“The Grieved Lands of Africa” is poem of 42 lines with seven uneven stanzas. It is a free verse. “The Grieved Lands of Africa” presents the uniqueness of Black race and their resistance to slavery and colonial rule. It belongs to the group of poems which advance the unique beauty of the Black race and the dominant strength of being Black. The poet draws from the realistic nature of Negritude (a movement which celebrates and promotes the uniqueness and dominance of Black race to other races popularly propagated by Leopald Sedar Senghor).
In the poem, “The Grieved Lands of Africa” the poet presents African race as an imperishable race and African land as a land that can withstand anything; Lines 40–41.

The first three stanzas talk about the degradation of Africa by slavery, imperialism, colonialism and Westernization. The poet uses these stanzas to decry the effects of Western influence on Africa. Line 2 “In the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave” In this line, the “ancient” refers to the physical slavery when men and women were forcefully moved out of the Land of Africa to different parts of the world. The “modern slave” refers to the present psychological and mental slavery in Africa and among Blacks, where Africans or Blacks depend on the West for aids and solutions. This is seen as the psychological acceptance of Western values, culture – dressing, lifestyle etc as the standard of measuring success and achievement.

In stanza two, the poet decries the elimination of the valuable culture, beauty, custom and land of Africa by the colonialism and westernization. He figuratively presents this through the symbol of “flower” and “forest”. This is seen in lines 7 – 10 “In the infamous sensation of the stunning perfume of the/Flower/ Crushed in the forest/ By the wickedness of iron and fire”… ‘Iron and Fire’ refers to the fierce way the colonialist and imperialist imposed themselves on Africa. These moves destroyed the beautiful flora and fauna of African land hence they grieve. The ever blossoming African beauty and teeming African youth, customs and culture represented by ‘Flower’ were crushed by civilization which made Africans lose their identity. ‘Crushed in the forest’.

In the third stanza, the poet bemoans the destruction of African dreams. All those blacks sold into slavery had their dreams in life but were stifled out by slavery while the Africans under the colonialist administration were exiled to prevent them from attaining their dreams in their father’s land hence the land grieves for her children. The poet was sent to Cape Verde for exile amidst his struggle for the Liberation of Angola. This was the fate of most other African and Black nationalists fighting for the liberation and independence of their countries from other parts of the continent. Line 13 ‘In the dream soon undone in jinglings of gaolers’ keys’.