Chinua Achebe - Refugee Mother and Child - Analysis/Explanation. Poetry Lecture by Dr. Andrew Barker 

Didn't see that one coming. For this one, I wish I'd spent a bit more time on the changes Achebe makes when he rewrites the poem though. Aside from the title I don't think that they are improvements. I also don't mention here the synesthesia of "the air was heavy with . . ." and students are always interested in that. I'm sure you know this but synesthesia is when something is described in terms usually associated with of the other senses. A "loud shirt" is the most famous example. A shirt can't, of course, be loud but everybody with sensitivity to language knows the type of shirt being described. The same is true of 'heavy air'. The situation is so oppressive that the air has actual weight. We could argue that, literally speaking, if there is more moisture in the air then the air would literally be heavier, but I don't think Achebe is trying to describe weather conditions accurately here, and is after the figurative when he uses the phrase. And does so successfully. Anyway, it was a point I forgot to make when I recorded the lecture.

Good luck!

Your observation on the line break there is very interesting.

My pleasure. Good luck!

I prefer the original for the same reason.

Lam Wai Sum Phronesis, 4074243 What is the situation presented in this poem and how does the poet respond to that situation? The poem is written during the Nigerian Civil War as an analysis in addressing the aftermath under strict colonialism. As being born in South-eastern Nigeria in 1930, Achebe had seen the tragic lives of Igbo under British dictation in the form of the Royal Niger Company which allowed him to put himself into the shoes of the sufferings easily, as well as to show sympathy on them. Achebe had noticed long before that poverty, starvation and wars brought by colonialism would take immense tolls on the Nigerian, but when he was walking around his hometown during the time of civil war, the heart-breaking scene of the refugee mother caught his attention and provoked his need to write that imagery down-the scene how the mother held her son and cared him tenderly that even the most beautiful drawing ‘Madonna and Child’ cannot compare to the mother’s love. The poem depicted vividly of the downhearted situation of the victims and refugees in ‘air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea’ that the ‘unwashed children’ were with ‘washed-out ribs and dried-up bottoms’ and ‘blown empty bellies’. As Achebe believed in the saying ‘a pen is mightier than the sword’, he wrote what he observed in reality with blunt language in hope to raise people’s awareness of what the helpless refugees were actually going through. The poet also used the power in this literature as an uproar of the unfairness in which the victims were living under traumatization of civil war. The action of the woman combing her child’s hair was ‘supposed’ to be a daily act ‘of no consequence’ which an ordinary mother would do before sending her child to school, yet the mother in the poem was doing it like ‘putting flowers on a tiny grave’-she no longer lives in the properly-run world nor could she plays her role as a normal mother caring her child, instead, she was put in a situation that she could do nothing but to provide the last comfort to her dying son-the pain that she would want to forget. This creates a great difference between the lives of mother ‘in another life’ and those who experienced the horrific incident. Achebe as well attempted to restore the real and miserable situation in this poem, there are no ‘heroes’ to tribute in wars of colonialism, only a trail of destructions and suffering people were left.

Tan Kai Teck Desmond (4198776) What is the situation presented in this poem and how does the poet respond to that situation? A depiction of a refugee situation during troubling times, most likely in Africa, the poem is quite straightforward, beginning with a reference to the Renaissance (Madonna and the Child). This perhaps serves to invoke a stark comparison between a peaceful time in human civilization where people were free to pursue classical literature, arts and science, and the situation in the poem. As explained in the video, the “Madonna and the Child” is a religious symbol for purity, motherly-love and divinity; they are often painted with political connotations as positive propaganda (E.g. Simone Martini’s Maesta) or to invoke worship etc. Yet as holy and pure Madonna’s love for the baby Jesus could be depicted in paintings, what the poet saw then was even purer and more powerful than any of them. A detailed description of the children’s status within the camp is given. They are seriously malnourished with no hope of a next meal. The poet purposefully robs the reader of any breaks, because the image before him is so visceral, so horrifying and sad that it is just painful. Every mother has stopped caring except for the subject, who laments her dead child through singing, giving him a ghost smile and ghostly pride. It is possible that since the son is gone, he takes along with him her smile and pride. No longer a mother now, she has nothing left but the husk of a son. Yesterday she could be combing his hair before school; now she combs his hair as a little ceremonious farewell. This last part is very important because it shows what this poem is truly about. The poet attempts to show how these people were not refugees before. Like you and I, they do not deserve this and yet they suffer because of wars/natural disasters. Perhaps this is also a critique on the government’s handling of refugees and citizens needing help. Their failures/actions have led to a massive humanitarian crisis where folks are forced to seek refuge in camps like this, with poor hygienic conditions and starving kids. A feeling of helplessness can be felt throughout the poem as he explained how other mothers had given up, or the overwhelming odor of diarrhea. There is also no sign of the poet doing anything else but watch in his descriptions. This sheds light on the crisis going on at the time, and perhaps it was the poet’s intention for others to read this poem, to be in his shoes. Maybe then the reader can do something about this rather than stand and witness another mother send her sons/daughters to the afterlife, softly howling with lullaby.

