with good health and good 

harvest. Francis Njoku shares Quarcoopome’s sentiment and sees them as 

“mediators between man and the Supreme Being (Njoku, 128)”. They are 

consulted for their guidance and “given offerings for their continued influence 

on the living by helping them to resolve their day to day problems.” For David 

Durkheim, the guidance role of the ancestors over the living begins from 

conception. According to him, it’s one of the duties of the ancestors to not 

only watch over the new born at birth, but influence positively all his 

engagements as he grows and protect him from all dangers.  

 

Bartholomew Abanuka expands the engagement of the ancestors in the 

African cosmology by classifying them into grades. To him the position an 

ancestor occupies in the land of the dead “is determined by the ancestor’s 

accomplishment for the community. In a positive sense, those who not only 

performed great feats for the community, but also died in grand old age, have 

the most noteworthy credentials for being ranked among the ancestors 

(Abanuka, 34)”.  For Joshua Onwuliri, it’s “those who lead a good life, live to 

a ripe old age , die good death, and are accorded full burial rites” (52) that 

should be identified as ancestors.This paper attempts to discuss the 

preponderant importance of the ancestors in some selected African poems. It 

x-rays the omnipresence statue the poets confer on them. It is appropriate to 

prefix the research attempt with a literary theory that will elucidate 

thecontextual and metaphorical interpretations that the poems will proffer.  

 

Magical Realism as a literary theory is considered germane. This is because it 

incorporates elements of thesupernatural which the ancestors are. The most 

profound work on this topic to my mind remainsthat of Chanady who in her 

famous book, Magical Realism and Fantastic: Resolved versusUnresolved 

Antinomy, details some fundamental principles of Magical Realism theory as 

anenriching platform for critical discourse of art that certainly includes poetry. 

The most importantof these for me is her view that this concept is 

“characterized first of all by two conflicting, butautonomously coherent 

perspectives… the acceptance of the supernatural as a part of everydayreality 

(18)”. It is this view that the ancestors, who are supernatural, are part of the 

everydayexistence of the Africans that has influenced the worldview of the 



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African poets who havepicked these entities as the epicenter of their poetic 

narratives. Thus, it is the presence of theancestral motif in some selected 

African poems that is the bulwark of this paper. 

A Survey of the Poet and His Ancestors in Selected African Poems 

 

Among the poets of African descent who have shown tremendous lineage on 

the ancestors in their thematic consideration is Kofi Awoonor. The poet, who 

was born as George Awoonor, abandoned his English name in the tradition of 

most African writers of his generation like: Ngugi waThiong’o and Chinua 

Achebe to assert his African-ness. At the time of his death in Nairobi, Kenya 

in 2013, he had churned out a sizeable quantum of poetry collections. In some 

of these poems he affirms that the relationship that exists between the ancestor 

and the living in Africa is without cessation. 

 

In his poem “Songs of Sorrow I and II,” the poet using several images and 

symbols, show cases his emotion and frustration at the abandonment of the 

persona by the ancestors. The persona in this poem represents all Africans 

who hold firmly to the view that the ancestors are alive in their graves. Due to 

his pessimism, the tone of the poem is one of continuous sadness and 

melancholy. In the tradition of the Ewe dirge, the poet through the persona 

expresses desolation and helplessness as a result of the difficulties the living 

are experiencing because the ‘omnipresent’ ancestors have abandoned them. 

This poem is believed by scholars to be a translation of one of the 

practitioners of the Anlo-Ewe folklore called Akpalu. In my opinion, the 

narrator cum persona while addressing Dzogbasa Lisa (one of the gods of the 

Ewe people of Ghana) uses various images of lament to describe the difficult 

moments of his life journey. These are images of hardship that are permanent 

and dehumanizing “like the chameleon feaces” (Nwoga,73). In his 

lamentation of the abandonment of the ancestors, he bemoans his status of 

mediocrity and hopelessly believes that such will end in death. Using the 

image of firewood to capture wealth and success, he is of the opinion that 

those of his lineage with him as a representative cannot be endowed because 

he is not “in the row with the eminent” (Nwoga, 73). Also, the acquisition of 

wealth is not for the lilly hearted people but for men who have the outstanding 

courage to surmount risks. In consolation, his desire is that everyman should 

be “happy with (his) fate” (Nwoga, 73). To worsen his predicament, his 

relations who sojourned abroad have come back worse than himself, for they 

“are back all covered with debt”. Even those who have gone abroad in search 

of greener pastures have been abandoned by the ancestors, thus they come 

back with liabilities rather than assets.  

