Africas PleaRoland Tombekai Dempster

Roland Tombekai Dempster (1910 1965)[as an African writer and literary figure. He was born in Tosoh (on the banks of Lake Piso), Grand Cape Mount County in the Republic of Liberia. He wrote The Mystic Reformation of Gondolia in 1953. On January 4, 1960, he wrote A Song Out of Midnight: Souvenir of the Tubman-Tolbert Inauguration. He also wrote the poem Africa's Plea.

I am not you But you will notGive me a chance,Will not let me be me.

If I were youbut you knowI am not you,Yet you will notLet me be me.

You meddle, interfereIn my affairsAs if they were yoursAnd you were me.

You are unfair, unwise,Foolish to thinkThat I can be you,Talk, actAnd think like you

God made me me.He made you you.For Gods sakeLet me be me.

Comprehension Questions

1. What plea is made?

2. Who is making the plea?

3. To whom is the plea addressed?

4. If I were you is a line enclosed in quotation marks. Who could be the speaker?

5. Enumerate what colonizers do to the colonized people.

6. What happens to or becomes of the colonized people?

7. How does it feel to be colonized? Would you like to experience what our ancestors experienced? Why or why not?