Hello, everyone.

My name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

I'm so glad that you could join me.

In this session, we are going to be comparing the poem "Kumukanda" to some of the other poems in your anthology.

So grab your copy of the text and let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explain how "Kumukanda" can be compared thematically to a range of poems from the anthology.

And that word thematically there is really important, because that means we are going to be focusing on the big emotions and the big ideas that the poets are conveying.

So let's have a look at today's keywords.

So we have inner conflict, dual identity, grief, diaspora, and mourn.

So take a few minutes here, perhaps pause the video and familiarise yourself with the meanings of these words, because we are going to be encountering them quite frequently in today's lesson.

But I would just like to draw your attention to one of those words, and that is diaspora.

I don't know if you have come across that word before, but it's a term that we use to refer to people who have been dispersed from their homeland, but maintaining cultural connections to their origins.

So examples of people that might be diaspora might include, for example, refugees or people that have immigrated from the country in which they were born to a different country, but they still have that really important cultural connection.

So as we're looking at the poems today, do bear that word in mind, because particularly in "Kumukanda", we are hearing from a diasporic voice.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, in the first half, we are going to look at comparing poems about identity and belonging.

So that's our first thematic strand that we're going to pull on there.

And then in the second half of the lesson, we're going to compare poems about loss and sadness.

So I would like to start off by thinking about "Kumukanda" in relation to other identity poems in the anthology.

And I would like to start off with a quick recap of what happens in "Kumukanda" and what the big ideas are.

So my question to you is this, which of the Oak pupils below is describing "Kumukanda"? So we've got Izzy, Sam, and Jacob.

So pause the video here for a moment while you take some time to read each of their descriptions and decide which one you think is best describing the poem "Kumukanda".

So pause the video here and click play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

And well done to those of you who correctly identified that Sam was describing "Kumukanda".

And which other anthology poems were Izzy and Jacob describing? Well, Izzy was describing "Jamaican British", and Jacob was describing "The Emigree".

And my question to you is this, what do they all have in common? Why might they be good poems for us to compare? So pause the video and take a moment or two to discuss this with the people around you.

Or if you're working on your own, just make some notes on your paper or in your exercise book.

So pause the video for as long as you need to and when you're ready for us to go through it together, click play, and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting responses there to start us off with people thinking really creatively about how we could link these three poems. So here are some of the things that might have been included in your discussions.

So all three poems reflect on stories of diaspora.

So this was this keyword we were discussing at the beginning.

So they reflect on stories of people who have migrated away from the place that they were born, but they still maintain that important cultural connection.

And they also all focus on a sense of inner conflict that the speaker feels about their dual identity.

So this cultural identity from their homeland versus this new British identity perhaps that they've acquired since they have moved here.

So another discussion then.

We've talked about the similarities between these poems. So now it's time to think about how they're different.

So what differences can you spot between these three poems? So pause the video here while you take a few moments to discuss it or make some notes.

And when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play, and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Again, some fantastic suggestions there that I overheard.

So let's just summarise some of those fantastic ideas.

So in these three poems, we can see that the speaker's relationship to their homeland is different.

We have perhaps some people who view their homeland differently to the others.

Also their feelings about their homeland, how they feel towards it, and in particular, what they miss about their homeland is also different.

And finally, their feelings about life in the UK are different.

So I'd like to start with "Kumukanda" and "Jamaican British".

and we're going to use a table like you can see there on the screen to help us separate these similarities and differences between the poems. So my first question to you is this.

So other than these things that we've just talked about that connect all three poems, all the differences between all three poems, if we're just thinking about "Kumukanda" and "Jamaican British", what similarities might we be able to identify there? So pause the video and take some time to discuss this or make some notes.

And when you're ready to feedback together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's just start by finding some evidence to support those two similarities that we'd already drawn out.

And we were talking about how all three poems were similar.

So we'd said that they all tell diaspora stories and they all focus on inner conflict linked to the speaker's dual identity.

So here we've got some examples from each poem of how this is the case.

So if we look at that first one then, they tell diaspora stories.

So in "Kumukanda", we've got words that show us that the speaker isn't originally from the UK, and in fact, they help us to ground this poem in the Luvale tribe in Zambia.

So we've got the word tribe and we've also got the word Tata, which is what our speaker calls his uncle, who is like a father figure.

He's one of the leaders of the tribe.

And then over in "Jamaican British", we've got the title, "Jamaican British" is already reflecting the dual heritage of our speaker.

They are Jamaican, but they are also British.

