Mazisi Kunene and the South African Experience
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 18
Mazisi Kunene and the South African Experience
Mazisi Kunene was born in 1930 in Durban , South Africa , of Zulu Parentage, and received his education at the University of Natal and the University of London University of California , Los Angeles , and the University of Natal in South Africa
In addition to teaching, he has taken active interest in the political life of his country. For instance, he was a member of the South African National Front, and the African National Congress (ANC). He has also supported and promoted liberation causes. Much like Okot p’ Bitek, he writes first in his native oral corpus before translating it into English.
I
Kunene’s profound love of Africa and its cultural traditions is reflected in such lyrics like “In Praise of the Ancestors,” “The Echoes,” and “Farewell”. These lyrics, much like Senghor’s “Prayer to Masks,” Birago Diop’s “Vanity,” and Kwesi Brew’s “Ancestral Faces,” celebrate the beauty and dignity of Africa and its heroic dead.
The lyric, “In Praise of the Ancestors,” discusses the ethos of the dead souls from several points of view. Couched in the epic literary tradition of a praise poem, the lyric extols the virtues of the dead ancestors -- their heroism, their protective powers -- against a backdrop of the challenges frequently encountered by the living:
Even now the forefathers still live
They are not overcome by the power of the whirlwind.
The day that sealed their eyes that did not conquer them.
Even the tall boulder that stands over them
Casts only a humble shadow over their resting place
They are the great voice that carries the epics
The Ancestors have come to listen to our songs,
Overjoyed they shake their hands in ecstasy.
With us they celebrate their eternal life.
They climb the mountain with their children
To put the symbol of the ancient stone on its forehead.
We honour those who gave birth to us
With them we watch the spectacle of the moving mists.
They have opened their sacred book to sing with us
They are the mystery that envelopes our dream.
They are the power that shall unite us.
They are the strange truth of the earth.
They came from the womb of the universe
Restless they are, like a path of dreams,
Like a forest sheltering the neighbouring race of animals
Yes, the deep eye of the universe is in our chest
With it we stare at the centres of the sky.
We sing the anthems that celebrate their great eras.
For indeed life does not begin with us1.
This poem is structurally organized with four parts: the first part, lines 1-6, celebrates the immortality of the dead ancestors; the second part, lines 7-11, explains how the dead ancestors interact and intermingle with the living on a continuous basis; part three, lines 12-20, explains the eternal duty of the living towards the dead ancestors; while the concluding part, lines 21-24, re-iterates the greatness of the dead ancestors in the affairs of the living.
While the poet employs positive images to characterize the African cultural heritage, especially as viewed from the point of view of the dead ancestors (e.g., “The great voice hat carries the epics,” line 6, and the “mystery that envelopes our dream,” line 15), he employs negative images to describe the European colonizers (e.g., the “power of the whirlwind,” line 2, and the “spectacle of the moving mists,” line 13).
The poem’s title, “In Praise of the Ancestors,” is instructive and illuminating: it highlights the protagonist’s bold proclaimatio, that is, to openly declare his affectionate feelings for the dead souls. Other images of the poem which underscore this profusion of love include: “The Forefathers still live,” line 1; “The Ancestors have come to listen to our songs,” line 7; “We honour those who gave birth to us,” line 12; and “They are the power that shall unite us,” line 16.
The point must also be made that in the African cultural mythos, the celebration of parents or the dead ancestors, is generally regarded as a cardinal virtue that must be encouraged or cultivated. Consequently, the indigenous African peoples not only celebrate the dead ancestors, but they also pay homage or offer sacrifices to them in order to receive their blessings both at home and in the workplace. Kunene ’s capitalization of the word, “forefathers”, underscores his respect for the dead ancestors.
