AFRICAN POETRY
How do the ‘Patriots and the ‘elite’ contribute to poverty in “Ambassadors of Poverty”?
Explanation
The question isolates two groups for special comment. These are the so-called patriots and the so-called elites society. The poem states how these two groups contribute to the poverty of the masses.
In the poem these two groups are separated as a matter of convenience. However, as the first stanza demonstrates they are one and the same. The metaphor of the "head" and the "anus" demonstrates how lopsided their interests are. Instead of using their heads to serve their country, it is rather the "left overs" of their corrupt activities which their country men are made beneficiaries of.
Using damning language the poet describes these two groups as not worthy of the name "saviour". As merchants they "loot" to "boost" the economies of their colonial masters. As office holders they are; loafer', incompetent are avaricious with their kleptomaniac fingers "and" sucking filaments" which turn them into predatory insects.
They are not worthy of the name "patriot" who withhold from the people what is due to them until famished and hungry, they abandon conscience and power and are themselves corrupted by the affluent in the society. As th political elite, they flaunt their ill-gotten wealth in front of the people in the form of "air conditioned chambers" an exotic cars while their constituencies are deprived of any form of modern life- their roads are "death traps" they have mud for water "candle for light" and the children go to school under trees and lack food and nutrition. The poem successfully demonstrates how the so called patriots and elites of society have become parasites turning their countrymen into destitute in the name of governing them.