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Summary Vultures by Chinua Achebe
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1Vultures by Chinua Achebe TITLE
BACKGROUND The title ‘Vultures’ is a literal
reference to the scavenging bird
Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. His father worked for the Church Missionary species described in the first section
Society in Nigeria. He grew up in Nigeria and after completing his university of the poem, but it is also a
metaphorical reference to people
studies, he joined the BBC and later worked in Lagos for the Nigerian who commit evil deeds.
Broadcasting Service. He is one of the most famous African writers and his works
focus on Africa’s transition from traditional to modern ways. His novel Things Fall
Apart, published in the 1950s, is widely regarded as the best African novel of all time. He believed that any good work of
art should have a purpose in society. His political background influenced his writings.
Achebe wrote the poem ‘Vultures’ drawing information from his experiences and participation in the Biafran struggle,
both on the ground in Nigeria and as an ambassador for that cause in overseas and speaking at the United Nations. The
Biafran Civil War was a trying time for the Nigerians, as it tore at the core of the country; separating families and causing
massive deaths. This caused Achebe to wonder how human beings could be so cruel to each other. His wife narrowly
escaped being killed in a bomb blast during this time, an event which he never forgot. The war
As you read the poem it is important to ended when the Biafran people were starved by the
know that Achebe focuses on enemy into surrendering.
describing the Commandant at Belsen Camp
because the experiences
at that concentration camp in Germany
were exactly the same as those
during the Biafran Civil war in Nigeria.
, 2
Glossary Scavenging birds that feed on the carcass of dead animals
‘Vultures’
hopeless, defeated, dejected
A description of the two
1. In the greyness
2. and drizzle of one despondent
vultures at dawn
3. dawn unstirred by harbingers sign, announcer
4. of sunbreak a vulture
5. perching high on broken
Sitting in a high position (birds are known to perch)
6. bone of a dead tree
7. nestled close to his
8. mate his smooth Snuggled up in an affectionate way
9. bashed-in head, a pebble
10. on a stem rooted in
11. a dump of gross
In a loving way
What the vultures did
12. feathers, inclined affectionately
the previous day
13. to hers. Yesterday they picked
14. the eyes of a swollen
Ate greedily; ate too much
15. corpse in a water-logged
16. trench and ate the
17. things in its bowel. Full
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal
18. gorged they chose their roost remains are stored.
19. keeping the hollowed remnant
20. in easy range of cold
Settling down for the
night with an eye on
21. telescopic eyes ...
22. Strange
their prey
23. indeed, how love in other
24. ways so particular
25. will pick a corner
26. in that charnel-house
, Lines 22 – 29 The strange about 3
love and evil residing in the
27. tidy it and coil up there, perhaps
same place
28. even fall asleep – her face Belsen a concentration camp during World War II, where at
29. turned to the wall! least 50 000 were killed, among them Anne Frank.
30. ... Thus the Commandant at Belsen
31. Camp going home for
32. the day with fumes of
defiantly, stubbornly
33. human roast clinging
34. rebelliously to his hairy
35. nostrils will stop
children, descendants
Commandant’s horrible job and
36. at the wayside sweet-shop
37. and pick up a chocolate
Lines 30 - 40 The
38. for his tender offspring
his fatherly love
39. waiting at home for Daddy's generous
40. return ...
41. Praise bounteous
fate, chance
42. providence if you will
43. that grants even an ogre
44. a tiny glow-worm monster, fiend
45. tenderness encapsulated
46. in icy caverns of a cruel enclosed, safely inside
47. heart or else despair
readers: consider kindness residing with
such evil. Is there hope in humanity?
Lines 41 - 51(Directly addressing the
48. for in the very germ
49. of that kindred love is associated
50. lodged the perpetuity
51. of evil. eternity
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