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Escapism In The Rhodesia Road

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Many black writers in 1950s, their goal was to talk about their state or condition in apartheid in South Africa. Drum magazine was the platform their outcry. The magazine was the platform where they depicted the black culture identity and had stories where black South African finds themselves in during the apartheid era. These stories deals with the themes of urban deprivation and resilience of black people. This essay will focus on two stories which are Rhodesia Road by Alfred Mbeba (1951) and the dignity of Begging by William Bloke Modisane (1951).
In Rhodesia Road, under apartheid blacks were not allowed schooling especially science and maths, as a result many black South African were living under poverty and unemployment. In this Story …show more content…

The theme of this story is just as the same of Rhodesia Road ‘’escapism” Modisane describe Nathaniel’s property as “farm’’ and his wife as an “amnesia case” for accepting to be married to a person as deformed as himself, are evident of such linguistic uncertainty.
Nathaniel is a beggar and a gambler which state that he does not have enough money to buy him a farm; the meaning of farm does not carry its native sense of the estate of one individual. Moreover during this era black people by law were not allowed to own farms not only that, there was a group area act whereby blacks were not allowed to stay or move without carrying their identity books along with them when going to town. Nathaniel rent a room in a village; the place is derogatorily call a farm and not what a farm in native English is.
The setting of story people move from rural area to urban in seeking employment and to be westernised in order for them to be adapted into Western life. Apart from Nathaniel being in Johannesburg the African culture remains intact regardless western influence of urban life in Johannesburg, that is seen by the way he rejoice when seeing his piano he had given up at his rural home he feels “like dancing the Zulu war and going to savage’’. With the word being “savage’’ Modisane equates to culturally identity. During apartheid era (1950s) beggars were not allowed to

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