AFRICAN POETRY Discuss the characteristics and effects of the storm in "An African Thunderstorm".

Answer Details

David Rubadiri's "An African Thunderstorm" describes the approach and arrival of a violent tropical storm over an African village. The poet uses the storm both literally, as a natural phenomenon, and symbolically, so that its characteristics and its effects on people and place carry wider meaning.

Characteristics of the storm

• Sudden and swift. The wind comes "from the west," "clouds come hurrying with the wind," moving "like a plague of locusts / Whirling." The speed and menace are immediate.
• Restless and turbulent. The clouds are compared to a swarm of locusts and to a "madman chasing nothing," images of chaos, aimless violence and disorder.
• Powerful and destructive. The wind "tosses up things on its tail" and pulls at clothes and trees. It is an overwhelming force that humans cannot resist.
• Dark and threatening. The gathering darkness, the "pregnant clouds" heavy with rain, and the lightning that "flash and flare" create an atmosphere of foreboding before the storm breaks.

Effects of the storm

• On nature. Trees bend, leaves and branches are tossed, and the whole landscape is thrown into agitation. The image of the "pregnant clouds" ready to burst shows nature charged and ready to release its fury.
• On the villagers. The scene shifts to human panic. Women "dart about / In and out / Madly," children scream in delight and fear, and clothes are blown to reveal "dangling breasts." The people are helpless before the storm.
• Contrasting reactions. While the women rush anxiously to protect home and children, the children respond with excited screaming, capturing both fear and the thrill the storm brings.

Symbolic effect. Many readers see the storm as a symbol of the disruptive, unstoppable arrival of colonialism or of sweeping change in Africa, something powerful, foreign in direction (from the west) and beyond the villagers' control. The mounting tension that ends with "the pelting march of the storm" leaves the reader with a sense of an overwhelming force about to break upon a defenceless community.

Conclusion. Through vivid simile, sound and movement, Rubadiri makes the storm both a real event and a metaphor. Its violent characteristics and the fear and confusion it causes give the poem its dramatic energy and its deeper resonance.