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READ THIS
The poem is a light-hearted dig at the white person's inability to pronounce complicated Xhosa names,
especially those which contain all the click sounds.
Nevertheless, the poet indicates a degree of resentment at the way whites create totally irrelevant names
for them.
COMMENT ON THE POEM
There appears to be absolutely no information on the poet. No background. No picture.
A quick google of the Internet reveals that this is a poem which is read repeatedly at public gatherings in
very high places. Yet its author remains a ghost.
The poet pokes gentle fun at the white man's inability to pronounce Xhosa names. The sample of words
which he provides, however, are really unpronounceable to all but Xhosa speakers.
Xhosa is a language full of clicks. The q, the c and the x are all click sounds but each
click is made differently.
The dl sound is also very difficult to wrap one's tongue around, unless again you are Xhosa
speaking.
History once revolved about these mispronounced names.
The British colonial government couldn't pronounce Chief Ngqika's name and so they called him Gaika.
A mountain in the Hobsback is still called Gaika's Kop.
Chief Ndlambe was renamed Slambie.
And the Gqunukwebe tribe became known as the "tribes of Congo". On the drive from Port Alfred
to Port Elizabeth along the coastal route, you will see a sign to "Congo's grave".
In the 1960s, singer Miriam Makeba recorded "The Click Song", a song based upon all the Xhosa
clicks. Go to YouTube and listen to it, and you will get an idea of what this poem is all about.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
The burly bureaucrat was surprised
What he heard was music to his ears
"Wat is daai, sê nou weer?"
- What language device or figure of speech is being used in the words, "burly bureaucrat"? What
is the purpose of using this particular language device? (4)
[Need help?]
The words "burly bureaucrat" would be an example of alliteration, would they not?
Alliteration is used in literature to provide a musical or lyrical quality to the words. The repetition of the
"b" sound, however, provides an abruptness to the words, an explosiveness.
Using this alliteration, therefore, not only provides a musical quality but also portrays the idea of the
"burly bureaucrat" being a big man, and a brusk man -- possibly a rude man.
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- Is there any particular reason why the poet would have made the "burly bureaucrat" speak
Afrikaans? (4)
[Need help?]
Although whites generally were involved in the whole apartheid thing, the whites with whom black people
mostly came into contact were Afrikaners. This was simply because there was a much larger proportion
of Afrikaners in South Africa's civil service.
English speaking South Africans were more than likely to go into business in some way -- management,
secretarial, shopkeepers, bank tellers etc -- whereas Afrikaners were statistically more likely to join the
civil service.
That being the case, it would have been more likely that the "burly bureaucrat" would have been
Afrikaans.
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- What does the "burly bureaucrat" mean by the words, "What he heard was music to his
ears"? (4)
[Need help?]
There was certainly no doubt that the woman's words were beautiful to listen to, the way the clicks rolled
off her tongue. It was therefore like music to his ears, even though he himself would make no attempt to
pronounce the words himself.
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Messia, help me!
My name is so simple
and yet so meaningful,
but to this man it is trash . . .
- There is an irony in her words, "My name is so simple". What is this irony? (4)
[Need help?]
Although the woman might say that her name was simple, that would only have been to Xhosa speakers
or Xhosa linguists.
Non-Xhosa speakers -- especially whites -- would probably have appreciated the sound of her name
when she spoke -- as the "burly bureaucrat" did -- but would have laughed when they themselves
tried to pronounce it.
Or they would have asked her whether she had an English name. Most black people also had an English
name which they tended to use in the presence of whites simply because the whites could not pronounce
their Xhosa names.
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- The woman says, "but to this man it is trash . . ." Is she correct in saying
this? (4)
[Need help?]
This is a difficult one.
The "burly bureaucrat" was definitely being offensive when he bluntly ignored the woman's name
and called her "Maria" instead.
At best he was being tactless. If he had been polite, he could have laughed at the difficult pronunciation
and said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I could never pronounce that. Do you have a name which I could
pronounce? Or what do your friends call you?"
Instead he merely ignored her name and gave her a name of his own creation but which had no
relationship to her real one.
But is it true that he regarded her name as "trash"? Probably not. After all, he had enjoyed the
sound of her name so much that he asked her to repeat it. Said it was music to his ears.
Does one do that when one thinks the name is trash?
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He gives me a name
Convenient enough to answer his whim.
[Need help?]
A "whim" is an arbitrary thought or impulse, something that is said on the spur of the moment
without much logic.
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- Would you agree with the woman's conclusion that the name he gives her is "convenient enough
to answer his whim"? Be sure to support your answer with good reasons. (4)
[Need help?]
Calling her "Maria" is rather arbitrary. It certainly has no logic to it.
Indeed, it would have been much more logical -- and less offensive -- to have abbreviated her name
into a form which he could manage.
But to call her "Marie" . . . It does sound rather like a whim to me.
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Maria . . .
I . . .
Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa
- What is the purpose for using ellipsis in these lines? (4)
[Need help?]
Ellipsis is usually the omission of certain words. But it also creates the impression of someone
grasping for words, not quite finding the correct words to use.
It is as if the woman is speechless. She has such a beautiful sounding name but the man calls her
"Maria", for which there was absolutely no logic.
What could she say? She is speechless. She is in shock. She can only hesitatingly repeat her name as
a sort of protest.
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