RESISTANCE POETRY IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE POETIC WORKS AND CULTURAL ACTIVISM OF VANONI BILA

Abstract

The article explores selected works of Vonani Bila, one of the most influential wordsmiths of post-apartheid South Africa. It outlines the difference between “protest poetry” and “resistance poetry”, and contextualises the contemporary expression(s) of the latter within today’s South Africa’s poetry scene. Focusing on Bila’s “politically engaged” poems and cultural activism, this article maintains that resistance poetry has re-invented itself in the post-94 cultural scenario, and still represents a valid tool in the hands of poets to creatively expose and criticize the enduring contradictions of South African society