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Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe - A Mother
In A Refugee Camp
Who is Achebe?
• He is a Nigerian
writer interested in
African politics.
• He wrote the
influential novel
‘Things Fall Apart’
which sold 12 million
copies.
A Mother In A Refugee Camp
No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget. . . .
The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother’s pride. . . . She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-colored hair left on his skull
And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part it.
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.
Breakdown of the poem 1…
No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget. . . .
• What is a Madonna? (Not the pop star…)
• Why is the word Child given a capital?
• What does the image tell us about their
relationship?
• Why would she have to ‘forget’ him?
Breakdown 2…
The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
• Look at the use of the language connected
with the body – what word would you use
to describe it?
• Why are the bellies ‘blown-up’ and the
bottoms ‘dried-up’?
• Why is his mother unusual?
Breakdown 3…
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother’s pride. . . . She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
• Look at the use of time here… which
words suggest the past?
• Why does she have the smile
‘between her teeth’?
• What is the ellipsis for in the third
line?
Breakdown 4…
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-colored hair left on his skull
And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part
it.
• Why are their possessions in a bundle?
• Why has the writer used images of decay? ‘rust’,
‘broken’ etc?
• Why is the mother ‘humming’ in her eyes?
• What is symbolic about the ‘parting’ of his hair?
Breakdown 5
In their
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.
• Look at the size words – they get smaller
and smaller… what is that symbolic of?
• Look at the juxtaposition of the ordinary
and extra-ordinary here – which words
suggest each category?
• How does the last line make you feel?
Key Themes
•
•
•
•
•
Social Justice
Love
Pride
Innocence
Death
Religious Imagery
• Look at the use of religious imagery in the poem
– ‘Madonna and Child’. Think about the story of
the Virgin Mary. Is Achebe making this mother
into a kind of saint? Or is she more than holy?
• With religious imagery you should also think
about the idea of washing, isn’t it like baptism of
a sort? Don’t we talk about washing away the
sins of the world?
• The use of ‘daily’ also links us to the idea of the
holiness of everyday life – think about the Lord’s
Prayer.
Structure/Techniques
• The poem is structured
as a single continuous
piece.
• Achebe uses ellipsis to
move between different
moments in time.
• There are lots of run-on
lines as if time is
speeding by.
• Use of opposites –
‘unwashed’ and
‘washed-out’ for
example.
• Full range of
punctuation used –
dash, colon, semi-colon,
comma, full stop,
ellipsis.
• Shifts in time frame
throughout.
Chinua Achebe - A Mother In A Refugee Camp
Mr E. Monaghan
[email protected]