A Comparison of ‘Search for my Tongue’ by Sujata Bhatt and ‘Ogun’ by Edward Kamau

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A Comparison of ‘Search for my Tongue’ by Sujata Bhatt and ‘Ogun’ by Edward Kamau

When making a comparison between the two poems, ‘Search For My Tongue’

by Sujata Bhatt and ‘Ogun’ by Edward Kamau Brathwaite we can see that

both are primarily concerned with notions of culture and identity and

in particular how one impacts upon the other. The implication being,

that the culture into which we are born plays an important role in the

formation of our identity and that when we attempt to integrate

ourselves into a ‘foreign’ culture conflict is created within. This

conflict can threaten our sense of self, causing it to fragment – the

result of which is that some part of our self is ultimately lost.

Both poets use metaphors in order to demonstrate this point, for

example, Bhatt uses the physical tongue as a metaphor for language as

she creates the image of two tongues:

“….what would you do

if you had two tongues in your mouth,

and lost the first one, the mother tongue,”

Here, Bhatt suggests that the ‘two tongues’ or languages and the

cultures from which they are derived are incompatible. She feels that

the first will be lost or replaced by the second, which she refers to

as “the foreign tongue” which you can not really know. This idea that

the second tongue is one that ‘you could not really know’, implies

further that language is about more than words, but that it

encompasses a whole range of meanings connected with the culture from

which it is derived and that even though she has mastered the

language, she feels as though the meanings and underlying culture will

always be alien to her.

Brathwaite als...

... middle of paper ...

...e tells us that it in her

dreams it does in fact re-grow. In relation to this tongue she

writes, “it ties the other tongue in knots,” thus giving us the sense

that this part of her is victorious rather than lost.

Thus in making a comparison of the two poems, ‘Search For My Tongue’

and ‘Ogun’ we can see that though the poems are similar in their

views of the possible threat integration with ‘foreign’ cultures

poses to our sense of self, and the use they make of metaphor to

demonstrate the conflict this presents within us, contrast can be

found in the general tone of the writing. In the case of Bhatt’s poem

there is the implication of growth and blossoming, whereas in

Brathwaitte’s poem there is much more anger at the loss of cultural

identity and implies the loss of part of one’s self as the ultimate

outcome.

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