1. Nothing’s Changed Page 6
Cultural background-South Africa, in particular the area known as District Six in Capetown.
A poem of contrasts, the contrast of the lives of the rich whites & the poor oppressed black population.

2. The poem describes the racial divisions in South Africa under
Apartheid, the barriers between the black & white population.
The whites live a life of privilege, power & wealth, going to white only clubs & hotels whereas the blacks are poor & powerless & have only the ‘working man’s café’. Inequality

3. ? District Six was an area in Capetown where there was a large black
community, they were poor,
it was run down but people
were happy.
The white government decided to bulldoze the whole area, kick the inhabitants out, they said they were going to redevelop it for the black community but all they did was build white only clubs & hotels, only white facilities were built & the black locals were excluded from the area.
Many parts which had once been thriving black communities are now nothing more than wasteland ?

4. The poet is walking around the barren areas of District Six,.
he contrasts the wasteland that was home to many blacks but is now nothing but scrub land, with a white hotel he comes up to
The whites only hotel/club & well kept gardens are a stark contrast to the barren wasteland he walks through, & the café he goes to later.
Look at the contrasts between the facilities in the whites’ hotel & those in the blacks’ café.

5. The whites hotel is described as ‘whites only inn’ which has a double meaning, -the idea of only whites can come in & that this is literally an ‘inn’ (hotel), which is supposed to be a welcoming place. -This is clearly not a welcoming place for the vast majority of the population who are black.

6. Look at the contrasts between the gardens at the inn & the wasteland he walks through
The voice of the poem, who is expressing the poet’s views, looks through the window of the white hotel & sees a totally different world to the one he lives in, a life of privilege.
There is imagery of whiteness in the tablecloths & barriers you cant really see, represented by the window he looks through at the white people.

7. Important
This is a fragile barrier, it is glass but it is still a barrier he can’t break through & can’t cross, just like the racial barrier of inequality between the blacks & whites.
However, this glass window which represents the barrier between black & white is also very fragile & you could smash it if you used force.

8. These feelings link directly to who the poet is,.
he was a member of the ANC, a political Black Rights movement which would use force if necessary to achieve their aims of racial equality.
The ANC was illegal for many years

9. You can sense the aggression & anger in the poem,
by the use of some of the language e.g. ‘stone’, ‘bomb’.
The voice of the poem is angry when he looks at the life he leads

10. Contrasts in life
the false promises of the white government which destroyed his home, his surroundings, & the basics of his café, when compared with that of the privileged whites. He feels urged to smash through this barrier, represented by the windows in the whites only ‘inn’.
Suggesting that violence is the only way to break through this racial inequality.