Bernard Binlin Dadié. Côte d'Ivoire (1916- ).

Dadié was born near Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire in 1916. He was educated in Dakar and eventually became the director of the Institut Français d'Afrique Noir (IFAN, is also known by its later name, Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noir) there. He then returned to Côte d'Ivoire to take a political post. Though Dadié focused much of his attentions on his political career, he was the prolific author of six volumes of poetry. His passion for the French language led him, along with his contemporary Leopold Senghor, to make a great contribution to the adaptation of the French language to African voice. A self-reflective poet, his work drives at African cultural repression and an exploration of the human condition, while remaining free of the political discourse common in Senghor's work.

The Lines of our Hands, Lines 27-35

The lines of our hands
Are the lines of Life,
     of Fate,
     of Heart,
     of Love.

Gentle bonds
To bind us
To one another
The living and the dead.

Leaf in the Wind, Lines 6-15

I am the man they complain of
Because opposed to formality
The man they laugh at
Because opposed to barriers.

Leaf in the wind, I go at the drift of my dreams.

I am the man they talk about:
     'Oh him!'
Him you cannot hold
The breeze touches you and is gone

Leaf in the wind, I go at the drift of my dreams.

Epilogue: Dry Your Tears, Africa!

Steven Spielberg's film Amistad (and in particular composer/conductor John Williams' soundtrack for it) has prompted quite a bit of additional interest in this page. The web still does not have much information devoted to African poets, particularly not for those who write in languages other than English, and certainly didn't have much information at all on African literature of any kind in 1997 when an employee of DreamWorks contacted me trying to determine copyright ownership for Bernard Dadié's poem, Dry Your Tears, Africa! I like to think that I was successful in directing her to the right people in Paris, though I didn't ever hear back from her.

Since then, I have received many inquiries about Dry Your Tears, Africa!, most often from individuals requesting English lyrics for the musical piece that frames the film. The soundtrack features mezzo soprano Pamela Dillard and a children's choir (the Harlem Boys Choir?) singing in Mende (a West African language spoken primarily in Liberia and Sierra Leone).

In an effort to direct readers of this page to the proper sources for finding the original poem, as well as its translations into English and Mende, I am providing the following short bibliography. It follows the publishing history of this piece to the best of my ability. I'd be happy to learn more from anyone more familiar with this poem or the musical piece based on it!

Bibliography: Dry Your Tears, Africa!

Bernard B. Dadié. "Seches tes pleurs!" pp. 35-36 In La ronde des jours. Paris: Seghers, 1956.

An extremely rare title, at least in US libraries, it is held only in reproduced (photocopy or microfilm) format in a few academic libraries (thanks to Greg Finnegan at Harvard University for sending me the details on a copy at the Widener Library), but it was reprinted in its entirety within the following publication published ten years later.

Bernard B. Dadié. "Seches tes pleurs!" pp. 244-245 In Légendes et poèmes: afrique debout, légendes africaines, climbié, la ronde des jours. Paris: Seghers, 1966.

When the original poem is cited, for some reason the copyright date is almost always given as 1967. It ought to be 1956.

"Dry your tears, Africa!" (English translation) pp. 143-144 In: Lomax, Alan and Raoul Abdul (eds.). 1970. 3000 years of black poetry; an anthology. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co.

It is my understanding that this is the translation that John Williams found so inspiring. It should be easily available at any large academic library, or through your local Interlibrary Loan office.

Williams, John. Amistad. Piano and vocal selections. Musical score from the original motion picture soundtrack, arr. John Nicholas. Port Chester, NY: Cherry Lane Music, distributed by Hal Leonard, 1998.
ISBN: 1575601125. 48 pp. First selection “Dry your tears, Afrika!” includes words in Mende.

Many versions and arrangements are available, but this version is available through amazon.com or any local dealers and includes the Mende words (in a phonetic form) that Williams had translated for the film soundtrack. I do not know how the spelling "Afrika" became introduced, although this does seem to be the usage adopted with the film and soundtrack.

I cannot post or otherwise provide entire poems without the copyright owners' permission.

--Dan Reboussin, October 16, 2000

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© Copyright 1995-2005. Dan Reboussin, Africana Collection, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida . Last modified: December 18, 2003 . All hyperlinks verified as of May 28, 2004.