The Poetry of Protest in South Africa

Not a "Dry White Season", Mongane Wally Serote's "For Don M-Banned"

Apr 28, 2009

Under Apartheid, many South African artists were banned under the oppressive regime. Mongane Wally Serote uses thinly-veiled metaphor to speak out in "For Don M - Banned"

Part of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa in the 1970s, Mongane Wally Serote wrote perhaps one of the most well-known protest poems of this era, "For Don M - Banned". His mixture of the elegaic form with political polemic gives this poem a timeless quality, which helps it to escape the trap of many protest poems, that of out-dated relevance.

Wally Mongane Serote, a Soweto Protest Poet

Born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, in 1944, Serote finished highschool in Soweto and this is where he first became involved in the Black Consciousness Movement. His association with Soweto allowed for his inclusion amongst the illustrious Soweto protest poets. The poem "For Don M - Banned" was written in response to the "banning" of fellow poet, Don Mattera, in the 1970s.

The Silencing of the Poetic Voice under Apartheid

South Africa, from 1948 until 1994, was unique in the fact that it was the first country to legislate racism. Under a conservative white Afrikaner (Afrikaners are the descendants of Dutch colonisers, although they have their own language – Afrikaans – and distinctive culture.) government, there was complete segregation of race. Black people lived in one area, white people in another. This government managed to retain its strangle hold on power until 1994, mostly through the violent quashing of opposition. For political activists and artists, one means of censorship was "banning", which involved muting dissenting voices. This amounted to silencing these people, through house arrest, a "ban" on contact with fellow activists and artists, and restriction of movement.

An Elegy for a Mute Comrade

An elegy is usually used to express grief or mourning for someone who has died. For a poet, having one's voice silenced is a kind of death, which is why Serote chooses the elegaic form to lament the situation of his friend. Although the poem also contains a strong political polemic, this is softened, and perhaps even hidden, through the use of poetic images and extended metaphors.

Natural Imagery in a "Dry White Season"

Serote likens the situation under Apartheid to a "dry white season"(1), "white" because of the subjugation of people of colour by white oppressors and "dry" because the vigorous suppression of dissent leaves no room for the organic life of creativity. In this "dry white season", "dark leaves"(2) "dry out"(2) as the creativity and happiness of black people are unable to survive in this dessicated, harsh environment. They fall "with a broken heart"(3) to the ground, leaving behind only bare trees. The use of the long, run-on line in line three mimics the natural movement of the leaves as they fall to the ground.

South Africa, a Nation Built on the Backs of the Oppressed

Without these leaves, the trees become as "dry" as their environment, "dry like steel, their branches dry like wire" (7). In contract to the natural imagery evoked by "season", "trees" and "leaves", after this blight the trees and branches are tainted with industrialised imagery; they are like "steel" and "wire". They have been exsanginated, all of their life and creativity sucked out of them by this "dry white season". The shift between natural and industrialised imagery is deeply ironic, as - despite the refusal to acknowledge people of colour as equal human beings - the white oppressors were eager to use these people as cheap labour, something which turned South Africa into one of the most industrialised nations in Africa.

A Message of Hope

Despite the pessimistic imagery and the affirmation that "indeed it is a dry white season" (9), the poem ends on a note of hope, which is achieved through the development of the extended nature metaphor. Although it is impossible for "dark leaves" to survive in this environment, it is because of the season, "but seasons come to pass". This indicates the speaker's belief that the season, and the oppression of the Apartheid regime, will "come to pass". As dictated by the natural movement of the seasons, it will not always be a "dry white season" and this serves as a warning because change is natural and inevitable, despite the Apartheid government's actions to maintain a status quo and an imbalance of power.

The copyright of the article The Poetry of Protest in South Africa in World Poetry is owned by Sarah Wild. Permission to republish The Poetry of Protest in South Africa in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

May 12, 2009 8:40 AM

Guest :

As noted with regard to statutoryness, things change. For how long will people be kept quiet, I know not but, as for oppression, it does exist. One good writer should erupt among us to critique the current situation. There is imbalance with the way things are operated in SA. Be it Political or Social, the people are still being hurt.

Nothing of what is happening in SA at the moment could be judged wrong or right - but both. it is this duality of oppression that needs attention. Attention in the sense that 'Apartheid is gone, but the bitterness of it all has not yet disappeared'. Modern leaders are emmulating their 'predeceasors.' Someone, my calibre has to erupt...