1. Quick Quiz:
•What ‘S’ is a comparison using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’?
• How is a metaphor different from a simile?
• In the poem Island Man what is the man dreaming of at the start of the
poem?
• In the poem Blessing how do we know that the people are poor?
• In the poem What Were They Like what is the poet describing when she
says the ‘bombs smashed those mirrors’?
• In the poem What Were They Like, what jobs did most of the Vietnamese
people have before the Vietnam War?
• What is the posh name for the verses in a poem?
• Name at least three things that the poems we have read have in common?
• What is onomatopoeia?
• Create a challenging question of your own about one of the poems we have
studied.

2. Lesson Objectives:
 To understand what apartheid was in South Africa
 To understand the relationship between racism and segregation
Activities:
 Watch 2 short videos about apartheid in South Africa 15-20 minutes
 Read the poem Nothing’s Changed and discuss the themes of racism and
segregation. 5-10 minutes
 To answer a series of questions on the poem 10-20 minutes
 Plenary – to be able to name three things that you have learnt about
apartheid and South Africa.

3. South Africa

4. Up until 1990 South Africa was an Apartheid country. This
means that white people kept themselves separate from
people of other races. They did not go to the same
schools, ,live in the same areas or even use the same buses.
Nelson Mandela argued publicly against this and was sent to
prison for it. He is still leading the fight against apartheid
with extraordinary vigour and resilience after spending
nearly thirty years of his life behind bars. He has
sacrificed his private life and his youth for his people, and
remains South Africa's best known and loved hero.

5. As you watch the video clips try to answer
these questions:
3)What is ‘apartheid’?
4) What is segregation?
5) Why were the black citizens of South
Africa so angry?

6. What is racism?
1. the idea that one's own race is superior and
has the right to rule others.
2. hatred or intolerance of another race or
other races.
What is segregation?
1. to separate or set apart from others or from the main
body or group; to isolate:
2. to require, often with force, the separation of (a
specific racial, religious, or other group) from the general
body of society.

7. We need to work through the poem now answering the following
questions:
 What happens?
 What are his feelings?
 How does the mood of the speaker change during the poem?
Activity:
Now write the story of the poem – using one sentence per stanza. Be
prepared to read these aloud!

8. Context
This is an autobiographical poem. Tatamkhulu Afrika (1920-2002)
lived in Cape Town's District 6, which was then a thriving mixed-race
inner-city community. People of all colours and beliefs lived together
peacefully, and Afrika said he felt 'at home' there.
In the 1960s, as part of its policy of apartheid the government
declared District 6 a 'whites-only' area, and began to evacuate the
population. Over a period of years, the entire area was razed to the
ground. Most of it has never been built on.
The poem was written just after the official end of apartheid. It was
a time of hope - Nelson Mandela had recently been released from
prison, and the ANC was about to form the government of South
Africa.

9. District Six

10. Tatamkhulu Afrika: December 7, 1920 - December 23, 2002
The writer and poet -- now known as the Grandfather of Afrika -- was truly African and
symbolised the pan-African ideal of a free Africa. He was born in Egypt and died in South
Africa.
His life story itself is a story racism and exploitation and also a story of one man's quest
for his and our humanity.
His parents died shortly after coming to South Africa in 1923 and he was raised by an
English Methodist family under a new name John Charlton. (He did not know his family
background) At 17 he wrote his first novel, Broken Earth.
In his life he had to face many obstacles that forced him to make a stand, resulting in
him changing his "race" and even his religion.
After working in Namibia for at least 20 years doing different jobs, and living with
Afrikaner foster parents where he got the name Jozua Joubert, he settled in District
Six in Cape Town where he reverted to Islam and had himself classified as "coloured" as
he did not want to be white, and wanted to continue living in his township.
He dedicated his life to speaking out about the racial problems faced by many people in
South Africa and is regarded as one of the greatest South African writers.

11. “Nothing's Changed is entirely autobiographical. I can't quite remember
when I wrote this, but I think it must have been about 1990. District Six
was a complete waste by then, and I hadn't been passing through it for a
long time. But nothing has changed. Not only District Six... I mean, we may
have a new constitution, we may have on the face of it a beautiful
democracy, but the racism in this country is absolutely redolent. We try to
pretend to the world that it does not exist, but it most certainly does, all
day long, every day, shocking and saddening and terrible.
Look, I don't want to sound like a prophet of doom, because I don't feel like
that at all. I am full of hope. But I won't see it in my lifetime. It's going to
take a long time. I mean, in America it's taken all this time and it's still not
gone... So it will change. But not quickly, not quickly at all.”
The poet
Tatamkhulu Afrika

12. The Cape Flats

13. One of the ways in which the poet shows the differences between the
two sets of people is to compare the places where they eat.
Which of the following characteristics do you think belong to the white’s
restaurants and which belongs to the black’s restaurant?
•Port Jackson trees •Crushed ice
•Wipe your fingers
on your jeans
•The single rose
•Take it with you
•Haute cuisine
•Bunny chows
•Guard at the gatepost
•White glass
•Linen falls •Spit a little on the
•Plastic table’s top
floor

14. One of the ways in which the poet shows the differences between the
two sets of people is to compare the places where they eat.
Which of the following characteristics do you think belong to the whites
restaurants and which belongs to the blacks restaurant?
•Port Jackson trees
•Crushed ice
White •Wipe your fingers
on your jeans White
•Take it with you Black •The single rose
Black
•Haute cuisine White
•Guard at the gatepost •Bunny chows
White
White Black
•Plastic table’s top •White glass •Spit a little on the
•Linen falls
floor
Black White
White
Black

16. The opening of the poem introduces us to the area that the poet lived (and
now returning to) in and tells us how he feels about it.
Small round hard stones click What words
stand out as
What Under my heels, important in he
impression poet’s
Seeding grasses thrust
do we get description of
of District Bearded seeds into trouser cuffs, cans, the area?
Six from trodden on, crunch Can you find
the first In tall, purple flowering, any poetic
stanza of devices that
Amiable weeds. the poet uses?
the poem?
‘Amiable’ means to feel friendly towards
someone or something. Why do you think
the author has included this word in his
description?

