“I Built My Hut near the Congo”: Langston Hughes’s Aesthetic Debt to Africa

Abstract

Langston Hughes is undoubtedly the most famous African America poet. However, while critical studies of Hughes and his poetry have generally focused on his contributions as a pivoted figure during the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties and the equally remarkable Black Arts movement of the sixties, surprisingly not much attention -- if any -- has been paid to his lyrics which celebrate Africa and its great cultural traditions. Despite the immense contribution of George E. Kent, Richard K. Barksdale, Akiba Sullivan Harper, R. Baxter Miller and others to Hughes scholarship generally, a great deal still needs to be done, especially with respect to the poet’s adaptation of aesthetic material from the African world view to illuminate his verse. True, images of Africa predominate in Hughes’s poetry, but neither these images nor the poet’s message which exploits them, have received serious critical considerations. This essay therefore aims to examine how Langston Hughes employs specific themes and images which recall or echo Africa, not only because they shed significant light on his cultural heritage, but more importantly, it is by discussing them that the full range of his poetic vision can be better measured and appreciated.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 8(1), 142-154, 2011