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READ THIS
This is a somewhat out-of-date social comment about life in Johannesburg at the heart of the apartheid
era. The narrator is a black South African who is discriminated against and whose purpose in the city is
purely to supply the labour market. Life is one of hardship where working hours are long and happiness
is non-existent.
A NOTE ON THE POET
Mongane Wally Serote was born in Sophiatown in 1944. He grew up during the violent days of the
apartheid era and was arrested on a few occasions, even serving nine months in solitary confinement in
1969 for an unspecified "crime", but was finally released without any charges being brought against
him.
The poet was also under "house arrest" for three years, i.e. he was made a prisoner in his own
house and forbidden to leave the grounds for whatever reason.
Indeed, if a person was "banned" or placed under house arrest, there was no recourse to law. One
could not challenge it -- nor did the banning authorities have to prove anything or even produce any
evidence whatever to justify their decision.
In 1974 Serote was awarded the Fulbright scholarship which enabled him to study Fine Arts at the
Columbia University in New York. He returned to South Africa in 1979 but chose to go into self-exile in
Botswana, returning to South Africa only in 1990 with the collapse of the apartheid system. He would
serve in the first post-apartheid parliament.
He is renowned for his poetry, although he has also written short stories and a couple of novels. His work
has won him several awards.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"I leave behind me, my love,
My comic houses and people, my dongas and my ever-whirling dust,
My death,
That's so related to me as a wink to the eye."
- A textbook comments that the poet appears to have affection for the place in which he lives. Would
you agree? (4)
[Need help?]
The author of the textbook is probably wrongly identifying "my love" as being Sophiatown, where
the poet lived. Later the poet will say, "as I go back, to my love, my dongas, etc".
What the poet is probably meaning, however, is that he has a loved one in Sophiatown. "My love"
probably refers to this person: his significant other. In that case, it would have no application to
Sophiatown itself.
Indeed, the poet does appear to show just as much contempt for Sophiatown as he does for City
Johannesburg. It is a dirty township, with dongas everywhere, tiny houses, dusty, and dangerous to walk
around in the dark.
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- Why are the houses and people said to be "comic"? (4)
[Need help?]
The houses of Sophiatown were tiny box dwellings which looked as if they had popped out of a child's
book, like Noddy's Toyland. The people living in these houses would themselves therefore look
comic -- perhaps like toys.
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- If the poet is indeed speaking of Sophiatown as his home, what do his words tell us about the
township? (4)
[Need help?]
As has been stated in an earlier question, the township was dirty, with massive dongas or soil erosion in
the streets, dusty, and dangerous at night time.
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- What is the link between "My death" and "a wink to the eye"? (2)
[Need help?]
Everyone winks or blinks all of the time. It is a natural part of living. In the same way, the poet is stating
that death is also a natural part of life. Life was dangerous and could be ended quickly with a stab in the
back.
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GENERAL:
- Use just ONE word to describe the TONE of this poem. (1)
[Need help?]
- Apart from Johannesburg itself, list the other words and their meanings which place this poem in a
particularly South African context. (4)
[Need help?]
The words are:
- pass -- an identity document which black people were forced to carry;
- Jo'burg -- a colloquial way of speaking of Johannesburg;
- dongas -- an area of soil erosion which has caused a deep ditch;
- roboted roads -- traffic lights, derived from the Czech word "robota" which meant compulsory
labour and from which is derived the modern word "robot" which means mechanical or automated
labourer.
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- The poet personifies the city throughout this poem. How does he do it? Why? (4)
[Need help?]
Throughout the poem, the poet addresses the city itself as if it was a living being. He probably does it to
provide him with a being on whom to pour his contempt and anguish. By creating a living being, the city
becomes alive but the poem itself also becomes alive and vibrant.
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