Crecimiento y desarrollo del maxilar y mandíbula

by Malika Ndlovu Furnaces of hatred Burn the rubber Flames creep and leap Across the flesh Petrol ensures the path Over back

Into Hair Down to toes And fingertips Fire eats away At a person A human being Is sacrificed

The ones who chant Dance and stoke the fire

The ones who film and photograph it Human beings too

What does this mean To a child

Heart racing Breath caught Eyes fixed To the TV screen

(After watching 1980’s SABC news broadcast)

Malika Ndlovu experienced the bloody riots referred to in her poem in her teenage years. She wrote “COLD

FIRE AT CROSSROADS”376 in

1986/87. It tells about the Blacks’ campaign of retaliation against other Blacks who were accused of being police informers. The act of violence, described in the poem, is similar to the case of Maki Shosana who was knocked down and burnt to death in front of running TV cameras. The most feared method of revenge was the ‘collar’ or ‘necklace’, a car tyre filled with petrol which was laid round the victim’s neck and then set on fire. Malika Ndlovu, being coloured, was affected by Apartheid differently than Ingrid de Kok was. She never, however, complains about herself in her interviews. She knows that other people had a much worse time than she had, as she at least had the chance for a good education. Many of her poems benefit from her own experiences, for factual information and inspiration.

The capital letters of the poem’s title “COLD FIRE AT CROSSROADS” on the one hand read like a headline, on the other hand the title sounds like the breaking news of the SABC news broadcast which Malika Ndlovu mentions in the footnote to her poem. The three verses come up with three different perspectives on the cruelties and the ‘sacrifices’ of Apartheid: first the view of the victims; second the one of the spectators, journalists and reporters; and third the one of a child in front of the TV. This child could be Malika Ndlovu herself. She told me that she wrote the poem approximately two years after the transmission of the

376

Malika Lueen Ndlovu. poetry-in-progress from period 1986-2002 (unpublished). Crossroads is a township in Cape Town.

programme, at which time she was about 15 years of age. During the Apartheid regime only reports of violent Blacks were reported, but according to Malika Ndlovu, today, the media are more trustworthy than in earlier times.

The poem “Peace Plight” dates from 1988/89 and alludes to the turbulent pre-liberation days in South Africa as well as to theatres of war elsewhere. It consists of two verse paragraphs and criticizes the destruction of cities, along with the homes of many families, and the abuse of people in war. The first paragaraph describes a soldier who combs through the wreckage of houses in a deserted street, destroyed by war, searching for imagined enemies. But all he finds is an infant’s shoe covered in blood (second paragraph).

The first verse paragraph presents a picture of destruction. The region, described as a “maze”, is abandoned, lifeless. All that remains is burnt-out cars, broken pieces of furniture and glass splinters. It is significant that the soldier in this paragraph appears only as “tough boots”. Soldiers are frequently perceived as only being instruments, not as human beings with feelings, who often have to carry out their duties against their will and who suffer as well.

But when the picture of the heavy boots is taken up again in the second verse paragraph and when these stand still, the human being in the soldier appears. He feels sorry for the many innocent victims which wars leave behind. The future symbolically lies “nested in cinders”. Tears fall and patter like rain on his empty rifle, which has not missed its intended target. The only rhymes, “shoe” and “new”, as well as the words “red” and “dead”, which stand out in stark isolation, lend these words a special weight, making the war look more grotesque. The title “Peace Plight” criticizes the so- called “wars for the sake of peace”.

