POET’S PROFILE
But Mtshali was a dreamer. He continued to war in his mind the injustices of the system in which he was born. His poetry borders on the survival of a people and the hope that tomorrow will bring. His commentaries were sometimes of the despair of a people who doubtless continued to protest. His great poem, “Amagoduka at Glencoe Station” closes with these epic lines:
“We’ll return home
to find our wives nursing babies-
unknown to us
but only to their mothers and loafers.”
This explains the disruption of family life and with it, identity, which was one of the trademarks of the apartheid era.
The beauty of Mtshali’s poetry is that though he wrote about serious issues, his lines were comical, humorous and sometimes, careless of the consequences. That was a subtle way of saying the most difficult things and getting the desired impact. He has been tagged as one of the most influential black South African poets of all time.
JUST A PASSERBY
I saw them clobber him with kieries,
I heard him scream with pain
like a victim of slaughter
I smelt fresh blood gush
5 from his nostrils,
and flow on the street.I walked into the church
and knelt in the pew
“Lord! I love you.
10 I also love my neighbour. Amen”I came out
my heart as light as an angel’s kiss
on the cheek of a saintly soul.
Back home I strutted
15 past a crowd of onlookers.
Then she came in –
my woman neighbour:
“Have you heard? They’ve killed your brother.”
“O! No! I have heard nothing. I’ve been to church.”
REVIEW
This poem is a sarcastic statement of the helplessness of black South Africa under the apartheid regime. The story is almost unbelievable but is not surprising, with the knowledge of Mtshali’s style. The poet narrates his witnessing of the clubbing of a man to death. He uses the word “clobber” (line 1) which is a more savage form of “clubbing.” Knobkieries or kieries, as he uses here, are huge clubs that are used for defence across East and Southern Africa.
The first six lines are gruesome narrations of a slaughter scene. The clobbered man is here representing the rights of the black race in the apartheid regime apparently beaten to death. But nobody can talk about it. He is said to scream with pain/ like a victim of slaughter (lines 2-3). He bleeds from his nostrils (line 5), representative of all the blood that was shed in apartheid South Africa.
But the poet just passes by, helpless.
He walks into a church. This cowardly act of unconcerned piety reflects the total failure of the passivity that apartheid-era religion offers. Religion is a means of escape and under its purported shade, the poet can declare: “Lord I love you…”(line 9). Love is a high contrast to the emotion that courses through his veins. He feels anger and hatred but in the church, he leaves all those emotions outside. “…I also love my neighbour. Amen” (line 10) is the phrase that reinforces his denial.
Now, the poet leaves the church …heart as light as an angel’s kiss/ on the cheek of a saintly soul… (lines 12-13). His conscience is cleared and he struts home. Strutting is walking with kingly poise and haughty carelessness. Past the spot of death and with others looking on, he walks home, not even stopping. Does he not care? He does. But in apartheid South Africa, where the life of a black man means less, survival overrides sympathy. Even brotherly sympathy! So it is of no consequence when his woman neighbour comes in to tell him of the death. Of no consequence to him but to our shock when we find out that it is his brother who was clobbered!! … “Have you heard? They have killed your brother” (line 18).
Mtshali is a master. The poet just answers, in unbelievable self-denial: “I have heard nothing. I’ve been to church” (line 19). This last line opens the eye to the horror of apartheid and makes us appreciate the work of Mandela and all those who fought for the end of the system. This last line enforces Mtshali as a master.
This is a great review. The lives of South Africans under apartheid was a living irony. Using church to cover pain, while the apartheidists use church doctrines to implement their suppressive agenda, killing the people and regarding all coloured people to be less human. I wonder how South Africans took the church to be when the God who preaches love supervises their killing with his laws, at least with the interpretation of his laws.
I first read of this in the Selection of African Poems. Thanks for reminding me of this and for your review.
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Reading this poem opened my eyes to apartheid in ways that I hadn’t seen before. It’s really great what the poets have immortalised for us the generations.
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i like this poem because im an African and abhor apartheid
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This poem is very interesting and it can show the evil of aparthied
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It sure does. Thanks for stopping by. Keep reading.
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the analysis should include various types of literary elements other than this it is very good.
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I try not to go too much into the literary composition of the poems I review. I want to help people understand the poetry they read. That’s all. If I do go into the literaries, it will be just too much work for a freelance blog, trust me. Hope you understand.
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Please, i want to know the theme, tone, use of figures of speech especially simile.
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Refer reply above, Salami. Thanks.
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D poem like other protest poems from South Africa makes one shudder at man’s inhumanity against his fellow man!
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this poem is a great one,the apartheid of the african people , it is a lesson for we africans,never again will it be because, we know our right now.
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This story is very intresting because it has brought our notice to the kind of treatment people went through during that system of governing thank GOD it has changed.
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Oswald is indeed a great writer! I like his writings!!!!
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He always has a powerful message.
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Thanks for this. I really appreciate your efforts and I will be waiting for your next write ups. thank you once again.
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Keep reading :)
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I chose this poem for my coursework if any one could drop any suggestions as to how he treated perseverance and oppression in the poems it would be lovely if they’d help.
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i see that the poem shows us how prejudiced the “believer” is….i am a Christian and i dont understand why he could be in so much denial about not ‘knowing anything’…..he even covers his denial with a church.
….maybe if it was me i could have saved him(the brother)
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[…] Source: Just A Passerby- Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali […]
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this poem has been making me cry, any time I read it. to even think that the Blacks are the original owners of the Land. this is appalling.
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Reblogged this on Imagination Island and commented:
This is an amazing analysis of a wonderful poem by a South African poet; just a passer by
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This is a serious poem. It makes me think very critically about the apartheid era and the hypocrisy is religion as well.
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whats the possible question that i could try to attempt on this question
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on this poem not question thanks
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I READ SIMILAR WORK HERE https://projectstore.com.ng/thematic-and-stylistic-analyses-of-oswald-mtshalis-just-a-passer-by/
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[…] Oswald MBUYISENI’s poem « Just a Passer By » walking past another person in misery, might be a regret you could bare for an entire […]
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This poem is nothing but touching while aparthaid is nothing but evil.Thanks to MANDELA and the likes.
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please, could someone tell me the name of famous African poem and author about “Shit in the wells”? Thx
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Thank you so much for this review and also for sharing this poem. I read this poem when I was in grade 4 (it was in early 2000’s) and I remember we had to recite in my english class. Today, out of the blue, I just remembered it and recited it word to word. Your review is amazing, my teacher never mentioned apartheid while explaining what the poem meant but I still appreciate her explanation.
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