"The piece belongs with the best of Senghor's nostalgic verse," wrote Michael J. C. Echeruo in a tribute to Okara on the occasion of his 70th birthday, "with the militancy of many of David Diop's lyrics, and certainly with J. P. Clark's 'Ivbie', another of my favorite African poems.
[1] Gabriel Okara's poem consists of 10 stanzas and describes the interplay of different interpretations of the same sounds, sights, and dances.
The interaction that takes place within the poem is commonly thought to be between a white colonialist and an African native.
[3] However, Okara's poem can be seen to transcend the acceptance of the derision of the White Man and present a wiser African intellectual.
And I answered: "Because my fathers and I are owned by the living warmth of the earth through our naked feet."