So I lie, who always hear / Though I cram against my ear / Both my thumbs, and keep them there, / Great drums throbbing through the air.
-- Speaker (Stanza 2)

Importance: In this quote from the second stanza of the poem the speaker describes the call of his ancestral land, Africa. He describes the call of Africa as if a drumbeat, something that follows him in his waking and dreaming state. This recurrent vision is for him something that appears as if against his will. In this way, the speaker expresses that the history of Afro-Americans is irrepressible and essential to their present and future.

Africa? A book one thumbs / Listlessly, till slumber comes.
-- Speaker (Stanza 3)

Importance: These lines from the third stanza of the poem refer to the caricature of Africa purveyed to Euro-American and European societies. Histories and representations of Africa are often superficial and concocted for the amusement of distant audiences. They do not represent true...