How effectively do Tatamkhulu Afrika and Chinua Achebe both convey their feelings and attitudes towards society?

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Peter Luetchford        English Coursework        01/05/2007

How effectively do Tatamkhulu Afrika and Chinua Achebe both convey their feelings and attitudes towards society?

Tatamkhulu Afrika and Chinua Achebe both effectively convey their feelings and attitudes towards society in many ways. In this essay I hope to discuss the way both poems have managed to covey their personal feelings, emotions, thoughts and protest against the reality of living in Africa during the 1900’s.

        If we compare the background of each of the poets we see that their backgrounds were very similar. Afrika was born in Egypt in 1920. He migrated to South Africa and was brought up by white farmers. He worked as a professional solider, a shop assistant, a barman, a drummer in a jazz band and a copper miner in Namibia. All of these jobs are jobs thought of to be low paid, disgusting jobs. He was arrested twice for an uprising in 1964 and for terrorism. He lives by him self in South Africa and has written many novels and poem describing his life. Afrika’s poem, “Nothings Changed,” is about the life of coloured people in South Africa. He also talks about the minor differences between the black and the white community in the road and the café. Achebe was born in Nigeria and is also well known for his novel and poetry writing. He studied English Literature at the University of Ibadan. When civil war broke out in 1967 his friends were severely punished. This is reflected in the poem when he talks about Belsen concentration camp. The theme of his poem, “Vultures,” is about a family of vultures that scavenge for food and then changes to describe the Commandant at Belsen Camp, a concentration camp during the Second World War. This is completely imagery, his poem tells how strange we are can do such horrible things such as, eating an animals insides but yet still care for his family. This paragraph intended to explore the differences and similarities between the two poets. Their backgrounds are similar as they both come from African families and their poems bring up major themes to do with how badly run that part of the world is.

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        If we compare the form of each of the poems we see that they are very similar. They both are written in an orderly way. Though “Vultures” has not got stanzas they both have a turning point in the middle of the poem which sticks out in both poems. This turning point allows the poet to compare to types of people or things. This makes both poems stand out and more interesting. Other structural features in, “Nothings Changed,” include the use of punctuation. For example he uses colons to suggest that there is more to follow, “No sign says it is: ...

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