Finally, it is interesting to note some relationship between Kunene’s lyric and certain aspects of the English Renaissance elegiac canon which O.B. Hardison, in his work2, expounds from Thomas Wilson’s Arte of Rhetorique: For example, Kunene’s expression, “Even now the forefathers still live,” line 1, echoes the Renaissance version, “He is not dead but in heaven,” (No. 1); as is his statement “They are the great voice that carries the epics,” line 6, which recalls the English Renaissance parallel “He made a good end” (No. 3). Although the relationship established here might seem farfetched (especially to the less advanced critic of verse), the connection between the two works and eras is appropriate, at least to establish the fact that all lyrics of praise are common everywhere in time and place.
In developing his argument the poet goes back to recollect the events from history (“When I still can remember,” line 1) to the events of the present day (“When you still live, so shall I live,” line 11), and finally, to the promise which the future holds (“Turning the night into day, forcing her/To make you lie pompous on its pathway” (lines 12-13).
Although there is pain and animosity in the land, caused by the Apartheid policy (the sadistic beasts,” line 7), there ultimately will emerge truth, peace and prosperity in the land (“Till her being attains your fullness,” line 16).
Earlier in the lyric, Kunene recollects from piquant memory and pays glowing encomiums on the elemental forces of nature which animate his humanity and strengthen his patriotic resolve: they include his “eyes,” his “hands,” and his “feet” (lines 2, 3, 4). Furthermore, the benediction in nature, symbolized by “all the stars of heaven” (line 6) will usher in peace and love which South Africa
If “As Long as I Live” projects a synthetic view of the natural beauty of South Africa
True, this poem is a premonition of something of what is and what is to come; the beauty and grace of the South African soul and enterprise is sacrosanct and will ultimately be recognized and praised by all of humanity. The images, the “summer hills,” the “maternal sun” the “long tilted rays,” the “heaven of the valleys,” the “milky way over the bare field,” the “symphonic flute,” and the “imposing rim” completely reflected this celestial beauty.
Others include: the “bubbling lips of continents,” the “quivering waters of the Zambesi river,” and the “echoeing of the sea.” In the concluding stanza of the poem (which consists of four lines in contrast to the others which have three lines each), Kunene records the universal acclaim with which the South African nation will be recognized and celebrated by posterity:
Let me not love you alone
Lest the essence of your being
Lie heavy on my tongue
When you count so many to praise3.
II
The stench and havoc which the South African Apartheid policy perpetrated against people, places and things is universally acknowledged. For example, O.R. Dathorne alludes to it as “a situation rotten at base.”4 Gerald Moore and Ulli Beir describe it as “a hostile white-dominated society,”5 while Professors Doug Killam and Ruth Rowe characterize it as “Apartheid’s skin-colour discrimination”.6
“To the Proud” addresses the issue of arrogance and pride and their unpleasant consequences.
In the twirling mountains overhung with mist
Foretell Nodongo the proud name of the subsequent hours
Since, when you beat the loud music of your wings,
The secret night creeps underneath the measured time.
When you behold the fixed bulk of the sun
Jubilant in its uncertain festivals
Know that the symbol on which you stand shall vanish
Now that the dawning awaits us with her illusions.
Assemble the little hum of your peeling boast
For the sake of the reward meted to Sorendeni
Who sat abundantly pride-flowing
Till the passerby vultures of heaven overtook him
We who stood by you poverty-stricken
Shall abandon you to the insanity of licence
And follow the winding path
Where the wisdom granaries hold increase.
When shall your nakedness show
Teasing you before the unshamed sun.
Itching you shall unfurl the night
But we the sons of Time shall be our parents’ race.
(MPA, p. 205)
Although the identities of the individuals listed in this poem, including “Nodongo” and “Sorendeni” are not revealed, they however symbolize pride, arrogance, and ultimate evil. They remind us of classical prototypes like Lucifer and Shelley’s Ozymandiaz who once rose to the pinnacle of glory but fell disastrously (“know that the symbol on which you stand shall vanish,” line 7). The poem’s didacticism is obvious. As the saying goes, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” By implication, those who sit on the seat of power and abuse it shall risk meeting their Waterloo
At bottom, however, the poem is a satire on the hypocrisy of the Apartheid South African regime which, upon assuming political power, abused it by dehumanizing people and destroying their cherished assets and resources. As part of the satiric mode, Kunene employs humor to ridicule the Apartheid government -- as suggested by reminding us that Sorendeni, who “sat abundantly pride-flowing”, was overtaken by the forces of time (the “passerby vultures of heaven,” line 12).
