How can someone analyze Agostinho Neto's poem, "Western Civilization?"

The
poetry of Agonstinho Neto (1922-1979) was
largely a product of the time and place in which he
lived, not surprising for
any writer, but for one who would grow up to found the independent
nation of
Angola out of the remains of the former Portuguese colony, his poems are an often
sad
ode to the misery of that land both during the period of colonialization
and during the civil
war that followed.  

Angola during
under Portuguese rule was a depressing
place.  Additionally, unlike the
British, who at least bequethed their former colonies a
functioning
governmental structure including a trained civil service, the Portuguese showed
no
interest in developing their colonies' economies and governing
institutions.  When Portgugal
granted Angola its independence in 1974,
following a 13 year war for independence on the part of
the indigenous
tribes, the country was a veritable ruin.  The civil war that followed

independence, and which drew in the United States, Cuba, South Africa, and the Soviet
bloc,
exacerbated the levels of destruction and left behind thousands of
unexploded land
mines.

In the context of the extreme
poverty and minimal prospects for hope
in which Neto lived, his  indictment
of "western civilization," immortalized in his
poem, probably could not read
any other way.  The following description of poverty and despair
speaks for
itself:

"Sheets of tin nailed to posts/driven in the

ground/make up the house.  Some rags complete the intimate landscape...after twelve
hours of
slave labour./breaking rock/shifting rock/breaking rock...Old age
comes early/a mat on dark
nights/is enough when he dies gratefully of
hunger."

The hopelessness
and despair reflected in
"Western Civilization" leaves little room for interpretation.
 Life under the
Portuguese had no place in a civilization characterized by the freedoms

traditionally associated with the phrase "western civilization."  What it took for
an
"advanced" civilization to treat the less fortunate the way the colonizers
did was a
little difficult for Africans to
comprehend.