Anatomy of Agony

Rabindranath Tagore's' Africa' is perhaps the first utterance in the Bengali language against apartheid. The poem singularly captures the spirit of the geo-socio-political history of Africa and speaks of a committed support to the continent's struggle to break the chains of imperialism. In a way Rabindranath's 'Africa' is also the first poem in Bengali protest literature. The poem breathes the spirit of humanism which in its articulation transcends the local and reaches the universal. In 'Africa' Rabindranath calls the future poets, 'poets of the new age' to join in the struggle to emancipate the subjugated. Since then the call has been stirring the conscience of the modern Bengali poets, and inspiring them to write with a look into society, its fragility, and also into the world where injustice is an unleashed pandemic. Epitomizing the agony as well as the spirit of protest in Bengali poetry, 'Africa', I think, is the proper introduction to the present anthology. Furthermore, though asymmetrical, it can be said that 'love and revolt constitute the core theme of this anthology.