Fulani Cattle by John Pepper Clark: Literary Appreciation

The speaker himself says in the second line that he is often at a distance as an observer while the 'clan', or 'group' or 'herd', is passing by him, 'undulating along in agony.' This observation leads him to deep meditation; He contemplates on 'agony,’ ‘mystery', 'secret hope or knowledge,' patience, and other characteristics of the cattle, which are going to 'the hungry towns by the sea' to the house of slaughter'.

The speaker's meditation is entirely concentrated on the cattle. This is the situation that we find in the poem. The development of the poem is in a series of questions.-

 // What…..   Slaughter?

// Can it ….  the Niger ?

//  But will……  your tail ?

However, before discussing about the development, it is necessary to determine what are the cattle referred by the poet. The cattle are 'mute,"fierce,' and 'wan'. They have 'gnarled' and 'crooked' horn. They can be goats, deer, sheep and such other animals that become food of carnivores (none-vegetarian). These animals ate cry gentle and also patient, but yet goats and sheep ate more possible than deer because sometimes they look very fierce. We can argue further arising a question - Isn't it possible that the poet refers to buffaloes (or cows and oxen for ‘western people)? There is much possibility of this fact because the poem says—

Perhaps the drover's whip no more

On your balding hind and crest

 and it is known fact that buffaloes, cows, oxen and such animals become food in large quantity for the people, especially For white hungry people of the towns by the sea. They do have 'gnarled, and crooked horn." Anyway, we can take the above examples as the reference of the cattle.

After understanding the intended meaning of the cattle, we can again go back to observe the development of the poem. First of all, we must consider the situation that the speaker believes that the condition of the cattle is pathetic, as he says

You  (the cattle) go 10 the house of slaughter

The cattle are killed for meat. They supply a large quantity of food to the people, though two kinds of people are found with contrastive view— one favoring that they must be killed for food and other protesting that, like other living things, the cattle also should be preserved. Their living rights should be honored. Unfortunately, it does not happen. They experience passions— pain, tortures, emotional griefs, merciless murder far stronger than storms which brim up the Niger. What a comparison. ! The life of cattle has been compared with the life of the Niger, or the Negroes. This sense of apartheid gives a hint that the speaker is possibly an American and he knows much about the Negroes' suffering. It is also possible that he is himself a Negro. Rather the Negroes are making severe Protest for their rights. They are struggling to rescue themselves from the inhumane cruelty of the mankind. The bitter experience of the cattle, and also partially the experiences of the cruelty of the mankind, is the basic theme of the poem. Being a man, he feels repentance.

Contrition twines me like a snake

 He finds on the cattle's face a mystery that, in spite of sufferings and tortures, he goes to the house of slaughter, without 'demurring and -kicking'. The speaker wonders at the patience of the cattle. He (the 'cattle) experiences, passions far stronger than storms which brim up the Niger. He receives the drover's whip on 'balding hind and crest" (having little or no hair on the scalp, back and side of the body). He makes the "drunken journey (tired journey) from the desert, through 'grass and forest, to the hungry towns by the sea. Ironically, it is also a part of his patience, and so a pail of the mystery. At the sight of a long knife, even his tail shows patience. In fact, this patience is simply the result of innocence of the cattle.

It is also interesting to note that the second person pronoun (you, your) has-been used in this poem to stand the cattle at the position of human beings. The poem contains the lines with variable number of syllables. Some of the lines have rhymes, for example: snake/wake, prevail/tail etc. that come regularly in pair, but most of the lines have rhymes alternately. 'Clan' of the third line rhymes with 'man’ of the seventh live. Some lines have a beautiful rhythmic pattern, as well; for example, in the beginning pair—Contrition twines me/like a snake

 Each time I come/upon the wake