CHIU Ying Ying, Kimberly (4004858) What is the situation presented in this poem and how does the poet respond to that situation? As the aptly named title suggests, this poem depicts a mother mourning her dead son in a refugee camp from a third-person perspective. The poem starts with comparing that specific tender mother that the poet notices in a refugee camp with the tenderness presented in all versions of Madonna and Child. A Madonna and Child is a generic religious painting of the infant Jesus Christ and Mary, his mother which has the need to necessarily presenting the kindness and tenderness of the mother. In other words, the crucial feature of this painting is the way that the mother looks at the child lovingly. One of the significances of taking this particular painting as a comparison instead of any other that as well demonstrates parental love could be the fact that Jesus Christ and Mary are both highly respected and cared about by the rest of the world. Yet, this mother and her son in the refugee camp have literally nothing. Their names are not even known by others which they are called “refugee mother and child”. The demise of her child might simply be nothing more than a figure on the news report. This creates a significant contrast between these two groups of people which further reinforces the utterly bad condition them they are in. This poem starts with this statement that, of all the great painters in the world, no one could capture the tenderness of this specific mother that the speaker notices. This mother and her son somehow happen to become refugees and worse still, her son might have perished because of the horrific situation in the camp like starvation or malnutrition which have been suggested by the phrase “unwashed children with washed-out ribs and dried-up bottoms struggling in labored steps behind blown empty bellies.” Another thing that is worth attention is the difficulty of reading the sentence “The air was…blown empty bellies.” This could be regarded as it is analogous to the difficulty of the movement of the child in the camp. What makes this mother stand out from the rest is that most of the mothers there no longer care about the terrible condition of their children. That said, the speaker certainly is not blaming them. More than anything else, it is apparent that the situation in a refugee camp is utterly despairing which the entire atmosphere of this poem has been set in despondency. It would be unfair and ignorant for one to ignore the actual situation in a refugee camp and point an accusing finger towards the people there. Instead of accusing them, he is more likely to point out this situation to praise this distinctly different mother for, despite the horrific and hopeless situation, she does not cease to care about and love her son. In the following line, there is a reiteration of the word “ghost” which associates with death. The mother who wants to gain some hope tries to smile but the living smile has died. Her face does not show pride anymore, yet, it is still there in her eyes. This mother who still manages to keep the pride laments her son by combing his hair while looking at him sentimentally as if she is singing. “Skull”, instead of “head” is used which a sense of coldness is reinforced as well as serving as a hint that her son has passed away. The phrase “in another life” in the original version is ambiguous that could be interpreted in three ways with one being in a world before all these happened. The mother and her son are not born a refugee. Instead, they somehow become refugees that end up in a condition that is entirely different from life before this event happened. Thus, the final sentence suggests that, before any of this happened, the action of combing her son’s hair would simply be a daily act of her taking care of her son before school instead of associating with putting flowers on a tiny grave. Having read the entire poem, one can finally understand why the mother would have to forget her son. It simply hurts too much to remember her beloved son who supposedly should live a pleasant life instead of ending up passing away in a refugee camp. One can feel the sorrow and anger of the poet who has witnessed the actual situation in the camp. He demonstrates the agony of the people in the camp to the readers by depicting the situation of this particular mother and her son who supposedly should be living in a peaceful neighborhood. It may be read as a criticism of the government who fails to take care of its citizens and put them into the very opposite situation. Be it natural or artificial disasters, the government should always prioritize its citizens above anything. Yet, what the poet witnesses in the camp are children who are suffering from malnutrition, despairing mothers who ceased to care about the children, etcetera. Having witnessed all these, there really isn’t much that this one individual can do to alleviate their sufferings which he, at last, writes this piece of poem to present this inhumane situation to the rest of the world and call for more attention hoping for helping the countless obscure refugees in the world.

