Compare and Contrast the presentation of oppression in ‘Andif’ (Seitlhamo Motsapi) and ‘I am not that woman’ (Kishwar Naheed)
The poems that I am studying are ‘I am not that woman’ written by Kishwar Naheed and ‘Andif’ is written by Seitlhamo Motsapi. Andif is a poem that talks about the struggle of black people for Human rights. The way Seitlhamo Motsapi has written this poem is as if the reader is there and can feel the pain the lack people went through. The two poems have been written about the same subject, oppression, in a similar way even though they are in a different century. In Andif the effect of ‘I am’ being repeated at the start of each stanza tells you that she is a woman that she does not like to be. She hates to be what she is and wants to be someone. She works at a shop where she has to sell socks and shoes as it seems that her partner locked her up whilst he is roaming around. He also ignores her but she knows that her voice is heard by someone if not her partner. It seems that she was loved at first but then her partner decided to move on. She doesn’t want to be a light that can’t be seen in the darkness, this explains that she might not be worthy of her partner that he doesn’t recognise her. She was picked like a flower but planted like embers and thorns which means that she thought her partner was happy to spend his life with her. But in return she was treated the wrong way as a woman also has some rights over their partner. She only married him so that she can get her burden out of the way but after getting married it went from bad to worse. She didn’t get any rights that a normal married woman would get. She wants to leave him now and start a new life from the beginning.
