David Rubadiri's "A Negro Labourer at Liverpool"

David Rubadiri's "A Negro Labourer at Liverpool" exemplifies the pathetic situation of the average Negro. The poet asserts how his individuality is suppressed in a white-dominated society. He has turned out to be another "dark shadow amidst dark shadows". The words are very meaningful here. Firstly, it points to the poet's state of identity crisis. How he is marginalized, and his individuality is relegated to the background Further, his community is looked down upon, verging on the burning issue of Apartheid. Again, it is a 'shadow' without any authenticity or reality of being of its own. The whites have redefined his 'white' not to adorn a 'sunny smile'. Present in a span of tortures, his future is bleak: a dark night of hopelessness. The indefinite article 'a' in the title further adds light to the state of identity crisis of the negro laborer at Liverpool. He is just one among others. An indefinite article and two common nouns (negro,laborer) sum up his identity in a nutshell.

He does not possess any ray of hope regarding help from the outsiders. The only thing he seeks for is a warm smile, or a nod of understanding translating into the acknowledgement of his suffering. The negros's back has been bent by oppression, colonialism and collective submission to a force that has been deemed indestructible. There is no silver lining to his predicament. He works resigned to his fate with lack of feeling and spiritual numbness. His only fulfillment lies in the sweat of his labor.