Examine how the South African poet, Takamkhula Afrika, represents his cultural identity and segregation by analysing the literary devices he has used in his poem “Nothing’s Changed”.

Apartheid is obviously evil that nothing can justify. People has the right to work together and create together. The poem "Nothing’s Changed" by Takamkhula Afrika is written to position irony to audiences about the racism system that is rampant in District Six and segregation unfolding across generations of black and white people in South African. Afrika has used language techniques as well as emotive language throughout the poem to represent the fact that apartheid has changed nothing but the physical appearance of District Six. This poem reveals the truth and the bitter disappointment of the author at the widespread racism, evident in the title of the poem, which describes what the poet wants to convey through the text. Afrika incorporates language techniques to reinforce to the audience the physical appearance and harsh environment of District Six. In the beginning, Afrika utilises imagery to convey the feeling of his surroundings. There are 5 separate monosyllables that audiences seeing “small, round”, when touching “hard”, and hearing “click” depicting the harsh sounds of the author’s physical and emotional pain when he wants to go back to his hometown. It is hard for him to return. Besides, the stanza also implies the signs of poverty through the use of onomatopoeia to create an unpleasant clicking “under his feet” sound. This shows him passing through District Six land where he has known since his childhood and the ravages of racism and segregation have filled him with anger and frustration. Moreover, at the end of the first stanza, the author compares black people who mistreated as “amiable weeds” portrays that black people are unwanted plants in society that should not appear on Earth. Therefore, Afrika has skilfully represented the physical appearance and harsh environment of District Six through the use of language techniques. This poem employs literary devices that arouses a great imaginative to create a thrill and drama about racism between blacks and whites at the author’s anger. The author manipulated the consonant to bring out the harsh sound “Brash with glass” hard to see inside the restaurant of white people. This shows that the “glass” symbolising the wealth of the upper class of the white people crushed on the lower class that they have to experienced. Moreover, It also demonstrates the glass’s rudeness and the author's impatience leading to irritability that makes the author want to destroy the restaurant. Afrika has made his language of judgment to the applying of triplet expensive for the upper- class “new, up market, haute cuisine” is a somewhat offensive term for the upper-class, before indicating that the facility is intended only for white people. It also assumes that black people are incapable of entering. In addition, the alliteration put to see the importance of the “guard” protecting the white people sitting inside the restaurant by standing “at the gatepost. ” This once again increases the author's height of anger. Through the manipulation of language techniques as frequently seen in the poem, the third stanza cleverly illustrates the author's anger over the segregation between blacks and whites. Furthermore, the author continuously utilises language techniques and emotive language to describe his reverts to being a “boy again” considered a boy lived with the white community and having him with a “small mean O of small mean mouth” as if the whole experience has left him feeling inadequate and small, but his positive emotion soon gives way to anger once more. The author’s desire to throw “a stone” or “a bomb” at the glass is an example of exaggeration of violence, as his anger at the whole poem, and this is the anger that still exists in his mind. Moreover, he claims his “hands burn” for a stone. Splitting this phrase into several lines created tension and the image of his hands burning rock and then likening the stone to a bomb. This is very emotional. It makes audiences think about the level of anger that can make a person hands feel like they are burning. In the last sentence of the poem, the author has closed the main idea that “Nothing changed” implying that everything has changed over time, namely in District Six, but the apartheid still exits over. Thereby, the author has compressed all his emotions in the last stanza to express his burning anger and he finally must accept the fact that apartheid still exists. In conclusion, “Nothing’s Changed” by Takamkhula Afrika is an outstanding example of racism and segregation between black and white people. This apartheid explicitly demonstrates the anger and resistance to overcome the obstacles which are inevitable for a better life without being discriminated against. Afrika successfully delivers all the indispensable qualities including emotional language, and language techniques that connote a profoundly meaningful message. Hence, this poem is a social awakening lesson about racism and segregation, as well as a statement of the author's beliefs and attitudes towards the District Six.