377

Malika Lueen Ndlovu. poetry-in-progress from period 1986-2002 (unpublished). Peace Plight377

by Malika Ndlovu tough boots trudging checking through the wreckage no longer above but inside the maze of unpaved streets all forsaken except for gutted cars broken furniture shattered glass the trudging halts something catches the young soldiers eye there it lies nested in cinders an infants shoe almost new but sprayed with a dull drying red

his tears fall rain upon his rifle its barrel empty its targets dead

And then there are poems like “I, the Unemployed”, from which an excerpt is given here. Already at the time, the anti-Apartheid activist and performance poet Nise Malange, wanted to raise awareness, speak out and help the underprivileged not to be forgotten but to become visible. Here, she works with the picture of “Living under a Black cloud […] in thinning light” and paints the picture of the poor who are dying, just as the country is dying as well as “Freedom is nailed to a tree/ To die”. Written from different perspectives on history and from opposite ends of the social spectrum all of the above poems deal with Apartheid experiences. The first three poems even have the viewpoints of little girls in common. Rather than to say that the poets discussed in this chapter have a ‘social conscience’, it would be better to describe them as artists who are aware of and sensitive to the enormity and effect of the events unfolding in their midst, and then quite naturally reflect and express their inner feelings to their countrymen and women. Thus all three poets criticize violence towards innocents, no matter in what form. They also disapprove of a ‘hunger’, which in a literal and figurative sense ravages the country, morally indefensible armed conflicts, and internal struggles or civil wars as occurred in the 1980s in South Africa. In describing them, these poets help to fill the gaps in South African history and to re-write and correct it – in the form of verse.

Rewriting literary history inevitably implies a process of re-canonization. In itself there is nothing wrong with such an endeavour provided it aims at being as inclusive as possible.379

At the same time the poets are making an appeal as their poetry is transferable to other places and situations.

378

Chapman (2001: 321). 379

Steward van Wyk. “Canonizing the Other, or an Approach to Black Afrikaans Writing: The Case of Adam Small”. Constructing South African Literary History.

Eds. Elmar Lehmann, Erhard Reckwitz, Lucia Vennarini. Essen: Die Blaue Eule, 2000. 142.

I, the Unemployed378 by Nise Malange, 1985 I’m here

Living under a Black cloud Here, living in thinning light Here

Freedom is nailed to a tree To die.

Here I am living: in a match box. I am here dying of hunger And my country is also dying My children are dying too [...]

[…]

They say you don’t need love They say you don’t need passion They say you don’t need sex

They say you don’t long for your children

They say you don’t know the meaning of compassion They’ve made you half a man […]

Further good examples for the representation of Apartheid in South African women’s poetry are Gladys Thomas’ poems in Cry Rage!380 Especially the following show the terror and humiliations experienced under Apartheid:

Poem 71, “Flight”, printed in abbreviated form on the left, possesses an elaborate rhyme scheme and a recurring refrain. In “Flight”, the lyrical speaker describes her despairing within her own country of origin. In a metaphor, the first stanza alludes to a cuckoo which has taken over the nest of others and the original owners being “Kicked out of their nests and worms taken away”. “Haunted Eyes” (Poem 79), “Leave Me Alone” (Poem 77, “I tear my hungry babe from my breast/ To come and care for yours” ) and “To Live in Fear” (Poem 72) describe the situation of black and coloured workers during Apartheid: “Fear to go beyond the fence at night”/ Fear of a knock on his door/ Hide your wife/ Or she must go on that long train ride”. These poems also show the attitude and incomprehension of the white masters when it came to their workers’ needs.

Last but not least, also amongst Gladys Thomas’ poetry, there are poems that deal with the Immorality Act. Like Poem 75, they tell of “Immoral Love” and the related fears.

380

Matthews and Thomas (1972). No pagination. […]

Oh, mother bird why did you lay Your eggs in this tree

Where you know I cannot be free Where my nestlings are disturbed at play My nest hunted night and day

My nestlings’ worms taken away These vultures are my enemy Why do they fly so after me These vultures they are my enemy Time has come to migrate

To a land away from here A land where the grass is greener

Where my feathers will not stand out in fear I must take flight to where I will be free To make my nest in any tree […]

To love in fear is to love like I love.

This child now growing in my womb Conceived without response, […] Hold me in your white arms, my love We must save our child, my love Take him from this hell, my love Save him from this fear, my love