Comparing Not My Business with Nothing’s Changed Essay Example

to speak up about their feelings and attitudes to things.In our society, people are not dragged out of their houses or killed for saying something is wrong. Subsequently, the structures of the poems are very different. 'Not My Business' is very uniform as the first three stanzas all follow a pattern of having the same shape and they repeat the same question in the same way; "What business of mine is it so long as they don't take the yam from my savouring mouth? " This is repeated after each of the first three stanzas to make you connect to the narrator and his views as many of them are similar to many people's today.

Nothing's Changed' on the other hand at first, appears to have a much more cluttered structure in the way that it looks on the page. However, when observed in detail, you see the narrator has clever subtle repetition in phrases; "No board says it is" in the second stanza is repeated as; "No signs says it is" in the fourth. This adds rhythm to the poem which gives it more structure and makes the poem more readable as a poem through this. Tatamkhulu Afrika uses a lot of descriptive vocabulary to shot just how well catered for the whites are; "crushed ice white glass".It shows the glasses being as shiny and as clean as crystal. He shows the attitude of the white people that someone else will do it; "linen falls", portraying the whites to just throw things like linen on the floor, while not even letting the blacks making good use out of it.

All this is hidden; "the single

rose" hides the problems that society has and instead just makes people misinterpret the area into being a civilised place. Yet I know the truth of the race hate and constant discrimination. In 'Not My Business' the narrator refers to his yam several times.It is a very acquirable cheap food that doesn't have much variety and nutritious value. Yet the narrator not only accepts this, but describes it as; "savouring". It is the highlight of his day every day.

This makes you sympathise with the fact that everything in Nigeria is so bad that the best thing in someone's life there is a sweet potato. The techniques used in both poems are very effective. 'Not My Business has a clever use of personification and similes in the first stanza; "Stuffed him down the belly of a waiting jeep" which gives a good representation of mistreatment and shows the mean treating 'Akanni' like an object.The use of the simile; "beat him soft like clay" gives the impression of 'Akanni's' bones being broken and his body reshaped like clay.

In 'Nothing's Changed' Tatamkhulu Afrika uses onomatopoeia in the first stanza; "trodden on, crunch". The world crunch gives a very visual image of the cans being destroyed and walked over, this highlights the idea of the white minority walking over the black majority. TA also used special uses of words that echo each other, for example assonance is used when the sound; "rose" in the fifth stanza is echoes at the end of stanza six; "bone".Furthermore, both poems display strong attitudes in the form of violence. Even though, 'Nothing's Changed' is violence referring from Tatamkhulu Afrika and his

society to the higher powered people, while 'Not My Business' displays the minority committing acts of violence against the rest of society. Tatamkhulu Afrika displays hatred towards the apartheid (the separation of white and black people) in South Africa; "Hands burn for a stone, a bomb, to shiver down the glass".

This shows how Tatamkhulu Afrika is disgusted y the Apartheid so much, that he would like to get revenge in someway, even to use a bomb to destroy the; "Whites only inn". He talks about the inn being very ostentatious; "name flaring like a flag". He is insulted by the whites trying to make district six an amazing looking place, when it's really a place of racial hate and discrimination. It is hard to know that there were and still are places like this, which represent everything wrong in the world.

Moreover, in 'Not My Business' Niyi Osundare talks about people who will be violent in any way they want, whenever they want; "one morning"; "one night"; "one day"; "one evening". This gives the impression that these are people who are 'untouchable', and are most probably government types such as armed military men hired to send people 'messages'. How can it be that the people who should be stopping and preventing this kind of behaviour are actually the people inflicting it?I am lucky to live in a better, more fair society that I can share my feelings and attitudes to things without arriving home to see someone has; "Booted the whole house awake". Both poets describe and explain their situations under the reign of General Abacha in Niyi Osundare's case and in the time of apartheid

in Tatamkhulu Afrika's. These were both taking place at around the same time - in the 90s - in Nigeria and South Africa. It's unimaginable that these weren't sorted out earlier.

To conclude, I believe that both poems try to give messages to encourage freedom and freedom of speech.As globalisation take place, we have begun to realise the horrors and to eliminate discrimination around the world. However, somehow there are still cases of this around the world. These poems have completely changed my insight on discrimination.

I don't think I can now stand by and watch someone be bullied without speaking up. Out of the two, I prefer 'Not My Business' as it is very simple yet extremely explanatory. It can be suited to fit general view of a majority of people and with no knowledge of Nigeria you can still empathise with this poem, as I have done.