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A depiction of Maphalla’s message in his poems: The case of Ke ikopela tokoloho and Mahlo a ka tutuboloha

Literator

 
 
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Title A depiction of Maphalla’s message in his poems: The case of Ke ikopela tokoloho and Mahlo a ka tutuboloha
 
Creator Mokala, Ntsoaki T. Khethoa, Soyiso G.
 
Subject — social oppression; sociopolitical protest; KPD Maphalla; postcolonial struggle; African poetry; critical discourse analysis
Description In this article, we argue that KPD Maphalla’s poems were very influential in portraying protest to different forms of social oppression and exclusion in South Africa and Africa at large. Therefore, as a writer who was subjected to racial segregation during the apartheid regime, he positioned himself as a social poet concerned about the sociopolitical situation of Africans in Africa. The article illustrates how Maphalla’s use of tone and attitude towards racial discrimination has shown his ability to choose style in articulating a clear sociopolitical protest. This strategy has helped to make his readers aware of the social anomalies of his time, while condemning moral degeneration of that era. Therefore, this article provides an analysis of two poems from his book entitled Kgapha tsa ka: Mahlo a ka tutuboloha (My eyes open) and Ke ikopela tokoholo (I am asking for freedom), to understand the influence of the selected poems that are constructed in the form of protest. A historical-biographical criticism framework was employed in this case study to unravel the sociopolitical influence of his work towards the fight for freedom in South Africa. It is a qualitative explorative study, which uses purposive sampling to show how he portrays the theme of protest in his poems. Content analysis was used to analyse data guided by interpretivist paradigm.Contribution: This article fills a knowledge gap in Sesotho analysis. The article further contributes by highlighting Maphalla’s stance toward overcoming prejudice against black people. The article confirms that Maphalla, through his poetry, has played an important role in acting as a spokesperson for black people, and their freedom in South Africa.
 
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Contributor
Date 2023-11-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/lit.v44i1.1978
 
Source Literator; Vol 44, No 1 (2023); 9 pages Literator; Vol 44, No 1 (2023); 9 pages 2219-8237 0258-2279
 
Language eng
 
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The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1978/3806 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1978/3807 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1978/3808 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1978/3809
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Ntsoaki T. Mokala, Soyiso G. Khethoa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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