Knowledge is preciousUniversity of Venda
Discourses on Difference and Oppression

CULTURAL IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY

 Mashudu C Mashige
Department of English
University of Venda

Without the search for meaning, the quest

for vision, there can be no authentic

movement towards liberation, no true

identity or radical integration for an

individual or a people. Above all, where

there is no vision, we lose the sense of

our great power to transcend history and

creating a new future for ourselves with

others,…(Harding 1983:xii)

South African poetry, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, generally tended to be studied along racial, class and gender lines. The majority of the studies focused on the examination of ideological tendencies which permeated each writer's work, and showed the symbiotic interdependence between aesthetics and ideology. As a result thereof, and in view of the uniquely complex nature of South Africa's political, economic, ideological, social and cultural diversity - a diversity which for a long time was misrepresented by the powers that were for their own ideological ends of racial fragmentation and economic segregation - a pronounced division ensued between what came to be known as revolutionary poetic practice and reactionary poetic practice. Consequently the interaction between the two types of poetic practices was always seen only in terms of the binary opposition of the one against the other. The concept of aesthetics was generally regarded as a reactionary response of the privileged literary and political conservatives who strove to camouflage their ideological and social assumptions behind the guise of objective formalism. The validity of this so-called revolutionary interpretative approach to poetry was justified by the very real and urgent need of raising the readers' awareness to the socio-political and economic realities of the time. However, South Africa's dynamic socio-political diversity renders inoperative the many pre-conceived assumptions and notions about aesthetics and commitment in the negotiation, construction and articulation of cultural identity. The dynamism, which has become a characteristic part of South Africa's transformative process, virtually nullifies the pre-given conceptions about the binary opposition between revolutionary and reactionary poetic practice. In the final analysis the critical impact previously inherent within this conception is subverted by this new reality.

Cultural identity is a mushrooming field of study devoted to the examination of how identity is negotiated, constructed and finally articulated within given cultural contexts. It is a field particularly concerned with heterogeneous cultures where the question of identity becomes not only an arena for contestation but also a terrain of conflict between divergent conceptions of humanity and society. The question of cultural identity is, however, not without its problems. Central to the problematic is the question of whether cultural identity, within the context of South Africa's history of political divisions, racial intolerance, social inequality and ideological polarisation, should be seen within the confines of the binary opposition between European and African forms of cultural identities, including whether cultural identity is dependent upon the racial and / or political nomenclature of a particular epoch. From this perspective it is possible to interrogate the manner in which cultural identity is articulated within contemporary South African poetry. It is crucial to understand this given the fact that South Africa is in the process of trying to articulate its identity and locate it within the context of the African continent in the spirit of social and cultural reclamation. With previously disenfranchised cultural groups increasingly contributing to the production of "National" identities, it is essential to understand the impact of the "symbolic textuality" constructed within culture's presence because interpersonal realities that have serious ramifications for identity are negotiated within this socially symbolic construct. It is this symbolic construct that articulates similarity and difference in the representation of cultural heterogeneity. The recognition and tolerance of social difference opens space within which culture validates the negotiation and forging of a new society and, ultimately, the formation of a new vision in which the very concept of a homogeneous national identity symbolically coexists with the notion of cultural heterogeneity, encapsulated within the context of a pluralistic vision. Klopper (1999:04) sees this as a vision which actively agitates for a "consciousness that is both rooted in lived, historical experience and able to transcend this experience through the act of self-reflection". The "act" referred to has a doubling effect for it also becomes a process in which the self is, invariably, seen as being both reflected in and refracted from the other. Within the context of this vision both the previously disenfranchised groups and the dominant minority groups seek to unite around a new form of national identity.

