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The poet seeks refuge from the pouring rain under the eaves of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town.
There he meet a homeless Coloured couple who are also sheltering from the rain. They are looking after
a baby. Instead of begging money from the poet as he expects them to do, they wish the rain would stop
so that he will go away and leave them alone.
ABOUT THE POET
Tatamkhulu Afrika was born in Egypt in 1920 and was given the name Mogamed Fuad Nasif. His parents
moved to South Africa when he was two years old but, when they both died of Asian flu, he was fostered
by family friends who changed his name to John Charlton.
Still in his late teens, he fought in North Africa during World War 2 and was captured at Tobruk. After the
war, he decided to leave his foster family and moved to South-West Africa (now Namibia) where he was
taken in by an Afrikaans family. He became known as Jozua Joubert.
He converted to Islam in 1964 and so once again his name changed - this time to Ismail Joubert. He
had himself declared to be Coloured rather than White and took up residence in District 6, a well-known
mixed race suburb near Cape Town's city centre.
In 1967 District 6 was declared to be a White area in terms of South Africa's "Group Areas Act" of 1950.
Ismael Joubert took up a fight to save it. He failed. The suburb was largely flattened and became a
wasteland for several decades.
He now took his battle against the apartheid regime itself, joining the banned African National Congress
and its armed wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe. Because of his age, they gave him the nickname
Tatamkhulu Afrika (Grandfather Africa).
In 1987 he was arrested for terrorism and was imprisoned. He was forbidden to write but continued to
do so under the name Tatamkhulu Afrika. He was released from prison in 1992 but he chose
thereafter to make his nickname his own.
Tatamkhulu Afrika published his first novel (Broken Earth) when he was only 17 years of age. His
second book (Bitter Eden) was written when he was a prisoner-of-war. He published his first
anthology of poetry when he was 51.
Since then he has won no less that six literary awards. He died in 2002 after being run over in a
car accident. He was then 82 years of age.
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:
"Then they cough and I know
I am not alone:
far back, against the great, nailed doors,
they huddle: troglodytes
of night's alcoves"
- Are the people coughing to let the poet know they are there? (4)
[Need help?]
They are probably not coughing to let the poet know they are there. Homeless people are always at the
mercy of the elements and easily pick up coughs or even pneumonia. They are therefore probably just
coughing because they are ill.
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- Comment on the significance of the "great, nailed doors". (4)
[Need help?]
It is of course a description of the great cathedral doors, made of dark wood and decorated with large,
ornate nails. Is it possible, however, that the poet could also be making reference to the nails which held
Jesus to his cross? In other words, just as Jesus suffered on the cross, so are these homeless Coloured
folk suffering.
One could argue that the poet, being Moslem and not Christian, would not be referring to a Christian
symbol. But Moslems also believe in Jesus: they simply believe that he was a great prophet but not a
god. Therefore a Moslem poet, upon seeing the nails in the door, might make the connection between
Jesus' suffering on the cross and the Coloured folk suffering through homelessness.
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- What are "troglodytes"? Why would they be "troglodytes of night's alcoves"? (4)
[Need help?]
"Troglodytes" are cavemen. While troglodytes live in caves, however, this Coloured couple spend their
nights in any alcoves and shelters which the city might offer them. The alcoves are therefore their urban
caves at night.
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"municipal benches where
lunchtime's city workers, stripping down
their food-packs, sit
in sober rows."
- What point is the poet making by this description? (4)
[Need help?]
At night-time, this Coloured couple sleep on the city's park benches. During the day, however, the
benches are where the city's workforce sit to have their lunch.
The poet is wishing to contrast the two. In the daytime, everything is orderly. The workers each have their
food-packs - each neatly wrapped - and they sit in polite "sober rows" to eat their lunch.
At night-time, however, the park benches become disorderly as the homeless people stretch out to sleep
there, often having had no food and themselves wrapped in anything that might give them warmth.
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"I fear to turn around,
stiffen in expectation
of the inevitable tugging at my sleeve,
wonder if I have any coins"
- Is the poet afraid of these people? (4)
[Need help?]
No, the poet is not afraid that this couple might attack him. In fact, he sees them as being quite harmless.
His fear is a very simple one: that they will ask him for money and he might feel obliged to part with his
few coins.
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- Why does he mention "the inevitable tugging at my sleeve"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is generalising about this homeless Coloured couple, isn't he? As soon as he sees them, he
expects them to beg for money. It is "inevitable" that they will tug at his sleeve and ask him for something.
And, of course, he might find himself in an embarrassing situation because he's not sure that he has any
coins in his pocket. Will they believe him if he says he has none?
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"wonder why they do not bicker,
as they always do,
cursing their mother's wombs"
- The poet is again generalising about these Coloured folk. In what way? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is expecting the Coloured couple to be fighting with each other, arguing and swearing and saying
the most uncouth things. This is what homeless Coloured folk do . . . right?
The term "cursing their mother's wombs" does not sound bad in English but translate it into Afrikaans and
it becomes a truly disgusting statement, and something for which the homeless Coloured folk are
famously associated: "My ma se . . . "
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- His meeting with this couple is therefore quite a surprise. Why? (4)
[Need help?]
Instead of shouting, arguing and swearing, the poet finds the man is holding a baby which he is feeding
with a bottle of milk. Indeed, he is quite silent except for soft, gentle noises to lull the baby into tranquillity.
The man is full of love and affection rather than being brutish and loud. They are not a stereotypical
homeless couple at all.
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