City Johannesburg - Wally Serote
NOTES
The title of the poem could be seen as the central Tenor, metaphorically specified by a number of
underlying vehicle and/or metaphorical constructions, which all serve to illustrate the ambiguous
relationship the lyrical subject has with the city Johannesb...
,City Johannesburg - Wally Serote
NOTES
The title of the poem could be seen as the central Tenor, metaphorically specified by a number of
underlying vehicle and/or metaphorical constructions, which all serve to illustrate the ambiguous
relationship the lyrical subject has with the city Johannesburg. The title may also suggest a central
Vehicle referring to the conditions black people were subjected to during the apartheid era. In other
words, as a central Tenor in the poem the title refers to the city only, but as a Vehicle, the title
alludes to a deeper meaning that characterizes the oppressive nature of apartheid. Regardless of the
reading one would prefer, “City Johannesburg” is about Johannesburg during the apartheid era and
the lyrical subject vividly describes how s/he experiences the city in this era of ethnic oppression.
Line 1 introduces the lyrical subject’s purpose in the poem by stating “This way I salute you”. This,
then, is a poem that pays a form of tribute to Johannesburg (the personification of Johannesburg as
“you”) as if the city is remarkable in some way and is deserving of praise. However, the irony of this
salutation is immediately overshadowed by lines 2 to 4 when the speaker states “My hand pulses to
my back trousers pocket/Or into my inner jacket pocket/For my pass, my life,”. We realise that the
Tenor in this metaphorical construction “My hand” and the verbal focus “pulses” constitute a
metaphorical construction because it is language that has been deliberately made different.
However, the objects “my pass” and “my life” are related to the subject and main verb because the
connective word “Or” and the linking word “For” in lines 3 and 4 respectively extend the
construction past line 2. So, to understand the hidden metaphor included in these lines we can read
line 4 as, “My hand pulses for my pass [and] my life”. The objects “my pass, my life” are linked to the
subject “My hand” by the verbal focus “pulses”. So, because of our understanding and knowledge of
the world, we know that this constitutes an extended metaphorical construction as it is illogical and
impossible for one’s hand to “pulse” for one’s pass and/or life. In addition, the verbal focus “pulses”
makes one think of a heartbeat – or more specifically an indication of life, as we are considered
“alive” as long as we have a pulse rate. One’s heart beats faster when one is nervous or threatened
in some way and the lyrical subject beautifully expresses the nervous condition caused by and
attributed to black people having to carry passes during the apartheid era. The reading that “City
Johannesburg” is a central Vehicle in the text is plausible here as this city is responsible for creating a
nervous condition within the lyrical subject.
Other metaphors are presented in the poem that further highlight black people’s physical and
psychological conditions of being removed from their homes in the countryside and sent to work in
the cities. Johannesburg is then an example of one of these cities where blacks were foced to work
(in the mines for instance). Lines 20 to 27 are noteworthy because the lyrical subject describes
his/her experience of traveling to and from work:
20 Through your thick iron breath that you inhale
21 At six in the morning and exhale from five noon.
22 Jo’burg City.
23 That is the time when I come to you,
24 When your neon flowers flaunt from your electrical wind,
25 That is the time when I leave you,
,26 When your neon flowers flaunt their way through the falling darkness
27 On your cement trees.
The city is described as a cold, lifeless entity ironically personified and given “natural” attributes. For
example, the adjectival and verbal foci in line 20:
20 Through your thick iron breath that you inhale
Nom. focus Adj. focus Nom. focus Verbal focus
(Implying Jo’burg City)
(Vehicle)
The underlying tenor vehicle relation in this construction could be read then as “Jo’burg City inhales
an iron breath”. Furthermore, in the construction in line 24, “When your neon flowers flaunt from
your electrical wind,” the metaphor is used to personify the cityscape using natural phenomena such
as flowers and the wind. The irony here is that cities usually lack these forms of natural phenomena
and it is as if the speaker wishes to foreground the man-made features of Johannesburg’s urban
landscape. To illustrate, the adjectival focus “neon” qualifies “flowers” and is also figurative because
“neon” is usually associated with things like lights and not flowers. As “neon flowers” is the thing
which is being possessed by the possessive pronoun “your” (Jo’burg City), we can also say that the
adjectival phrase “neon flowers” qualifies the subject/Tenor “Jo’burg City”. The adjectival focus
“electrical” qualifies “wind” and is also used figuratively. The word “electrical” is usually associated
with man-made features that require electricity for functioning. In line 24, “wind” is used
metaphorically because “wind” is a natural phenomenon. The effect of this personification of the
city serves primarily to drive the global Tenor-Vehicle relationship and highlights the inescapable
relationship the lyrical subject has with the city, irrespective of how cruel the city may be.
