The expression "ruffling the tawny pelt of Africa" refers to the Mau Mau Uprising that occurred in present-day Kenya from October 20, 1952, to January 1960. During this time, the white colonial government declared a state of emergency to tackle a secretive Kikuyu group called Mau Mau, which sought to topple the colonial authority. Amid the long-standing oppression under British rule, the Mau Mau rebellion introduced a brief but intense period of violence. While some reports indicate that the Mau Mau were subdued by 1953 and others by 1956, the state of emergency persisted until early 1960. Walcott is particularly troubled by the Mau Mau's violent actions, as they appeared to portray Africans in a worse light than their British oppressors. Numerous accounts detailed the Mau Mau's brutality towards whites, their livestock, and Kikuyus who refused to support their cause. The violence was especially gruesome, with many Mau Mau using a panga, a machete-like weapon, to mutilate their victims. One such horrific incident that Walcott might allude to in "A Far Cry from Africa" includes the murder of a young white child, just four and a half years old. Furthermore, on March 26, 1953, during the Lari Massacre, Mau Mau fighters killed ninety-seven Kikuyu men, women, and children, accusing them of collaborating with the British. The terror extended beyond the violence of the uprising to include the unsettling Mau Mau oathing ceremonies. These rituals involved initiates pledging allegiance to the cause in disturbing manners. A Kikuyu schoolmaster recounted a ceremony where seven members were initiated: "We were... bound together by goats' small intestines on our shoulders and feet... Then Githinji pricked our right-hand middle finger with a needle until it bled. He then brought the chest of a billy goat and its heart still attached to the lungs and smeared them with our blood. He then took a Kikuyu gourd containing blood and with it made a cross on our foreheads and on all important joints saying, 'May this blood mark the faithful and brave members of the Gikuyu and Mumbi [analogues of Adam and Eve] Unity; may this same blood warn you that if you betray secrets or violate the oath, our members will come and cut you into pieces at the joints marked by this blood.'" Before the Mau Mau uprising, Walcott seemed less conflicted between Africa and Britain; he likely viewed British colonialism as arrogant, ignorant, and cruel, with Africa as the victim. However, the Mau Mau's resort to violence left Walcott torn, making it challenging for him to wholeheartedly support Africans against the British.

This poem is filled with conflicts. The first sign of discord emerges in the opening lines, where a looming storm is suggested as Kikuyu flies swarm the land and maggots consume the deceased Mau Mau. This sets up the initial cultural clash: supporters of the Mau Mau versus anti-Mau Mau Kikuyu. Within this broader conflict, there's a smaller one among Kikuyu who feel that individual rights ("these separate dead") do not necessarily undermine the rights of the community, and those who argue that individual rights do infringe on group rights, aligning with the Mau Mau ideology. In lines six to ten, another clash is revealed between those unaffected by the uprising and those who died because of it. Outsiders ("scholars") have the privilege of judging the conflict, while insiders (victims) find no explanation satisfactory. Furthermore, the third stanza introduces outsiders who deem the conflict unworthy of their sympathy or involvement, a perspective that the victims would vehemently oppose.

These external conflicts also rage within the poet. Walcott is pro-African and pro-Kikuyu but opposes the Mau Mau. He values English...