Aboriginal Australia by Jack Davis, Our Village by Wopko Jensma, and Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali's Nightfall in Soweto all explore the experiences of the oppressed. Each poet does this in their own unique way – exploring related themes and using various poetic techniques. Despite these differences the oppressive experiences of the poets' respective people are very similar.
             Aboriginal Australia offers a bleak view of Australian history, and its continued persecution of the Aboriginal people. The subtitle of the poem reads "To the others". Davis clearly illustrates a division in society, the 'others' being the white people. He further emphasises this division with his constant use of the word 'you', which is directed at white people. His repetition of 'I' represents the Aboriginal people. In Our Village we see the same separation of cultures with the Africans and whites. Jensma's repetition of personal pronouns 'they', 'us' and 'our' emphasises this division. Jensma, like Jack Davis and Mtshali represents the entire black population when using these personal pronouns.
             In all three poems it is the black population that suffers from the social division. In Aboriginal Australia Davis writes how the Aboriginals' were 'murdered', 'massacred', 'buried' in a 'common grave' – all dark images we associate with death, indignity and pain. In Our Village the black people suffer similar violence – "They pumped our chief full of bullets". This strong imagery emphasises the harshness of their suffering. Similarly, in Nightfall in Soweto, the blacks are "slaughtered Every night in the streets". In each of the poems the plight of the people is presented as a series of harsh and graphic images.
             This violence and oppression emphasises the evil, greed and callousness of the white...