 

In “Song of Sorrow II”, the narrator goes beyond caring for material 

possessions. He suddenly realizes that death is imminent for all mortals. At his 

transition from mortality to immortality he has no living kin that would 



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perform the rituals that would facilitate his admittance into the class of the 

ancestors. This is the lamentation of one man left behind to mend the broken 

fences left behind by his fore bearers. The rituals that include wailing and 

firing of gun shots will be performed by the living relations of the dead, but 

the persona laments bitterly that: 

“I have no sons to fire the gun when I die. 

And no daughters to wail when I close my mouth… 

I have no kin and no brother, 

Death has made war upon our house”. (Nwoga, 74) 

 

The lamentation goes beyond personal loss and extends to the calamity that 

has befallen the entire “Kpeti’s great household”. To him, these misfortunes 

have come about due to their ancestors who had abdicated their 

responsibilities to their living off springs. He accuses them directly thus: 

“Let those gone before take note 

They have treated their off spring badly”. (Nwoga, 75) 

 

He subsequently sends Agosu an elder of the clan who departs shortly an 

‘errand’ to these progenitors: 

“Tell them their house is falling 

And the trees in the fence 

       Have been eaten by termites; 

      Ask them why they idle there 

    While we suffer and eat sand 

    And the crow and the vulture 

   Hover always above our broken fences 

   And strangers walk over our portion”. (Nwoga, 75) 

 

With the use of extremely pathetic images and symbols that areassociated 

with desolation, destructionand death. the narrator laments the abandonment 

of the ancestors which has led to serious sufferings for the living relations. 

Kofi Awoonor in this poem has used to fullest the ethos of the Ewe dirge 

folklore to lash at the dead who he believes should watch over the living and 

help them achieve success and prosperity. For Mawuli Adjei, the poet 

expresses in this poem his “loneliness, frustration and anguish” which he 

voices through the poet – persona.  

 

Like Kofi Awoonor, BiragoDiop the Senegalese Veterinary doctor has had an 

awe-inspiring engagement with the theme of the ancestors and historical 

legends in his poems. As a man who was greatly interested in African 

folklore, the pervading motif in his poetry is “that of the continuous presence 

of the ancestors” (Nwoga, 229). As one of the pioneers of the famous 

Negritude concept of African Literature in conjunction with Leopold Sedar 

Senghor and Leon Damas, his style of poetry “was inspired by an earnest 



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desire to recreate old tales and to write poems which speak not only of the 

ancestral heritage of the African, but also deal with ordinary human 

situations” (Senanu and Vincent, 67). In ‘Vanity’ and ‘Viaticum’Diop brings 

to the fore his passion for the progenitors in his discourse of African poetry. 

In his poem titled ‘Vanity’, there is an allusion to the Biblical narrative as 

contained in the book of Ecclesiastes where all human activities are 

considered vacuous. The poet uses this allusion to remind all Africans that 

attempts made at distancing themselves from their roots is alter waste of time 

and will be highly regrettable. In Diop’s thematic handing of the celebration 

of the ancestors as well as the need to show reverence to African cultural 

values and tradition, he highlights the grave attitude of the educated Africans 

who due to exposure to western education and mannerism have abandoned 

their roots. For this action, these elites are bound to be punished by their 

progenitors. Therefore, the lamentation of these Africans is imminent. When 

their wailings and agonies begin, they shall not receive any respite from their 

forefathers. Diop who believes in ancestral worship is of the opinion that: 

 

“Since we have never listened to their cries, 

If we weep, gently, gently 

If we cry roughly of our torments 

What heart will listen to our clamouring 

What ear to our sobbing hearts?” (Nwoga, 106) 

