UNDERSTANDING CITY JOHANNESBURG

Welcome to Grade12 English Poetry Blog

On this page we will be discussing all our activities in class and reflecting on the work we have done so far. If you have any question or queries we can discuss them online ,since our time is limited in the classroom. I hope you will all enjoy our activities on line.I am looking forward to it.

City Johannesburg, Wally Serote

About the poet:
NB- It is important to know the background of the poet before attempting to understand and analyse the poem.

Born in Sophia Town, Johannesburg in 1944, Mongane Wally Serote was drawn to poetry and writing towards the end of his high-school career following his connection to the 'Township' or 'Soweto Poets', a literary group involved in the development of Black Consciousness and who produced creative works which centred around themes of political activism, and featured images or revolt and resistance. He was arrested by the apartheid government in 1969 under the Terrorism Act, following which he spent 9 months within solitary confinement. He was later released without charge, and went on to obtain a fine arts degree in New York at Columbia University in 1979. For a time he was unable to return to South Africa due to exile, and so he began living in Botswana and London, where he became involved with the Medu Arts Ensemble. He is the recipient of the 1993 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and was also given the Pablo Neruda Award from the Chilean government in 2004.
City Johannesburg

This poem City Johannesburg is about a man called Mongane Wally Serote. He wrote about his life during apartheid. He wrote this because one day he got arrested and was left in prison for nine months. When he was finally released he was very angry. A couple of years later he wrote this poem.

In this poem Serote speaks of the difficulties created for black people by the law which required them to carry a pass at all times, it also speaks of restrictions it placed on black people.

We notice that at the beginning of the poem Serote speaks of life, but further down towards the end of the poem he talks about death. This is quite contrasting, as we notice that he compares the things he loves with death. 'When I go back to my dongas, my dust, my people, my death,' this signifies that although he's going back to the people and things he loves death is typified as being in a white supremacy, because the white people have the power and control over those less fortunate.

Today's activity:
1.What is your understanding of the poem?
2.Themes of the poem
3.Tone
4.Figures of speech
5.Images created by the poet

ENJOY.....