How does the setting affect the theme of the poem "Abiku" by J.P. Clark?

In studying J.P. Clarke's poem, "Abiku," I first needed to
know the meaning of the title.

The Encarta World Dictionary
defines "abiku" as:

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[a] West Africa reincarnated being:
a spirit in the form of a child who must repeatedly die and be
reborn

With this in mind, it
might seem that Clarke is speaking to the dead spirit, welcoming
it. However, this definition may be used in the poem
metaphorically.

The setting is a home—the speaker's home.
He encourages the spirit to go where it must:

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Coming and going these several
seasons,

Do stay out on the baobab
tree,

Follow where you please your kindred
spirits

If indoors is not enough for
you...

...but even with this said, the speaker
goes on to describe the abode. He is honest in his assessment of the physical structure.
The thatched roof leaks when the rain is hard ("when flood brim the banks"), and bats
and owls break through the eaves at night by ripping into the roof's covering. When the
harmattan...

a
dust-laden wind on the Atlantic coast of Africa in some
seasons...

...arrives, the
chance is much greater of the walls going up in smoke and fire because the blaze used to
dry the fish whips about with the gusts of wind.

The
speaker describes a humble home that does not offer much in the way of material
substance: it struggles to survive the elements and nature's creatures. However, within
these walls, there are those who will welcome the "child." The speaker may well be
addressing a literal "child," one that has lost home and family and is being invited to
stay. (And if not, he is still extending his invitation—but to a ghostly child that
forever wanders, offering it a place where it might
rest.)

I would suggest (my interpretation) that the theme
of the poem is home: there is always a place for you at
our fire, however humble. The setting is presented in such a way that the
invitation is a modest one, but genuine—no promise is made of great comfort or lavish
appointments. But the speaker is suggesting that the willing, kind and welcoming people
that live within, however poor and fragile the house may be, offer not material
substance as much as emotional substance: support, concern and love. In these things,
they have a great supply—

For..."many more mouths gladden
the heart."