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Publication Instance Details #1166

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	Yes	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies Indigenous Rights (incl. culture & language)
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	(I laugh with my teeth but my heart is bleeding - proverb)
Notes	The speaker of the poem describes rampant commercialization of indigenous cultures, as evidenced from the souvenirs that tourists bring back from Kenya. The poem highlights the modern-day neo-colonial process of tourism and commerce, which strips the souvenirs of their context and people, leaving them only as items to be bought, sold, and displayed. The speaker of the poem highlights the true nature of these items - the drums, spears, and instruments - which have been removed from their native context to be mere objects of ornamentation by tourists and travellers. Last line of the poem, cut off by sticker, reads: 'making these spears at the forge in the magic fire?'