Africa

The continent of Africa is the only place explicitly referred to the in the poem. Moreover, it is the main subject of the poem, with the repeated refrain, “What is Africa to me?” Countee Cullen is concerned with locating Africa within the spiritual and social consciousness of Afro-Americans. Africa is a place that defines Afro-American social identity and history. Regaining emotive and political access to Africa, from which enslaved African transported to the Americas were intentionally severed from, is the work of Afro-American writers and poets, so the poem would suggest. The challenge of this subjective socio-political awakening is the main subtext of the poem, which describes this process from a number of angles.

America

Though not explicitly referred to in the poem, the Americas, as the position from which the descendants of enslaved Africans are implicitly referred to in contrast to the place of distant longing, Africa...