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The Coloured Voice: Finding Its Place in South African Poetry

Received: 29 June 2021     Accepted: 24 July 2021     Published: 29 July 2021
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Abstract

South African poetry has found its place in many parts of the world. Topics such as racism, discrimination and issues resulting from the past of South Africa, have all found themselves in South African literary journals and anthologies. One of the achievements of the South African poet has been finding a place for the disadvantaged group/s of South Africa, the group/s that have suffered through the past and present South Africa. However, through all the major South African journals and literary collections, the voice and life of the Coloured individual has been left out and overlooked. More importantly, this has resulted in the Coloured individuals of South Africa not knowing their place in the poetry world. More specifically, because they are not reading about their cultural power in poetry, they tend to believe that poetry is not for the Coloured culture and language. In this paper I intend to show that there has been a lack of place in poetry for the Coloured individual, and furthermore, to show that there is a place for the Coloured story and culture in poetry. As a result, what will be shown is the effect that the Coloured voice will have on South African poetry, and how it will benefit a large portion of the South African population.

Published in Education Journal (Volume 10, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16
Page(s) 154-159
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

South Africa, Poetry, Coloured, Mixed Race

References
[1] Harvey, C. J. D. “Local colour in South African poetry”. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 1955, No. 7 (1955), pp. 93-100.
[2] Kumalo, Lerato. “Childhood in Soweto.”
[3] Rich, Adrienne. “Faces of Commitment: Poetry From South Africa.” Crime and Social Justice, 1985, No. 24, STATE TERRORISM IN SOUTH AFRICA (1985), pp. 135-142.
[4] Amberger, Martin. “The Situation of The Coloureds in South Africa.” Pp, 1-3. https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=403f255d-5a29-7f20-0eaf-028a95224200&groupId=252038 28 June 2021.
[5] Cronin, Jeremy. “Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang”.
[6] Foley, Andrew. “A Sense of Place in Contemporary White South African English Poetry.” English in Africa, Oct. 1992, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Oct, 1992), pp. 35-53.
[7] Smith, Danita. “Laws from South Africa’s Apartheid.” Black and Education. Red and Black Ink, LLC. Web. 26 June 2021.
[8] Hamman, Meagan. “Your Guide to Cape Town Slang.” Cape Town Magazine. Cape Town Magazine Online. n. pag. Web. 27 May 2021.
[9] Adhikari, Mohamed. “Hope, Fear, Shame, Frustration: Continuity and Change in the Expression of Coloured Identity in White Supremacist South Africa, 1910-1994.” Journal of Southern African Studies, Sep. 2006, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Sep. 2006), pp. 467-487.
[10] Mashige, Mashudu Churchill. Politics and aesthetics in contemporary black South African poetry. Diss. University of Johannesburg, 1996.
[11] Sole, Kelwyn. "Bird hearts taking wing: trends in contemporary South African poetry written in English." World Literature Today 70. 1 (1996): 25-31.
[12] Hirson, Denis, ed. The Lava of This Land: South African Poetry, 1960-1996. Northwestern University Press, 1997.
[13] Decker, Michelle. "Entangled Poetics: Apartheid South African Poetry between Politics and Form." Research in African Literatures 47. 4 (2016): 71-90.
[14] Egudu, Romanus N. Modern African poetry and the African predicament. Springer, 1978.
[15] Mashige, Mashudu Churchill. Identity, culture and contemporary South African poetry. Diss. Rand Afrikaans University, 2004.
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    Kirsten Deane. (2021). The Coloured Voice: Finding Its Place in South African Poetry. Education Journal, 10(4), 154-159. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16

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    Kirsten Deane. The Coloured Voice: Finding Its Place in South African Poetry. Educ. J. 2021, 10(4), 154-159. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16

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    Kirsten Deane. The Coloured Voice: Finding Its Place in South African Poetry. Educ J. 2021;10(4):154-159. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16,
      author = {Kirsten Deane},
      title = {The Coloured Voice: Finding Its Place in South African Poetry},
      journal = {Education Journal},
      volume = {10},
      number = {4},
      pages = {154-159},
      doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211004.16},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20211004.16},
      abstract = {South African poetry has found its place in many parts of the world. Topics such as racism, discrimination and issues resulting from the past of South Africa, have all found themselves in South African literary journals and anthologies. One of the achievements of the South African poet has been finding a place for the disadvantaged group/s of South Africa, the group/s that have suffered through the past and present South Africa. However, through all the major South African journals and literary collections, the voice and life of the Coloured individual has been left out and overlooked. More importantly, this has resulted in the Coloured individuals of South Africa not knowing their place in the poetry world. More specifically, because they are not reading about their cultural power in poetry, they tend to believe that poetry is not for the Coloured culture and language. In this paper I intend to show that there has been a lack of place in poetry for the Coloured individual, and furthermore, to show that there is a place for the Coloured story and culture in poetry. As a result, what will be shown is the effect that the Coloured voice will have on South African poetry, and how it will benefit a large portion of the South African population.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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    AB  - South African poetry has found its place in many parts of the world. Topics such as racism, discrimination and issues resulting from the past of South Africa, have all found themselves in South African literary journals and anthologies. One of the achievements of the South African poet has been finding a place for the disadvantaged group/s of South Africa, the group/s that have suffered through the past and present South Africa. However, through all the major South African journals and literary collections, the voice and life of the Coloured individual has been left out and overlooked. More importantly, this has resulted in the Coloured individuals of South Africa not knowing their place in the poetry world. More specifically, because they are not reading about their cultural power in poetry, they tend to believe that poetry is not for the Coloured culture and language. In this paper I intend to show that there has been a lack of place in poetry for the Coloured individual, and furthermore, to show that there is a place for the Coloured story and culture in poetry. As a result, what will be shown is the effect that the Coloured voice will have on South African poetry, and how it will benefit a large portion of the South African population.
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Author Information
  • Department of English, The University of The Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

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