And then if we move on to that second point then, so they focus on the inner conflict linked to the speaker's dual identity.

So in "Kumukanda", we've got this idea that at the end of the poem, the speaker wonders what the alternate version of him thinks.

So he imagines in the final stanza that an alternate version of himself who had never left Zambia as a child, what that person might think of him now, and think perhaps of his Britishness and his British identity if they were to meet.

So we've already got that conflict there around that dual identity, the two speakers and what they would think of each other.

And then in "Jamaican British", we've got the way that the poet alternates the words Jamaican and British constantly, flipping backwards and forwards between these two words as the poem goes along.

And we really get the idea there of a conflict, because they're not necessarily being blended together.

We get one, we get the other.

So we've got this constant moving backwards and forwards, which really links to that idea of inner conflict.

So onto some other similarities then.

So I wonder if any of these came up in your discussions.

So we've got the fact that both of these poems reflect on growing up in the UK.

We get descriptions of what it was like for our speaker to grow up in the UK.

In "Kumukanda", we get that in stanza two when our speaker tells us that he grew up in a strange land.

So we get this idea that he's moved away from that homeland, that familiar place, to this strange land.

And then it describes how it was for our speaker to grow up in this strange place.

And then on "Jamaican British", we've got the descriptions that we get from our speaker of the bullying and the fighting at school.

So that really gives us the impression that, again, the speaker grew up in the UK and we're getting the descriptions of how the speaker's Jamaican British identity played out for them at school in the UK.

And then that last similarity then, so both poems suggest the speaker isn't accepted in their cultural homeland.

So in "Kumukanda", we've got this repetition of the word strange, first of all.

So interestingly, as we talked about above there, the speaker actually originally uses this word to describe the UK.

However, by the end of the poem, the speaker actually wonders if this alternate version of him would think he was strange.

So we're getting that real sense of different cultures perceiving other cultures as something that is strange or alien to them.

So you've got that real disconnection.

And we've also got the idea as well that the speaker says he doesn't have the right tongue.

So because he doesn't know the language that was spoken in his tribe in Zambia, he feels like this is another reason that he feels dislocated from that Zambian identity.

He feels separated from it.

And then over in "Jamaican British" then, we've got the description of how the speaker's Jamaican relatives call him Jah-English.

So instead of Jamaican, they say Jah-English.

So we're also getting this idea that perhaps the Jamaican side of the speaker's family aren't accepting him necessarily as Jamaican, but they're acknowledging with this term that he is a blend of Jamaican and British in terms of his cultural identity.

So now we've had a look at the similarities then.

It's time for us to explore the differences.

So same again, but this time we're thinking about the things that each poem does.

And a great way to help you conceptualise it is what it says over along the top.

So "Kumukanda" does this, whereas "Jamaican British" does that.

So you'll know you've got a difference if you could use that word whereas to describe it.

So pause the video here while you take some time to go over the text and discuss it with the people around you or make some notes.

And when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Again, I could hear some really, really perceptive answers with people being quite creative about the differences that they were drawing out, showing a really, really good understanding of each of these two poems. So really, really well done for giving that such a good go.

So let's have a look at some of these differences then.

So first of all, "Kumukanda" suggests the connection to the speaker's homeland is cultural or spiritual.

And the evidence we've got perhaps here to support that is the things that the speaker links to this Zambian culture.

So things like language, this initiation ritual that happens in stanza one and the mention of the tribe.

So the things that the speaker perhaps feels connected to or by the end dislocated from, what they classify as their Zambian identity seems to be coming out of this cultural and spiritual side of what it means to be Zambian.

Whereas in "Jamaican British", it seems to focus on a physical and a cultural connection.

So we do have some cultural references, because we have callaloo and plantain, which are both types of food that are eaten in Jamaica.

So we could argue that food is a cultural connection, but we also have the speaker's descriptions of the nose and the hair and how this makes them feel quite dislocated from their Jamaican identity at times, because perhaps they don't have the same hair as Jamaican people or the same nose as the Jamaican people that they know.

Another difference then.

So in "Kumukanda", the connection has been severed and the speaker's only connection to Zambia seems like an imaginary one in this alternate version that they talk about in stanza three.

And this idea that they worry that the alternate version would perhaps judge them for what they describe as pretensions and what they mean is perhaps their choice to become a writer and their use of advanced and complex English in order to do so.

And reflecting on how perhaps this alternate version of himself would find that quite strange.