Chong Hoi Kwo 4084248 The poem presents a mother waving farewell to her dead son in a refugee camp through which it reflects the tenderness of mother which is yet beyond comparison, even those religious paintings of Jesus Christ and Mary are ‘secondary’ that no painters can fully capture mother’s tenderness well enough. In a turbulent environment where resources are demandingly inadequate, starvation, illness, injuries of war, etc, are major causes of death of many. Even if one survives, they are not much ‘fortunate’, as depicted in the poem the children are in very bad shape that their ribs have “washed-out”, bottoms are “dried-up”, and they have “blown empty bellies” due to long-term lacking nutrients. The mortality rate is rather high in refugee areas, many mothers may have become numb about death as they may have experienced death of family members and friends occasionally. However, there is this mother who miserably looks at her son whom she may soon forget with a “ghost smile” - a lifeless and spiritless smile - and a pair of eyes that translates “the ghost of a mother’s pride” - the honour of being a mother is still in her but it does not mean much anymore. In front of her is the corpse of her son, all she can do is to give him the best, dignified farewell that she can; she combs the hair of her son as if it is just a daily subtle interaction of the mother and son before the son parts for school. Yet, this time, it is a forever parting. It is the “skull” that the “ghosted” soulless mother is combing. The purity of love (of the mother) therefore triumphs any ‘manned’ tenderness that many painters have tried to convey as in Madonna and Child, the renewed religious paintings in 1300. Having witnessed this traumatic scene, the poet documented it into a poem, through which he may want to tell people about the actual happenings of “another life” in the other side of the world, as well as a personal relief of emotion. In the poem, the “another life” refers to the lives of the mother and son before they become a refugee, like the readers who live in rather stable and resourceful places. In some way, the “another life” of the refugee mother and son may be the readers’ life while the fortunate readers’ “another life” may be the refugee mother and son’s, alternately. It seems that the poem is a rather ‘factual’ piece, about the poet’s observation of the refugee camp, without much investment of personal feelings. The poem may therefore remind the readers they are not any ‘superior’, just that they are lucky that they do not live in underprivileged areas, and at the same time reflect the reality that people may not have experienced and aware of.

LU Ruiqi, Gloria (4145195) What is the situation presented in this poem and how does the poet respond to that situation? This poem captures a quiet and sad moment that a mother combs her dead children’s hair in the refugee camp. As everyone can imagine, the refugee camp is never a good place for people to stay. It is like the hell in a realistic world, where is full of desperate, starving crowds. The sanitary condition is horrible, as mentioned by Achebe, ‘the air was heavy with odours’. The people here are suffering from diarrhoea, and they are ‘unwashed’ with ‘washed-out ribs’ , ‘dried-up bottoms' and ‘empty bellies’ due to poor living conditions. They have to endure everything because there is only one way for them can survive. Achebe uses the imagery of Madonna and Child to convey what he feels from the mother he witnesses in the refugee camp, which is always associated with a bright and warm atmosphere. So, what Achebe presents to readers is a huge contra between a caring Madonna mother and the hell-like refugee camp she stays in. Children are extremely vulnerable in a disaster, this mother’s child has left her. In a such horrible situation, the mother still treats her child tenderly, which seems to imply love and humanity still exist. However, must be different from Madonna, the mother in the poem loses her child, her tenderness also contains grief. Like Achebe’s description ‘a ghost smile’ and ‘the ghost of a mother’s pride’. Combing her child’s hair is normal in a life that does not have to stay in a refugee camp, so that is the reason why the mother’s combing is affecting and powerful.

