Answer to Question #285621 in English for Sabelo Xulu

Question

8.Read the poem ‘City Johannesburg’ by Mongane Wally Serote (available as an e-reserve). 
This poem and ‘Johannesburg’ by Lesego Rampolokeng are about the same place, and have similar themes. Discuss the similarities between these poems by providing quotations and/or paraphrases from both.
• One mark for correctly identifying the theme that both poems share
• One mark for explaining it correctly with quotations/paraphrases from both poems

Answer 1

a) The theme of the poems is the oppression of individuals and the restriction of the movement of Black South Africans working in the cities, like that of Johannesburg.

b) In the two poems, City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg the writers both portray different imagery on their view of life during the ethnic oppression of apartheid; the two diverse situations have both contrasting thoughts and emotions. Wally Serote feels personally victimized and helpless towards his living conditions and he has portrayed this through his poem by his sarcastic tone in the beginning and slowly ending off with exposing his feelings of anger toward the city. William Plomer sarcastically and lightly ridicules the white British men of their way of thinking and living with all their wealth and riches, he portrays them in a foolish manner and reveals to the reader that these men think themselves as “lordly”. Both of these poems have reactions of sadness from the reader as it was an emotional era and an emotional subject. Plomer speaks about the British mineworkers in the apartheid era whereas Serote speaks from a personal view as an African mineworker in the apartheid era, both showing the different sides of Johannesburg City.