So by the end of "Kumukanda", the connection between our speaker and Zambia exists really only in an imaginary sense, and it doesn't seem to be an ongoing link between our speaker and Zambia.

Whereas in "Jamaican British", the connection is ongoing.

And so therefore is this sense of identity conflict, because the speaker does mention that they have visited Jamaica and they also have cousins, they have relatives that they go to see or that they speak to from Jamaica.

And there's also this reference at the end of the poem to their lineage as well.

So clearly this idea of their history and their heritage is something that's really important to them in an ongoing sense.

So a third difference then.

"Kumukanda" implies that the speaker's family encouraged the cultural separation.

So we've got this idea that perhaps when the speaker moved to the UK, maybe the speaker and his mother and possibly his aunt embraced British culture and perhaps left some of their Zambian culture or cultural identity to one side.

Because in the description of the speaker's mother's funeral, we get a link to some perhaps items of clothing and rituals that we might associate a bit more with British culture such as wearing suits and shoes to an occasion like a funeral, which isn't necessarily how people from our speaker's tribe might have dressed to mourn one of their loved ones.

And also this idea of a grave side, the idea very much draws on what we might associate with traditional British funerals.

Whereas in "Jamaican British", it is suggested that the speaker's family encourages a cultural connection.

So his dad took him straight to Jamaica when he questioned his Jamaican heritage.

So there is this idea that the speaker's parents or that the speaker's family really want to encourage this Jamaican British identity in our speaker.

And if perhaps the father felt like there was a sense of dislocation, he wanted to repair that right away.

So he took our speaker to Jamaica.

And one final difference then.

So we've got a difference within a similarity here, which is really interesting, because if you can see that both of the points that we're making are evolved around this idea of a dual identity, but they're doing it in a different way.

So in "Kumukanda", the speaker's dual identity is something that causes him conflict and grief.

And actually in the final stanza with these same quotations that we were looking at earlier, this alternate itself, the pretensions of being a writer and this perception of how they perhaps would find each other quite strange suggests that our speaker feels quite conflicted and perhaps grieves the fact that they didn't get to become this alternate version, that they didn't get to perhaps continue to have this close connection with their Zambian identity.

Whereas in "Jamaican British", this dual identity is something that our speaker was encouraged to celebrate.

So we've got the words sugar and sweetness and proud.

So we've got this idea particularly coming from the speaker's father that it was something to be proud of.

And this is where that sugar and sweetness comes in, because the dad says to the speaker that if he wants to enjoy the sweetness of his character and of his life and of his culture, then there is always gonna be that link to the sugar, which we could actually even see as a cultural reference here perhaps to the sugar plantations in Jamaica.

So let's pause here and check our understanding.

So true or false? "Kumukanda" tells a story of diaspora, because the speaker immigrated from Zambia, whereas "Jamaica British" doesn't, because the speaker was born in the UK.

So pause the video here while you have a think and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click play, and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said false.

So why might that be, so why might that be? Well, the term diaspora can refer to people who were born in the UK to foreign parents since it more relates to a cultural connection with their homeland rather than a physical one.

So now it's time for the first practise task of today's lesson, and we've been exploring "Kumukanda" in relation to "Jamaican British".

So now I would like you to have a go at exploring the similarities and differences between "Kumukanda" and "The Emigree".

So here is a list of things that you should consider.

How do both speakers feel about their cultural identity? How and why were they separated from their homeland? What connection do they have to it now and how does this connection affect their sense of identity? And I'd like you to try and support your ideas with evidence or examples from each poem.

So pause the video here while you take some time to give this a really good go.

And when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back, and well done for all your hard work with that task.

So let's start by exploring how they're similar.

So first of all, both poems explore ideas of grief and loss through the use of memories.

In "Kumukanda", we have memories of the mother's death and fantasies and memories of this childhood in Zambia.

Whereas in "Emigree" we begin with this idea of was, we're beginning with the speaker looking back at their memories of their homeland.

And they also describe a speaker that is permanently disconnected from their homeland.

So in "Kumukanda", we've obviously got this idea how it doesn't really seem like he is going to go back to Zambia.

And also in "The Emigree", we've got the link to the fact that the speaker tells us that they don't have a passport and therefore they can't go back.

And finally, they view language as a barrier to being accepted.

So in "Kumukanda", we get this idea that the speaker's cultural language isn't his, it's not something that he feels he can use.

And in "The Emigree", we have this idea that the speaker believes they arrived with a child's language, because they arrived in this new country without a very good knowledge of the language that is spoken there.

