3.13 Envisioning Africa in Harlem Renaissance Poetry
✊🏿AP African American Studies Unit 3 Review
3.13 Envisioning Africa in Harlem Renaissance Poetry
✊🏿 AP African American Studies
3.1
The Reconstruction Amendments
3.2
Social Life: Reuniting Black Families and the Freedmen's Bureau
3.3
Black Codes, Land, and Labor
3.4
The Defeat of Reconstruction
3.5
Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws
3.6
White Supremacist Violence and the Red Summer
3.7
The Color Line and Double Consciousness in American Society
3.8
Lifting as We Climb: Uplift Ideologies and Black Women's Rights and Leadership
3.9
Black Organizations and Institutions
3.10
HBCUs, Black Greek Letter Organizations, and Black Education
3.11
The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
3.12
Photography and Social Change
3.13
Envisioning Africa in Harlem Renaissance Poetry
3.14
Symphony in Black: Black Performance in Music, Theater, and Film
3.15
Black History Education and African American Studies
3.16
The Great Migration
3.17
Afro-Caribbean Migration
3.18
The Universal Negro Improvement Association
Harlem Renaissance poets used poetry to work out what Africa meant to African Americans living with the legacies of colonialism and Atlantic slavery. Some poets created vivid images that countered ugly stereotypes about Africa, while others used personal reflection to explore the link between Africa and their own identity.
Poetry analysis as a primary source is a core skill in AP African American Studies, and this topic gives you practice reading closely, interpreting imagery and tone, and explaining how a poet expresses a specific idea, here a relationship to Africa.
Imagery and Reflection in Poems About Africa
- Harlem Renaissance writers explored both connection to and detachment from their African heritage in response to colonialism and Atlantic slavery.
- Some poets used imagery to push back against negative stereotypes about Africa's people and landscapes.
- Some poets used personal reflection to examine how Africa shaped African American identity and heritage.
- The required sources are "Heritage" by Gwendolyn Bennett (1922) and "Heritage" by Countee Cullen (1925).
- Gwendolyn Bennett and Countee Cullen were major writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
- This poetry fit within the larger New Negro movement's push for racial pride and self-definition.
Harlem Renaissance Poetry and Africa
The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing of Black literary, artistic, and intellectual life in the 1920s and 1930s. Within that movement, many writers, artists, and scholars asked a hard question: what is Africa to people whose ancestors were forcibly taken from it generations ago?
Their answers varied. Some embraced Africa as a source of pride and tried to reclaim an ancestral heritage. Others felt distance or disconnection because of centuries of forced separation and pressure to assimilate in the United States. Both responses came out of the same history, the legacies of European colonialism in Africa and the transatlantic slave trade.
Countering Stereotypes About Africa
Western colonial narratives often portrayed Africa as primitive or uncivilized and described African people as inferior or as exotic "others." Some Harlem Renaissance poets used imagery to counter these negative stereotypes about Africa's people and landscapes.
By presenting Africa in a dignified, beautiful light, these poets:
- Affirmed the worth of African cultures, histories, and peoples.
- Challenged the idea that Africa had made no meaningful contributions to world civilization.
- Offered a counter-narrative to the dehumanizing images used to justify colonialism and racism.
African Identity and Heritage Through Personal Reflection
Some poets explored the relationship between Africa and African American identity through personal reflection. Rather than describing Africa from the outside, they turned inward to questions of belonging, memory, and what their African roots meant to them.
This personal approach gave voice to a range of feelings, from pride and longing to confusion and tension. It also affirmed African heritage as a source of strength and pushed back on the idea that African Americans had to assimilate into white American culture to be valued.
Required Sources
"Heritage" by Gwendolyn Bennett, 1922
Bennett's "Heritage" expresses African American identity and cultural pride during the Harlem Renaissance. Through vivid imagery, the poem connects present experiences to African roots and celebrates that ancestral legacy.
The poem shows the literary contributions of Black women during this period of cultural awakening. It asserts the value of African heritage and uses imagery to present Africa with dignity and beauty.
Read the full poem to analyze how Bennett uses specific images of Africa to build pride and connection.
