In the Shadows of Apartheid: Social Malady and Poetry Therapy in Ndlovu’s Poetry

Abstract

Malika Lueen Ndlovu, a South African woman poet, has demonstrated a determined sense of commitment to confront the social absurdities of her society through her literary creations. Her works illustrate the philosophy of arts for life’s sake. Her creative motto is “creativity for healing”. It is in this light that this paper conceives social disorders as malady and poetry as therapy in relation to the wellbeing of the society. Two of Ndlovu’s poetry anthologies of poems were purposively selected to because of their thematic and aesthetic relevance to the study. They are Born in Africa But (2000) and Truth is Both Spirit and Flesh (2008). These texts present a corpus of poetry that portrays the society as a sick body whose illness is diagnosed by the poet’s stethoscopic pen to unveil unhealthy practices and restore sanity to the sick society. The texts also present the poet as a “social physician”. Through these texts, Ndlovu diagnosed gender and psychological maladies of post-Apartheid South Africa while exposing this putrefaction to mobilise social actions for its correction.