Introduction
Chinua Achebe has written several novels and many poems. Indeed, he is considered to be one of the finest literally artists to have come out of Africa. He is a believer that all literature "should have a message, should have a purpose."
The Background for the Poem:
In 1967 civil war broke out in Nigeria when the Catholic dominated province of Biafra attempted independence from the Moslem dominated central state. During those fateful years, Achebe worked as an ambassador for the Biafran government.
The war went badly for the Biafrans who suffered immensely, and starvation was rife. The poet's firsthand experience of the hardship and struggle inspired him to write "Refugee Mother and Child".
The Madonna is Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, and the Child is her son, Jesus. A statue of the Madonna holding the Infant Jesus is common in the Catholic Church. Remember that Achebe wrote this poem in the Catholic province of Biafra, where statues of the Madonna and Child would have been common.
The unavoidability of Death of the Children:
The mothers all know that their children are dying. It is what is known as a "defence mechanism" that the mothers use to protect themselves. There is nothing they can do to prevent their children from dying, and so they protect themselves from psychological destruction by giving the appearance that they no longer care. Starvation was rife in the refugee camp. Children in the camp were dying with regularity, and the mother knows that her own son would probably also soon be dead.
The Blown up Bellies of the Children:
The children are suffering from kwashiorkor, which the Oxford Dictionary describes as "a form of malnutrition caused by a protein deficiency of diet, especially in young children in the tropics". It leads the children's bellies to blow up. So these children are starving (have empty bellies) but their bellies are blown up from kwashiorkor.
Without the comma, the meaning would be that the odours were of diarrhoea from the unwashed children. By omitting the commas, the poet forces the reader to think out the meaning of his lines. He is also able to hide two or even three different meanings in each line.
Starvation at the Refugee Camp:
Starvation was rife in the refugee camp. Children in the camp were dying with regularity, and the mother knows that her own son would probably also soon be dead. The woman is watching her child dying. Her little acts of love and kindness are therefore not unlike the ritual of putting flowers on his grave.
Conclusion:
The poet is looking to an earlier life before the war broke out, a life when food was in abundance, a life when breakfast and school were an everyday event. Now there is no breakfast, no school, but only a refugee camp and death.
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Nice post
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