Nothing's Changed

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Nothing's Changed is a poem by Tatamkhulu Afrika.

It shows a coloured man's (presumably Afrika) emotions upon returning to District Six in Cape Town, Afrika's home community before it was emptied. He remarks that even after the fall of apartheid, there is still a division between white and non-white people in South Africa, and shows this by comparing an upmarket "whites-only inn" to a black-run cafe selling bunny chows.

It is part of the AQA GCSE English syllabus under the topic of Poems from different cultures, Cluster 1.

Contents 1 Context 2 Form 3 Language 4 Content

[edit] Context

This is an autobiographical poem.Tatamkhulu Afrika (1920-2002) lived in Cape Town's District Six, which was then a thriving mixed-race inner-city community. People of all colours and beliefs lived together peacefully, and Afrika said he felt 'at home' there.

In the 1960s, as part of its policy of apartheid the government declared District Six a 'whites-only' area, and began to evacuate the population. Over a period of years, the entire area was razed to the ground. Most of it has never been built on.

The poem was written just after the official end of apartheid. It was a time of hope - Nelson Mandela had recently been released from prison, and the ANC was about to form the government of South Africa.

This poem is used by AQA for GCSE English Language - Poems From Other Cultures.

[edit] Form

There is no rhyme which helps aid the narrative style of the poem

On the page, the poem is set out in six stanzas, each of eight fairly short lines. This kind of regularity in the layout creates a sense of control: the poet is very clear about what he is feeling - no sudden flying into a rage.

But within that pattern, the length of the sentences varies from a whole stanza to just two words. To explore the effect of the sentence structure in the poem, look at this example:

“

District Six. No board says it is: but my feet know, and my hands, and the skin about my bones, and the soft labouring of my lungs, and the hot, white, inwards turning anger of my eyes.

”

[edit] Language

The whole poem is written in the present tense. Although he is recalling a past experience, it is as if the poet is re-living the experience as he writes. This is one of the things that makes this poem vivid to read, and easy to identify with.

The viewpoint in the poem is carefully established. The first stanza, for example, puts the reader 'in the poet's shoes', as if walking with the poet across the rough ground. As the poem develops, it is easy to imagine where we are walking or standing, and what we see:

"I press my nose to the clear panes" This also makes it more likely that one will see things from his 'point of view':

“

I back from the glass boy again, leaving small mean O of small mean mouth. Hands burn for a stone, a bomb, to shiver down the glass.

”

[edit] Content

The division between the two communities is represented in the poem as a pane of glass, ‘I back from the glass’, this creates a strong image because the glass is less substantial than a wall, because it can be seen through, but it is still impenetrable and it forms a metaphorical barrier.