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My essay is about two poems that we have been studying. John Agard's 'Half-Caste' and Tatamkhulu Afrika's 'Nothing's Changed'. The purpose of this essay is to show the differences and the similarities of these two poems as well as to explore the poet's feelings about racial injustice. Furthermore I am going to explain the poet's purpose and attitude to the society that surrounds them. I will also describe the different impressions that each poet is trying to give to the reader.
Both poets depict a powerful view and concept about the theme of racism.
To begin with I am going to talk about the poet's background information and what each poem is briefly about. The first poet; John Agard was born on the 21st of June 1949 in British Guiana (now Guyana). He came to England from Guyana in 1977, where he became a touring lecturer. From there he spread his Caribbean culture and ethnicity around the UK. Like many Caribbean's, he himself is of mixed race.
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The second poet; Tatamkhulu Afrika was born in Egypt in 1920 and came to South Africa (Cape Town's District 6) as a young child and lived there for a long time. He began writing poetry when he was in his sixties and has published four collections of poems about his experiences in South Africa. The poem I am looking at 'Nothing's Changed' is from his third book called Magabane. Unfortunately Tatamkhulu Afrika died on 23/12/2002.
Firstly the poem 'Nothing's Changed' is about racism within South Africa and how nothing has changed for black people, even though apartheid has legally ended.
Tatamkhulu himself was not originally black but he classified himself as coloured. In his poem he writes of black people and how the white government had an impact towards apartheid in the area he lived in at that time (District 6). He wrote this poem just after the end of apartheid. The poem is about a divided society. On one side of the division there is a bulldozed township, 'bunny chows' and 'plastic tables' while on the other there is a new hotel, 'haute cuisine' and 'fine table linen'. The poet talks through a young boy's childhood and how he goes through his everyday life. I suppose that this maybe an autobiography written as a poem, so the poem is about him looking back at his own childhood. Many things such as identity, politics, poverty, anger and a lot of thought has been integrated in this poem. He also includes his feelings towards white people and the description of places and its environment.
Secondly compared to the poem 'Half-Caste', it is also about racism, but this has a different expression and structure. This talks about a man who is half-caste and it is written in a colloquial way. He uses ironic schemes to compare it to the likeness of other things for instance in lines 13-20 'yu mean when light an shadow / mix in de sky / is a half-caste weather / well in dat case / england weather nearly always half-caste / in fact some o dem cloud half-caste till dem overcast...' I feel that he is criticising England, and its weather. Additionally he uses a lower case letter for the word 'england' which also proves that he is making England inferior. In 'Half-Caste' Agard is sarcastic in the poem yet still serious since he begins with having a conversation, until certain phrases such as, 'explain yuself / wha yu mean / when yu say half-caste' are repeated. I think this repetition builds up anger within the poet, therefore from a conversation it turns into an argument.
This is shown in line 22 'ah rass/' where he uses a rude expression to show his feelings and to emphasise his anger. I suppose that this poem is solemn in tone. In lines 37-40 '...and when I'm introduced to yu / I'm sure you'll / understand / why I offer yu half-a-hand...' What Agard is trying to demonstrate is that he is half-caste so by him giving half a hand it will mean the listener will get half the respect from him. Therefore in lines 48-51 he gives an imperative command to the listener 'but yu must come back tomorrow / wid de whole of yu eye / an de whole of yu ear / an de whole of yu mind...'
The impression that the reader gets from this is that he is ordering the person to come back tomorrow and give their full attention and to begin to think in a more-open minded way. The similarity between 'Half-Caste' and 'Nothing's Changed' is that both poet's are angry but in 'Nothings Changed' the poet's anger is revealed in his face and not in the tone of voice, since Afrika is very clear about what he is feeling and it is as if he knows that it is hopeless waiting for a change to happen, therefore I consider this poem to be read in a submitting and deprived tone. According to the tone that the poems are read, both poets deal with the theme of racism in an entirely different attitude.
In 'Nothing's Changed' Afrika has a different perspective of life than in 'Half-Caste'. The poet's predominant focal points in 'Nothings Changed' are identity, politics and people. He looks at the white ruling party and the government's views of the country and the people as well as showing how they make no genuine difference. Initially, identity plays the main role in this poem, since colour of skin, separation and knowing where you belong is evidently exposed in this poem. This is according to the end of stanza 3 and the beginning of stanza 4 'guard at the gatepost, / whites only inn. / No sign says it is: / but we know where we belong.' The guards have been purposely placed to protect black people from coming in and that these places are only for white people. Such as; 'new, up-market, haute cuisine,' He records this moment and reflects upon it. Regardless of the change (end of apartheid), there is still discrimination against blacks from whites.