Lifewriting Demi Kong Seen as lifewriting this poem demonstrates Achebe’s sorrow and empathy to people who are ravaged by war and starvation. Achebe presents the readers the situation of the refugee camp he witnesses first-hand. The focus of the poem is a mother he sees in the refugee camp. She gives Achebe a profound impact that even none of the great paintings of a Madonna and child can compare. He is overwhelmed by the “heavy” situation in the camp, as he replicates it by using those suffocating enjambments. To me, Achebe’s meanings of “a ghost smile” and “the ghost of a mother’s pride” do not only describe the mother, but also himself. A “ghost” is horrifying, shocking and people tend to think it does not exist. Achebe is both horrified and shocked by all the things the mother has suffered. He could not believe it, nor bear to see her drowning in the sorrow of the loss of her son. But he cannot look away. I think this poem is a memoir (which, of course, is categorised as lifewriting) as Achebe, more importantly, leads himself and the reader to reflect on the reasons why people in the refugee camp have to suffer. Although he rewrites the poem and explicitly explains “another life” is “the former life”, the ambiguity of “another life” can be interpreted as the life that we are having. Many people, including us, in the world do not undergo warfare, starvation, and have a much better living condition. We have breakfast and go to school daily. Yet everyone in the world should equality enjoy this daily act of no consequence. Achebe does not put any reflection directly in the poem, but it is still deducible.

Lifewriting Chan Ki Tung, Tony Seen as Lifewriting this poem demonstrates Achebe’s sympathy for a mother and a child in an African refugee camp amid the Nigeria-Biafra warfare. It is possible that Achebe witnessed this affective scene on one occasion - a mother in a refugee camp offered maternal comfort to her own child, who was on verge of death. Even though “most mothers there had long ceased to care”, this mother, which Achebe focalized, sustained “a ghost smile” to comfort his own son. Achebe thinks that this mother’s tenderness exceeds “Madonna and Child” depicted by some of the greatest painters in the world. This poem’s ending sentence revealed Achebe’s genuine feeling towards this scene - “now she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave”. Refugee Mother and Child also clearly demonstrates how the Nigeria-Biafra warfare destroyed families across the African border. As shown in the second stanza, children in the refugee camp, whom Achebe was looking at, were some “unwashed children with washedout ribs and dried up bottom struggling in labored steps behind blown up empty bellies”. This shows that the children in the refugee camp, who barely know how to walk, suffered from Kwashiorkor such that they were having blown up bellies. Also, the environment in the refugee camp was terrible as evidenced by the sentence “the air was heavy with odors of diarrhea”. Achebe used synaesthesia to remind the readers that what’s like living in the refugee camp. Moreover, were it not for the Nigeria-Biafra warfare, the mother comforting the son would have been “a little daily act of no consequence”. But amid the warfare, it was “like putting flowers on a tiny grave”.

Wong Mung Rory 4072984 Seen as lifewriting this poem demonstrates Achebe’s indignation for the unnecessary suffering in the refugee camp. By encapsulating the act of a particular mother, he condemns the terror that brings about by an unstated event (likely refers to the colonialism inflicted civil war) that creates refugees. The poem almost unduly overshares the graphic atrocities which the refugees experienced. The images which Achebe recalls are objectively demoralizing: faecal stench that permeates the air; moribund children that waddles. Death and famine become so prevalent that mothers are detached from their maternal instinct. When their children’s demise is inevitable, the mothers choose to “forget” and “ceased to care” to conceal their pain of mourning and the pain of powerlessness. Achebe confronts the catastrophic aftermath of a warfare by introducing an unadulterated reality to the readers. Archebe gives an utmost appreciation to the mother he centres around in this poem. Her sincerity and “tenderness”, in Archebe’s words, transcend even the holiest of women- Virgin Mary. In the time of desperation, this particular mother tends to her passing son with patience and warmth all the same. She is well-aware that her son is beyond saving. Yet, she retains her motherly qualities, gently eases her child with affection and protection, acting as his guardian until his last breath. With her “ghost smile” and “pride”, the mother is presumably drained mentally and physically. However, she is willing to squeeze the very last bit of her life and her humanity in order to comfort her dying son. Sensibly touched by such selfless act, Achebe proceeds to parallel their grim reality with their pre-refugee times: smiling and hair-combing could have been ordinary conducts. Under the current context, “she did it like putting flowers/ on a tiny grave.” which means the mother mourns and griefs. Achebe denounces the needless misery that is inflicted upon them. He writes this poem to deplore, to lament, and to record.

