Compare the two poems, “Nothings changed” by Tatamkhulu Afrika with Charlotte O’Neil’s song by Fiona Farrell
When comparing the poems, ‘Nothings changed’ and ‘Charlotte O’Neil’s song’ we see that they are set in different time periods and in different cultures. Charlotte O’Neil’s song is set in the 19th century whereas; the poem Nothings Changed is set in the 20th century. However, despite this they are both autobiographical accounts about the injustices and inequalities of their own respective cultures. In effect, both poets are protesting about their life. The narrator of ‘Nothings Changed’ is a black peasant living in South Africa, and the narrator of ‘Charlotte O’Neil’s song is a maid serving a master in England.
In ‘Nothings Changed’ the language of the poem is written in the present tense and although he is recalling the past, it is as if the poet is re-living the experience as he writes. Tatamkhulu is protesting about the differences in the way that black and white people are treated South Africa. He begins the poem in a calm mood, his description of the way he walks down towards where he use to live, tells the narrator that he is relaxed and is taking a leisurely walk, “Small round hard stones click under my heels”, this statement reinforces what mood he is in as it is describing the way he walks. When he reaches the wasteland of where he used to live, district six we see that he is reliving the anger of what it used to be like when he lived here and his feelings of long ago start to build up again, “District six. No board says it: but my feet know… and the hot… Anger of my eyes”, here he talks about there being no sign to say the name of the area he is in, but he can feel it. It seems that he does not have very good memories of this area, as he shows his feelings when he nears district six. The poet goes on to describe that there is a white’s only inn, I feel he uses quite harsh description but is shows his anger toward white people, he says, “Brash with glass, name flaring like a flag, it squats in the grass and the weeds, incipient Port Jackson trees… guard at the gate post, whites only inn”, there is a lot of personal description, as he uses the words ‘brash’ which suggests that there is a certain arrogance of the place. The name flaring like a flag is suggestive of the inn displaying its conquest of the area. Simply, just by being there the narrator feels that the inn has committed a crime as it is a place where a coloured man would obviously not be welcome even in the absence of apartheid. The word ‘squats’ is not as though it were sitting, but as though it were occupying the land illegally. ‘Incipient’ means imported, thus saying the trees from the local area are not good enough so they had to get imported trees. The inn is also saying that to the narrator that it is too good for him and other coloured people in the area, it’s almost as if the inn has a bad attitude towards coloured people in the area, as would the white people do who built the inn and those who run it.
