Hikmet’s poetry often explores themes of oppression, injustice, and the fight for freedom – issues that are also deeply relevant to many African countries, which have histories marked by colonisation, apartheid, and struggles for independence. Picture: Nazım Hikmet/nazım.hikmet.org.z
Nyasaland Colony,
It's four in the morning.
Butts beat on the doors,
and here is the photo:
My black brothers, a pair of underpants and a shirt,
and their feet are bare,
and their pink-palmed hands on their curly heads,
And they lined up along the walls...
Nazım Hikmet (1902-1963), one of Türkiye’s most renowned poets, is celebrated for his profound and socially conscious works that resonate with themes of love, justice, and human struggle.
Though his poetry primarily reflects his own experiences and the socio-political landscape of Türkiye, there are elements within his work that can be connected to the broader human condition, including the struggles faced by people in Africa.
Hikmet’s poetry often explores themes of oppression, injustice, and the fight for freedom – issues that are also deeply relevant to many African countries, which have histories marked by colonisation, apartheid, and struggles for independence. His poems resonate with the experiences of Africans fighting against similar forms of oppression and striving for liberation and equality.
Nazım Hikmet had two trips to Africa: one to Egypt and the other to today’s Tanzania.
The poem he wrote for all the people of the world, dedicated to Asian-African writers, was published in all Egyptian newspapers:
My brothers,
Don’t look at me, I have blonde hair
I am Asian,
Don’t look at me, I have blue eyes
I am African,
Trees don’t give shade to themselves there just like you over there,
The bread is in the lion’s mouth there...
Nazım’s trip to Tanganyika is much more important than his trip to Egypt. Four months before his death, Nazım was in Dar es Salaam, the “city of peace”.
The meeting of the “peace emissary” who spent decades in prison and the “city of peace” that submitted to the occupation of colonial powers for centuries...
The first line of his letter is: I watched the Indian Ocean this morning, looking at the Indian Ocean, what he sees in the distance is Zanzibar, but he remembers the Marmara coast.
He describes his travels around Tanganyika: Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti Savannah, the Maasai, and Moshi. The sun rises like the sun here. Through the coconut trees… across the waters of the Indian Ocean. Their fears and anxieties merge with the dust and smoke of Tanganyika.
His letter is the finale of the rebellion:
I put my ear to the ground,
I listened to the African land, Rumblings are coming from Uganda, Mozambique,
In South Africa, pink-soled feet angrily rattle their chains...
Nazım’s poetry is marked by a deep empathy for the suffering of all oppressed peoples, making his work relevant to the African context of colonial and post-colonial struggles.
While specific references to Africa are rare, his broad anti-imperialist stance implies support for leaders and movements like those led by Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, and others who fought for African liberation.
However, Nazım’s noble pen always reminded me of Ismail Tatamkhulu Afrika’s characteristic in poetry.
* Halim Gençoğlu is a historian with PhD from UCT and is a post-doctoral fellow at Wits University.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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