The global Tenor-Vehicle relationship is used to embed metaphorical constructions that illustrate an
ironic relationship to a city which is without life and meaning for the speaker. Line 40 is exemplary
and the lyrical subject exclaims:
40 Jo’burg City, you are dry like death,
(Nom. Focus Adj. Focus Nom. Focus)
This metaphorical construction equates “Jo’burg City” with death by means of the vehicle “dry”.
Johannesburg, then, is a city which is empty of water (suggesting nourishment and/or life) and so
lifeless; a place where the lyrical subject starves.
In conclusion, the metaphors in the poem combine with the global metaphorical construction to
conjure up images of suffering, oppression, and as Johannesburg is known is known for its riches
attributed to gold mining, the way it is described in this poem portrays the “feebleness/In [the] flesh,
in [the] mind, [and] in [the] blood.” (lines 31 – 32) experienced by migrant workers during apartheid.
As a global Tenor “City Johannesburg” describes how this is a place where the lyrical subject has to
live, yet despises. And as a global Vehicle, “City Johannesburg” offers us a glimpse of the irony of
being alive was like during the apartheid era.
, Title: City Johannesburg
The title tells us that the poem is about a specific place and setting, namely the city of Johannesburg.
It is a demanding, harsh and alienating urban environment. Two examples of words or phrases that
describe the setting.
“I can feel your roots, anchoring your might” (line 31)
“Jo’burg City, you are dry like death…(line 39)
Author: Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote (born 8 May 1944) is a South African poet and writer. He became involved in
political resistance to the apartheid government by joining the African National Congress (ANC) and
in 1969 was arrested and detained for several months without trial. He subsequently spent years in
exile, working in Botswana, and later London, England, for the ANC in their Arts and Culture
Department, before eventually returning to South Africa in 1990.He was inaugurated as South
Africa's National Poet Laureate in 2018.
Serote was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to school in Alexandra,
Lesotho, and Soweto. He first became involved in the Black Consciousness Movement when he was
finishing high school in Soweto. His presence in that town linked him to a group known as the
"township" or "Soweto" poets, and his poems often expressed themes of political activism, the
development of black identity, and violent images of revolt and resistance. He was arrested by the
apartheid government under the Terrorism Act in June 1969 and spent nine months in solitary
confinement, before being released without charge.He went to study in New York City, obtaining a
Fine Arts degree at Columbia University.
After contributing poems to various journals, in 1972 he published his first collection, Yakhal'Inkomo.
It won the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize in 1973.
He was a Fulbright Scholar and received a fine arts degree from Columbia University in 1979.[1] He
was not able to return to South Africa and he began a life in exile, living in Gaborone, Botswana,
where he was involved in the Medu Art Ensemble, and in London, where he relocated in 1986 and
worked for the ANC's Department of Arts and Culture.
He returned to South Africa in 1990, after the ANC was unbanned. In 1993, he won the Noma Award
for Publishing in Africa. In 2004, he received the Pablo Neruda award from the Chilean government.
He has served as chair of the parliamentary select committee for arts and culture, and was also the
CEO of Freedom Park, a national heritage site in Pretoria opened in 2007. He has founded a few
NGOs, iIKSSA Trust where he is the Chairperson, IARI which he is also the CEO. He sits on a few
advisory boards in the country dealing with Arts, Culture, Indigenous Knowledge and African
Renaissance issues. In 2018, Serote was announced as the National Poet Laureate of South Africa,
following the death of Keorapetse Kgositsile.
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