Poetry as an Emerging Culture of Social Justice Activism in South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the use of poetry as an emerging cultural practice for social justice in South Africa. The research focus of this article is Afrocentricity, a philosophical and social orientation that is used in this context to express and examine ideas, feelings, and experiences in the form of poetry. The article also examines the effectiveness of poetry to challenge the current socio-economic and political issues through the lens of African history and education. Through a qualitative, arts-based, interpretive methodological approach, the study examines poetic texts and narratives of African writers and activists from a range of historical and social contexts. These are then applied to poetry and examine how various forms of poetic language, stylistic devices, and strategies of speaking, including diction, ambiguity, rhythm, and symbolism, serve as instruments of critique, resistance, and meaning-making operating in socio-economic and political contexts formed by colonial and postcolonial histories. The findings indicate that poetry can function as a change agent for culture, society, and justice. Poetic strategies and style elements, for instance, well-considered word choice, ambiguity, rhythm, and other poetic devices, contribute to the idea of resistance often underlying African poetry. Furthermore, this article argues that poetry grows and becomes an artistic movement of public intellectualism. Many poems serve as vehicles for messages, perspectives, and the spirit of creating change. The relationship between words in poems and activism is passionately embodied with the sense that literature, like poetry, attempts to have a critical impact on the movements of society and the political arena. Poetry influences changes that happen in the socio-cultural setting, exploring actions during the journeys from the past to the present.