Characters and narrator

The poem “Kidnapped” by Ruperake Petaia includes a lyrical speaker or narrator and three collective characters: the speaker’s parents, teachers, and schoolmate…

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The speaker

The narrator (lyrical speaker) conveys his experience in an educational system instituted by colonisers from the age of six (p. 60, l. 1) to the age of 21, “fifteen years after” (p. 61, l. 13).

As a young boy, going to school “alone / five days a week” (p. 60, ll. 4-5) makes the speaker feel abandoned by his mother, whom he describes as “careless” (p. 60, l. 2).

At school, he feels kidnapped by his teachers because their teaching methods and the content of the teaching is foreign (alien to him) as indicated in stanzas two and three. Consequent…

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The speaker’s parents

The speaker’s parents are first described as “careless” (p. 60, l.2) for sending the speaker to school, probably because they could not foresee the negative consequences that…

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The speaker’s schoolmates and teachers

The speaker’s schoolmates are only mentioned as applauding each other at graduation (p. 61, ll . 15-16), something which suggests that, through years of cultural colonisation in schools, they have been made to believe in the benefits of the Western educational system.

The speaker’s teachers are a collective character that represents Western colonisers and the Western post-colonial influence. They are described as “Western philosophe…