East Berlin Poem Analysis

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he image of a multi-layered barrier, that hinders Afro-German progress, develops, in “East Berlin”, into one of an ambush set as a stumbling block besieging the barrier endangering all possibilities for black people to coexist: “ It feels dangerous now/to be Black in Berlin” (The Collected Poems 465). Lorde plays the role of a cultural model leading the struggle against racism and raising the cause of Afro-German women: Already my blood shrieks through East Berlin streets misplaced hatreds volcanic tallies rung upon cement Afro-German woman stomped to death by skinheads in Alexanderplatz two-year-old girls half-cooked in their campcots who pays the price for their disillusion? (The Collected Poems 465) …show more content…
(Ayim, Blues in Black and White 110-11)
The poem deals with “the Third Reich (Nazi terror regime, 1933-45)” (Gerlind). What had happened to antonio amadeu, resulted in establishing the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, (http://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/eng/ ), a foundation which calls for civic empowerment and a democratic culture. The image of the oppressed Ayim draws in “autumn in germany” echoes Lorde’s “Peace on Earth”. Ayim’s poem singled out the murder of Antonio Amadeu, while Lorde’s portrays a bloody image of mass murder: Before the flickering screen goes dead rows of erupting houses the rockets’ red glare, where are all these brown children running scrambling around the globe flames through the rubble bombs bursting in air Panama Nables Gaza tear gas clouding the Natal sun. (The Collected Poems 455)
The onomatopoeic image in scrambling brown children in red glare of rockets condemns racist policies embraced by white America which is sarcastically presented as Christmas gifts: “ THIS IS A GIFT FROM THE PEOPLE/OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” (The Collected Poems

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