In stanza 1, Afrika clearly builds up a sense of his anger at the continuing injustice. As he walks through District six, once so familiar to him, he feels an outsider. He begins his poem with short monosyllabic words, ‘small round stones’, which adds a feeling of sharpness to the tone which suggests his anger. In addition, the onomatopoeia word ‘click’ emphasises his anger because of his sharp aggressive ‘ck’ sound. Secondly he begins to use harsh and aggressive words, for example the word ‘thrust’ is a very harsh and unwelcome word, and it sounds very violent and aggressive. In this poem Afrika uses the symbol of “weeds” as the weeds are unwelcome, the weeds and Afrika are similar because they are unwelcome as they are both outsiders.
Afrika’s hatred for what he believes it continually discriminated, this it shown as a symbol with the ‘whites only inn’, Afrika uses a word ‘brash’ which shows his vulgar, garnish and ostentations into appearance. Also alliteration is used in ‘guards at the gatepost’ with its aggressive ‘g’ sound, to reveal how intimidating it feels. Secondly there is a sense of unwelcome ness this is symbolised with the imported trees, menus and luxury foods; additionally there is repetition of the word ‘glass’ this symbolises a barrier physical and psychological as he is not allowed in.
In the poem ‘nothings changed’, Afrika compares the working-mans cafe to the up-market restaurant. He compares the imported trees, menu, to the cheap and basic cafe, this is shown by when he says ‘we know where we belong’, and this says that he knows that he can’t go into the up-market restaurant because of laws and feels that he doesn’t fit in there. Also in this stanza there is also a symbol ‘it’s in the bone’, this symbolises that his culture is inside like it is imbedded inside him, he also shows this by saying ‘wipe your fingers on your jeans’ it describes that they are unclean and dirty. Additionally Afrika avoids imagery and descriptive language, when he describes the ‘working mans cafe’. He juxtaposes the wealthy but artificial restaurant with a very basic café.
In the poem ‘nothings changed’ there is a sense of injustice in this poem. In one stanza he repeats the word mean, this is in the last stanza, and this word means evil, malicious and vicious. Also in the last stanza there is the word ‘burn’ it is another symbol for the anger inside him this is shown earlier in the poem.
This poem implies that there is equality between the coloured and white cultures, that there is a sense of injustice, he shows that we are unequal by wealth and power. Also in this poem it shows that nothing has changed to change the unfairness between the two cultures the coloured people and the whites.
Olivia harriman “nothings changed”