 

In consonance with ancestral worship, the living relations of the dead should 

offer libation and other sacrifices to their ancestors to make them happy in the 

world beyond. When this is not done, they in turn will deny their living 

offspring the protective shield they require in moments of difficulties. Diop 

with the use of subtle humour brings out “the misery of those who forsake 

their ancestors” (Senanu and Vincent, 69). With the use of the free verse 

structural technique, the poet also highlights the mood of condemnation and 

sarcasm. In the poet’s use of sarcasm, he mocks those who have been blinded 

by western civilization and by so doing ignore the spiritual importance of their 

dead relations. The occasional repetition of lines in the poem helps reinforce 

the mocking humour that is contained in it. For instance, the line “what eyes 

will watch our large mouths?” (Nwoga, 106) is repeated twice in the second 

stanza. His frequent use of rhetorical questions helps exasperate the agony and 

defenselessness of those Africans who have abandoned their African roots and 

have therefore not benefited from the wisdom of such an association. 

 

Diop by giving animate attributes to the ancestors, help sustain their important 

status. They speak in ‘clumsy voices’ to show that they are partly human. For 

its only humans who alter audible sounds when they speak. The powerful 

imageries that are linked to ridicule and rebuke are numerous in the poem. 

These include: voice of beggars, cry roughly, large mouth, plaintive throats, 



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sobbing hearts etc. In conclusion, the reading audience of this poem will 

easily decipher in the entire poem the negative mode of sarcasm, 

condemnation and finally ridicule. 

 

The poem “Viaticum” is a poem of sacrificial due diligence where a mother 

offers a sacrifice to the ancestors for the protection of her son. In this poem, 

BiragoDiop departs from the lamentation ethos and focuses attention on 

ancestral worship. Ordinarily the title of the poem has a dual interpretation. It 

connotes the Eucharist administered by a Catholic priest on a dying person 

and also refers to the indigenous African ritual tradition of preparing the 

youths for growth into adulthood. Thus, in this poem of ritualistic 

performance, Diop uses the symbolism of the three pots and three fingers to 

recreate the concept of the trinity as encapsulated in the catholic doctrine. 

These same symbols are also used in traditional African religious activities for 

invocation and magical mythological tradition.  

 

The sacrificial performance in this poem is an exercise to prepare a young 

man for the dangers that are imminent in the journey of life. The spiritual 

fortification that the individual receives after the sacrifices to the ancestors is 

enough for him to trudge through the world and in life. The choice of the 

materials used for the sacrifice is deliberate and instructive. Why the choice of 

blood? What informed the choice of animals to be used for the sacrifice? 

Certainly, blood in any form is a necessary ingredient of ritual atonement. For 

the Christians, Jesus Christ shed his blood on the Calvary, died and rose after 

the third day to redeem man from eternal damnation. Amongst the adherents 

of the traditional African religions, the blood of animals constitutes a major 

component of the offerings to the gods. It therefore follows that in any worth 

ancestral worship like the type performed in this poem, the blood of an animal 

must be part of it. What therefore informs the choice of animals as in this case 

can be rooted in the mystical belief of the people. The blood of three animals 

in this worship is significant. It could be for maximum efficacy. Rather than 

the male character, it’s the mother of the young man who is the Chief Priest in 

this sacrifice. In African tradition, more so in a polygamous environment, it’s 

the duty of every mother to shield her children from the evils of the world, 

while the man who is the head of the family is pre-occupied with providing 

the essentials for the household. The choice of the time for this event is 

significant. It is at night that such traditional events take place and in this case 

the full appearance of the moon confers a positive mystic endorsement of the 

exercise. Diop in this poem demonstrates an in depth combination of 

“mysticism, religiosity and ritualism in celebrating the importance of spiritual 

worship in African tradition. 

 

Kwesi Brew, a Ghanaian poet also known as Osborne Henry in this creative 

expression, deliberates on issues of utmost concern to the African tradition. 



