Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

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Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

• Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali is a South African poet
  who wrote in English and Zulu. His poems were
  about the Johannesburg township of Soweto.
• He worked as a messenger before his first poem,
  Sounds of a Cowhide Drum, won the Olive Schreiner
  Prize in 1974.
• Poems he has written
• A Ride on the Whirlwind
• The Soweto I Love

Nightfall in Soweto
Always A Suspect
Apartheid
Soweto
Johannesburg Mazda
We garentee the best price in town Cars to suit
your needs
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Nightfall in Soweto
Nightfall comes like a dreaded disease seeping
through the pores of a healthy body and ravaging
it beyond repair.   A murderers hand, lurking in
the shadows, clasping the dagger strikes down the
helpless victim. I am the victim.   I am
slaughtered every night in the streets I am
cornered by the fear gnawing at my timid
heart, in my helplessness I languish.
Man has ceased to be man Man has become beast Man
has become prey. I am the prey.   I am the quarry
to be run down by the marauding beast let loose
by cruel nightfall from his cage of
death.   Where is my refuge? Where am I safe? Not
in my matchbox house where I barricade myself
against.
I tremble at the crunching footsteps, I quake at
the deafening knocks at the door, Open up! he
barks like a rabid dog. thirsty for my
blood.   Nightfall! Nightfall! You are my mortal
enemy but why you were ever created? Why cant it
be daytime? Daytime forever more?
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About Nightfall In Soweto
The main point in this poem is that if they black
people are out of there homes after their curfew
they will get killed.
The poem is set in the streets of Soweto and in
this mans Matchbox house.
Nightfall! Nightfall! You are my mortal enemy.
Man has ceased to be man
The black South Africans are knowen as the prey
in this poem and the police are the beasts.
This poem is told by a black man saying how
Nightfall in Soweto is like a Dreaded disease.
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Always a Suspect
Then I enter the foyer of a building to have my
way barred by a commissionaire What do you
want?   I trudge the city pavements side by side
with madam who shifts her handbag from my side
to the other, and looks at me with eyes that
say Ha! Ha! I know who you are beneath those
fine clothes ticks the heart of a thief.
I get up in the morning and dress up like a
gentleman A white shirt a tie and a suit.   I
walk into the street to be met by a man who tells
me to produce.   I show him the document of my
existence to be scrutinized and given the nod.
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About Always A Suspect
This poem is told buy the black males of South
Africa.
In this poem the police are portrayed as
demanding and in control.
This poem is set in a white town of South Africs.
Where the white people do not trust the black
people.
The centeral problem that this poem talks about
is how the white people dont trust the black
people. The white people basicly own the black
people
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Apartheid
Apartheid is the rascial differences between
whites and non-whites. The law effected every
aspect of everyones social life. The law also
states that marrage between whites and non-whites
is strictly prohibited. There are three
categories of people in South Africa white,
black (African), or colored (of mixed decent).
The coloured category included Indians and Asians
etc. All blacks were required to carry pass
books'' containing fingerprints, photo and
information on access to non-black areas.
The Whites kicked the Blacks out of South Africa
and moved them into the Homeland. The idea was
that they would be citizens of the homeland,
losing their citizenship in South Africa
therefore having no voting rights in the
elections. Africans living in the homelands
needed passports to enter South Africa.
Apartheid ended in April 1994 when Nelson Mandela
took over the presidency South Africa.
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Soweto
The township was created for mainly black
labourers, who worked in mines and other
industries in the city, away from the city
centre. The inner city was reserved for white
occupation. In the 1950s, more black people were
moved from inner Johannesburg into Soweto.
Soweto is rows of tin shanties and piles of
garbage and rough roads dead looking fields and
dirty infectious streams.
Sowetos growth was phenomenal migrant workers
moved from the countryside and neighbouring
countries to look for work in the fast growing
Soweto.
Recent years have seen Soweto become a site of
massive development projects and a major tourist
attraction in the country