The author uses emotionally charges phrases and words like, "consuming," or "your voice etched us out of the night." Things that this carry us to the conclusion that this poem is about the deep and harrowing pain that the African people had to go through, and the author reflects heavily on that suffering in the beginning. Later, she writes of a force that sweeps through and brings new life and love to the people, talking about, "If only love could purchase bread, Africans would not be hungry." There is a deep emotional thing that connects us to the author and the people in her poem. It shows us suffering and how one can be happy with nothing even just for a day, as I interpreted in the end.