So how did these ideas compare to your similarities? Did you include any of these? Did you come up with some different similarities? Just take a moment to have a think there.

And onto the differences then.

So first of all, "Kumukanda" focuses on the speaker's sense of dislocation from his homeland, so how he feels disconnected, whereas we could argue that "The Emigree" focuses on the strength of the speaker's connection to her homeland.

So we've got this real different perception there of how the speakers feel about their homeland.

So a second difference then.

We've also got this idea of grief.

So in "Kumukanda", our speaker grieves for the loss of his childhood.

So when he moved to the UK, his mother's illness and then her death meant he had to grow up faster than perhaps he might have had he stayed in Zambia.

And in "The Emigree", we've got our speaker grieving for the loss of her country.

So all the way through the poem, she is speaking about how she misses her country and misses being away from it.

And finally then we've got this idea of worries.

So in "Kumukanda", his worries about returning are personal and related to his cultural conflict.

So he's very worried that if he was to return to Zambia that he might face the judgement of his Zambian friends and relatives because he's different now, because he wouldn't seem so Zambian to them.

Whereas in "The Emigree", her worries about returning relate to how conflict has changed her country.

So she's actually worried that if or when she returns to her country, it won't really be recognisable as the country that she left.

So how did these ideas compare to yours? Did you manage to pick out any of these differences or did you have some different ideas? So just take a moment to have a think again.

Okay, so we've made it to the end of the first half of the lesson.

So now we've been thinking about identity and belonging.

We're going to start thinking about comparing poems about loss and sadness.

So can you recall any of these connections? Because we did actually identify some ideas earlier in "Kumukanda" that did link to the idea of loss or sadness or grief.

So can you see if you can remember what any of them were? So pause the video here for a moment while you take some time to think and discuss it and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So you might have said this idea about the speaker grieving for the loss of his childhood and also this idea that his dual identity was causing him conflict and grief.

So one more question then about "Kumukanda".

Why do you think Chingonyi draws on themes of loss and sadness in this poem? So pause the video again and click play when you're ready for us to go through it together.

So you might have said something like, "The speaker seems to associate his move to the UK with hardship, this idea that he was caring for his mother almost straight away and loss, both of his mother and also his Zambian identity." Perhaps he grieves for and fantasises about another alternate life.

Perhaps that is why he thinks about and conjures up this alternate version of himself.

So this thematic link then to grief and loss and sadness means that we can also compare "Kumukanda" using these themes.

So which other anthology poems could we choose if we were going to make a comparison focused on grief, loss and sadness? Pause the video while you take some time to have a think and click play when you're ready to discuss it together.

Okay, welcome back.

Heard lots of different suggestions there.

So you might have said "I Remember, I Remember", "Clear and Gentle Stream", "Captain Cook To My Brother", "To My Sister", and "The Emigree".

So we've got lots of different options there for poems that also focus on these themes and these particular emotions.

So we're going to choose "I Remember, I Remember".

We're going to have a go at comparing it to "Kumukanda" in the way that we were doing before.

So here is a reminder of those links there in "Kumukanda" to loss and grief and sadness.

And my first question to you is does "I Remember, I Remember" explore these ideas and themes similarly or differently? So pause the video here while you take some time to think about it and discuss it, and when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

So heard lots of different ideas there, but well done if you were picking up on the idea that actually there are both similarities and differences in the way that both poems explore ideas of loss, grief, and sadness.

Although in both poems the cause of the grief is different, both poets explore it in similar ways, because they both focus on past memories of it and then compare it to a present, which is somewhat disappointing.

So the aspects of the, perhaps the youth that they focus on are very, very different in the ways in which it causes them grief.

But this method of exploration and how they convey in these ideas is quite similar.

So let's explore this idea in a bit more detail.

However, this time I would like to start with the differences.

So how are "Kumukanda" and "I Remember, I Remember" different? So pause the video here and click play when you're ready for us to feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

So first of all then, "Kumukanda" implies a sense of loss as cultural.

So we talked about this before, it seems more focused on the loss of Zambian identity than actually leaving Zambia itself.

It doesn't seem to miss necessarily the country of Zambia, but perhaps the life that the speaker might have had there.

Whereas in "I Remember, I Remember", the sense of loss is arguably emotional and very much attached to the place that he grew up.

And actually the speaker links their feelings to the setting quite a lot.

And we've got all these natural descriptions that really ground us in that setting.

And arguably "Kumukanda" ends with this curious tone, this wondering how life may have been different.