South African poetry, like any other poetry, as a form of cultural and symbolic representation, is born into a symbolic system of speech which disrupts assumed forms of identities through metaphors, symbols and other forms of figurative devices. In this way poetry then becomes more focused as it zooms in on pertinent issues, and in the process, creates a new terrain in which the articulation of new forms of both national and cultural identities becomes real. It is against this background that an examination of selected South African poetry will be made in this study, in an attempt to analyse the manner in which the heterogeneous influences of cultural and / or ethnic differences are negotiated in the articulation of identity. Poets, being engaged in poetic activity as a result of particular circumstances, including those of cultural and / or ethnic heterogeneity, respond to these varied conditions. These conditions, which include very particular sets of circumstances, have far-reaching implications and ramifications for the content, style and the manner in which poets articulate identity in their poetic works. They further provide a space for the ambiguous interfacing of the ideological and the literary, the intersection and interaction of subjectivity and society, and the conflict and convergence of the individual and the political, in the construction and articulation of cultural identity. Central to the articulation of identity, in the context of poetic creativity, is the need for an atmosphere that will engender the reclamation of cultural values in the search for a new morality and the restoration of individual dignity. An analysis of selected poetry representing the Black Consciousness strains within South Africa's poetic production will be made to show, first, that the revival of cultural values, the social transformation of society and the recovery of a black identity are essential components in the quest for the formation of a viable national identity, and secondly, that a vision of heterogeneity and difference is not a problem to overcome but rather creates a poetic possibility through which cultural reclamation and social change may be facilitated.

Black Consciousness poets such as Don Mattera, James Matthews, Farouk Asvat, Ingoapele Madingoane, Mongane Wally Serote and Mafika Pascal Gwala, to mention but a few, have played a significant role in the redefinition of the meaning of the word "black". Through their artistry these poets have made deliberate efforts at stripping negativism from the word "black" in a way that has made the word become synonymous with the desire for freedom. These efforts are primarily aimed at imbuing the word with a sense of equality and dignity which enables both black and white people to understand that being black is not a political mistake but only a biological difference. It also inspires blacks with what Mongane Serote (1989:05) maintains is a "spiritual power (which was) otherwise absent amongst the apathetic; while transforming objects into initiators, 'inferior beings' into equals among people claiming a country and a right to be in the world". The redefinition of blackness is further seen as an effective method of bringing into centre stage the most pertinent question of the liberation process and freedom, the national question whose definition is subsumed in the articulation of cultural identity.

A poem which best exemplifies the new and fresh awareness of equating blackness with freedom is Mongane Serote's "The Actual Dialogue", which is the first poem in Serote's first collection entitled Yakhal'inkomo. In the poem, whose title is symbolic of and predicts the negotiations (dialogue) that ushered in South Africa's new dispensation, Serote is confidently assertive as he aesthetically usurps the dominant conversational role from the "Baas" who, within the context of apartheid South Africa, holds it. The bold declaration encapsulated in the refrain "Do not fear Baas" inevitably places the persona in the role of the reassurer.

By saying

Do not fear

We will always meet

When you do not expect me

I will appear

In the night that is black like me (My emphasis)

the persona asserts and stresses his blackness, thus declaring his liberation from the fear of the "Baas". He further emphasizes his newly found confidence by making indubitable his ability to confront the "Baas" with his new disposition of resistance. This disposition, characteristic of the Black Consciousness philosophy, is central to the effectuation of psychological liberation, which the persona brings about in the poem. The persona further sustains the feeling of being liberated as he cautions "When you do not expect me". The implication of the caution is that the "Baas" should always be on his toes since the two of them "will always meet" in the future. This, in turn, is a tacit warning from the persona that the "Baas" will not succeed in oppressing the black persona forever. The line "In the night that's black like me" buttresses the notion that the white "Baas" cannot wish away the black persona as the latter's presence is as immutable and ineluctable as day and night. The line "We will always meet" suggests to both the reader and the persona a sense of inclusiveness, which is an essential component to the formation of identity. The choice of the pronoun "we" suggests some form of collective venture. It further implies that the persona recognises the fact that given the social, political and economic realities of the country, both the oppressor and the oppressed will still need each other in the process of building a new society in which there will be a need to construct "new" forms of identities.

