This document provides an overview of a lecture on place and space in South African poetry. It discusses several poems, including "A Poem" by Es'kia Mphahlele and "In Exile" by Arthur Nortje. For each poem, it provides background on the poets' lives and exile experiences. It also examines themes in the poems like belonging, abandonment, and alienation. Students are instructed to analyze similarities and differences between the poems, considering themes, imagery, poetic devices, and representations of place. The document aims to help students meet several learning outcomes related to critically analyzing these aspects within and across the prescribed poems.

1. Place and Space in South African
Poetry
English 2A LU 1 Theme 2

2. In the previous poetry lecture, you
learnt about poetic licence and code
switching.
After your initial reaction of
confusion when listening to
isicamtho poetry, have you found
anything in it which you appreciate?
What?
Recap

3. Learning Outcomes
LO2.1
Critically discuss
the major themes
of the prescribed
poems.
LO2.3
Critically analyse the
poetic representations
of geography, culture,
place, space, land,
landscape, power and
identity within and
across the prescribed
poems.
LO2.2
Discuss the
influence of the
historical and
cultural context of
each prescribed
poem on those
poem’s themes.
LO2.4
Evaluate the
relevance and
significance of the
prescribed poems
to contemporary
21st Century
South Africa.

4. Free association
Go to menti.com and use the code
5492 3337.
Listen to “A Poem” by Es’kia
Mphahlele.
Use Mentimeter to add your
associations to a word cloud.
Discuss your reactions.
Moffett (2015, p.185)
LO2.1

5. Poet’s life
“The first three stanzas refer to
Robben Island” (Moffett, 2015,
p.186).
The poet, Es’kia Mphahlele, was a
teacher who opposed Bantu
Education. As a result of his activism
he was fired and banned from
teaching (Jordan, n.d.).
However, he was not imprisoned on
Robben Island. Why does he write
about the place?
LO2.2, LO2.4
A Poem
What is there that we can do or say
will sustain them
in those islands
where the sun was made for janitors?
What is there that we can say or do
will tear the years
from out the hands
of those who man the island galleys,
will bring them home and dry and mend them
bring them back
to celebrate
with us the song and dance and toil of living?

6. Repetition
Reread the first four stanzas of
“A Poem”.
Which lines are repeated?
What is the effect of the
repetition?
Respond to these questions in
the chat or by unmuting
yourself and speaking.
LO2.3, LO2.4
Photo | Milad Fakurian | Unsplash

7. Poet’s life
After being banned from teaching, the poet, Es’kia
Mphahlele, lived in exile for 20 years, in Nigeria,
France, Kenya, and the USA (Moffett, 2015,
p.185).
He was not alone in his exile. After the Sharpeville
Massacre in 1960, the ANC was banned in SA,
and party members lived in exile (Ellis, 1991).
Having achieved his MA through UNISA in 1957,
Mphahlele went on to earn his PhD in Creative
Writing from the University of Denver in 1968.
He wrote 17 books between 1947 and 2004, the
second of which was nominated for a Nobel prize
in literature (Ainsworth, 2006).
LO2.2, LO2.4
Photo | Tshepo Madlingozi

8. Place and exile
LO2.2, LO2.4
So many routes have led to exile since
your day our Elders
we’ve been here
and back in many cycles oh so many:
no terrain different drummers borrowed
dreams, and there
behind us now
the hounds have diamond fangs and paws of steel.
No time for dirge or burial without corpses:
teach us, Elders,
how to wait
and feel the centre, tame the time like masters,
sing the blues
so pain will bleed and let the islands in,
for exile is a ghetto of the mind.
Consider the emphasised words
and phrases in this extract from
“A Poem”.
1. Who do you think the Elders
are?
2. What is conveyed by the
expression “ghetto of the
mind” and how does it relate
to space and place?
Share your reflections in the chat
or by unmuting yourself and
speaking.

9. Dislocation Dislocation is a relevant concept for
poems about exile. One sense of the
word is disruption of a life, and it is
often used in reference to refugees.
“[D]islocation, the most specific
descriptor of what occurs when one
abandons one life, by choice, by force,
or by circumstance, and is thrust into an
unknown landscape.” Engel (2016)
LO2.1

10. Themes of “A Poem”
Belonging?
Belonging, abandonment, and alienation are common themes for poetry about space
and place.
Are any of them major themes of “A Poem”?
What are the poem's major themes?
Discuss the themes in your break out rooms, using the Mentimeter word-cloud to help.
Abandonment?
Alienation?
LO2.1

11. Feeling poetry
Listen to “In Exile” by Arthur Nortje.
As you listen, write down the senses
which the poem engages.
Make note of imagery which you relate
to, as well as imagery which you find
confusing.
Moffett (2015, p.231)
LO2.1

12. Poet’s life
Arthur Nortje was born in 1942 in the Eastern
Cape, the son of a domestic worker, and lived in an
iron shack (Yang, n.d.).
He and his mother were categorised as “coloured”
by the Apartheied government, and his writing
shows how acutely he experienced racism growing
up in South Africa (Yang, n.d.).
Earning a scholarship to study in Oxford, he left
SA in 1966, studying and teaching in the UK and
Canada (Yang, n.d.). He experienced this time
away from SA as exile (Moffett, 2015, p.231).
Mental illness lead to an overdose and death at age
28 in 1970, still in exile (Yang, n.d.).
LO2.2
Photo | Wikimedia

13. Compare &
contrast
Go to menti.com and use the code
5492 3337.
Identify similarities and differences
between “In Exile” and “A Poem”
with a close reading.
Consider:
● Themes
● Imagery
● Poetic devices
● Place
Moffett (2015, p.185;231)
LO2.1; LO2.2; LO2.3

14. A comparative essay
BBC (n.d.)
LO2.2, LO2.4
● Introduction: Explain which poems you will compare, and in what ways.
● Balance: Ensure each poem is analysed in the same level of detail, with specific examples from each.
● Consistency: Rather than separate the analyses, compare both poems throughout the essay.
● Elements: Compare content, themes, attitudes, form, structure, and language.
● Conclusion: Summarise the similarities and differences between the poems in your conclusion.

15. Next lecture
We will move onto Learning Unit 2:
The Heart of Redness in earnest.
Ensure that you have read most of
the book by Monday.
Remember that the audiobook is
available for free on YouTube.

16. Bibliography
Ainsworth, J. (2006) Es'kia Mphahlele's African Literary Journey. Available at:
https://aneyeonafrica.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html (Accessed 22 March 2022).
Ellis, S. (1991) The ANC in Exile. African Affairs, 90(360), pp. 439.
Engel, P. (2016) 10 Great Novels of Exile and Dislocation. Available at: https://electricliterature.com/10-
great-novels-of-exile-and-dislocation (Accessed 24 March 2022).
Moffett, H. (2013) Seasons Come to Pass: A Poetry Anthology for Southern African Students. 3rd edition. Cape
Town: Oxford University Press, pp.11–29;185-186;231.
Yang, K. (n.d.) Biography of Arthur Nortje. Available at: https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/biography-
arthur-nortje-kangkang-yang (Accessed 24 March 2022).
Jordan, Z.P. (n.d.) Es’kia Mphahlele. Available at: https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/eskia-mphahlele
(Accessed 22 March 2022).
The Independent Institute of Education (IIE) (2022) English 2A: South African Literature Module Outline,
pp.7–21.