Nothing

1

• Nothings Changed
• The poem Nothings Changed is set in South
  Africa. The narrator describes visiting an area
  of Cape Town called District 6. District 6 was
  an area of Cape Town in which people of all races
  lived together until it was forcibly disbanded
  under apartheid. The poet describes returning
  to the area and the anger he feels at the changes
  there.

2

• Apartheid
• Apartheid, which means "separateness", was a
  system of racial segregation that operated in
  South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Under
  apartheid, the black and white people were
  separated and black people were denied voting
  rights within so-called 'white' South Africa.

3

• The system horrified most of the world and South
  Africa abolished it between 1990 and 1993.
• Under Apartheid
• Trains and buses were segregated. Black buses,
  known as "green" buses because they had a green
  marker on the front windscreen, stopped at black
  bus stops and white buses at white ones.
• Public beaches were racially segregated, with the
  best ones reserved for white South Africans.
  Public swimming pools and libraries were racially
  segregated. There were few black pools or
  libraries.
• Sex and marriage between the races was
  prohibited.
• Cinemas in white areas were not allowed to admit
  black citizens. Most restaurants and hotels in
  white areas were not allowed to admit black South
  Africans.

4

• Nelson Mandela was the first President of South
  Africa to be elected in fully representative
  elections. Before his presidency he was a
  prominent anti-apartheid activist committed to
  non-violence. Mandela spent 27 years in prison
  for belonging to the ANC, a group working to end
  apartheid in non-violent ways. This prison
  sentence became one of the most widely publicized
  examples of apartheid's injustices. Mandela was
  released in 1990 and worked hard to ensure a
  peaceful move to democracy in South Africa.

5

• The poem is concerned with District 6
• District Six was originally established as a
  mixed community of freed slaves, merchants,
  artisans, labourers and immigrants.
• District Six was a vibrant centre. By the
  beginning of the twentieth century, however, the
  history of removals and marginalisation had
  begun.

6

• The first to be 'resettled' were black South
  Africans, forcibly sent from the District in
  1901. As the rich moved away to the suburbs, the
  area became neglected.
• In 1966, it was declared a white area, and by
  1982, the life of the community was over. 60 000
  people were forcibly removed to barren outlying
  areas aptly known as the Cape Flats, and their
  houses in District Six were flattened by
  bulldozers.

7

• Nothings Changed
• Written by Tatamkhulu Afrika, novelist and
  prize-winning poet, who was born in Egypt in 1920
  and came to South Africa as a young child. He was
  a veteran of World War 2 and an activist in the
  South African struggle against Apartheid.
  Tatamkhulu Afrika died on 23/12/2002 as a
  result of complications resulting from injuries
  after being knocked over by a car two weeks
  earlier. His novel, Bitter Eden, published by
  Arcadia (UK) was launched in Cape Town on 7th
  December 2002 to coincide with his 82nd birthday.

8

• The poem starts with the narrator walking across
  a wilderness of weeds and rubbish, like an
  abandoned area on the side of a town. Grass seeds
  are blown onto his trousers and weeds flower.
• He gets to the area formally known as District 6.
  There is no sign there as the area has been
  demolished, but the poet knows it is District 6.

9

• The narrators whole body reacts to being back in
  this area. He reacts to the area with his feet,
  hands, skin and lungs. We might assume that he is
  angry and is reacting to the fact that the
  government tore down the area and evicted the
  residents as part of their programme of
  segregation of races.
• In the place of multi cultural Distric 6 stands a
  new hotel.

10

• The hotel is described as being Brash with
  Glass which suggests it is big and flashy. It
  is surrounded by incipient (meaning that they
  should not be there as not natural to the area)
  Port Jackson trees. Its upmarket, theres a
  guard at the gatepost to keep out intruders
  (the narrator?) and it is described as being a
  whites only inn.