"Heritage" is the title of two required AP African American Studies sources, a 1922 poem by Gwendolyn Bennett and a 1925 poem by Countee Cullen, in which Harlem Renaissance poets use personal reflection and imagery to explore the connection between Africa and African American identity (Topic 3.13).
On the AP exam, "Heritage" actually refers to two different required poems with the same title. Countee Cullen's 1925 "Heritage" is the famous one. It keeps circling the question "What is Africa to me?" and never fully answers it. The speaker feels pulled toward Africa as an ancestral homeland but also feels distant from it, since slavery and colonialism cut the direct connection generations ago. That tension, feeling connected to and detached from African heritage at the same time, is exactly what EK 3.13.A.1 wants you to be able to explain.
Gwendolyn Bennett's 1922 "Heritage" works differently. Her speaker expresses longing, a wish to see and hear Africa, using lush, beautiful imagery of its people and landscapes. That choice pushes back against the negative stereotypes about Africa that dominated white American culture at the time (EK 3.13.A.2). Together, the two poems show you the range of Harlem Renaissance responses to Africa, from Bennett's yearning celebration to Cullen's unresolved internal conflict, both built through personal reflection (EK 3.13.A.3).
Both poems are required sources for Topic 3.13, Envisioning Africa in Harlem Renaissance Poetry, in Unit 3: The Practice of Freedom. The learning objective, 3.13.A, asks you to explain how Harlem Renaissance poets express their relationships to Africa. "Heritage" (in both versions) is your clearest evidence for that skill. The poems also carry a bigger Unit 3 idea. The Harlem Renaissance wasn't just art for art's sake; it was Black writers defining their own identity and history during Jim Crow, on their own terms. When Cullen asks "What is Africa to me?" he's doing identity work that connects all the way back to the Atlantic slave trade and forward to later Pan-African and Black Arts movements.
Keep studying AP® African American Studies Unit 3
Gwendolyn Bennett's "Heritage," 1922 (Unit 3)
The other required "Heritage." Bennett's poem expresses longing for Africa through gorgeous imagery, while Cullen's wrestles with distance and doubt. Comparing them is the fastest way to show you understand the full range of EK 3.13.A.1.
Legacies of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism (Units 1-2)
Cullen's uncertainty about Africa isn't random. The Middle Passage and centuries of enslavement severed direct family and cultural ties to specific African societies. The poem is what that historical rupture sounds like in verse, which is why the CED frames these poems as responses to slavery and colonialism.
Harlem Renaissance Culture as Resilience under Jim Crow (Unit 3)
The 2025 DBQ asked how African American cultural contributions promoted resilience during segregation. Poems like "Heritage" fit that argument perfectly, because reclaiming Africa as a source of pride was itself an act of resistance against a culture that degraded Blackness.
Claude McKay's "Africa" and Other Renaissance Poems (Unit 3)
McKay and Jean Toomer also wrote about Africa, and exam questions love asking how their approaches differed. Knowing where Cullen and Bennett sit on the spectrum (personal conflict vs. celebratory longing vs. McKay's historical grandeur) lets you handle any of these comparison stems.
Because both "Heritage" poems are required sources, you can see them as stimulus material in multiple-choice sets or short-answer questions. Practice questions typically ask how Cullen's poem reflects the "complex relationship" between African Americans and Africa, so the move you need is naming both sides of that complexity, connection AND detachment, not just one. The 2025 exam's DBQ asked how cultural contributions promoted resilience during Jim Crow, and Harlem Renaissance poetry about Africa is strong evidence for that kind of argument. If you get a comparison stem, be ready to contrast Cullen's ambivalence with Bennett's celebratory imagery or McKay's approach in "Africa."
Same title, different poems, different moods. Bennett's 1922 "Heritage" expresses a clear longing for Africa, painting it with beautiful, dignified imagery that counters racist stereotypes. Cullen's 1925 "Heritage" is conflicted. His speaker asks "What is Africa to me?" and admits the connection feels distant after generations of slavery, even as it still pulls at him. On the exam, check the author and date in the stimulus before you describe the poem's attitude toward Africa, because mixing them up flips your answer.
Two required AP sources share the title "Heritage": Gwendolyn Bennett's 1922 poem and Countee Cullen's 1925 poem, both about the relationship between Africa and African American identity.
Cullen's "Heritage" expresses ambivalence, asking "What is Africa to me?" to capture feeling both connected to and detached from African ancestry after slavery and colonialism (EK 3.13.A.1).
Bennett's "Heritage" uses lush, positive imagery of Africa to counter the negative stereotypes common in 1920s American culture (EK 3.13.A.2).
Both poems work through personal reflection rather than political argument, which is the specific technique EK 3.13.A.3 highlights.
These poems are strong DBQ evidence for arguments about Harlem Renaissance culture as resilience and self-definition during Jim Crow.
"Heritage" is the title of two required poems in Topic 3.13, one by Gwendolyn Bennett (1922) and one by Countee Cullen (1925). Both explore how African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance related to Africa as an ancestral homeland.
No. The poem holds both feelings at once. Cullen's speaker feels distant from Africa because slavery severed direct ties, but Africa still pulls at him emotionally and spiritually. The unresolved tension is the whole point, and exam answers that pick only one side miss it.
Bennett's 1922 poem expresses straightforward longing for Africa through beautiful, stereotype-countering imagery. Cullen's 1925 poem is conflicted and questioning, repeatedly asking "What is Africa to me?" Check the author and date on any stimulus before answering.
Per EK 3.13.A.1, they were responding to the legacies of colonialism and Atlantic slavery, which had cut African Americans off from specific African roots. Writing about Africa let them reclaim heritage on their own terms and push back against racist portrayals of the continent.
As stimulus material in multiple-choice or short-answer questions tied to LO 3.13.A, or as evidence in a DBQ. The 2025 DBQ asked how African American cultural contributions promoted resilience during Jim Crow, and Harlem Renaissance poetry like "Heritage" fits that argument directly.
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