Abstract
South African poetry has found its place in many parts of the world. Topics such as racism, discrimination and issues resulting from the past of South Africa, have all found themselves in South African literary journals and anthologies. One of the achievements of the South African poet has been finding a place for the disadvantaged group/s of South Africa, the group/s that have suffered through the past and present South Africa. However, through all the major South African journals and literary collections, the voice and life of the Coloured individual has been left out and overlooked. More importantly, this has resulted in the Coloured individuals of South Africa not knowing their place in the poetry world. More specifically, because they are not reading about their cultural power in poetry, they tend to believe that poetry is not for the Coloured culture and language. In this paper I intend to show that there has been a lack of place in poetry for the Coloured individual, and furthermore, to show that there is a place for the Coloured story and culture in poetry. As a result, what will be shown is the effect that the Coloured voice will have on South African poetry, and how it will benefit a large portion of the South African population.
Highlights
The term ‘Coloured’ has received various reactions throughout the years of its existence
The literary pieces which we explored that had touched on Coloured identity, did so merely on the surface, which is common in current literary studies as Mohamed Adhikari states: The current literature offers only the most superficial of attempts at analysing the essential character of Coloured identity or the social and political dynamic that informed Coloured exclusivism. [9]
South African poetry relies on the uniqueness of the experiences of its population and how they interpret, as well as live through the struggles of the past and present
Summary
The term ‘Coloured’ has received various reactions throughout the years of its existence. In some places, such as the United States of America, it is frowned upon to use this term to define an individual. In South Africa, ‘Coloured’ has obtained its right to be used as the term to define the unique racial group that was once looked at as being ‘undefined’. As time went on, it became obvious to an academic and writer like myself, that the Coloured identity was and is hardly present in South African literature and poetry. I will shed light on why and how the Coloured identity could be present in South African poetry
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