The poem, therefore, raises consciousness towards a common identity and strives to bring about a new sense of nationhood encapsulated in the persona's deliberate stripping of the white "Baas" of his ideologically imposed "power". The message that the poem carries for a South Africa that is in the process of articulating its identity within the context of the African continent is that, as Pityana et al (1992:05) rightly contend, "true change requires new values, new principles of participation and sustainability". The poem further highlights that for the "new" nation to be real, and for a new national identity that is to be forged to become meaningful, blacks will need to be conscious of themselves and be able to assert their cultural identity in the process of reclamation so that they do not remain in perpetual psychological bondage. Furthermore, the poem can be seen as a call to those white South Africans who still hanker for what Chapman (1984:193) maintains was an era built "upon the alleged aesthetic, moral, intellectual and economic superiority of the white man" to realise that their identity is inextricably woven together with that of the black countrymen and women, that they need to free themselves from the "bondage" of Eurocentrism and begin to identify themselves with the country and continent in which they have been living for well over the past four centuries. In a sense the poem, through its brash tone and its deliberate undermining of "white power" and superiority, also represents the capacity of Black Consciousness to liberate white South Africans still entrapped by a superiority complex derived from a socialisation that defines blackness as the other of humanity.

The poem is thus a call for a more inclusive kind of identity that acknowledges that cultural difference is an essential component of the vision of heterogeneity requisite to the ushering in of a more humane dispensation and that the unity in diversity encapsulated in this vision of heterogeneity offers more creative possibilities for the facilitation of a process of cultural renewal. Through its consciousness-raising the poem helps black people to come to terms with their role and identity as a people. It further helps in the eradication of the psychologically imposed "victim mentality" that still bogs down South Africa's socio-political discourse. With no ostentation to seek global immunity for the destructive role that white South Africa played in the systematic depravation of black people, Black Consciousness poetry boldly seeks to conscientise blacks to the fact that they have at times timidly resigned themselves to the brutalisation of the apartheid system to the point of self-annihilation, something that is reinforced, for example, in the preface to Yakhal'inkomo where Serote asserts:

The sculptor, told me that once

In the country, he saw a cow

being killed. In the kraal cattle

Were looking on. They were

Crying for their like, dying in

The hands of human beings...

The cattle raged and fought,

they became a terror unto them-

selves; the twisted poles of the

Kraal rattled and shook.

The above statement metaphorically refers to black people in South Africa who, just as the cattle rage and fight in the kraal for survival, struggle for survival sometimes with very tragic consequences. That the cattle become a terror unto themselves symbolically illustrates the stark terror that black people in particular have to contend with on a daily basis. In another level one can extrapolate, from the statement, a warning to South Africans in general that they should learn to unite behind a vision of heterogeneity that is inclusive if calls for the development of the country are to be fully realised. The warning also carries within it a message that South Africans need to be united around a common identity that will make it possible for them to act in unity. However, the form of cultural identity herein referred to is one that seeks unity whilst at the same time it recognises diversity. It is a form of identity that makes unity and diversity compatible by recognising the fact that for the sake of development, survival and cultural renewal, South Africans need to be united.

"My brothers in the streets" is another poem which vividly illustrates the urgent need for change. In the poem Serote portrays life in the township at its harshest. He calls upon his "brothers" to begin to re-evaluate themselves, something characteristic of Black Consciousness' quest for self-reliance, psychological emancipation and critical inwardness, as he maintains

Oh you black boys,

You thin shadows who emerge like a hill in the night,

You whose heart-tearing footsteps sound in the night,

My brothers in the streets,

Who holiday in jails,

Who rest in hospitals,

Who smile at insults,

Who fear whites,

Oh you black boys,

You horde-waters that sweep over black pastures,

You bloody bodies that dodge bullets,

My brothers in the streets

Who booze and listen to records,

Who've tasted rape of mothers and sisters,

Who take alms from white hands,

Who grab bread from black mouths,

Oh you black boys,

Who spill blood as easy as saying 'Voetsek'

Listen!

Come my black brothers in the streets,

Listen,

It's black women who are crying.

Interestingly the persona does not reject the brothers but owns them right from the beginning, as made evident by the use of the pronoun "my". This sense of collective ownership is not only illustrative of the unity requisite in the articulation of cultural identity, but also shows the poet's understanding of the fundamentals of Black Consciousness where one owns even the negative because one is convinced that through such honest admissions one is able to build a stronger sense of self worth, an essential element to the construction and articulation of identity. The poem further exhorts black people to rid themselves of the debilitating effects of crime in the process of cultural reclamation. The inherent message is that there is a need for a concerted effort to actively deal with issues and to realise that only through critical introspection can a vision of heterogeneity be synchronized into a common form of cultural identity. Through its open-ended prosaic portrayal of the desperados the poet shows the reader, in a vivid and immediate manner, how these brothers live. The reader is without doubt jostled by the realisation that the brothers survive by releasing their anger and frustrations on defenceless people. One cannot help but be reviled by the sordid state of affairs as the poet further contends that these are brothers "who've tasted the rape of mothers and sisters". The poet deliberately portrays moral and spiritual decay that has degenerated into beastliness to show an apocalyptic vision of a people trapped within an ideologically engineered system which characteristically reduces them to beasts. Through this depiction the poet seeks to show that there can never be reason enough to justify this beastliness except that the "brothers" have surrendered moral and spiritual authority to oppression.