Humor is also employed when the poem’s protagonist points out the fact that the South African people will react against injustice whenever it rears its ugly head: “We who stood by you poverty-stricken/shall abandon you to the insanity of license” (lines 13-14).7 The sense of pity evoked by these lines -- which on one hand shows bravado, and on the other evinces assured defiance -- is bound to elicit humor and laughter among Kunene’s readers. And there is, as it were, something humorous and delightful about the fall of the hero from the pinnacle of glory8. The ultimate fall of the South African Apartheid policy, the poem suggests, will usher in the renaissance, the new South Africa
The metaphor, the “Sons of Time” who “shall be our parents’ race,” alludes to the future generation of South Africans who will outlive and overcome the menace of the Apartheid policy. The rhetorical question, “When shall your nakedness show/Teasing you before the unshamed sun,” suggests the poet’s impatience to see the end of the South African Apartheid regime. Similarly, the epithet, “your pealing boast,” suggests not only the poet’s ridicule of the Apartheid regime, but also his keen awareness of the fact that the regime’s future is moving inexorably to its disastrous end.
Other images employed in the poem are suggestive and interesting. The “fixed bulk of the sun,” the “unshamed sun,” both suggest the truth of nature which cannot be erased or suppressed by the vanity and hypocrisy of European colonialism or Western civilization. By implication, the Apartheid regime is ephemeral and a passing phase which shall fade into oblivion, while the sun is an eternal symbol of inimitable Time: the indomitable will of the South African people shall live forever. The lesson for “To the Proud,” Kunene suggests, would be for him to be careful and cautious, and to be guided by the principles of love, truth, and peace.
The poem, “Thoughts on June 26,” is described by O.R. Dathorne as one of kunene’s lyrics which rail against foreign incursions into Africa9; it is a celebratory piece in honor of South Africa
The poem is built on suggestions, allusions, and innuendos. For example, the expression “the rape of iron holding the neck of young bulls,” is a satirical allusion to the era of slavery when the captured slaves were chained in the neck by their captors and subjected to servitude. The image, “orphans of sulphur,” alludes to the deadly sulfurous gases which were unleashed on innocent children by the South African police during the race riots.
In the light of the intolerable state of affairs, the poet vows retaliation which he repeats twice (“All shall be avenged/… shall be avenged,” line 285). He also employs the first personal pronoun “I,” which he mentions sixteen times, to suggest his determination to ensure that this vow is kept.
While the first part of the poem (that is, line 1-22) is a satiric indictment of the South African Apartheid policy, with its shameless dehumanization of people, the last part of the poem (lines 23-26) is an attack on the hypocrisy of the Western powers not only for sustaining the status quo, but for encouraging the socio-political and economic exploitation of the majority race in South Africa.
The date, June 26, is thus a watershed that will not soon be forgotten in South African history: first, it is a national day of celebration or remembrance, that is, of those killed on a particular day through no fault of their own; secondly, it is a concrete documentation of man’s inhumanity to man on a globalized scale, where, for inexplicable reasons, man turns his back unashamedly towards crime and other iniquities; finally, it suggests the fact that despite the evils that permeate the universe, the voice of poetry -- especially as practiced by artists like Kunene -- will cry out vigorously for injustice to be addressed in order for truth to prevail.
Another lyric worthy of consideration for its treatment of the Apartheid policy is “Elegy”. Although this poem also addresses two other themes, namely, the death of Mzingeli (a local hero), and the death of the ancestors, it is the theme of the pernicious effect of the Apartheid policy in South Africa
Divided into four stanzas, the first stanza briefly touches on the demise of Mzingeli, “son of the illustrious clans”); the second stanza focuses on the failure of the dead ancestors to fulfill their promise to the living by protecting and promoting their interests; the third stanza is a scurrilous criticism of the South African Apartheid policy which the poet characterizes as the “ugly salamander,” while the fourth stanza delineates further on the atrocities wrought on society by the Apartheid South African government.