17. The opening of the poem introduces us to the area that the poet lives in
and tells us how he feels about it.
In the final line
of the stanza, Small round hard stones click
The words ‘click’
the poet uses Under my heels,
another poetic and ‘crunch’ are
Seeding grasses thrust examples of
devices called
personification. Bearded seeds into trouser cuffs, cans, onomatopoeia.
This is where This is where
trodden on, crunch
someone makes the poet uses
something which In tall, purple flowering,
words which are
isn’t human seem Amiable weeds. spelled the way
like they are they sound.
human. Why do you think the poet has
used these poetic devices?

18. In the second stanza of the poem, the poet goes on to describe how he
feels being back in his home environment.
What does District Six.
Why do you
the poet No board says it is; think the
mean when
But my feet know poet includes
he says ‘no
And my hands, so many parts
board says
And the skin about my bones of the body?
it is?’
What is he
And the soft labouring of my lungs,
trying to say
And the hot, white inwards turning about his
Anger of my eyes. feelings now
he is back?
Have another look at the last two lines of
the stanza. What can we tell about the poet’s
feelings from these two lines?

19. In the second stanza of the poem, the poet goes on to describe how he feels at being back
in his home environment.
The full stop District Six. What does he
at the end of No board says it is; mean when he
says ‘but my
the first line But my feet know
creates a very feet know?’
blunt and sharp
And my hands,
tone. The poet And the skin about my bones
wants us to And the soft labouring of my lungs,
think about the
And the hot, white inwards turning
name and
remember the Anger of my eyes.
details.
White is the hottest part of any flame – the
poet is suggesting that his anger cannot get any
greater. His anger has to be ‘inwards turning’ as
he cannot speak or write anything negative.

20. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/poemscult/afrikarev2.shtml

21. Lesson 2

22. The poet uses the structure ( the way the poem is set out )
to help make his point.
New, up market haute cuisine,
Guard at the gatepost
Why do you
What is the
think these Whites only inn
effect of
lines have been
having these
placed on their No sign says it is
lines stand out
own when all
But we know where we belong. on their own?
the other
What do we do
stanzas are I press my nose as readers?
much longer?
to the clear panes, know,
Before I see them …
What sort of tone do you think these lines might be read in?

23. The poet uses the structure ( the way the poem is set out )
to help make his point.
New, up market haute cuisine,
The poet wants
The poet wants Guard at the gatepost
the reader to
these lines to Whites only inn take a pause at
stand out. He is
this point in the
saying that, even
No sign says it is poem. It is
though nothing
almost
tells them that But we know where we belong. confrontational –
this is District
he is trying to
Six, he knows it I press my nose make us think
is from the look
to the clear panes, know, about his
and feel of the
situation.
place. Before I see them …
These lines might be read in an angry and frustrated tone – the poet
is annoyed that the situation has not changed for people like him.

24. The final lines of the poem tell us how the poet feels about the future.
What does
I back from the glass, Why do you
the poet tell
think the poet
us about how Boy again, says that his
he feels now
Leaving small mean O ‘hands burn’?
he is an adult.
What do we
What words Of small, mean mouth. have to
can you find Hands burn remember
to suggest about the
that the poet For a stone, a bomb to shiver down the situation that
is still angry glass. the poet finds
and Nothing’s Changed. himself in?
frustrated at
the
situation? What do we notice about the punctuation in
the last few lines of the poem. What does this
suggest about the future?

25. The final lines of the poem tell us how the poet feels about the future.
I back from the glass,
The poet The poet
tells us that Boy again, desperately
he still feels wants to do
the same way Leaving small mean O
something to
as he did Of small, mean mouth. protest about
when he was the situation
a boy and Hands burn
but he cannot
that his as he has been
feelings of For a stone, a bomb to shiver
down the glass. banned from
anger have protesting.
not changed.
Nothing’s Changed.
The final line of the poem is punctuated with a full stop. It is as if
there will never be any improvement in the situation. It is a
pessimistic end to the poem.

26. Now that you have studied the poem and have analysed the language,
create a storyboard which will help you to remember the key details of
the poem.
Make sure that you have included:
•Key quotations from the poem
•Illustrations which will help you to remember
what the poem is about.

27. Bunny Chow

28.  On the next page there is a chart of
quotations.
 You must work in pairs.
 Discuss each quote with your partner
and identify what the significant aspects
of language are.
 How do these relate to the cultural/
social situation in South Africa?

29. Quotation Significant features How it relates to the
cultural/ social situation
of language in South Africa
‘. . . Cans/ trodden on, The cans suggest it is littered. District Six has not been fully
crunch/ in tall, purple- The weeds show that it is redeveloped. It appears
flowering,/ amiable weeds.’ unkempt. The phrase ‘amiable neglected. The blacks were
weeds’ draws the reader’s forced to move out and the
attention to it because of the land is now derelict.
unusual combination of
friendly & weeds
‘the hot, white, inwards
turning/ anger of my eyes’
‘new, up-market, haute
cuisine/ guard at the
gatepost,/ whites only inn.’
‘crushed ice white glass,/
linen falls,/ the sungle rose.’
‘spit a little on the floor:/ it’s
in the bone.’
‘leaving small mean O/ of
small, mean mouth.’