what does the poem ka ba by amiri bakara mean?

Question

Ka 'Ba


A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or scream or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will

Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
though we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air

We are beautiful people
with African imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants

with African eyes, and noses, and arms,
though we sprawl in grey chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.

We have been captured,
brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway, into
the ancient image, into a new

correspondence with ourselves
and our black family. We read magic
now we need the spells, to rise up
return, destroy, and create. What will be

the sacred words?

Imamu Amiri Baraka

Answer 1

It pays homage to Afr-Americans' sense of endurance in spite of upheavals and shortcomings. It is about black pride, Afrocentric poem urging black folks to "rise up" and say No to exploitative marginalizing structures.

Answer 2

Ka Ba Poem

Answer 3

With an e e cummings poem, saying "This is what it means to me" is like trying to nail Jello to a tree. This poem has always seemed very pro-feminist, or at least anti anti-feminist. It talks about independent thinking to me. Effie (a name that sounds suspiciously like the word "iffy") apparently never thought for herself and all that's left of her crumbly brain is a bunch of subjunctives: woulda, coulda ,shoulda, musta. Even God looks on those 6 crumbs with puzzlement; even His omniscience can't fathom why a person would live her life allowing others to think for her.

Answer 4

I think it's a song to empower the people, the africans and african-americans in america.

what does it mean?
that is a question I don't believe there is one answer for in poetry...

Answer 5

beats the crap outta me. but i do like the "someone blew up america" poem