Of the themes highlighted above, it is the obnoxious policy of the Apartheid regime that causes the poet much pain and disappointment. Consequently, he employs very strong negative terms to describe it: “a thousand sorrows,” the “furious storms,” the “dark cyclones,” and the “barren desert” (lines 14, 17, 18, 20). Finally, in the last lines of the poem the poet, in a tone of humility and exhortation, can only pray for relief against the menacing Apartheid policy:
We count a million
Strewn in the dust of ruined capitals
The bull tramples us on an anthill
We are late in our birth
Accumulating violent voices
Made from the lion’s death
You whose love comes from the stars
Have mercy us!
Give us the crown of thunder
That our grief may overhang the earth
O we are naked at the great streams
Wanderers greet us no more…
(MAP, p. 360)
The allusion to the “million/strewn in the dust of ruined capitals” suggests the innumerable human beings who have met their untimely deaths through Apartheid, or slavery, or European colonialism. The reference to “violent voices” is an echo of the police brutalities which the minority South African government unleashed on Africans and other minorities. The expression, “We are late in our birth,” suggests the derogatory remarks often made against blacks by the whites. And the expression, “our grief may overhang the earth,” is a prophetic statement about the pain and agony which the Black man is destined to go through in life.
In employing the above images and epithets, Kunene not only seeks to document the atrocities and insensibilities of the South African racist government, he also seeks to land his argument on a solid foundation. Nor can one fail to appreciate the emotional impact which the last-quoted piece would have on the audience or the poem’s addressees: it is a classical reminder that, in the African cultural mythos, the dead ancestors and the God of creation are the ultimate source or authority to whom one can appeal for a solution, especially in a monstrous and complicated situation like the Apartheid policy.
III
The atrocities committed by the Apartheid policy in South Africa strengthened Kunene’s individual initiative, resolve, determination, and independence of mind.10 Consequently, he is willing to speak his mind even in situations of danger because, for him, things can be worse or more fearsome than what he has personally experienced in life. Thus in his verse he frequently employs the first person personal pronoun, “I” to express his feelings, such as one finds in such lyrics like “As Long as I Live” and “Farewell”. In these poems the voice of the protagonist is strident, strong, and unmistakable.
In “As Long as I Live” Kunene leaves no one in doubt as to his profound love of country, people, and places. The poem contains important political and historical reminders:
When I still can remember
When I still have eyes to see
When I still have hands to hold
When I still have feet to drag
So long shall I bear your name with all the days
So long shall I stare at you with all the stars of heaven
Though you lead me to their sadistic beast
I shall find a way to give my burden-love
Blaming your careless truths on yesterdays.
Because I swear by life herself
When you still live, so shall I live
Turning the night into day, forcing her
To make you lie pompous on its pathways
So shall I wander around the rim of the sun
Till her being attains your fullness
As long as I live….
(MPA, p. 207-208)
In the above stanza Kunene speaks with an intense tone of reclamation, candor, and love. The feelings expressed here are penetratingly suggestive: despite injustice, racism, police brutalities, cultural devastation, economic exploitation, and political intrigues and machinations, the poet has enough love in his hear to dispense. The frequent employment of the declarative world “I” suggests his personal integrity, steadfastness, and sincerity of purpose.
The line, “When I still can remember,” suggests the poet’s recollections of his early childhood -- the period of colonialism, the days of slavery and servitude, etc. The expression, the “sadistic beast,” is an allusion to the Apartheid policy which dehumanized people or “held them in fee.” The phrase, “your careless truths on yesterdays,” recalls the blatant lies and propaganda told both to the local populace and the international community by the Apartheid government that its obnoxious policy has good intentions for its people.
Finally, the details of the specific recollections, as exemplified in the “day,” the “night,” as well as the “eyes,” the “hands,” and the “feet” -- are illuminating and interesting. They demonstrate the poet’s overwhelming sense of commitment to the issues of the moment, the past, and possibly the future.
