Colonialism is another noticeable theme in Agostinho Neto’s “The Grieved Lands of Africa”. It is the next evil thing that happened to the African continent after slavery. Europeans extended their tentacles to the whole of Africa to claim new colonies and lands for their respective countries. They said they brought ‘civilization’ and ‘christainity’ but what they actually did was to exploit Africa of all she had. They subtly took over Africa and partitioned it arbitrarily among themselves. They forced chiefs and kings to sign treaties conceding their lands and sovereignty to some foreign entities and where opposition arose, they “crushed” it with brutal “wickedness of iron and fire”.

A renowned African socialist writer, Ngûgî wa Thiong’o, sums up the slave trade and colonialism stages of the African history as “dismembering Africa”. Agostinho Neto describes colonialism in his poem as “modern slave(ry)”.

Tropes which establish the message of colonialism in the poem include “modern slave”, “Flower/Crushed in the forest/By the wickedness of iron and fire”, and “jailer’s keys”.