A critical discourse analysis of Maphalla’s selected poems: South Africa’s pre-democratic election messages

Abstract

The years 1990 to 1994 were the most critical years in the lives of all South Africans. For writers, this period presented an opportunity for expressions that have long been suppressed due to the censoring of writers in South Africa. Poetry was one of the ways in which a writer was able to reveal and express his or her thoughts about what they see, hear and the general events that are related to their lives and society at large. Maphalla is also one of the writers who used the pen to spread the messages of death, pain, love, hope and peace, whilst also being very critical of the socio-political environment at the time. As his name (the peaceful one) implies, Kgotso Maphalla was a writer who was able to rebuke, criticise and give hope in a peaceful manner. This article analyses four of Maphalla’s poems from his poetry book called Seitebatso [Oblivion]. The four poems were selected to address the themes of freedom, hope and injustice. There are many traditional methods used to analyse poems. In this article, I have chosen to use critical discourse analysis, which is a method of analysing spoken language and text, to demonstrate the balance between language, identity, social relations, and power. Discourse is therefore molded by relations of power and invested ideologies. In this kind of analysis, I show that Maphalla used language in a manner that reflected freedom, peace, and hope that the volatile situation will settle down, at a very uncertain time in South Africa.