Explain the poet’s attitude to African traditional culture in “Vanity”.

Answer Details

In "Vanity," the Senegalese poet Birago Diop laments the neglect of African tradition by a people who no longer heed the wisdom of their ancestors. His attitude to African traditional culture is one of deep reverence coupled with sorrow at its abandonment.

• Reverence for the ancestors and the dead. Diop treats the voices of the dead and the elders as a precious source of wisdom. In African tradition the ancestors are living presences whose guidance sustains the community, and the poet honours this belief.
• Lament over neglect. Through a chain of anxious rhetorical questions, the persona asks who will listen to their cries and their voices. The implied answer is "no one," for the modern generation has turned a deaf ear. The poet mourns that ancestral wisdom is ignored and mocked.
• Warning of consequences. The title "Vanity" carries the sense of futility: if the living will not hear the wisdom of the past, their own future appeals will likewise go unheard. Diop warns that a people who abandon their roots are left spiritually empty and unheard in their hour of need.
• Defence of cultural identity. By insisting on the value of the ancestral voice, the poet defends traditional African culture against the forces, including foreign influence, that would silence it.

Conclusion. Diop's attitude is protective and mournful. He cherishes African traditional culture as a well of wisdom and identity, and he grieves that his generation treats it with indifference. The poem is both an elegy for a fading heritage and a caution that such neglect is a costly vanity.