The purpose of the poem, then, is to sensitise fellow blacks to the realisation that no one but themselves can liberate them culturally, spiritually, politically, economically and otherwise. The poem inherently becomes a call for cultural reclamation by recognising that culture, through the sublimation of libidinal instincts, frees people from the horrors of violence, poverty and rape. This recognition further buttresses Walter Benjamin's (1979) contention that culture in nothing else but barbarism's other. Here Serote launches a vitriolic attack on those who vent their anger and frustration on fellow blacks. He further intimates that the fate of black people is entirely in their own hands and that only they can batter down the immediate obstacles to freedom which hamper their own emancipation from a "colonised" other to a spirituality that is a concomitant part of mental freedom and cultural emancipation. Through the poem Serote implies that the "brothers" have lost a sense of direction and, by extension, of self-worth and that for any vision of transformation and cultural reclamation and the fostering of a dignified black identity to become real there is an urgent need to refocus attention on all the things that binds people together as a community in the process of identification between the one and the other.

In another very powerful poem entitled "What's in this Black'shit'" Serote focuses on the inward-looking process requisite to cultural reclamation and spiritual reaffirmation, a process that is essential to the re- discovery of the self and spiritual emancipation. After a description of the "black shit" and an elaboration of the various forms this "shit" takes, the reader is rightfully nauseated and, therefore, outrightly rejects whatever is associated with the "black shit". Later on it is made evident that the lives black people live have a "shitlike" character typified by the negative self-concept the system of racism promotes amongst individual blacks. When in the third stanza the "shit" takes the form of physical punishment of a young girl, the poet hopes that by now the reader will have become aware of the all-consuming and self-defeating power oppression imposes upon individuals. But unlike the father and the old woman who both resign themselves to timidly accepting the situation, the poet spontaneously adopts a defiant attitude exemplified in:

So I said, hard and with all my might 'shit!'

I felt a little better...

That the poet spits out the word "shit" with all his might is indicative of his innate desire to rid himself of all things associated with social, political and cultural oppression. His action is both literal and symbolic. On the literal level the action represents his disenchantment with and anger against a system which arbitrarily endorses him to a place far away from his home, a system deliberately designed to inflict pain, humiliation, impose indignity and make even dreams of liberty appear both implausible and impossible. On a symbolic level the act becomes a resolution of political contradictions which characterise the world the poet describes. In the end this frees him from the victim mentality which the old woman and the father suffer from, the stress that the appalling conditions imposed upon them bring and, the psychological emasculation and the resultant effects of stress on both the communal and family lives.

The expletive force with which the word "shit" is said is also an indication of the emergence of a "conscientised man", who is able to stand his ground to challenge the status quo in the quest for a spiritual and cultural reclamation that will restore his dignity as an individual but also as a representative of a dominated people. Through the deliberate undermining of the traditional conception of poetic register, the emphasis on the repetition of the word "shit", and the use of free verse lines to express an underlying swell of emotion, Serote seeks, as Chapman (1984:195) rightly contends, to "convey the impression that he is imparting his message of consciousness-raising and race-pride to a black communal audience in the first place, rather than to a white 'literate' readership". This is a recognition of the importance of reviving and reaffirming black cultural values concomitant with the construction and articulation of a new South African identity. Through this recognition a national agenda is set for the total transformation of South African society, a society that for a long time was characterised by political intolerance, social inequality, economic disparity and cultural exploitation. This is the critical thrust that needs to punctuate the emerging spirit of the "African renaissance", because any talk of the renaissance that does not draw and factor in lessons from the past, by acknowledging the constructive influence of the Black Consciousness philosophy, will render the process an incomplete one.

