“From Song of Ocol”
Nature augments the esteemed disposition of liberation. The speaker asks, “Did someone tell you/That on the morning of uhuru/The dew on the grass/Along the village pathways/would turn into gold.” Freedom was a splendid realization that would not be disregarded by the dew. The course of unearthing gold is protracted and tough. Nevertheless, the acquisition of gold is material. Comparative.y, the country people are not engrossed in the hurdles they faced in the course of pursuing their freedom. The end result of dominance is golden so it cannot be surpassed by bygone, woeful reminiscences.
“The Horn of My Love”
The citation of dowry in “The Horn of My Love” hints at the commodification of love and women. The precondition of dowry is constraining for poor men. Accordingly, underprivileged men fail to join their lovers in matrimony due to the incapability to meet the bar of dowry that has been set by a woman’s family. The intersection between love and deficiency is so universal that it cannot be disregarded. Being deprived contracts the likelihood of love.
“My Husband’s Tongue is Bitter”
The Traditional versus Modern binary differentiates the speaker from Ocol. The speaker declares, “Ocol says he is a modern man,/A progressive and civilized man./He says he has read extensively and widely/And he can no longer live with a thing like me/Who cannot distinguish between good and bad,/He says I am just a village woman.” According to Ocol, his stance signifies modernism whereas his wife’s inclinations exemplify conventionalism. Ocol holds that modernism and orthodox are conflicting; thus, it would not be proper for him to keep living with a woman who is exaggeratedly dissimilar from him. Clearly, Ocol has assimilated into modernism to the extent that he disfavors his roots. The speaker advocates traditional customs that is why she cautions Ocol from deriding their customs with the allegory of uprooting a pumpkin.
