Our History is a poem about the fierce Western invasion of Africa. Dipoko is African which explains why the poem is written with a bitter and angry tone from the African point of view. Throughout the poem this tone of voice is kept by the use of powerful diction and imagery to emphasize the violence and destruction caused by the Westerners. The title, ‘Our History’ suggests a rather melancholic view of events. He is looking back at the past as though the present does not exist due to all the destruction and unfortunate change.
The poem is divided up into three stanzas, each dealing with a different aspect of the destructive invasion. The first stanza describes the arrival of the foreigners. At this point the tone is not quite as angry but instead anxious so the reader can sense that it is building up to something. The first thre
The last stanza is about how the African lifestyle has changed to the worse since the invasion. Dipoko uses one simple image which is that their clothes have changed from real leopard skin to prints of fake lions. This is simple yet meaningful as it stands symbolic for all the horrible ways in which Africa was affected. The last line holds a very strong final image, by comparing themselves to ‘the wings of whipped butterflies’. This expresses how much pain they endured, through the excellent choice of diction: A butterfly is a fragile and vulnerable animal and the image of it whipped, symbolizes how helpless the Africans were. A butterfly is also seen as a beautiful animal and its destruction adds a sense of sadness. The tone of ‘Our History’ therefore ends in a sad way after the majority of it was angry and bitter.
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