Heritage

“Heritage” is a poem by Countee Cullen—an important 20th century African American poet. It was published in 1925, first in a magazine and then in Cullen’s first poetry collection, Colors. It was also included in the second edition of James Weldon Johnson’s influential anthology The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) and became one of the most famous poems emerging from the Harlem Renaissance—the legendary cultural flourishing of African American artistic and intellectual achievement centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920 and 1930s. In this poem, Cullen asks what Africa means, or should mean, to Black people in America. Does it stand for distant lands and people about which most African Americans only read, or does it represent their vital heritage? Pondering that question, the poem’s speaker examines their existence as a Black person living in a white-dominated culture, their ambivalent Christian faith, and the barely suppressed anger and grief they feel in response to the pain and injustice Black people have suffered since their forced removal from Africa.

Other poems written by this author include Incident, From The Dark Tower, and For A Poet.