Modern poetry from Africa / edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier.

Includes "Sources of the poems" and "Notes on the authors" at the end of the book.

Content warning: derogatory language in table of contents.

Madagascar : What invisible rat -- The hide of the black cow -- She whose eyes -- The black glassmaker -- Cactus / Jean-Joseph Rabéarivelo -- Song of a young girl -- Song of a common lover / Flavien Ranaivo --

Senegal : In memoriam -- Night of sine -- Luxembourg 1939 -- Totem -- Paris in the snow -- Blues -- The dead -- Prayer to masks -- Visit -- All day long -- In what tempestuous night -- New York -- You held the black face -- I will pronounce your name -- Be not amazed / Léopold Sédar Senghor -- Listen comrades -- Your presence -- The renegade -- Africa -- The vultures -- To a black dancer -- Nigger tramp / David Diop -- Diptych -- Omen -- Vanity -- Ball -- Viaticum / Birago Diop --

Mali : When Negro teeth speak / Ouologuem Yambo --

Gambia : Homecoming -- Song -- We have come home -- One long jump -- Parachute men -- She came in silken drapes / Lenrie Peters --

Ivory Coast : My head is immense / Charles Nokan -- My days overgrown -- Earth and sky / Joseph Miezan Bognini --

Ghana : A plea for mercy -- The search / Kwesi Brew -- The change / Ellis Ayitey Komey -- Songs of sorrow -- Song of war -- The sea eats the land at home -- Lovers' song -- The weaver bird -- Easter dawn/ G. Awoonor-Williams -- Funeral / Jawa Apronti --

Dahomey : Vespers -- Liberty / Ologoudou --

Nigeria : Olokun -- Night rain -- The imprisonment of Obatala -- Easter -- For Granny (from hospital) -- Ibadan -- Fulani cattle -- Cry of birth -- Abiku -- A child asleep -- The leader -- His excellency the masquerader / John Pepper Clark -- The snowflakes sail gently down -- Piano and drums -- Were I to choose -- The mystic drum -- Adhiambo -- Spirit of the wind -- One night at Victoria Beach / Gabriel Okara -- One wife for one man / Frank Aig-Imoukhuede -- Sophia -- Melting pot -- Easter Penitence / Michael Echeruo -- Love apart -- Overture -- Eyes watch the stars -- Water maid -- Transition -- Sacrifice -- Passion flower -- Lustra -- Bridge -- Suddenly becoming talkative -- For he was a shrub among the poplars -- Banks of reed -- An image insists -- From flesh into phantom -- Death lay in ambush -- Come thunder / Christopher Okigbo -- Telephone conversation -- Death in the dawn -- Massacre, October '66 -- Civilian and soldier -- Prisoner -- I think it rains -- Season -- Night -- Abiku / Wole Soyinka -- Ritual murder -- Hidesong / Aig Higo -- udude (at cock crow) / Pol N Ndu -- Planting -- Salute to Icheke / Okogbule Wonodi -- The conqueror's sword / Romanus Egudu --

Cameroons : Our life -- Pain -- Exile / Mbella Sonne Dipoko -- Song of the initiate / Patrice Kayo --

Congo (Brazzaville) : Brush-fire -- Dance to the amulets -- Still life -- A mat to weave -- Three poems from Epitomé -- The scorner / Tchicaya U Tam'si -- News of my mother -- Liberty / Jean-Baptiste Tati --

Congo (Kinshasa) : Portrait -- A fistful of news / Antione-Roger Bolamba -- Fantasy under the moon / Emmanuel Boundzeki-Dongala --

Cape Verde Islands : Tavern by the sea / Aguinaldo Fonseca --

São Tomé : Where are the men seized in this wind of madness? / Aldo do Espirito Santo --

Angola : Farewell at the moment of parting -- African poem -- Kinaxixi / Agostinho Neto -- Monangamba / Antonio Jacinto --

South Africa : To the proud -- The echoes -- Farewell -- As long as I live -- Elegy / Mazisi Kunene -- Lonely / Bloke Modisane -- At a funeral -- Nightsong city -- Gaily teetering -- This sun on this rubble / Dennis Brutus -- The air I hear / William Kgositsile -- Up late -- At rest from the grim place / K. A. Nortje --

Malawi : An African thunderstorm / David Rubadiri

Kenya : New York skyscrapers / John Mbiti -- Come away, my love / Joseph Kariuki -- Death of a chief / Khadambi Asalache --

Uganda : From the song of Lawino / Okot p'Bitek --

Moçambique : The seed is in me -- Three dimensions / José Craveirinha -- Appeal / Noemia de Sousa -- To the anxious mother woman / Valente Malangatana.

"This modern poetical geography of Africa is unique. It draws on sixteen countries to present the work of black poets writing in English, French, and Portuguese, although all the poems, many of which appear for the first time here, are presented in English. As a sample of contemporary African writing they reveal an interesting blend of public and personal statements. Poetry composed in African languages has been left out, because no two editors could possibly have covered the enormous field. This omission, however, does not impair the clear picture of emotional, social, and political pressures (fashionably termed 'Négritude') as they are reflected by Africa's imaginative or committed poets today." -- from the back cover.