2021-2025 WASSCE Literature African Poems (PDF)
This is a one-stop page where you can access and study all your WAEC WASSCE Literature African poems for 2021 to 2025. Have you been searching for a PDF copy of the prescribed African poems for WASSCE 2021 to 2025? Today you’re in the right place.
You don’t need to waste any more time. Find below all the WAEC-prescribed poems for the period 2021-2025.
2026-2030 WAEC African Literature Poems: Download PDF
WAEC Literature Books for 2026-2030
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1. The Grieved Lands of Africa – Agostino Neto
The grieved lands of Africa In the tearful woes of ancient and modern slave In the degrading sweat of impure dance Of other seas Grieved The grieved lands of Africa In the infamous sensation of the stunning of the Flower Crushed in the forest By the wickedness of iron and fire The grieved lands The grieved lands of Africa In the dream soon undone in jinglings of gaolers’ keys And in the stifled laughter and victorious voice of laments And in the unconscious brilliance of hidden sensations Of the grieved lands of Africa Alive In themselves and with us alive They bubble up in dreams Decked with dances by baobabs over balances By the antelope In the perpetual alliance of everything that lives They shout out the sound of life Shout it Even the corpses thrown up by the Atlantic In putrid offering of incoherence And death and in the clearness Of rivers They live The grieved lands of Africa In the harmonious sound of conscience Contained in the honest blood of men In the strong desire of men In the sincerity In the pure and simple rightness of the stars Existence They live The grieved lands of Africa Because we are living And are imperishable particles Of the grieved lands of Africa.
WAEC Literature African Poems 2026-2030 PDF
Download as PDF all six WAEC-prescribed Literature poems for the African Poetry section of the 2026-2030 WASSCE. This PDF document is good for regular high school students, Literature-in-English tutors and WAEC private candidates.
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2. A Government Driver on His Retirement – Onu Kingsley Chibuike
Many years on wheels In faithful service to his fatherland Today retires him home And a celebration he hold Many hears has he pummeled his boozy throat In obedience to duty rules and regulations Today he’ll go home a Freeman Eligible for his country’s services “Come friends, rejoice with me I shall booze and zoom myself home Away from duty rules Come celebrate my freedom.” “Early to duty tomorrow holds not. Thirty-five years of faithful services I’ll booze to sleep away my sufferings Today I’ve long waited for More joy to send him home A brand new car in his name An appreciative symbol Fo undented thirty-five years of service to Fatherland “Come friends, rejoice more. Joy till no more joy to joy Today frees and makes me a king My patience rewarded.” And so he boozed and boozed Celebrating the celebration of his retirement From faithful service to fatherland He battled with his bottle booze On his way home on wheels Booze boozed his vision and clear judgment He boomed his brand new car And it sent him home Home to rest in peace.
3. Black Woman – Leopold S. Senghor
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Naked woman, black woman Clothed with your colour which is life with your form which is beauty. In your shadow I have grown up the gentleness of your hands was laid over my eyes. And now high on the sun-baked pass, at the heart of summer, at the heart of noon, I come upon you, my Promised Land. And your beauty strikes me to the heart like the flash of an eagle. Naked woman, dark woman Firm-fleshed ripe fruit, sombre raptures of black wine, mouth making lyrical my mouth Savannah stretching to clear horizons Savannah shuddering beneath the East wind’s eager caresses Carved tom tom, taut tom tom, muttering under the Conqueror’s fingers Your solemn contralto voice is the spiritual song of the Beloved Naked woman, dark woman Oil that no breath, ruffles, calm oil on the athlete’s flanks, on the flanks of the Princes of Mali Gazelle limbed in Paradise, pearls are stars on the night of your skin Delights of the mind, the glinting of red gold against your watered skin Under the shadow of your hair my care is lightened by the neighbouring suns of your eyes Naked woman, black woman I sing your beauty that passes, the form that I fix in the Eternal Before jealous fate turn you to ashes to feed the roots of life.
4. The Leader and the Led – Niyi Osundare
The Lion stakes his claim To the leadership of the pack But the antelopes remember The ferocious power of his paws The Hyena says the crown is meant for him But the Impalas shudder at his lethal apetite The Giraffe claims a place in the front But the eyes are too far from the ground When the Zebra says it’s his right to lead The pack points to the duplicity of his stripes The Elephant trudges into the power tussle But its colleagues dread his trampling feet The Warthog is too ugly The rhino too riotous And the pack trashes around Like a snake without a head “Our need calls for a hybrid of habits” Proclaims the forest sage “A little bit of a Lion A little bit of a Lamb Tough like a tiger, compassionate like a doe, Transparent like a river, mysterious like a lake A leader who knows how to follow Followers mindful of their right to lead”.
5. The Song of the Women of My Land – Oumar Farouk Sesay
Like a sculptor chipping away at bits of wood, Time chisels away bits of their memory It strips away lyrics of the song of the women of my land Leaving only a fading tune echoing the song, they sang in the forlorn fields about their lives songs of how they ploughed the terrain of their landscape for memories of lyrics lost in the vast void of time, in those days when a song behold their souls, and dereliction decapitated the epic of their lives. With a song, they sponged off their anguish, to behold their collective pain, to celebrate their gains, give lyrics to the tune of their lives cheat the tyranny of time and commune with the yet unborn to give meaning to an epoch lost in antiquity, Yet time strips the lyrics and scars the tune, leaning a dying song. Dead! Like the woman who died long ago Leaving the song to tell them of their lives. Today, the tune roams the forlorn fields Like their souls looking for lyrics. To tell the tale of the servitude Of the women of my land Who ploughed their soil and soul For a song to sing the story of their lives The song of the women of my land left in the memory of my mind. Now feeding the verses of poets, it echoes in Wriggling in rhythms and melodies, Hollering in distant tunes In places far afield the forlorn fields, Where the song of their lives died. The stuttering lips of my pen And the screeching voice of my rib try to sing the song of the women of my land In verses far from the theatre of toil Where they left a song that now roams the land Stripped of lyrics like a scorned ghost The tune tuning the tenor of my verse is all that remains of the song of the women of my land Who laboured and died leaving a dying song The dirge of their lives.
6. Raider of the Treasure Trove – Lade Wosornu
But what can be worthy of your life?
What dearer than the gems of your dreams.
The reason you are here? Always strive
To fly flags of joy, and, sail up streams
Powered by the breeze of love, your course
Chattered in the ink of compassion
And fling roses wherever you pause
Heavens-on-earth your destination.
Of things which would blot out that brief
Or breach your sail with arrow unseen
No. Rob you of your life. Rage is chief.
Rage drags rags after you, of charity
Enemy of equanimity
Rage spreads toxic fumes on every scene
In essence, Rage spells calamity.
Its sole cause? Your perception of storms.
As you think, so you feel. Watch your mind.
Rage sets sail. Can ruin lag far behind?
I'll fling roses wherever I berth
My destination is heaven-on-earth.
Next Steps
Note that 2025 was the last time the above WAEC-prescribed African poems were used for the WASSCE Literature-in-English test. However, I’m aware that some students from certain schools still study these poems even in 2026 and beyond.
Are you one of those students or teachers who must still prepare for a Literature test based on one or more of these African poems? If yes, you can download the PDF version for offline use.
Additionally, look around this site for more Literature study guides. There’s a lot to learn about studying and answering Literature questions effectively to help improve your grades.
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