James Matthews is another poet of the Black Consciousness era whose great impact was not only felt in the quest for the construction of a new consciousness, but also in the process of redefining the aesthetics of resistance poetry. Through his prosaic but highly effective and accessible poetic style Matthews' poetry represents his rejection of an abstract approach to the writing of poetry in a society that is characterised by pain, suffering, racial segregation and Eurocentric hegemony. In his poem "i wish i could write a", the first poem in his collection entitled No Time For Dreams, Matthews clearly presents reasons why he cannot, or rather, refuses to write about flowers, dawn and birds. He moves away, deliberately so, from the romantic conception of poetry by choosing to operate on the realm of real life experiences of the hardship, pain and suffering of people maimed, jailed, shackled and emasculated. This is the reality he is concerned about and wishes to convey to black readers in particular so that they can stand up and be counted in the struggle for change.

Matthews' aesthetics roots him in that class of poetry whose creative oeuvre is predicated on real human conditions of existence, conditions of black suffering that had become characteristic of race-obsessed South Africa. His poetry also evinces the assertive tone that has become the defining hallmark of Black Consciousness poetry. In "i wish i could write a" Matthews maintains;

i wish i could write a

poem

record the beginning of

dawn

the opening of a flower

at the approach of a bee

describe a bird's first flight

then i look at people

maimed, shackled, jailed,

the knowing is now clear

i will never be able to write

a poem about dawn, a bird or a

bee

The poet warns the reader and the audience alike, and whoever cares to listen to him, that his poems are not about the beauty of nature and all "good things" associated with the natural environment, characteristic of Romantic poetry, but more about the harsh realities that are imposed upon a people by a dominant minority race that seeks to enforce its political hegemony through a racially defined ideology and cultural identity, an ideology which seeks to emasculate its targets by instilling in them a sense of racial inferiority, cultural submissiveness and the erosion of identity, particularly amongst those who stand up for truth. This is achieved by relegating them to jails and condemning them to a life of servitude and hardship. Against this background the poet asserts that it is impossible for him to write about, for example, the unalloyed beauty of the sky and the charming magic of dawn because, under the circumstances, dawn does not bring with it any sense of hope for a new beginning but a sense of despair and the misery that have become characteristic of black suffering and pain.

Read against South Africa's desire to articulate a new form of identity, an implicit calls for a search for a new meaning of life, away from the reality of "maimed, shackled (and) jailed" individuals, and a vision of unity characterised by a new patriotism, can be extrapolated from the poem. A meaning and vision closer to that which Mbeki(1998:159) contends, is "imbued by love and respect for the fellow citizen, regardless of race, colour, gender or age and a recognition of our common humanity which says to all that we are after all, one nation, bonded together by the variety of cultures, with none superior or inferior to the other". By focusing on this vision of unity the poet also suggests that there can never be any formation and articulation of a true identity, cultural affirmation or racial integration for both the individual or society at large for as long as there are still attempts by the dominant race to annihilate the other.

In the poem "The death in", Matthews once again indicates that people who suffer already know the truth hidden behind the convoluted explanations given by the powers that were when a freedom fighter "died" mysteriously after having been incarcerated. This is a message carried in the following way:

The death in

their eyes glowed

when thy said

i was to

be taken away

from the faces

of people aware

of the truth

my words blossomed.

Right from the beginning of the poem the reader is confronted with the consuming power of anger and racial hatred as made evident by the use of the word "death" in the first line of the poem. Its use is significant for it succinctly describes the kind of relationship that exists between the persona and those who come to take him away. It further reveals the inherent anger and desire to annihilate that had become a defining characteristic of those who enforced apartheid. The statement "be taken away" also has an ominous ring to it for it reminds the reader of a system that survived on the "permanent removal from society", a euphemism for murder, of anti-apartheid activists. However, the poem is not all about death and doom. In the last stanza the persona, who by now is in jail, asserts:

