‘Compare and contrast ‘Nothing’s changed’ by Tatamkhulu Afrika and ‘Still I rise’ by Maya Angelou’
There are thousands of different poems worldwide from different cultures and traditions. Each and every one of them is unique in its own way.
The poem ‘Nothing’s changed’ was written by Tatamkhulu Afrika in the year 1990. Afrika was born in the year 1920 in Egypt. He had quite a pale complexion as his father was an Arab and his mother was Turkish. When Tatamkhulu Afrika was a young child, he and his family moved to an area called ‘District Six’ in South Africa; Cape Town.
Afrika’s parents died during his childhood, so he was bought up by a white family of native South Africans.
‘Cape Town’ suffered lots of racism during the 1940’s – 1990’s. The country of South Africa was so strongly segregated into ethnic backgrounds that even new laws were placed to separate people according to their racial groups. This was called the Apartheid law and was introduced in the year 1990. Apartheid separated white, black, and coloured people in every area of life. This included: jobs, hospitals, transport, accommodations, public parks and even drinking fountains. However, this law was finally dismantled in 1993; three years after it was bought up.
Throughout the three years of the apartheid law, people from black backgrounds suffered the most. They were treated with unequal rights – all legally classified as the bottom less important people in life. On the other hand, whites were treated loyally and preciously: the total opposite to what black people experienced. People that were from different races but coloured were not classified at the same level as blacks, so they did not suffer as much. But the people from these coloured backgrounds were s...
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...ll, mean mouth’ maybe condensation left on the glass from the poet’s shocked expression. Alternatively, it could be the number zero: worthless, valueless and complete nothingness left.
At the end of the poem, Afrika becomes frustrated as he feels excluded. He wants to smash the glass of the restaurant with ‘a stone’ or ‘a bomb’. The word ‘shiver’ associates with the shattering glass. This language also allows the reader to suggest that Tatamkhulu Afrika is haunted by his past as it is an eerie and ghostly word.
Some readers may distinguish a hidden meaning to smashing down the glass. An alternative interpretation for this is that the poet could be yearning for the separation of whites and blacks in South Africa to shatter and for all of the conflict to end.
Maya Angelou is a singer, writer, poet and dancer that was born in the year 1928 in Southern America.
"Angelou, Maya (née Marguerite Annie Johnson)." Encyclopedia of African-american Writing. Amenia: Grey House Publishing, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 12 March 2014.
Before viewing the National Geographic Documentary “Apartheid’s Children”, I did not realize that even after the government was black majority ruled, numerous blacks are still living in deficiency. Subsequent to watching this short but evocative documentary, I now understand the immense gap between several blacks and how events in their lives have entirely changed their circumstances, and how this associates with creating their identity.
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture. Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Ann Johnson. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Bailey Johnston, Sr., a door attendant and Vivian Baxter Johnston, a car dealer in a local gambling parlor. Marguerite’s only brother Bailey was a year older. He gave Marguerite her nickname when he could not pronounce her name and called her ‘my sister’ or ‘my-a-sister’. The nicknamed was shortened to Maya. Although Bailey called Marguerite ‘Maya’, she went by the name Marguerite Johnson or Rita until she hit adulthood. In 1949, she changed her name to Maya Angelou ...
Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928 on April fourth. Throughout her life, she held
Dr. Maya Angelou is an influential poet, author and historian. Becoming one of the greatest poets of our time was not an easy task for Dr. Angelou she had to overcome a few obstacles starting with attending a segregated school, and facing racial discrimination. Being an African American attending Lafayette Training School, a school that sat on a dirt hill with no lawn, tennis courts, and fence limiting the boarding farmers surrounding the school educators expected Angelou and her fellow classmates to not do great things in life. According to a speech given at her 1940 graduation they were “maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen” (p.84) and anything higher that they aspired to was farcical and presumptuous. Causing her to feel angry but
The Afrikaner ethnic group is an odd one looking at them from a glance. A predominantly white ethnicity, originating in South Africa, which speaks a form of German. This oddity was created by the Dutch East India Company, a side effect of one of their ventures. The Dutch East India Company was opening trade with the Asiatic countries; however a straight trip there would most likely result in many deaths on the sea from the length of the trip, and the poor conditions that occur. What was needed was a refreshment station. A refreshment station was a place that ships could dock at and allow their sailors to rest at. Generally fresh fruit would be kept at these stations, and many other foods would be grown so ...
