A comparative study of the poetry of Ntsane and Khaketla

Abstract

Many Southern Sotho authors have made important contributions to Southern Sotho literature. Their works cover a wide range of subjects which evince great differenees in significance and depth. We note this in the different books they have written and the themes they have treated. Unfortunately, to date, no serious evaluation of their books has been attempted. The real value of the works is still unkrown to the reader. No effort has been made to unearth the gist of the artist's imaginative power and also to pin-point the weaknesses, so that they oan be remedied. The critical and creative functions must be developed simultaneously if our literature is to attain great heights. At present there is, in most works, a kind of 'stagnation' and spiritual poverty which is realized in a failure to appreciate the meaning of our cultural milieu. We live, as it were, consciously in the present, out- - rooted and transported from cultural forces as if they do not impinge on our minds . There is a lack of depth and failure to recapture the essence of human feeling and thought, less ability and intellectual skill to interpret the world around, and a general incompetence to explain and unfold the very being of human sensitivity.