THE WEAVER BIRD (George Awoonor-Williams)

At the beginning the poet appears to be speaking of a real weaver bird. But we soon realise that the weaver bird is really a symbol for something else. We come across expressions that indicate the real subject: preaching salvation, its sermon, the prayer and answers of the communicants, altars, shrines. It becomes clear that the weaver bird symbolizes the missionaries. A feeling is there, however, that the poem does not just involve religion, for, obviously, it is not only by religion that our “shrines” have been defiled. Do we not have to rediscover ourselves in other aspects of life after colonisation? It is significant that the title of the collection of poems in which this poem was published is “Rediscovery”.
Note how the poet creates the mood of the poem by treating his subject in the form of a story that is bound to win the sympathy of any disinterested reader. One cannot help feeling reproachful towards the weaver bird for its treatment of the people who kindly received and helped it.
“And our new horizons limit at its nest,” preaches that we should determine our hopes and prospects by its habitation, i.e., the church.
“But we cannot join the prayers and answers of the communicants,” suggests that we are never completely inducted into the new Christian way of life.
Write a paraphrase of the poem, explaining the images in a way that shows what, in your opinion, is the theme of the poem.
--- Donatus Ibe Nwoga, 1967