Racism is never bound by culture, language, or even continents. It is an evil that spans the globe. The history of South Africa is of a culturally divided and fragmented society. The architects of apartheid took advantage of this splintered social order to create an institutionalized separation, dehumanization and enslavement of a people through laws and customs. However, freedom can be achieved when one voice has the courage to stand up against thousands, and inspires others to stand up for what is right and just. The ending of apartheid in South Africa allows people everywhere to never again accept a different definition of freedom depending on a classification imposed by another. South Africa has forged a bright future from the chains of the darkness of the heart – the darkness known as apartheid.
It describes how the conservative farmer follows traditions blindly and the isolated life followed by him. It reflects how people make physical barriers and that later in life come to their social life too. Where neighbor with pine tree, believes that this separation is needed as it is essential for their privacy and personal life. The poem explores a paradox in human nature. The first few lines reflect demolition of the wall, ?Something there is that doesn?t reflect love a wall? this reflects that nature itself does not like separation. The "something" referring to the intangible sense of social interaction. Furthermore "that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it" refers to Frost or to the author. Although the narrator does not want the wall, ironically, the mending of the wall brings the neighbors together and literally builds their friendship. An additional irony of the poem is that the only time these two neighbors sees each other is when they both mend the wall. The narrator sees the stubbornness in his neighbor, and uses the simile 'like an old-stone savage' to compare him to a stone-age man who 'moves in darkness', that is, set in his ways, and who is unlikely to change his views.
“My tenth birthday came and went away, like all the other nine, uncelebrated. Having never had a normal childhood, I didn’t miss birthdays; to me they were simply like other days: to be survived” (Mathabane 162). Johannes’s portrayal of his tenth birthday was not unlike that of other children - the system of apartheid obligated black South African children to not live their lives fully, but merely survive them. Apartheid, beginning in South Africa in 1948 with the takeover of the National Party, strictly forced non-white citizens into separate residences and public facilities with their own race. Johannes’s grandmother described the system as “black and white people [living] apart - very
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be considered inferior because of your race? The people of South Africa had to endure racial inferiority during the era of apartheid. The apartheid laws the government of South Africa made led to an unequal lifestyle for the blacks and produced opposition.
So, I went to the next question, which asks what 밼ire?and 밿ce?symbolize and what the two meanings for 뱓he world?are. Line three of the poem led me to believe that there must be a connection between fire and desire. Desire makes sense because it can consume one's thoughts, goals, senses, and self-control like fire. I also decided that perhaps, ice represents hate. This is sensible because the phrase 밹old-hearted?is often associated with hate, which has the ability to freeze all other emotions. In addition, Frost, as most people would, takes preference with desire rather than hate. Therefore, through his life experiences, Frost must have determined that these two emotions, desire and hate, are just as destructive as their counterparts, fire and ice. Regarding Perrine뭩 other question, I believe that 뱓he world?means not only the Earth, but also the human race. This shows how the poem functions on two levels, with desire and hate destroying the human race, and fire and ice destroying the actual (physical) earth.
South Africa’s racial problems began when the white people came and discovered South Africa with its black population. The white people wanted power because there were many fewer whites than blacks. The only way to achieve that was to change the government around so that only white people had political power. The three terms that were used to describe racial groups under the system of apartheid were European, Native and Coloured.
I was treated well in prison; security guards grew a certain respect for me. I decided not to waste my time, so I informed my cellmates about the apartheid, and their horrible laws. They listened attentively, and wanted to help, so together we organized hunger strikes and protests. After 27 years, on February 11, 1990 I was released from jail. I could’ve got out of jail in 1985, P.W. Botha offered me a release but only if I would stop the armed conflict. Without a doubt, I chose to stay in prison because I believed that the right thing to do was to put an end to apartheid. P.W. Botha was an evil man, he committed to state terrorism and to thwart black majority rule. He had a stroke in 1989 and Frederick Willem replaced Botha. Frederick on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Botha. He set me free from jail.”
The apartheid was a very traumatic time for blacks in South Africa. Apartheid is the act of literally separating the races, whites and non-whites, and in 1948 the apartheid was now legal, and government enforced. The South African police began forcing relocations for black South Africans into tribal lines, which decreased their political influence and created white supremacy. After relocating the black South Africans, this gave whites around eighty percent of the land within South Africa. Jonathan Jansen, and Nick Taylor state “The population is roughly 78 percent black, 10 percent white, 9 percent colored, and l...