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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:
"She has the usual wrappings on
stick-thin, brittle shins,
patchy-purple, quietly rotting
methylated spirits skin:
doekie of incongruous elegance crowns
the scabrous, half-bald skull."
- Describe this woman in your own words. (6)
[Need help?]
The woman is wrapped in rags. What would they be? She is desperately thin. Her skin is purple because
of the cold, and they are patchy, possibly showing signs of old scars and burns. She is a meths drinker
and this too shows on her skin.
She is wearing some form of elaborate headgear. It's a "doekie" that is incongruously elegant for her
situation. What do you imagine it would be? Her scalp is half-bald and full of scabs. From sores or just
from malnutrition?
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"Her man, grotesque
as a gargoyle roused from stone"
- Why does the poet describe him as "her man"? (4)
[Need help?]
Again this is a literal translation from the Afrikaans: "haar man" or husband. On the other hand, there is
a degree of possession here: he owns her.
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- Why does the poet describe the man as "grotesque as a gargoyle roused from
stone"? (4)
[Need help?]
"Gargoyles" are truly ugly figureheads often found on English medieval churches. They are designed to
terrify people looking upon them. Are there any gargoyles on St George's Cathedral?
In this case, not only is the Coloured man as ugly as a gargoyle, but the colour of his skin and his dirty
wrappings make him look grey, as if he has been sculptured out of stone.
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" Good morning, sir,' he says,
and his voice is grave
as a paterfamilias in his lounge."
- Why does this scene surprise the poet? (4)
[Need help?]
Instead of finding a brutish, loud, argumentative man in the shelter, the poet finds a gentle (though very
ugly) man who is gently feeding his baby.
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- What is "a paterfamilias in his lounge"? (4)
[Need help?]
Literally, it would be a father of the family sitting in his cozy lounge. In other words, the man is at home
here, feeding his child as if he were a father sitting in the comfort of his home.
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- The greeting "Good morning, sir" also surprises the poet. Why? (4)
[Need help?]
The greeting is so genteel, so well-mannered. The poet was simply not expecting this from the homeless
couple. It seemed to be in contradiction to everything he had come to expect.
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"finding me alien on his home ground,
wishing the clouds would break and I be gone,
ringing my bike's absurd, small bell."
- Comment on the fact that the man finds the poet "alien on his home ground". (4)
[Need help?]
When all is said and done, the poet realises that, although the couple might be homeless, he is in fact
trespassing on their home. In other words, this is their home - this refuge from the rain next to the
cathedral.
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- Why does the poet's bicycle bell appear to be both "absurd" and "small"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet had been toying with the bell, remember? In a sense, therefore, the bell was important to him.
Now, however, he has encountered something truly important in life: a homeless couple who, even
though they owned nothing - not even a bicycle bell - nevertheless they had a life to attend to, that of their
infant child. In comparison, therefore, the bell had shrunk into total insignificance - making it both "small
and "absurd".
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