African Literature

The Refugee Mother and Child

Chinua Achebe

The poem is entitled, Refugee Mother and Child, because the setting refers to a refuge center that the mother and child are at. Both of them are refugees and in the poem the mother’s labor is described as, ”the air was heavy with odors of diarrhea of unwashed children…”at the setting where situations were tough. As refugees, they began to be unhealthy and physically unstable which gave effect to the child’s health and mother’s pregnancy. In terms of mechanics, the poem is free-verse, it has 20 lines in one stanza, the word choice is simple and easy to understand.

The following are definitions of words seen in the poem such as; (1) Tenderness means very loving and gentle, (2) Diarrhea is an illness that causes you to pass waste from your body very frequently, (3) Ceased is to stop happening, (4) Bottoms is the lowest part, and (5) Grave is an excavation for burial of a body. When it comes to the context of the poem, it refers to today’s situation especially for refugees who are in very difficult situations of their life and lose hope. In society, refugees are looked down by other people. It only reminds us that people are to be taken care of, especially to poor children who experience that situation wherein they were supposed to go to school and have a bright future.

The interpretation of the poem is about a mother’s pregnancy as a refugee. The first stanza describes her current situation which is pregnancy and near to give birth. The setting was also pertaining to a refugee center since she’s a refugee. The second stanza refers to a child whom she gave labor to. Because of her situation as a refugee, she has been unhealthy and had been very poor and as she gave labor to her sons, they found out that it is dead. If it wasn’t for the situation behind the pregnancy, her son could live a happily life.