Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

who, ~n the m~d-to-late 198Os, exempl~tied the dorn~nant Itberal pos~tion on SO
Afrrcan poetly
'the bestwriters in this country'
II [poctryl is tlic loneliest ofarts, the one which in this century can fittingly be
callcd the widow anit widower of all tlie arts. the onc i11ost neglected, most
bereaved. most impotent (Watson 1990: 15).
for the nose of the theor~sts
and the clang~ngniach~nery of the I~be~al Press (Van Wyk 1978 34)
Constrz~ctions of Protest Poetry
ast to Watson's position, Mothobi Mutloatse, writing at around the same
the continuing emphasis by black writers on socio-political issues:
ood in black literature can never be otlienvise but challenging, in that the
whole situation is still the same as the one that prevailed with the previous
generation ofwriters. in that we are still disenfranchised, we have no vote. we
have no land, and-if anything-things are getting worse economically and
otherwise(in Welz 1987:47).
As with other writers like Guy Butler and Douglas I,ivingstone, Watson's pro
iocated in his own marginality, which he projects as a universal characteristic".
of Watson, Ullyatt (1977:58) tried to 'balance' his disapproval of solne poem
October 1976 at the uinetietli anniversary of Jol~aniiesbrtrg ('a singularly inappropr
iod of enormous social division, inequity and conflict, Watson's 1987 essay
of the Old: What's Become of "Black" Poetry' (1990) crudely affinns the
d minority to which he belongs:
occasion to attack any law') by arguingthat:
hlack poets have been succunlbing regularly to debilitating effects of
resentment. and that has blindcd them to tlic creative potential of a Iicaltliy
One simply has to remember who are tlie best writers in this country. Without
exception they are those who have been most aware of other world literatures
and traditions elsewhere (Watson 1990:84).
rebellion. tural and political alienation from the majority of South
Ullyatt and others tried to sustai~~ their power and values through offering gui
the resistance writers who wrote in their medium. In his 1985 essay about the
by focusing defensively on what he calls 'world literatures"'. The most
co~nplaint against resistance writers concerned the 'overly political' nature of
ducts, as in Watson's (1990:91) argument that South African poetry has
poetiy in society Watson (1 990: 19) writes in favour of 'an ivlherently conse 'under the internal siege of its own political obsessions'. By negating the
f~~nction' of poetry as 'one kind of check in a larger system of imbalances ... w
seems sadly neglected these days'. Vet, the deployment of poetry by writers li
van Wyk and Dikobe wa Mogale as a 'check in a larger system of inlbaIances' (sucl
mic and social imperatives that inform oppressed lives,
d to recognise that black poets were responding to the
ditions, and that they adapted English to address the
apartheid and capitalism) is deprecated by Watson. Flowever, Watson's position
be read against the socially committed work that appeared in spite ofthe oi3pr
the i 970s and 1980s.
1,css privileged South African writers were dealing with the decitnatio
ttllo~c artists and cornrrides. Chris %van Wyk's poem 'We ciill't meet Ilere, l ~r
I-harni Mnycle' (1 978:34) was wri~ten after Ole artist and activist. l'halni Mny
cit in Watson's statements regarding 'the best writers in this country' is
s in South African literature, which intensified as
ugh Bantu education began to enter the tertiary
rities. In such a context the invocation of 'the best
claim devoid of articulated criteria; rather it is
1 discourse mobilising pre-emptive mechanisms of
killed in ail S:'I.>F raid or? iiotswanaon 14 June i985, in which twelve peopie, jncl
:I H:irswai>a c!iilil, wrre slaugt~tered. f'hc peen? is not so ~I-ILIG~I a critique offhe
(whicir rnav bc ass~~rnecl)~ iilstead Van Wyk focuses 011 tile distraction catis
ity privileges'! Watson Ignores the fact that aesthetic
powei-hi! and self-serving press and intellectuals. Masquerading as r~niversai Goace
:heir liarrow interests ihreaterled Lo drown out the precarious corngnunicalion rletwo
between oppsesseci people::
1 catl't hear you!~rotIiei-!
is more circumspect formulation is in response to previous challenges. such as Cronin's
8) exhortation tliat South Africans need to 'learn how to speak' to and of themselves. and
stcolonial challenge - that the term 'universal' has served as a sy~~oiiy~i~ for the West.
clr developiilents are not new, as Carey (1 992) suggests. As oppressed people in socielies
'n won access to education, tlie elites developed a discourse of standards and excellence
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heir advancement. Herbert Vilakazi and Rotlhale Tema point out that i~ierit is usually
ver power, material and einotional security, and tlie desire to perpctuatc lnonopoly over
.Most ~vliite englisli pocts', McCIiniock (1987:237-238) argues, .conifortcd tlieiiiselv
illat ilie lonely poeiic voicc 1~3s also ilic ~Ioquent ~no~ltl~piece or~lriiversal triitli'.
tions for the current incumbents and tlieir kind, be it basetl on class. race, sex, religion