I am free

and death can

Only bouy my

spirit to float

free and relate

my words are

truthful seedlings sprouting

The stanza is significant in that it shows a form of progression from the personalised use of "I" in the beginning of the poem to the more collective and representative "I" of the last stanza indicative of the liberating influences of principled truth. The persona becomes representative of a humiliated people whose social status was defined by a reference that sought to impose a badge of inferiority and manifested itself in rejection and exclusion. But, as is evident in the last stanza, these are people who, in spite of the humiliation they suffer, retain their dignity and desire to be free, a People whose desire for freedom is so strong that they eventually reclaim their dignity, culture and identity and finally usurp the dialogical space from the oppressor. But unlike their oppressor they do not use their newly found freedom and cultural rebirth as a tool for revenge. On the contrary, they open up their spiritual resources to accommodate their former oppressor in the process of nation-building, cognizant of the fact that cultural difference and identity are not problems to be overcome but areas that provide space for the forging of a new form of national identity which acknowledges unity in diversity in the process of building a new nation with a new set of values. This is recognition informed by the realisation that transformation requires new principles of participation sustainable enough to carry the vision of heterogeneity into the next millennium.

In an ironic twist, jail, which is naturally a place where one's freedom is curtailed, becomes the persona's reservoir from which to tap his inner resources. Jail has become the persona's seedbed of freedom where his "spirit floats free" and his "... words are / truthful seedlings sprouting". Thus the persona circumvents the situation by being innovative for he knows and is convinced that his future, that of his people and the country at large, depends upon his cultural reclamation and reassertion of the black identity, that only he can batter down the psychologically imposed obstacles to physical freedom and spiritual emancipation. His is a realisation that a vision of unity is essential to the maintenance of that power which is crucial to transcending history in the process of creating a new future, characterised by the articulation of forms of cultural identities that acknowledge difference.

The complexities inherent within South Africa's diversity are many, varied but not insurmountable. The challenge for all South Africans is the need to articulate a new sense of patriotism that has to be characterised by a collective ownership of South Africa's cultural diversity in an effort to forge a new national identity, an identity that views diversity, not as problem to be overcome or reason for the fragmentation of South African society, but rather, as a tableau for the country's articulation of its identity within the African continent, a more inclusive society that does not only acknowledge difference but looks at diversity as an enriching quality within the very important process of social and political transformation. It is, perhaps, germane to conclude this analysis by borrowing from Bhabha (1994:03), in his explication of the significant role of social difference in the construction of new forms of cultural identities, when he contends, "Social differences are not simply given to experience through an already authenticated cultural tradition; they are the signs of the emergence of community envisaged as a project- at once a vision and construction - that takes you 'beyond' yourself in order to return, in a spirit and reconstruction, to the political condition of the present". This is the message that Black Consciousness poets, amongst other poets and artists, heed by opening up space through and in their poetry for creative possibilities to facilitate the rediscovery of cultural values, the reclamation of dignity, the shaping of black identity, and the articulation of the need for a transformed society in forging a national identity.


REFERENCES

Benjamin, W. (1979) Theses on the Philosophy of History. In Hannah Arendt (Ed) Trans. Harry Zohn. Illuminations. (Glasgow: Fontana/Collins).

Bhabha, H.K.(1994) The Location of Culture.(London: Routledge).

Chapman, M.(1984) South African English Poetry: A Modern Perspective. (Johannesburg: McGraw-Hill).

Harding, V.(1983) There Is a River. (New York: Vintage Books).

Klopper, D.C.(1999) Identity, difference and the "African renaissance"'. Paper read at the "Compr(om)ising Postcolonialism Conference (University of Wollongong).

Mashige, M.C.(1996) Politics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Black South African Poetry. Unpublished MA dissertation (Rand Afrikaans University).

Matthews, J.(1981) No Time For Dreams (Cape Town: Blac).

Mbeki, T. (1998) Africa: The Time Has Come (Cape Town: Tafelberg / Mafube).

Pityana, N.B., Ramphele, M., Mpumlwana, M. and Wilson, L (eds) (1992) Bounds of Possibility: The Legacy of Steve Biko and Black Consciousness (Cape Town: David Phillip).

Serote, M.W. (1990) The Impact of Black Consciousness on Culture and Freedom. Paper presented to a Harare Conference.

Serote, M.W. (1989) Cultural Resistance, Mobilisation and People's Freedom. Mimeography. London, 1989.

Serote, M.W.(1972) Yakhal'inkomo. (Johannesburg: Renoster).


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