LEC052038/Ruth John S/ I Thank You God by Bernard Dadie: A Black pride anthem.

 I Thank You God by Bernard Dadie: A Black pride anthem.

Bernard Dadie was an Ivorian novelist, poet, playwright and administrator. He had worked at the Institut Francais d’Afrique Noir in Dakar, Senegal for the French Government. After returning to his homeland in 1947, he took part in the freedom struggle from the French colonial government. his writings, which were influenced by his experiences of colonialism, always attempted to connect the messages of the African folktales with the current world. In this poem, I Thank you God, Dadie talks about how he takes pride in his identity as a Black man and in his history. Using historical, biblical and mythical references, he weaves out a story that can be seen as a black pride anthem.

The poem begins with Dadie expressing his gratitude to God for creating him black. The line, “I thank you God for creating me black” is a refrain that is used multiple times throughout the poem which further reinstates his pride and gratitude. In the next line he says that he is the porter of all sorrows. This is a reference to Jesus Christ who was called a man of sorrows in Isaiah 53:3 (He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not). He considers himself as someone who can carry all the sorrows of the world on his head. This line is not said in lament or complain but is rather in the tone of pride in his abilities. He compares himself to a Centaur, a half human and half horse Greek mythological creature. He says he has carried the world since the first morning and first evening, a direct reference to Genesis 1, where God created light on the first day and hence day was born. The post says that white is only a colour for special occasions whereas black is for every day.

In the next stanza, the poet talks about the physical features of a black man that has for long been made fun of by the European colonizers. The shape of their head, nose, legs were created in such a way so that they would be able to snuff every wind and run in all the heats of the world. This refers to the fact that Africans were smuggled to the Americas and Europe by the colonizer to work as their slaves. He says that his features are to his advantage only. He also talks about the shape of his lips which has again been ridiculed by the Europeans based off of their Euro-centric beauty standards. He talks about how thirty-six swords have pierced his body and thirty-six fires have burned him. This is again a reference to Christ who was pierced with a spear while he was crucified on the cross. He says his blood has reddened the snow, directly referencing to how Africans were taken to Americas and Europe, places with snow where they were beaten and tortured as slaves.

In the end, the poet uses the refrain to stress on his gratitude on having been created black. He says he is able to laugh despite the darkness surrounding him and is able to see the light. In a satirical manner, Dadie takes the things that have for long been ridiculed by the European colonizers and uses them to show his pride in being a Black man. In times when racism was rampant, this poem served as an anthem for the people to never feel ashamed of their heritage. The poem was originally written in French, the language of the colonizers of Cote d’Ivoire. The use of the colonizer’s language by the colonized to speak about their atrocities is a way of redeeming themselves from the effects of the acts of colonialism.