I GIVE YOU THANKS MY GOD

I give you thanks my God for having created me black

For having made of me

The total of all sorrows,

and set upon my head

5 the World.

I wear the livery of the Centaur

And I carry the World since the first morning.

White is a colour improvised for an occasion

Black, the colour of all days

10 And I carry the World since the first night.

I am happy

with the shape of my head

fashioned to carry the World,

satisfied with the shape of my nose,

15 Which should breathe all the air of the World,

happy

with the form of my legs

prepared to run through all the stages of the World.

I give you thanks my God, for having created me black,

20 for having made of me

the total of all sorrows.

Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart.

Thirty-six brands have burned my body,

And my blood on all the cavalries has reddened the snow

25 And my blood from all the east has reddened nature.

And yet I am

Happy to carry the World,

Content with my short arms,

with my long legs,

30 with the thickness of my lips.

I give you thanks my God, for having created me black,

White is a colour for an occasion,

Black the colour of all days

And I carry the World since the morning of time.

35 And my laughter in the night brought forth day over

the World.

I give you thanks my God for having created me black.

                                                                                          Bernard Dadie

Bernard Dadie was born an Ivorian in 1916. He had his education both in his native country as well as in Senegal owing to which he had a very intense experience of his Africanness from two different perspectives. This poem is translated from his publication La Ronde des Jours (1956). He has written several plays and chronicled many dramatic pieces on African tradition and legend including the more Francophone-popular Monsieur Thogô-Gnini which satirizes the social anomalies of post-colonial society.

The poem “I Give You Thanks My God” plays with historic and biblical allusions as it brings its story through. There is a tone of satire almost throughout the entire poem. The poet instead of being ashamed of his “blackness” as propagated by the white man, proudly proclaims his colour and thanks God for creating him so. Language plays a very important role throughout this poem and depicts how the colonized have appropriated the language of the colonizer and yet managed to force this structure to adopt their ideas and views. The poet then goes ahead and says that he has been carrying the weight of the world and all its burdens right from the first day which refers to the day of creation, a biblical allusion. He satirically refers to Jesus Christ here by saying, just as Christ bore the brunt of all the sins of mankind in the white man’s religion, here the black man is made to bear all the troubles and problems that come along with being black. He refers to the colour white as a colour for a specific occasion, a celebration and black as a colour for every other normal day.

Throughout the poem, it is visible that the poet is celebrating his racial identity and wears it proudly. This poem can also be seen as an example of Negritude, a movement that celebrated blackness or the dark skin colour and encouraged Africans or Negroes world over to be proud of their colour rather than treat it as inferior or something lesser to being white or fair. From lines 11 through 18, we can see that the poet thanks God for his features such as the shape of his head and nose as well as the form of his legs. Further, in lines 27 through 30 he thanks God again for his features like his thick lips and the like. By doing so, the poet challenges many of the stereotypes and binaries put in place by the colonizers with everything European viewed as beautiful and desirable while placing everything African on the opposite side of this binary depicting them as not being desirable, and even viewed as ugly. The other binaries that the poet tries to break apart include one where the white man is seen as superior in every sense of the term and the black man the exact opposite, seen as inferior and backward. He attempts to do so by constantly drawing biblical allusions and comparing the burdens that Christ bore to the burdens and troubles that the black people face by virtue of being black. A third binary the poet attempts to invert is the binary of the colours white and black, the colours symbolizing white as being pure and clean whereas black was seen as impure and polluted. He does this by constantly thanking God in his poem for his colour and celebrating the fact that he is black in opposition to seeing it as a detrimental aspect of his self.

Further through lines 20 to 25, he speaks about being pierced and branded thirty-six times which is another biblical allusion to Christ being crucified. He is trying to depict the fact that his race of people did not belong to only one set of masters throughout their history but rather have been tortured and exploited by many different people across various times in history. But even this, instead of being portrayed in a negative manner, is used to create a sense of identity for themselves, to feel proud about their lives and history and all that they have endured yet survived. He encourages his people to embrace their past and integrate that with their present to bring about a new future wherein they are not subjugated by the so called superior white man. Virtually everything that has been negatively regarded by the white man is used to help create an identity for themselves in this poem. In line 24, he talks about how his blood has reddened snow due to the wars and killings of his people. This line if looked at closely has been constructed very cleverly. By saying his blood has reddened snow; he indirectly refers to foreign lands where snowfall is common which cannot be Africa, thus referring to the Europeans and Americans exploiting them during the dark ages of the colonial period and the era of slavery. He almost places the blame very covertly on the white man and his wrong doings to the African people.

In the concluding stanza of the poem, the poet yet again refers to the colour white as being a colour of occasion and black being an everyday colour. He then refers to his laughter bringing about day over the world. This refers to the fact that, despite facing so many hurdles and problems, being in darkness, under the burden of exploitation and oppression, the black man is still able to laugh in these tough circumstances and hence this becomes symbolic of hope that someday their situation will improve and they will be their own people, with their own identities, not something they are forced to accept and imbibe.