Throughout the poem “Nightfall in Soweto”, the author Mtshali attempts to demonstrate his obvious emotional protest against the apartheid system in South Africa through a poem. The poem explains nighttime for him and others alike, and the frequent fears that come with having dark skin; especially at night. This poem not only highlights the verbal prejudice used, but also the violent sides of peoples unjustified beliefs. Throughout this response, I will highlight the key sections in this poem, and how the overall idea was accurately presented by the author. Soweto is an acronym used for South-West townships that host some of the biggest populations of slum-dwellers in Africa. The people who live in these areas are low-income earners, who are vulnerable to the violent discrimination that comes from the people in the apartheid system. This poem is based on nighttime, when these white supremacists use nightfall to their advantage to attack the innocent people, as a result, makng, the black people scared of the night.

Throughout the third stanza of the film, the writer consistently utilizes the word “I”, thereby becoming a representation for black people living in Soweto. “I am the victim. I am slaughtered every night in the streets.” By calling himself the victim and the slaughtered, Mtshali puts himself in the position of many other black people living in Soweto, and the all too common recurring happenings that come with the fall of night. Slaughter is a term used to describe the killing of innocent animals and gives the reader a feel for the animalistic way that these people’s lives are treated and thereby highlighting the worth of black people. Mtshali effectively uses this word to describe the horrific acts inflicted upon these people by the relentless apartheid system in Africa. Parallelism is used to provoke persuasiveness, through deliberately using the same word within a short space of time, to help thoroughly express the idea presented to the reader. Further into the stanza, as being a representation for all people living in Soweto, Mtshali expresses the common emotion felt by most during nighttime; the emotion of fear. “I am cornered by the fear, gnawing at my timid heart” Cornered refers to a person being forced into a place or situation from which it is hard to escape, in this case, the situation being the constant mistreatment of black people in Soweto. By placing “the” before fear, it gives the impression that Mtshali has already met this experience before, and is thereby able to label fear as a problematic factor affecting these people. “Gnawing” refers to something that is being slowly bitten off, directly relating to the population as a whole in Soweto; as the author is a representation of the population, by his heart being slowly bitten away, it relates to the numerous black people being slaughtered every night in the streets of Soweto, and the prejudiced apartheid system who are slowly attempting to “kill off” the population. In the last line of this stanza, the reader seems to accept the inevitable acts placed on black people. “in my helplessness I languish.” Languish refers to being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation. Although a poem, Mtshali’s writing is an accurate representation of society, and the acts that go on in our own community that we do not realize; we are unable to grasp the realities of society, due to our privileged lives. The reason that the population of black people languishes in their helplessness is a result of two things; the negative acts that are being taken, and the acts that have potential to be positive that are not. Our understanding of the brutality that is inflicted towards black people is so minimalistic that we do not care to do anything about it. We have so much but do not dare to give so little. Through this stanza, I was able to feel a connection towards Mtshali and the discrimination people in Soweto are exposed to every night. 

In the next stanza of the poem, Mtshali includes another vital response to the treatment of black people in Soweto and obliges the reader to think about the discrimination placed on these people. Parallelism is again effectively utilized to provoke persuasiveness towards the reader, by repeating the word man, to help express the idea presented by Mtshali. In the first line, Mtshali sums up the reality of what mankind has turned into as a result of racial prejudice. “Man has ceased to be a man” In this line, Mtshali attempts to show how segregation has divided the two races. By saying that man has ceased to be man, the reader sees the obvious change that mankind has undergone. For the good? From Mtshali’s and my point of view, it has definitely not been for the good. The black people have ceased to be man, due to the horrific acts inflicted upon them, making them vulnerable and sensitive to violence, giving the reader an accurate interpretation of the extent to which this brutality is carried out. The black man has now become unmanly; he is unable to stand up for himself, due to past acts that have ended in the worst possible outcome. The white police that belongs to the apartheid system have also ceased to be a man; they portray conflict through their unjustified beliefs and do not stop to think that all mankind are equal, and should be equally treated. “Man has become a beast. Man has become prey” In the next two lines, Mtshali explains how man has become the prey and the beast, highlighting that this obvious prejudice has turned into extreme violence between man; we are killing ourselves off. In this case, the beast is the people from the apartheid system in Africa, who use nightfall to their advantage, inflicting fear into the hearts of those living in Soweto. As a result, the black people have become their prey, hunted off until all that is left from their population is but a few individuals. This stanza for me was one of the most influential. Through three simple lines, the reader sees the huge change that mankind has undergone. We might have different upbringings; different opinions; different personalities and looks, but we are all human, and should be treated equally no matter what the color of our skin is. Although spoken many times, those words do not convince the skeptical privileged and white people, who look beyond the impurities of this world. This was the message that Mtshali was trying to bring across through this poem.