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The theme of the ancestors is one of such that is close to his heart. For him the 

lives of the Africans are not complete without reference to the ancestral 

component of their spiritual being. It is in this context that Brew in the poem 

“Ancestral Faces” discusses the accustomed behaviour of the ancestors to 

constantly sneak into the lives of living relations to find out if their conducts 

have deviated from the traditions they left behind. For it is expected of the 

ancestors in the African cosmology to provide shields from dangers for their 

off springs. Therefore, their supervisory duties over the living include 

sneaking into their daily lives to be assured that the living have not abandoned 

the cultural batons the ancestors have handed over to them. 

 

In “Ancestral Faces”, the invisible persona observes the ancestors sneak into a 

funeral ceremony and watch the traditional rites being performed for the dead. 

The title of the poem points to more than one ancestor. It is a lineage of 

ancestors who have come on this journey to observe this rite of passage for the 

dead. This half human and half spirit of a persona pay close attention to and 

describe vividly the revered actions of these ancestors. The poet uses the 

narrative of this eye witness to indict the actions of the living human beings. 

In the course of this rite of passage, the ancestors begin to take cognizance of 

the various items of this ritual engagement. These items which include: brass 

bells, sacrificial sheep and talking drum and the sacrifices offered with them 

should impress these spirit beings. But they are not. They must however 

accept the dead into their fold despite the short comings of this ancestral 

worship. The narrator however shows the frustrations of these ancestors in the 

negative attributes associated with the items used for this sacrifice. This 

frustration and disenchantment begins from the inception of the poem where 

they cannot deaden the sound emanating from “the gay jingling Brass bells on 

the frothy necks of the sacrificial sheep”.  The “rust on the ancient state-

swords” further demonstrates the disgust associated with the entire process. 

These living off-springs do not help matters with their foreign dress codes and 

mannerisms which are alien to the culture of the people. Out of extreme 

disgust the ancestors observed that their living relations “have not changed”. 

Perhaps they expect better conducts from these children of theirs. 

 

Of note is the poet’s use of the plural forms of the pronouns and traditional 

images in the poem. The frequent use of the pluralpronominal like: they, their 

and them, is the poet’s way of showing the numeracy of the ancestors. Despite 

their large number, they hold the same opinion on issues of ancestral worship. 

The use of traditional imageries shows that this is a typical African 

experience. The choice of the traditional materials is also deliberate. In the 

typical Akan tradition, a sacrificial sheep, brass bells, drums and cowries 

perform different roles to achieve the desired effects and acceptance in a 

process like this. The poet uses the symbolic expression of “white locust 

through the forest” to show the awesome presence of the ancestors. The “rust 



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on the ancient state – sword” is the poet’s show of anger of the dead over the 

paucity of the rite of passage taking place here. Finally, the tone of this poem 

is that of anger. The language of this poem is past tense to indicate a narrative 

that supposedly took place in the past. The poet utilizes one stanza and one 

full stop punctuation mark from the beginning of the poem to the end to create 

a pace that is racy. The height of the frustration and anger of the ancestors is 

shown with the exclamation mark that ends the poem. The poet uses the 

narrative technique of an omnipresence persona who possesses the ability to 

observe a supernatural event between the dead ancestors and the relations they 

left behind. This technique however differs from the technique adopted by 

Kofi Awoonor in “Songs of Sorrow I and II” whose persona cum narrator is 

an off-spring of the dead who is lamenting the abandonment of their fore 

bearers.  

 

Conclusion 

In conclusion therefore, these poets have confirmed the opinions of the 

Western, African and Oriental religious adherents that there is the influence 

the ancestors exert in the lives of the living that cannot be wished away. Also, 

the poets through the personas in these poems have ascribed a larger than life 

status on these spirit beings. The opinions of the religious people therefore 

tally with that of the characters in the poems. Of note is that these poets have 

used these poems to discuss the fundamental spiritual ethos of the 

Africansregardless of their nationalities, religion creeds or western education. 

They have shown the universality of theeminent position the ancestors occupy 

in the African cosmic reality. Theancestors as shown in these poems display 

characteristics that are not confined to only one tribe or nation. 

 

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