Vacant

Do not wait for the paint to dry

This house needs not to be furnished.

The concrete has settled

For bricks to be layered and placed

See how the foundation is welled in

Growing to walls to stand as designed.

The plans failed projections.

The flattered outside carry bricks with faint lines that mock the contractor

With dust preserving the conditioned fence

Next to a labour of moles wrenching for change.

The astonished buildings around it

Share the crooked book shelves

That house what needs to be fixed

The stench from the hard covers

The last page tore re-enacts the omitted tales.

They would not finish this house before we rectify these.

Context

The poem is a metaphor that compares the house and buildings to learning institutions that impose the colonial educational system. The poem points out how the rebuilding of learning institutions’ curriculum often limits and still holds prejudice against certain groups of individuals. The difference between inclusion, transformation, and decolonisation has to be taken into consideration in order for the concepts in action not to misrepresent each other. Criticism is essential to the development of decolonised learning institutions and the work they produce as it contributes to the betterment of an academic community. It is a call for decolonised learning institutions based on true events from history.

What assisted me to write my poem is the link below from Tshisimani-Centre for Activist Education, where Prof. Tshepo Madlingozi talks about the difference between inclusion, transformation, and decolonisation by providing clarity on how inclusion and assimilation do not qualify as decolonisation as they do not change the fundamental structure(s) of learning institutions. Link: https://fb.watch/lLPwjif1xR/?mibextid=fxoyai.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thuleleni Msomi

Thuleleni Msomi is a Bachelor of Laws student at the University of South Africa. Email: [email protected]