"Heritage" by Countee Cullen, 1925
Cullen's "Heritage" explores the complex relationship between African Americans and their African roots. It deals with cultural identity, racial consciousness, and the tension between ancestral heritage and pressure to assimilate.
Some things to track as you read:
- The poem opens by asking what Africa means to the speaker, which signals the distance between African Americans and an ancestral homeland.
- It uses vivid sensory imagery of nature and wildlife to describe a deep, instinctual pull toward Africa.
- It contrasts that pull with the speaker's present reality, removed from Africa by centuries.
- It explores an internal conflict between the speaker's African heritage and a Christian, American identity.
- It moves between connection and a sense of loss, never fully resolving the tension.
Full text: https://poets.org/poem/heritage-0
Analyzing and Comparing the Two Heritage Poems
Using Sources Effectively: When you read a poem like one of these, do not just summarize it. Identify the specific images the poet uses and explain what those images do. Ask whether the poet is countering a stereotype about Africa, reflecting personally on identity, or both.
Comparison: Because both required poems are titled "Heritage," practice comparing them directly. A strong comparison names how each poet approaches Africa. For example, you might explain how one poem leans into pride and celebration while the other sits with tension and unresolved questions. Use specific evidence from each poem to support the contrast.
Connecting to Context: Tie these poems back to the New Negro movement and its emphasis on racial pride and self-definition. Showing how cultural production connects to its historical moment strengthens an evidence-based argument.
Common Trap: Do not assume every Harlem Renaissance poet felt the same way about Africa. The point of this topic is that responses ranged from deep connection to real detachment. Flattening that range into one feeling will weaken your analysis.
Common Misconceptions
- Misconception: Both poems say the same thing because they share a title.Actually: They share the title "Heritage" and the theme of Africa, but they take different approaches. Treat them as a comparison, not a duplicate.
- Misconception: Harlem Renaissance poets all celebrated Africa joyfully.Actually: Some embraced Africa with pride, but others wrestled with distance, loss, and the tension of being both African and American. The range is the point.
- Misconception: These poems are just personal feelings with no larger purpose.Actually: Many of these poems also worked to counter racist stereotypes about Africa and to assert the dignity of African cultures and peoples.
- Misconception: Africa in these poems is a literal travel description.Actually: Poets used Africa as imagery and symbol to explore identity and heritage, not as a documentary account of the continent.
- Misconception: Claude McKay's "If We Must Die" is Bennett's "Heritage."Actually: The earlier version of this guide quoted Claude McKay's "If We Must Die" under Bennett's "Heritage." Those are different poems. For this topic, focus on the two required sources, both titled "Heritage."
Related AP African American Studies Guides
Practice Questions for 3.13
1 of 10
Countee Cullen's poem 'Heritage' (1925), published in The Crisis to an educated Black readership during Jim Crow segregation, repeatedly asks 'What is Africa to me?' This central question best reveals
A.
Cullen aimed to convince white audiences that African Americans had no legitimate African identity claims
B.
African Americans in the 1920s rejected African roots and sought complete assimilation into white society
C.
Africa was merely a historical curiosity with no relevance to contemporary African American life
D.
Cullen's internal conflict over ancestral connection despite historical separation from Africa
Vocabulary
The following words are mentioned explicitly in the AP® course framework for this topic.Term | Definition |
|---|---|
African American identity | The sense of self and belonging developed by African Americans, shaped by cultural heritage, historical experiences, and social positioning. |
African heritage | The cultural, historical, and ancestral connections to Africa and African traditions maintained by African Americans. |
Atlantic slavery | The transatlantic slave trade and system of slavery that forcibly transported millions of Africans to the Americas, creating lasting legacies for African American communities. |
colonialism | The practice of establishing political and economic control over distant territories and their peoples, often justified through claims of civilization and superiority. |
Harlem Renaissance | A cultural and intellectual movement in the 1920s-1930s centered in Harlem, New York, that showcased African American artists, musicians, and writers and provided opportunities for wider audiences. |
imagery | Descriptive language and vivid mental pictures used in poetry to convey meaning and emotion. |
stereotypes | Oversimplified, generalized beliefs or depictions about a group of people, often negative or dehumanizing. |
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