'Nothing's Changed' A poem by Tatamkhulu Afrika

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Robert Gibson T10

‘Nothing’s Changed’ A poem by Tatamkhulu Afrika

‘Nothing’s Changed’ is by a South African poet named Tatamkhulu Afrika, it expresses his thoughts towards the Apartheid in South Africa. We watched a film interpretation of this poem with interesting scenes.

 The film starts with low camera shot of a can or a circular piece of rubbish in the grass reflecting the bright sky and a reflecting and dark image of an elderly man walking past with a stick. The low camera shot makes us feel as if we were actually in the grass or a piece of rubbish in the grass. The reflection gives the audience an idea that the writer’s poem is all reflecting back on the past and maybe the blurred image of the man reflection could symbolise how blurred his life is, or how he doesn’t know where he stands with the apartheid situation. This is the first of many reflections throughout the film also it also illustrates a ‘small mean O’ which is mentioned later on in the poem;

‘Leaving small mean O

of small, mean mouth.’

Soon after, a man with old-fashioned brown shoes, treading on dusty stony ground, by showing only a sketchy reflection and the shoes of the man, creates a sense of mystery and wonder about who it is. Just after this a young boy briskly walks past, bends down and picks up a stick, it appears to the audience that it is the same person who is seen in the reflection and the same person whose feet are seen treading on the stones, as the same clothes are worn apart from the shoes which are white, the change from man to boy is quite subtle and hardly noticeable to the audience but quite effective because if it is noticed it gives the viewer an idea that the film is going to alternate between man and boy throughout the film like he is looking back on his life. The alternation between man and boy not only continues throughout the film but it becomes more obvious, maybe this is because ‘boy again’ is not mentioned until the end and instead of just springing it upon us, the director has decided to gradually show it to us.

The boy may have been shown to pick up a stick to show his emotions in the film as later on when in the film it cuts across to his hand grasping this stick, this really shows his anger and disappointment.

I think that the director makes the two people to look the same to show the man’s past life and present life in District 6 in one go, it enforces the title of ‘Nothing’s Changed’ as they both appear to look the same. Perhaps the director is trying to show that nothing’s changed by keeping the man and the boy in the same clothes and show that only little things have changed by just changing the shoes of the boy.

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It is not mentioned in the poem that he is a boy until the last verse;

‘I back from the glass

boy again.’

But the director of the film decides to alternate the character of boy and man from the beginning as it works better to show the contrast because there lots of things that need to be contrasted like the upper class ‘whites only inn’ and the ’working man’s café’

        The ‘seeding grasses’ that ‘thrust bearded seeds’ is shown very well in the film, it is a very low camera shot which makes the grass look tall ...

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