Christine Souffrant

English World in Poetry

“Sometimes I cry, I
The absolute poor
I am sick to death of watching my ruin”
-Dispossessed Words

This is not an uncommon perspective amongst individuals who live in the poverty stricken
townships of South Africa. At first glance, South Africa’s well developed capital provides a false image of
hope and prosperity. Yet within thirty minutes past the capital borders are the legacies of a horrible
chapter within South Africa’s history. And while many can argue for the progress made in today’s post
apartheid South Africa, it is hard to deny the psychological impact the era has had on the victims. The
psychological impact is complex in many respects, but one of the most notable damages is the impact it
has had on the victims’ perspective on their identity. Like many horrible histories of discrimination such
as slavery in America or mass extermination in Germany, the victims come to terms with hatred for the
identity that has caused them these hardships and how that impacts perceptions today is something
worth exploring.
Part of identity building starts with pride in the identity identified itself and when that is lost, we
have an internal buildup of hatred that destroys one from within. This is a concept that many African
writers warn their African brothers and sisters against. Throughout history, some individuals of African
descent have been taught to assimilate into the “civilized” culture of their colonizers and let go of their
“barbaric” past. This common transition is highlighted in “My Husband’s Tongue is Bitter” by Okot
p’Bitek. In my interpretation of this poem I found the victim to not be the wife who is scorned and
ridiculed, but the husband who has lost his connection to his identity through assimilation into European
culture. He proves this by degrading the most vivid connection he has to his culture: his wife. The wife
recalls her husband’s words and states:
Now you compare me
With the rubbish in the rubbish pit,
You say you no longer want me
Because I am like the things left behind
In the deserted homestead.
(Pg 573) p’Bitek.

The husband at this point has lost all respect for his African past and culture and feels that through his
assimilation into European culture he has truly attained a more uplifting identity. The wife recalls her
husband feelings of empowerment within this new identity with the statement that:
Ocol says he is a modern man
A progressive and civilized man,
He says he has read extensively and widely
And he can no longer live with a thing like me
(pg 575)
This reality is evident in today’s post apartheid South Africa amongst the current generation who
has opportunities to progress in areas of Cape Town’s capital. In a conversation with an elderly woman
from the townships, the woman expressed grief for her granddaughter who has turned her back on the
family after being schooled within Cape Town’s elite education system. The woman was so ashamed of
her daughter’s arrogance and new found “identity” and was saddened that such short exposure to
Afrikaans culture has led her daughter to hate centuries of traditional culture.
The irony within this situation at hand is that individuals like her daughter and Ocol believe they
have embraced an identity that uplifts them but the sad reality is that they are committing existentional
suicide. This reminds me of the words of Malcolm X who was an avid speaker for blacks to embrace their
African identity. In addressing the black identity crisis of America, Malcolm X once said that “In hating
Africa and hating Africans, we ended up hating ourselves without even realizing it. Because you can’t hate
the roots of a tree and not hate the tree…you can’t hate your origin and not end up hating yourself”. Thus
for every bit of hatred Ocol has accumulated for his African brothers and sisters he is in turn hating
himself. The wife states how her husband feels about his people in a statement that:
“My husband pours scorn
On black people,
He says Black people are primitive
And their ways are utterly harmful,
Their dances are mortal sins,
They are ignorant, poor and diseased! “
(Pg 575)

So it is evident that Ocol has truly lost ties to his African past and despises all who stay true to it. And in
seeing this reality the wife puts her foot down and demands better of him. She states:
“Listen Ocol, you are the son of a Chief,
Leave foolish behavior to little children,
Stop despising people
As if you were a little foolish man.
-(pg 573)

This emphasizes her understanding of the impossibility for Ocol to truly disregard his true identity since
she ridicules it as absurd foolishness. Her reaction is partly fueled by her pride and confidence in the
strength of African culture. With a stern tone the wife says:
Listen Ocol, my old friend,
The ways of your ancestors
Are good,
Their customs are solid
And not hollow
They are not thin, not easily breakable
They cannot be blown away by the winds because their roots each deep into the soil.
(Pg 581)

Is this the same for the young generations of Cape Town? The woman I met who told me the story
of her daughter is one part of the whole picture. While she suffers from the effects of lost identity within
her family, I’ve met many other individuals who believe South Africans both youth and old alike still take
pride in their culture despite the trials and tribulations they’ve faced in apartheid. Yet with the conditions
that many Africans face today within the townships of South Africa, there have been many conversations
about the internal hatred for how their skin color has situated them within a life of despair. So I asked the
woman why she has held true to her identity under these circumstances, when letting it go has given
people like her daughter the opportunity to prosper. Doesn’t it make sense to let go of something that is
holding you back and take in what moves you forward like Ocol has done? The woman laughed, paused
and asked me where I was from. I told her I was a Haitian African American. She asked me if I was proud
of being a Haitian African American, and I responded yes without hesitation. Then she asked why I hold
true to an identity that is flawed with a history of disgrace: “You say you are African American, and I
recall a history of your ancestors’ enslavement…you say you are also Haitian and despite their historical
achievement of being the first black republic in the world, Haiti is the poorest country within the western
hemisphere today. I immediately got defensive and said despite all this being Haitian African American is
who I am regardless of the sad history, and if anything these historical struggles shaped me to be a
stronger and more conscious individual…I love it who I am with all the flaws included even if I in some
respects I don’t even consider them flaws but just historical circumstances. She started smiling and I
stopped being so defensive because I realized I answered my own question. She told me if her daughter
returned, this is the same message she would tell her. When I got on the bus to return to the ship I
remembered the final words of the wife to her husband:
I do not understand
The ways of foreigners
But I do not despise their customs
Why should you despise yours?
Listen, my husband,
You are the son of a Chief.
The pumpkin in the old homestead
Must not be uprooted!
(Pg 581)
There is no resolution to the issue I have presented, but there is an adherence to the reality of it all. Some
try to assimilate to new cultures in the hopes that it will bring prosperity, but as I see it and as Okot
p’Bitek warns, you loose so much more…you loose yourself and that is perhaps the greatest lost of all…