Hera, Chan Pui Ki Seen as life-writing this poem demonstrates that Achebe’s compassion toward the destitution and starvation for displaced people who struggle under poor living condition. In the poem, the Biafrans are sent to refugee camps because of war and the unstable political environment, yet he witnesses the unshakable maternal love between a mother and a child even in the most hostile place- in the refugee camp. At the beginning of the poem, the imagery of the mother and child is so beautiful that “No Madonna and Child could touch that picture of a mother’s tenderness for a son she would soon have to forget”, he refers to a religious painting of the Virgin Mary holding her Son in her arms to describe the tenderness of the mother’s love. Yet, Achebe pulls himself back to reality again. He sees “blown empty bellies”, “washed-out ribs” and “dried-up bottoms” in the refugee camp and reminds the reader about the inevitable horrible life condition. For Achebe, the situation is overwhelming since he is frustrated to see the unbearable life of the Africans. Apart from the life struggle, Achebe writes about the undying maternal love even in war. In the third stanza, some mothers have ceased to care for their children but this particular mother in the poem shows “the ghost of a smile” and “ the ghost of her pride”, indicating that she still desperately trying to take care of her child. In a historical context, the poem concludes that the British colonialism and Nigerian-Biafran war should not have happened as the refugee mothers aren’t born refugee mothers, and they should not be the victim of the aftermath of colonialism and civil war. As a result of the civil war, many innocent lives are lost, including the son of this particular mother who soon would have to forget.

ENG3385 Lifewriting Liu Xu Fen Hugo (4024626) Seen as lifewriting this poem demonstrates that Achebe is a compassionate man who pays attention to the minutest of details in his observations. In what must have been a crowd of tens or even hundreds of refugees, as Achebe makes note of other ‘mothers there’, he singled out one single woman and her son. His feelings of pain, sorrow and grief for the mother are reflected from the poem’s second stanza, with its long and heavy beginning sentence showing the weighty burden the mother and himself felt through the tone of words. Additionally, Achebe remarks the small movements the mother made, such as her fading smile and her combing her son’s hair. Perhaps not too many people at the scene would have take note of these, since one may be overwhelmed by just looking at the many refugees struggling to flee the warzone, with children starving to death as well as the stench of corpses and defecation. In a place as depressing as where Achebe had been, one would not immediately set their eyes on a woman’s gestures. Achebe is able to detect the smallest details from an overwhelming image, and illustrating his sadness for the victims through them. “Refugee Mother and Child” also clearly demonstrates the horrors Achebe sees during the Biafra War in Nigeria, depicting a case of unfairness in the world. Unlike many poems about war, in which poets recount the sounds of gunfire and warplanes or the shouting from confused soldiers, Achebe writes about what he witnesses in a group of refugees. This is not a poem on the war, as seen from the complete lack of mentioning of said unfolding crisis. Specifically speaking, he highlights the impact of war on the common people, in this case hunger and the deaths of children. He describes the state and shape of the ‘unwashed children’, telling readers how malnourished these children in detail, spanning across one-third of the second stanza. Under such circumstances, children would die, as shown at the end of the poem. Achebe further emphasized the unfair injustices towards the final sentences of this poem - before the war the child had his hair combed waiting to have breakfast, but now the combing is done when he is starving and dying. The incident Achebe brought to readers’ attention is not the war itself but the humanitarian crisis there, the unfairness these people faced and the tragedy that befalls them.