Poetry
Yakhal'inkomo
Mongane Wally Serote · 1972
Synopsis
The title refers to the cry of cattle at the slaughterhouse. In “City Johannesburg”, the poet greets the city where Black people may work but not live, and his hand, instead of rising, plunges into his pocket to look for the pass; the township, which he calls love and death, is set against the neon and concrete of a city that swallows and spits out those who come to toil in it. Other poems, such as “White People are White People” or “Hell, Well, Heaven”, urge Black people to rid themselves of the sense of their inferiority and to recover their culture and their voice.
Context
The collection appeared in Johannesburg in 1972 from Renoster Books, Lionel Abrahams's house, with illustrations by Thami Mnyele, including a mother and her child on the cover; its title takes up that of a jazz composition by Mankunku Ngozi. According to Matthew Williams, white critics received it poorly and ranked its author among the “poets of protest”, whereas black readers recognised themselves in it and called him “son of the people”. “City Johannesburg” was reprinted in his Selected Poems in 1982, then in the anthology The New Century of South African Poetry in 2002.
Who it is for
Poems in English, in free verse, in an oral and direct language, rich in images; not translated into French.
Prizes and reception
Ingrid Jonker Prize for poetry in 1973; the book made its author one of the voices of the Soweto poets.
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The pages consulted to check this page.