Poetry
Hammer Blows
Coups de pilon
David Diop · 1956
Synopsis
Some twenty poems in free verse, in the rhythm of speech, raised against colonial oppression. Poems such as "Le Temps du martyre", "Souffre pauvre nègre" or "Un Blanc m'a dit" speak of the humiliation of colonised peoples and reject assimilation; others, such as "Afrique" or "À une danseuse noire", celebrate a free Africa and call on Black people to become aware of their condition. The title turns poetry into a pestle that pounds the millet.
Context
The collection appeared in 1956 from Présence africaine, as a slim volume of thirty-one pages; it is the only one the author published in his lifetime. A definitive edition, enlarged with eight rediscovered poems, appeared in 1973, and the book has often been reissued since. Simon Mpondo and Frank Jones translated it into English as Hammer Blows, together with prose pieces by the author not previously collected. The Senegalese Writers' Association today awards a prize bearing his name.
Who it is for
To read the poetry of Négritude in its most combative form, on the eve of African independence.
Prizes and reception
He has been called the Mayakovsky of the African revolution, and Négritude saw in him the voice of the voiceless peoples.