After completing my novel about slavery, The Buried Chameleon, which I have finally submitted to publishers, I find myself revisiting the topic again and again in my poetry. Incidentally, the title is based on the practice of the ancient Khoi people who buried a chameleon during drought to bring rain.
My research led me into a little known aspect of our history that I seldom encountered in school. The only thing I remember about the Khoi people was the juicy titbit that they rubbed fat on their bodies. I vaguely remember that Cape slavery was presented as “mild”.
The purpose of my title therefore is to “bring rain”, that is, to join the growing number of descendants of slavery such as Rayda Jacobs and Yvette Abrahams who write about this important aspect of South African history.
My second motivation is to give my four children, some of whom have married into other cultures, a sense of pride in who they are.
So far I have had two of my poems about slavery published in Kudu, a new literary magazine. And one of the poems appears in my novel.
I find it extremely difficult to write poetry about slavery. Where would my entry point be? What would I focus on? Do I use the same voice or persona that has kind of developed in my other poetry?
I struggle to find an entry point, and there is the real fear that I will “contaminate” the poetic voice I already have, which has resulted in quite a lot of my poetry being accepted for publication in various literary magazines, even the Atlanta Review.
Below the poem that has appeared in Kudu A Journal Of South African Writing Issue N.1 page 20:
Exculpate
A creole culture
launched at the Cape of Good Hope
A renowned vulture
hatched at the dawn of loathe
launched at the Cape of Good Hope
among slaves, masters, and free blacks
hatched at the dawn of loathe
the Khoi/San were slain. Then, back
among slaves, masters, and free blacks
apartheid came brooding
the Khoi/San were slain. Then back
as slaves, Khoi/San were left standing
apartheid came brooding
chronicles were cleansed with Omo
as slaves, Khoi, were left standing
culture and language declared theirs alone;
chronicles were cleansed with Omo
reconstituting slaves as black and white;
culture and language declared theirs alone
losing ancestors. An idea imbibed
reconstituting slaves as black and white
San, Mozambican, Malagasy
losing ancestors. An idea imbibed
Khoi, Southeast-Asian, Sulawesi
San, Mozambican, Malagasy
where natal alienation a wound
Khoi, South-east Asian, Sulawesi
ancestors silenced in divide and rule
where natal alienation a wound
snatched culture, handing shame
ancestors silenced in divide and rule
gaze gravely across oceans of blame
snatched culture handing shame
A renowned vulture
gazes gravely across oceans of blame
A creole culture
The poem that is in my novel that I have reworked with an excellent editor is in Kudu Issue N.3 page 59:
Poem Section 65
Who takes responsibility for the destruction
of a people by slavery? Who?
It happened in the past and
those that should are long gone.
History drifts – elusive, spectral – a fog
that clouds
The ethereal past a barrier
to what is and what was.
The refrain: we cannot restart history
Cornelia Smith Fick 