Albeit the situation is supposed to have changed, Afrika knows that the new restaurant is really 'whites only inn'. He feels that nothing has really changed in South Africa. Talking about how nothing has changed relates to the title 'Nothings Changed'. The title suggests that when he returned back to South Africa his life was still the same and the conditions were unchanged. Even if he uses anger within him to express his feelings things would never change. The deep rage contained inside him that he suffers from makes him want to destroy as shown in stanza 6 lines 45-47 'Hands burn / for a stone, a bomb, / to shiver down the glass.'.
He feels so angry that he wants to commit a crime by smashing the glass with a stone or hopes for a bomb to blow up the place, but instead of using violent behaviour he uses words and hopes to be heard. However all there is for him is the anger within him., which he is eager to let out. For instance in the 2nd stanza, line 15 and 16 '...and the hot, inwards turning / anger of my eyes.' This occasion is comparable to Agard, where he states a rude phrase 'ah rass/', this shows that he also gets angry and instead of using violence he shows it in his reply to the listener at the end of the poem. Where he offers a crucial demand to the listener 'but yu must come back tomorrow / wid de whole of yu eye / an de whole of yu ear / an de whole of yu mind...' As a final point I think that Agard and Afrika have many similarities when discussing about anger and identity.
What I have discovered by reading the poem 'Nothing's Changed' is that between the divided societies there are many differences in the way the surrounding has been described. For instance in the first stanza lines 7 and 8 '...purple flowering, / amiable weeds.' This gives the effect of a peaceful and friendly place even though weeds are surrounding him and that he is living in a waste land. This imagery creates an inferior appearance of the black neighbourhood, but also a place where life e.g. (seeds) flourish. Compared to the fourth stanza lines 30-32 it is a completely different location. 'crushed ice white glass, / linen falls, / the single rose.' This is a posh and superior image of the white area where white people live, and the poet wishes that he was living in that kind of situation. I think that the writer purposely separated the descriptions and images, since he wants the reader to get the impression that there is a division and it gives the reader a chance to look at the differences.
Agard and Afrika both differ when it comes to examining the language. Agard has obviously decided not to use Standard English in this poem, to how that he is standing for the way he speaks, so he writes the poem in that way. The poet writes in a Caribbean dialect, where he uses many words that I may understand, but are not in formal English. For instance 'yuself' instead of yourself, 'de', 'dat' and 'dem' instead of the, that and them etc. Moreover when you look deeply into the poem you will notice that there is no form of punctuation.
What I also became aware of was the way Agard separates the paragraphs with a / and the lines in each paragraph are not constant. This is continuous throughout the whole poem. As I have stated before Agard uses lower case to create the effect of being inferior. Even famous artist he uses lower case for their names such as 'picasso' and 'tchaikovsky'. Where as in 'Nothing's Changed' Afrika has used 6 paragraphs and each of them contains 8 lines. The poet also finishes the poem with a very short sentence 'Nothing's changed.' compared to the rest of the sentences in the poems. This sentence is the same as the title and I believe that Afrika purposely did this to give you his last thought and the effect it has on the reader is that they think deeper about his poem and his message.
Going back to identity in 'Nothing's Changed' the poet uses many symbols to show the separation between blacks and whites. For example in stanza 3 line 18 'name flaring like a flag', just like a flag symbolises distinctiveness, this line symbolises that this area or place is for whites. Compared to 'Half-Caste', Agard uses humour to symbolise his identity, such as in stanza 5 lines 45 and 46 'I half-caste human being cast half-a-shadow', stanza 1 lines 7-9 '...when picasso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas', To the reader this shows how unintelligent it is to propose that some one is half-caste and to judge them by their colour of skin and their characteristics. He expresses his feelings sarcastically yet with a lot of significance.
In conclusion I believe that everyone should be treated with equal eminence and groups should not be formed with diverse ideological beliefs, since that is what causes these conflicts. As a result I feel that Agard's poem 'Half-Caste' has more of an effect on me and in my opinion it is more effective since the impression I got from this is that John Agard beyond doubt acquires the humorous and sarcastic yet serious side of the differences that half-caste people go through in every day life.
John Agard's 'Half-Caste' and Tatamkhulu Afrika's 'Nothing's Changed'. (2017, Sep 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/john-agards-half-caste-and-tatamkhulu-afrikas-nothings-changed-essay
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