If there is any lyric in Kunene ’s poetic corpus that celebrates human obligations to oneself and to one’s country in order to “carry the duty of life,” that lyric is “Farewell.”
O beloved farewell…
Hold these leaping dreams of fire
With the skeletal hands of death
So that when hungry night encroaches
You defy her stubborn intrigues.
Do not look to where we turn and seethe
We pale humanity, like worms
(The ululations might bind you to our grief)
Whose feet carry the duty of life
Farewell beloved
Even the hush that haunts the afternoon
Will sing the ding-dong drum of your ultimate joy
Where we sit by the fireside tossing the memories
Making the parts fit into each day complete;
Yet knowing that ours is a return of emptiness
Farewell, yewu…ye
(MPA, p. 207)
There is much to admire in this poem: whether mourning the unfortunate demise of a soul, or celebrating the profound legacies of the dead ancestors, or bidding farewell to an evanescent cultural landscape as Wordsworth does in his intimations Ode, or warning humans of the need to perform their daily obligations dutifully because life is complex and short, or whether castigating the iniquities and crises of the mundane world -- we find all of these facts in this poem.
What do we gain from Kunene ’s verse? We learn a great deal about his life and his poetic vision and sensibility: he discusses diverse poetic themes, including the beauty of the African topographical landscape and the dynamic role of the dead ancestors in human affairs; he castigates the pernicious effects of the South African Apartheid policy; and he appeals to our sense of duty and responsibility, not only to improve our individual well-being but to enhance the fortunes of the society we live in. Kunene is a lover of humanity, a patriot, and a remarkable poet.
Notes
1. Mazisi Kunene, “In Praise of the Ancestors,” in A Selection of African Poetry, introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex: Longman Group, 1976), p. 276. Further citations from this anthology will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as SAP, followed by the page number(s).
2. See O.B. Hardison, The Enduring Monument: A Study of the Idea of Praise in Renaissance Literary Theory and Practice (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962), p. 118.
3. See Mazisi Kunene, “The Echoes,” in The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier (London and New York: Penguin Books, 1998), p. 358. Subsequent citations from this anthology will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as MAP, followed by the page number(s).
4. O.R. Dathorne, African Literature in the Twentieth Century (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1975), p. 138.
5. Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, Modern Poetry from Africa (Harmondsworth, Middlesex and New York: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 15. Subsequent citations from this anthology will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as MPA, followed by the page number(s).
6. Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe, The Companion to African Literatures (Oxford and Bloomington : Indiana University
7. “To the Proud,” in Modern Poetry From Africa, edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1976) p. 205. Subsequent citations from the volume will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as MPA, followed by the page number(s).
8. As Ronald A. Knox makes clear, the fall of the hero, as shown in “To the Proud,” for example, can be a source for humor. See Ronald A Knox, “On Humor and Satire,” in Modern Essays in Criticism: Satire, edited by Ronald Paulson (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1971), p. 52.
9. O.R. Dathorne, African Literature in the Twentieth Century (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1975), p. 215-216
10. For example, the Apartheid policy partially drove him to leave South Africa in 1959 for Britain
Works Cited
Dathorne, O.R. African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota
Hardison, O.B. The Enduring Monument: A Study of the Idea of Praise in Renaissance Literary Theory and Practice. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Killam, G.D. & Ruth Rowe. The Companion to African Literatures. Oxford and Bloomington : Indiana University
Knox, Ronald A. “On Humor and Satire,” Modern Essays in Criticism: Satire, ed. Ronald Paulson. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
________. “To the Proud,” Modern Poetry from Africa , ed. Gerald Moore & Ulli Beier. Hammondsworth, Middlesex , England
________. “The Echoes,” The Penguin Books of Modern African Poetry, ed. Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier. London and New York
This was really helpful. thank you...
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DeleteWhat is mazisi kunene's view on the poem 'spectacle of touch
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