Three protagonists in B.W. Vilakazi’s “Ezinkomponi” (“On the mine compounds”)
In this poem the great Zulu poet B.W. Vilakazi is preoccupied with the surreal scene of a gold mine compound in the 1940s Johannesburg, and reflects on the three protagonists of the drama that plays out in front of him: the miners, mine magnates and the heavy machinery, all things that drive the ent...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Afrikaans |
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AOSIS
2011-06-01
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| Series: | Literator |
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| Online Access: | https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/17 |
| Summary: | In this poem the great Zulu poet B.W. Vilakazi is preoccupied with the surreal scene of a gold mine compound in the 1940s Johannesburg, and reflects on the three protagonists of the drama that plays out in front of him: the miners, mine magnates and the heavy machinery, all things that drive the entire enterprise of enslaving the workers. Feelings flood his imagination: about the terrible status of the miners (with whom he identifies); what they have left behind, their dreams and the reality they battle with; the unfeeling and overwhelming spectre of industrialisation, and distant capitalist interests; and the instruments of oppression: the deafening mine machines. These three protagonists(especially the first and the third,) assume human characteristics and fight to justify their respective roles in the conflict. Vilakazi’s famous protest poem becomes a cry for help in the face of destructive industrial advancement as everpresent human drama, which pits values of gold/ and money against what is more fully human and worth living for; possibly unachievable present prosperity against a vision of future happiness and fulfilment. |
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| ISSN: | 0258-2279 2219-8237 |