The poem "city Johannesburg” is a poem by a south African poet Mangane Wally

Serote. The poem was first published in 1972 in the poetry collection called
“Yakhalinkomo”. The poem was written in south Africa under the apartheid
government when there was inequality, racism and segregation of black people from
the white. The poem is about a man who spends his life working in the city and faces
the oppression and restriction of movement of the black people in the city during the
apartheid era. In this poem, Serote uses the element such as imagery, tone, contrast
repetition and symbolism to convey the oppression and alienation of black South
Africans during the apartheid era. In this essay I am going to be using elements such
as the speaker, imagery, contrast, tone and repetition in order to exhibit and analyse
the events which took place in the poem.

The speaker in the first line uses the imagery of personification when he said, “This
way I salute you” (Serote,1972, line1). This is because usually human beings or a
person is the one who people salute to. The speaker here shows respect for
authority to the city of Johannesburg when he uses the word “salute” and this is
because mostly a person would salute someone who is in power or authority. In the
second line the speaker brings out the word “pulse” when he said “my hand pulses to
my back trouser pocket “(Serpte,1972, line 2) which this brings out the significance
of the tension that he felt in his hand because of the fear , while he was busy
searching for his pass as it was said in line 4. The speaker has a complex
relationship with the city of Johannesburg and because it was an apartheid era in
South Africa, black people were always expected to carry around a pass when they
visit the city, in order to show the reason of visit in the city or a job occupation to
show that they are working in the city.
The imagery in this poem brings about the devastating experiences that black people
in South Africa had when they had to come to the city. The mentioning of the word
pass I line 4 “for my pass, my life”(Serote,1972, line 4) , shows that it was during
apartheid era when the government of south Africa had made the pass to act as a
black man's life because they needed it in order to have permission to work for their
families in the city. These images show different aspect of the city and first we see
the humiliation and helplessness of the speaker when he was busy search for his
pass in his pocket as he symbolises it to be as important as his life. The speaker
also uses the image of a simile when he compare his hand to a starved snake “my
hand like a starved snake rears my pocket”(Serote,1972, line 6), and this was
because as he was searching for his pass which he describe that it was thin and
meaning that he was poor and struggling to survive in the city. He was so nervous,
and he grips it as if his hand is a “starved snake.” The speaker here tries to convey
the events that happened or how a black person felt when they had to carry out a
pass in the city.

The imagery of sound and visual combined when the speaker brings about the
poverty and the helplessness that black people in south Africa came across by using
a metaphor when the speak said “while my stomach groans a friendly smile of
hunger” (Serote,1972, line 8). This line expresses the speaker's starvation and
desperation in the city. The speaker uses an irony when he says that his stomach
devours not food but “coppers and papers” (Serote,1972, line 10). Here he focuses
on the expensive the food in the city is and that as a black made it was had to
survive without being able to afford it. He says that he still needs to eat despite
consuming unlimited amounts of coppers and paper money.
The imagery I the poem also convey how black south Africans rushed to work in the
city in order to go and work for their families. “When I run out, or roar in a bus you
“(Serote,1972, line 13). The speaker says that he leaves his love every day when he
goes to work. He is adding “love” to the list of things he leaves behind in the
townships every day in the morning. He also says that he left his house which he
describes as a “comic house” (Serote,1972, line 15). Here he tries to bring about the
thought that his house is a joke and the apartheid government expected him to live in
such standards. During the apartheid government, black people were placed in
domitory townships on the outskirts of the white city, and they were defined by
“dongas and dust”. His “ever whirling dust” creates an image of him constantly
getting on a bus to the city and leave all behind while he has to go to work.

The speaker uses the image of a metaphor when he said “my death “(Serote,1972,
line 16). By this he was referring to the passbook which allowed him to live I a
township and work in Johannesburg city. The speaker's return in the township at
night is twice described as “my death”. The second image shows the power of the
city and also suggest pollution and industries,” through your thick iron breath that you
inhale” (Serote,1972, line 20). The speaker uses personification when he says that
the city has a thick iron breath. Johannesburg city is personified in the poem but also
represented as harsh, demanding and unhealthy health environment. The thick iron
breath refers to when the city “inhale” and “exhale” the black South African workers
early in the morning and late at night. The speaker gives the city a human quality of
having a breath.
The speaker defines the city by its artificiality when he said, “that it the time that I
come to you, when your neon flowers flaunt from your electrical wind” (Serote,1972,
line 24). He describes the city as a place where nature has been banished, and hard
urban realities are reflected in the urban environment. The speaker travels to the city
from the township on the “black and white robotted roads” and ‘cement trees”. The
speaker here also uses the image of a metaphor to compare the streets lights and
lamp post. When the speaker talks about the cement tries, he is referring to the city's
buildings. He is saying in other words that the city lacks natural elements. The
speaker uses the image of a metaphor again when he compares the lights of the city
to the “neon flowers “. The speaker uses the imagery which is striking and unusual,
and it allows us to see the attraction of the city as well as the pain that it causes. The
setting is thus experienced as inhuman and uncaring from the speaker's point of
view