To determine the the denotation read the definition of agenda and the poem to see what they where doing.

For the connotation look for what the secondary goal, side effect of what they were doing or something that it implies that is wanted to happen that would not fit into the literal definition of agenda.

Often when agenda is used in english it means that the person has a goal which may not be apparent.

Read more on the poem at


Stolen Rivers

We Africans came to Berlin to sing

and recite poetry. We had an agenda:

remembering our anthems of loss,

galloping, consuming,

the pillage, the cries

like forest fires, like haunted children,

how can we, how can we even

begin to redress?

Enraged, we wanted revenge

and then, Chiwoniso, you stepped on the stage and

you opened your mouth and

every stolen river of platinum and gold

poured out of your mouth in song;


your voice etched us out of the night

and doubled the light in each of us.

You restored all the treasure-houses

from Benin to Zimbabwe, Mapungubwe to Cairo;

Africa moved its golden bones,

shook off its heavy chains

and danced again.

That night I thought

if only

love could purchase bread,

Africans would not be hungry.

By Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

The denotation is what they where going to do, which was recite poetry. The connotation is they wanted to tell people of the people starving in Africa.