Light on shades: complex constructions of identity in the poetry of Chris Mann

Chris Mann openly acknowledges the importance for his writing of the Zulu concept of the shades. This article examines his use of this key aspect of Zulu spirituality and argues that its presence in his poetry allows him to affirm a consciously-created African identity. By doing this, it suggests that Mann both subverts the rigidly physical categorizations of racial politics and creates a third space in which he places himself at once between and beside ‘the assumed ‘polarities’ of conflict’ (Homi K. Bhabha, 1999, interview with Christian Hoeller). Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]