Whereas "I Remember, I Remember" ends with quite a pessimistic tone with our speaker saying that he'll never be happy like that again.

'Tis little joy farther off from heaven.

So we've got that real negative tone there at the end of "I Remember, I Remember".

So let's have a look then at some similarities.

So over to you once more.

How are these poems similar? So pause the video and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's explore these similarities then.

So first of all, both poems explore feelings of romanticising or idealising past memories.

So in "Kumukanda", we get this idea that the speaker is focusing on the things he missed out on.

He haven't or never, it's the things he didn't get to do.

And also the groups he wasn't part of, the initiates, the tribe and the boys, the things that he missed out on getting to do.

Whereas, in "I Remember, I Remember", the repeated refrain actually centres the poem around memories instead.

So we've got this, "I remember, I remember," we're constantly looking to this romantic memory of the past.

And then we've also got this idea that both poems suggest the reality of the present is disappointing compared to this romanticised memory of the past.

So in "Kumukanda", the UK's described as strange and linked to hardship, so linked to him caring for his mother and then her dying and the grief that he felt.

It's a very negative experience the way that it's described.

Whereas in, "I Remember, I Remember", there's this focus of constant contrast all the way through.

The end of every stanza, the speaker talks about how now is never ever going to live up to this experience that they had when they were younger.

So examples, now 'tis little joy, spirit flew in feathers then, so heavy now.

So we've got that constant contrast going all the way through the poem.

And finally we've got this idea that both poems mourn the loss of childhood innocence.

So in "Kumukanda", we've got this water imagery and the initiation ritual and how this river separates childhood and adulthood and how that could also link to the water our speaker then crossed to immigrate to the UK since it's almost like the speaker's childhood is back there in Zambia and they were forced to become an adult when they got to the UK.

Whereas in "I Remember, I Remember", the speaker now views his past joy as childish ignorance.

So we've got this idea that he is mourning it, but he's also sort of saying, "Oh, I wish I'd, it's just because I was a child perhaps that I remembered it that way." And this idea, "I'm farther from heaven than I was when I was a boy." So we've got this idea that now he's very, very cynical and he believes that all the joy he has felt is over.

So let's check our understanding.

The speakers of both "Kumukanda" and "I Remember, I Remember" mourn the loss of what? Pause the video here and click play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Welcome back and well done to those of you who said C, they mourn the loss of childhood innocence.

So one last task in today's lesson then.

And what I would like you to do is to write a paragraph answering the following question.

Explore how the poets present grief and loss in "Kumukanda" and "I Remember, I Remember".

And then underneath, you have got a list of success criteria for effective analysis.

So things that you need to include, topic sentence, evidence, identifying how the poets are using language and form and structure, a consideration of why they make the choices they do and some relevant links to wider context.

So pause the video while you give this a really good go.

And when you're ready for us to feedback together, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

And a massive, massive well done for writing that comparative paragraph.

It's not easy to do a comparative analysis for writing, but it is such a useful skill to have.

So one final task for you then.

It's time to review your response by asking yourself these questions.

Does your topic sentence identify a similarity and/or difference? Have you included at least one example or quotation from each poem? Are you zooming in on this evidence, really drawing out how the poet is using methods? Have you considered why the poets made the choices they did or what effects or meanings they were creating? And have you made any links to wider context? And most importantly, are those links relevant to your topic sentence? 'cause really we should only be using context where it's relevant to the point that we're making.

So take some time to review your work and ask yourself these questions and then use your responses to the questions to give yourself what went well and even better for next time.

So what did you do really confidently and really effectively? And what is really important to remember next time that you do comparative analysis writing? So pause the video here while you take some time to review your work.

And when you're ready to move on, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, so we have made it to the end of today's lesson and you should be really, really pleased with everything that you have achieved.

Lots of hard work today so well done.

So let's just summarise what we've covered in this lesson.

"Kumukanda" and "Jamaican British" both explore the struggle in finding belonging when the speaker is of dual heritage, "Kumukanda" and "The Emigree" both use the power of memory to create a sense of belonging.

"Kumukanda" and "The Emigree" both explore permanent severance, whereas "Jamaican British" explores a partial separation.

"Kumukanda" and "I Remember, I Remember" explore grief and sadness through idealised memories.

And finally, "Kumukanda" and "I Remember, I Remember" mourn the loss of childhood innocence.

So thanks for joining me today and I hope you've enjoyed this lesson as much as I have.

Have a fantastic day, and I hope to see you again soon.