New prescribed poems 'don't represent rainbow nation'

Zulu poet Themba Qwabe wrote Sthandwa Sami, meaning “My Love”, while grieving the loss of his sister Nonhlanhla in 2006.

The poem and another penned by the award-winning writer, titled Yobe nsizw’enye, have been included in the new list of prescribed poems for matric pupils studying isiZulu first additional language.

The department of basic education has introduced a completely new set of poems and short stories in grade 12 in all official languages this year.

The English list includes poems by Sinesipo Jojo, Beverly Rycroft, Chris Mann, Karen Press, Dennis Brutus and Sipho Sepamla while previous writers such as Mazisi Kunene, Jeremy Cronin, Mzi Mahola and Barolong Seboni have been given the chop.

Literary works by Afrikaans poets such as Antjie Krog, Suzaan Laing, Vincent Oliphant, Rike Olivier and Kobus Grobler also form part of the new prescribed literature.

Six short stories by Lubabalo Ngewu will be among the eight that isiXhosa first additional language learners will study this year.

But while the latest literary works have been widely welcomed, some academics and teachers said they are not representative of the rainbow nation.

Prof Michael le Cordeur from Stellenbosch University’s education faculty said his own research and those of Masters’ students revealed that the prescribed works for Afrikaans were not representative of all Afrikaans speakers.

“Gone are the days when Afrikaans speakers were only white and a few coloureds. Afrikaans is now being spoken by a large African and a significant Indian population but these communities’ works are not studied at school level.”

He said while it was important for every grade 12 pupil studying Afrikaans to know the work of Afrikaans greats such as DJ Opperman, NP van Wyk Louw and Adam Small, “a vibrant younger generation of Afrikaans poets and writers need to be studied”.

“Lynthia Julius is one that comes to mind while Ronelda Kamfer and her husband, Nathan Trantaal, are a huge omission. There are not enough works in Kaapse Afrikaans which is spoken by the majority of coloured people.”

Ragini Hassan, deputy principal of Wingen Heights Secondary in Durban, said there was “an over-subscription of protest/apartheid poetry” in the collection of 12 poems for English home language.

“This is serious, dark and gloomy, and the themes are repetitive. My personal  preference is to inculcate values from  across a  broader spectrum. There is also this joy to life that I would rather capture in my classroom than hover on the dark and gloomy.”

Afrikaans is now spoken by a large African and a significant Indian population but these communities’ works are not studied at school

—  Prof Michael le Cordeur, Stellenbosch University’s education faculty

Hassan said that while South African poetry is not limited to protest/apartheid material, four out of the five South African poems on the list fell into this category.

Mlamli Diko, a lecturer in the department of African languages at Unisa, said there was a combination of modern and traditional writers on the lists, which was important as it exposed pupils to a variety of isiXhosa literary works.

“This allows them to analyse different subject matter by writers with different experiences.”

He said that offering short stories was an attempt to encourage user-friendly literary material “while accelerating the culture of reading”.

“One of the advantages of reading an isiXhosa short story is that it allows one to easily comprehend the subject matter and reach the ending while the storyline is still memorable.”

Khumbulani Mngadi, director of the language directorate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said the isiZulu poets and authors on the lists “had expertise and experience, and were quality writers”.

He said research suggested that the academic performance of pupils learning in their own language was far superior to those learning through a third language.

“The English hegemony has made people believe it is not important to learn poetry in your own language. The drive is for schools to encourage students to appreciate and be sensitive about issues of language.”

Qwabe, who felt honoured that two of his poems were selected, said Yobe nsizw'enye was written many years ago “to comfort a colleague after he lost his fiancée shortly before they could get married”.

“As his housemate, I witnessed his devastating grief and would try to comfort him during that painful period.”

Another poet, Dumisani Nxumalo, said his poem Ingqalabutho was about distinguished Zulu poet Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, the first writer to publish an anthology of Zulu poetry.

Prof Zilibele Mtumane, head of the school of languages at the University of Johannesburg, was excited that his isiXhosa poem, Ukwindla, was included in the matric literature line-up.

“In the past a whole poetry volume was prescribed for grade 9 in the Eastern Cape,” he said.

Grobler, who is the head of department for Afrikaans first additional language at Elkanah House, a private school in Cape Town, was “surprised” that his poem, Susan Boyle, made the cut.

The poem is about the singer's first audition in 2009 for Simon Cowell’s show Britain’s Got Talent and her humiliation after she was mocked by the crowd.

“It’s an inspirational poem about her talent and how she changed the audience’s views about her.”

Rycroft said she was delighted that her poem What Life is Really Like was included in the poetry list for English first additional language pupils.

“I hope the poem will create a willingness to try to read the reasons and emotions behind the often harsh words people use. For me, that’s what poetry is about: presenting cliched, over-familiar issues in a fresh way.”

Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said at certain intervals, poems and other genres, should have new content "to avoid predictability and a repeat of questions in the Grade 12 literature examination paper".

"Poems and short stories would at some point reach a saturation period hence the need to constant review it," he said.