Bocas: A Daughter\u2019s Geography<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI have a daughter\/ mozambique<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I have a son\/ angola<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Our twins<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Salvador & johannesburg\/ cannot speak<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The same language\/ but we fight the same old men\/ in the new world\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n There is no edges\/ no end to the new world\/ cuz i have a daughter\/ trinidad<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I have a son\/ san juan\/ Our twins<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Capetown & palestine\/ cannot speak the same language\/ but we fight the same old men\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n While reading the above quotes, I couldn\u2019t stop myself from thinking and questioning: what are the deeper meanings in Shange naming these countries and cities? What are its purposes or contributions to poem? Why did Shange select these places in particular? Who is this \u201csame old man\u201d she repeated mention throughout the poem? One of the main themes of this poem is that of togetherness or unity beyond the obvious difference. These countries and cities she refers to are located in different parts of the world, however, there are traces of people of color or people of African descent among its population. These countries represent the wide diaspora of the \u201cdislocated\u201d African body and how these shifted African bodies have grown apart to the point where they cannot communicate. They do not share a culture or language anymore, even places as close to one another as Mozambique and Angola. However, in saying \u201c but we fight the same old men,\u201d Shange is referring to the white men who caused this separation and dislocation of the African bodies. \u201cThe same old men\u201d could also be referring to the modern society, reality and pressure on the African body and its diaspora. The battle that needs to be fought by these countries Shange mentions against the \u201csame old men,\u201d could be the battle against racism that people of color have to alway face and continuously have to be fearful of. Shange\u2019s use of these countries and \u201cthe same old men\u201d is very effective as it allows you, the reader, to think through who Shange is referring to and to what issue is she alluding to. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bocas: A Daughter\u2019s Geography \u201cI have a daughter\/ mozambique I have a son\/ angola Our twins Salvador & johannesburg\/ cannot speak The same language\/ but we fight the same old men\/ in the new world\u2026 There is no edges\/ no end to the new world\/ cuz i have a daughter\/ trinidad I have a son\/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogpost-1","tag-shange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}