Sizwe Banzi Is Dead 

                        -Athol Fugard-

         "Sizwe Bansi is Dead" was written by Athol Fugard and coauthored by John Kani and Winston Ntshona, the two actors who originally appeared in the play as Styles and Sizwe Bansi. The world premiere of the play occurred in 1972 at the Space Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa. The play provides a view into the social and political racism experienced by black South Africans in the 1970s, although the type of suppression and persecution depicted in the play was present well before the 1970s and would continue into the future.

"Sizwe Bansi is Dead" tells the story of Styles, an intelligent, capable, and talented man who leaves his job as a factory worker to follow his dream of owning a photography studio. Styles pursues his talent with a camera in order to preserve the faces and identities of his people, who would otherwise be forgotten by the rest of the world. The play also tells the story of Sizwe Bansi, a man condemned by his government to a life of poverty. Although he is willing and capable of work, the stamp in his government issued “passbook” refuses him a work permit and tells him that he must leave Port Elizabeth and return to his hometown of King William’s Town where there are no work opportunities. This government edict will, in all probability, result in the starvation of Sizwe and his family. Sizwe is taken in by a man named Buntu after he is discovered in a government raid. Sizwe hopes that Buntu will figure out some way for him to remain in Port Elizabeth and find a job to support his family, but Buntu can read and when he looks at Sizwe’s passbook he sees that he is three days past due in his return home. He knows Sizwe has no chance of finding a job or remaining in Port Elizabeth with the stamps in his book. However, Sizwe discovers a passbook belonging to a dead man and, after struggling with his decision to give up his own name, decides to adopt the identity of Robert Zwelinzima. The adoption of this new identity ensures that Sizwe will be able to look for a job and provide for his family.

In the early scenes of the play, Styles’s musings are interrupted by the entrance of a man named Robert Zwelinzima, who has come to have his picture taken so that he can send it to his wife and children back home. Over the course of the rest of the play, it is revealed that Robert Zwelinzima is actually Sizwe Bansi living under the new identity he has adopted. Just as Sizwe Bansi is forced to essentially “kill” himself in order to preserve his life and the life of his family, his story illustrates the ghostly existence of the black population of South Africa. They are told who they are, where to live, and how to live, by a book developed and stamped by white men. They are forced to give up their dignity and humanity in order to continue to exist. They are constantly treated as less than human and are certainly never given the respect they deserve. However, Styles’s motivation for his photography preserving the faces and memory of his people makes it clear that the taking of Sizwe Bansi’s portrait is a moment of hope and triumph. Sizwe Bansi has been forced to alter his name and identity in order to provide for his family, but this photo taken by Styles preserves him forever as both Sizwe Bansi and Robert Zwelinzima. It reveals that he is indeed a human being with an identity and a history. This photo will preserve his name and his life for the generations to come.

The story told in "Sizwe Bansi is Dead" explores the themes of identity, self-worth, racism, and suppression. The passbook that every black man is forced to carry is the foundation for this question of identity. The passbook imposes limits on the employment and travel of all black citizens in South Africa. It takes away their freedom, making them less than men. Their entire lives are contained in this passbook, and with a single stamp one white man can totally alter a black man’s future and determine his fate. The characters depicted in the play struggle to maintain their own identities and sense of themselves as human beings under this oppressive rule. Within these circumstances, however, Styles, Sizwe, and Buntu realize that all they own is themselves. The only legacy they have to leave behind is the memory of their lives, so they strive to be the best men they can be and live the best lives they can. They show themselves to be far better men than their white “Baases” because they realize the value of human life and the sacredness of identity.

The Thing Around Your Neck

                     -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie-

In The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie we have the theme of connection, materialism, social opinion, independence, identity, loneliness and racism. Taken from her collection of the same name the story is narrated in the second person by a young woman called Akunna and after reading the story the reader realises that Adichie may be exploring the theme of connection. The narrator is considered to be different to those around her due to her skin colour. Many of the people that the narrator engages with have questions with regards to the narrator’s home which may leave some readers to suggest that social opinion with regard to the narrator’s roots is based on inaccuracies. Something which may leave it difficult for the narrator to connect with others. However it is interesting that the narrator does make a solid connection with Juan. At no stage of the story does he judge the narrator nor does he look upon her as being different. Except for the fact that the narrator is an immigrant. This may be important as Juan is not judging the narrator as others might do. Something that is noticeable by the fact that the narrator feels as though social opinion with regard to her relationship with her boyfriend is mixed. The narrator feels as though some people scorn the fact that she is in an interracial relationship.

