Once Upon A Time

By Gabriel Okara

The Poem is like this:

Once upon a time, son,

they used to laugh with their hearts,

and laugh with their eyes;

but now they only laugh with their teeth,

while their ice block cold eyes

search behind our shadows.

There was a time indeed

they used to shake hands with their hearts;

but that's gone, son.

Now they left shake hands without hearts

while their left hands search

my empty pockets.

‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:

they say, and when I come

again and feel

at home, once, twice,

there will be no thrice-

for then I find doors shut on me

So I have learned many things, son.

I have learned to wear many faces

like dresses – home face,

office face, street face, host face,cocktail face,

with all their conforming smiles

like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too

to laugh with only my teeth

and shake hands without my heart.

I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’,

when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:

to say ‘Glad to meet you’,

without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been

nice talking to you’, after being bored.

But believe me, son.

I want to be what I used to be

when I was like you. I want

to unlearn all these muting things.

Most of all, I want to relearn

how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror

shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

So show me, son,

how to laugh; show me how

I used to laugh and smile

once upon a time when I was like you.

Analysis:   Homeland Diaspora is one of the taxonomies of diasporic concept. The poem “Once Upon a Time” is written by Gabriel Okara, born in Nigeria during the British colony. His poems focus on   homeland   Diasporic conflicts as well as cultural conflict making the poem categorically a Post-Colonial piece. The Poem hence is an interpretation of post- colonial Ideologies. The poet is anxious about the influence of western culture over ancient traditional African culture. The poem has a similar theme where the protagonist like other Africans is effect by Post – Colonialism where he is hunted down by society and further by the societies ideals. What is cultural and traditional to the Africans appears barbaric, peculiar and humorous to the West, therefore the poet  focus on the Ice- cold attitude of the west  towards the so called “Barbaric population”.

     The poem reflects the societal and cultural problems Africa as a colony went through when they were torn between the two extreme conflicting cultures and heritage. The poem also analysis the trauma an individual suffers due to constant colonization and de-colonization and its effect on the self and one’s sense of personal identity. The Poet depicts through his poem how the characters face cultural shock as a result of irreconcilable cultures. The piece clearly focus how Christianity and material benefits like classroom education and well paid jobs offered to Europeans in contrast to the unspoken expectation indigenous to Africans which they had allegiance to in terms of tribal cultures. The poem gives us an over view of a conversation between a father and a son. It’s the poet’s manner to elucidate what happens when there is an intermingling of traditional African culture and the western ways of life style. The poem aims to ridicule the idea of mimicking and how the poet tries to compel to inculcate the idea of originality and simplicity. His one of the major focuses on this poem was also the theme of Negritude, atrocities toward the black and how they are mistreated by the western society as being racially degenerative. The poem discusses with his son about how ‘they’ use to laugh previously with their heart. According to the poet “they” refers to the people from west whose emotions are considered in the poem as genuine, but now these westerners laugh with their teeth which reciprocates the idea of ice- back cold eyes, fake emotions and an aura of negativity. After the poem searches the end of the second paragraph it provides the reader the sense of sinister and bitterness. The poet frantically yearns asks his son to help him find his mental normalcy because he is constantly surrounded but people who are not projecting what they are in actuality. The poem on its later stages is able to find some amount to solution to the problem where these colonized minds are started to accept the change and adapt to it.

     Throughout the Poem the poet being a part of Post colonial era is rigorously dealing with concepts related to colonization and decolonization and its effects of mind, attitudes and behaviors of his readers.

Tanisha Singh

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