Negro Labourer in Liverpool by David Rubadiri

 Note on Author:

James David Rubadiri (19 July 1930 – 15 September 2018) was a  Malawian diplomat, academic and poet, playwright and novelist. Rubadiri is ranked as one of Africa's most widely anthologized and celebrated poets to emerge after independence. Rubadiri's poetry has been praised as being among "the richest of contemporary Africa". His work was published in the 1963 anthology Modern Poetry of Africa (East African Publishers, 1996), and appeared in international publications including Transition, Black Orpheus and Presence Africaine. His only novel,  No Bride Price was published in 1967. It criticized the Banda regime.

 Critical Analysis: 

David Rubadiri's "A Negro Labourer at Liverpool" exemplifies the pathetic situation of the average Negro. The poet asserts how his individuality is suppressed in a white-dominated society. He has turned out to be another "dark shadow amidst dark shadows". The words are very meaningful here.

 David Rubadiri’s “A Negro Labourer in Liverpool” strives to highlight the plight of a negro labourer in Liverpool. The indefinite article ‘a’ points to the lack of a specific identity. They are just one among a group, one of the communities, who does not necessarily possess any individual identity. They are labeled based on the work they do and the city or town from where they come. 

 David Rubadiri hints at the indifference of society as a whole to the plight of the labourer as he states that he ‘passes’ him. He slouches on dark backstreet pavements. His ‘marginalization’ is evident in his position ‘slouching’. Further, it is also emphasized in his being side-stepped on the pavements. Again the pavement is qualified by the phrase ‘dark backstreet’. The head is ‘bowed’ when it would have preferred to be straight. He is overcome with fatigue and totally exhausted. He is a dark shadow amongst other shadows. He has no unique identity, his life is not colourful.

 The poet asserts that he has lifted his face to the speaker, as in acknowledgement. Their eyes met but on his dark Negro face. The poet probably refers to the reflection of the speaker’s eyes in the eyes of the labourer. The eyes are foregrounded on his dark face. There is no sunny smile as he wears a forlorn expression. The sun is an important and recurrent motif in African poetry. A wise man once said that a man is poor if he does not have a penny; he is poor if he does not possess a dream. The labourer here neither has hope nor longing. Only the mechanical ‘cowed dart of eyes’ that is more mechanized than the impassive activity of the people. People in their ‘impassive’ fast-forward life fail to notice the labourer. He painfully searches for a face to comprehend his predicament, acknowledge his suffering. Above all, the eyes of the labourer  express his utter solitude and utter desperation.

 The poet shifts from the indefinite article ‘a’ to the definite article ‘the’ in addressing the Negro labourer in the second stanza. It is to assert and affirm the existence of the Negro labourer in society like others especially white-men who live in society enjoying all privileges of life. David Rubadiri goes on to describe him in terms of his motherland; and in terms of his emotions: ‘a heart heavy’. He bears a century’s oppression that had sought after an identity. He strives to attain the fire of manhood. But ironically, even in the Land of the free (England), he is unable to attain the same. Nevertheless, the free here are also dead in a state of decay and stagnation.  Thus, in this poem Rubadiri portrays the non-human condition of Africans in England where White people discriminate the Black for their racial differences.