The narrator’s boyfriend is also an interesting character as it is clear to the reader that he is privileged and that he has very little understanding of the circumstances that the narrator had previously found herself in when she lived in Lagos. Though he suggests to the narrator that he does not follow the tourist trail when he travels there are differences between both the narrator and her boyfriend which cause tension in their relationship. While some women might like to receive presents. The narrator feels as though a present should be useful rather than something purchased to please an individual for a period of time. This may be important as the narrator may be experiencing the negativity of materialism for the first time. The gift’s she receives from her boyfriend. She considers them to be impractical. Which may leave some readers to suggest not only is the narrator independently minded when it comes to the act of giving presents but she may also have no real desire to completely immerse herself in American culture or materialism. It is not who she is.

What is also interesting about the story is that the narrator’s relatives appear to be keenly interested in obtaining goods or products from the narrator while she in in America. Goods in which they have no real use for and would be readily available in Lagos. It is as though the narrator’s relatives want a piece of the elusive American dream. Even though they themselves are still living in Lagos. There is also some symbolism in the story which may be important. The blank strips of paper in the fortune cookies may symbolise where the narrator is in her life. It is as though she is uncertain of which direction she should take. Something that is also noticeable by the fact that she waits till her boyfriend asks her four times to go out with her. Before she tells him that she will. An action taken on her own initiative and due to the fear that he might not ask a fifth time. The fact that the narrator connects with very few people while she is in America may also be symbolically significant as it may suggest that the narrator is lonely. She may long for the stability that she knows she can have should she return to Lagos.

There is also an element of racism in the story. Something that is noticeable when the narrator listens to the waiter in Chang’s talking to her boyfriend. It is as though the narrator feels that the waiter considers it impossible that the narrator could be her boyfriend’s girlfriend. The reader aware that the narrator’s observation is based solely on her belief that the waiter is judging her by her skin colour. The end of the story is also interesting as there is a sense that the narrator has given up on the American dream. In reality there is no real need for her to return home. She has already missed her father’s funeral and her mother does not insist or suggest that the narrator should come home. In many ways the reader is left with the feeling that the narrator has found it difficult to acclimatize with the environment she encountered in America. She has spent the duration of her time in America unhappy and unsure of the direction that her life is taking. At least if the narrator returns to Lagos she knows who she is. The narrator’s personal beliefs, the beliefs or her boyfriend and the beliefs of those who live in America appear to be three separate things.

 The Fisherman Mourned by his Wife.                      patrick Fernando 

Patrick Fernando’s two best known poems have love as their theme - the love between man and woman. Both poems contain themes of love, related through a strong deciphering, reflective analysis of the nature of what relationship each pair of man and woman shared. However the two pieces differ in many aspects, the central matter being the difference in feeling, emotion and very nature of relationship each had, along with the attitude of the narrator or speaker of these lines.

The artistry of the poet in handling the themes of love in two contrasting ways, is evident in the manner in which “A fisherman mourned” and “Folly and wisdom” differ form the other. The very titles are indicative if the difference in the very nature of the two pieces. One is about the relationship that existed between “A fisherman mourned” which is almost as a title had been given to a story, while the other is about two contrasting nouns that involve a more abstract; contrasting feel to the poem that follows in the same direction – “Folly and wisdom”. “A fisherman mourned” consists of 5 stanzas and is a first per son account by a “grieving “ wife to her dead husband at whom monologue is directed, while “Folly and wisdom” is a 3rd person narration by the author who seems to have a deep feeling for what happened, within the context of the relationship between the young woman and man.

