Compare 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi and 'Nothings Changed' by Tatamkhulu Afrika - Comment on the conflict between two cultures in the poem and the way the poets express this.

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Brendan Thorne                27/04/07        

Compare ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’ by Moniza Alvi and ‘Nothings Changed’ by Tatamkhulu Afrika. Comment on the conflict between two cultures in the poem and the way the poets express this.

        In ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’ the speaker is a girl who has one English parent and one parent from Pakistan. As a result she feels torn between the two very different cultures. She does not feel at home in either England or Pakistan. She shows this by saying

“I longed for denim and corduroy”

When trying on the Saris and Salwar Kameezes. She feels English in Pakistan and Pakistani in England

“I could not rise out of its fire

half-English”

This quote means that she can rise up out of the Pakistani clothes because she is not fully Pakistani or English. Another quote that shows this is

“I tried on each satin-silken top-

was alien in the sitting room”

 This means that wearing the Pakistani clothes made her feel out of place in the English sitting room. She feels similar to Tatankhulu Afrika in ‘Nothings Changed’ because he is also stuck between two cultures the ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’. This is shown by

“Whites only inn”

This quote demonstrates the metaphorical barrier between the two cultures.

        The speaker in ‘Nothings Changed’ is a black man who returns to district six. In this poem the conflict between the two cultures is caused by the decades of apartheid government in South Africa trying to separate the ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’.

“Guard at the gatepost,

Whites only inn”

This shows the segregation as although apartheid has officially finished guards stand at the doors of many of the restaurants to prevent ‘blacks’ entering. The poem is set in district six. This was an area of Capetown at the foot of Table Mountain. It was home to many different cultures and peoples from all over the world. But by 1966 the apartheid government classified district six as a ‘whites only’ area. Between 1966 and 1980 60,000 people were forcibly removed and their houses burned to the ground.

        This injustice and the separation that still remains makes the poet feel very angry at the situation that he finds himself in.

“hands burn

for a stone a bomb

to shiver down the glass’

This shows his anger as his hands are metaphorically burning with rage. He is so angry he wants to have a bomb to blow up the ‘whites only inn’’ to shatter the glass that is separating the ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’. He feels a great sense of injustice at the way that the whites are so much better off than the blacks, he shows this by juxtaposing the

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“up market haute

cuisine”

From the “whites only inn”

With the

“bunny chows”

From the “working mans café”

This shows the split as the whites receive the nice haute cuisine from a posh restaurant, while the blacks are eating bunny chows on a plastic tabletop.

        The poets have chosen different objects and events to represent the different cultures and show the clash or conflict between them. In ‘Presents from my aunts in Pakistan’ the poet describes how she is opening her gifts from her Pakistani relatives like

“a salwar kameez

peacock blue”

and juxtaposing them with

“…cardigans

from marks ...

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