“A fisherman mourned” contains a more mature theme of a love grown cold, embittered, between a man and woman who seem to have married not for love’s reason, even because of loneliness but because of “elder’s persuasion”. In contrast, the couple in “Folly and wisdom”, seem to have rushed into the relationship against the wiser jurisdiction of wiser men who are crazily disrobed as they observe, the small minded, sweet girl being taken at first sighting. (“he tool her at a moment’s glance, on first hearing her word” by a man who knew better, yet carried on with her ever as the poet in his artistry, likens them to hopping, winking sparrows who are yet to experience what is before them, as bitterness is still a blur. The use of the metaphor of “exalted eagles” who childe the sparrow birds, is extremely effective in portraying the elders around this young couple who know better, are “greater birds” for their experience and WISDOM who perceive the FOLLY of their hasty decision to join together and who seem to know what possibilities lay in stor tfor them for whom years had not yet “lent them learning”. The cleverness of the poet in enabling is to perceive the realization that the man is yet to gently, too young to “observe that he has erred”, almost makes it definite that the union of this man woman, has been foolish, ill-advised and is heading for some kind of doom. However the couple in their ignorance of experience, also seem to be certain of their decision as they happily chirp “but how could we have erred, we who in spite of all you say are not yet embittered?”

The poet is successful in cleverly enabling the reader to not only understand that the elders are right as they have been through the experience of years and times, but in also proving the point that while bitterness has yet not touched them, they are valid in staying true to their own notion that they are happy and will be happy in the current state of her still sounding as sweet as honey to the man.

This contrasts heavily on the other hand, with the bitterness, regret, realization and confession (“now that being dead you are beyond detection, and I need not be discreet” ) of a woman who has borne children, existed in a relationship with the now dead fisherman husband that in contrast, was encouraged by elders. The two poems without direct comment, make the reader realize the infallibility of the wisdom of elders in advising against/on the other hand, promoting relationships, between man and woman and the artistry of Patrick Fernando in enabling us to experience the deeper conflicts of relationship and the experience of the woman who was in this relationship with a man who are first seemed unembittered, yet ended nothing more than someone “practical”, a husband/father who she has to mourn, makes the theme of a relationship between man and woman a complex one.

The manner in which time passes and e vents unfold, is narrated through typical fishermen imagery. The beauty in the frequent use of gulls – “chaste as a gull flying pointed home” and again “when gulls returned new-plumed and wild” is part of this artistry. “Folly and wisdom” in contrast, is yet to experience the passing of time. Yet early in experience. We neither know the lifestyle of the man and woman concerned, nor see the deeper conflicts of experience as we do in “A fisherman mourned”. It is almost left to be seen whether a follow up poem by the young simple girl in “Folly and wisdom” later in life, would confirm or dispel the fear of the “exalted eagles”.

“A fisherman mourned” is one told at the end of life experience while “folly and wisdom” contains a man and woman yet on the brink of experience who are yet to feel the “guilt”. The “repent or rejoice” dilemma of a man or the bitter reflection on a relationship ended by “death”, by a woman who has lived to bear children and now stands facing the event of realization of “death” that has touched their relationship and caused her to look back.

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a work which laments for the dead person in the melancholic tone. Patrick Fernando makes the fisherman’s wife as the narrator of the poem and explains the emotional bond between the husband and wife in the first part of the poem and the emotional breakdown of the lady in the second part, and ends the poem with the emotional maturity of the fisherman's wife. Parallel to it the writer brings in the changes of nature as a symbolic reference to the poem where it highlights the tragedy of the fisherman.



 It is an elegy.Poetic description of the fisher folk in the Southern part of Sri Lanka.The poet uses narrative style, with the use of flash back technique.The poet highlights the ideas of the life of the fisherman, his marriage through the eyes of the    fisherman’s wife, her emotional indifference to her husband at the time of marriage, and her natural fears of an unenlightened woman as bride, and then as a conceived lady and finally as a widow.The emotional bond and the emotional breakdown of the wife.


·         Themes :

·         The life style of the fisher folk.

·         The transcendental love.

·         The emotional maturity of the lady.


·         Techniques:

·         Rhyming words

·         The use of symbolism, visual imagery

·         Use of flash back.


.  Narrative technique [ The poet narrates the poem in the view point of the fisherman's wife.]

Othello Summary

                  Othello Summary

  Othello Summary provides a quick review of the play's plot including every important action in the play. Othello Summary is divided by the five acts of the play and is an an ideal introduction before reading the original text.