Social Protest in Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972) and My Children! My Africa! (1989)

Abstract

The present research paper deals with the issue of social protest in South African white playwright Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972, written in collaboration with John Kani and Winston Ntshona, and My Children! My Africa! (1989). Our major interest in this paper is to show how these plays are used by Fugard as a tool to defend the oppressed Blacks and to denounce one of the most oppressive systems in the world, namely Apartheid. The discussion is achieved through two parts. The first part explored the issue of segregation in the light of Brecht’s concept of “Realism”. In both plays, Fugrad portrays faithfully how black characters are subjected to different types of discriminatory practices. The second part was concerned with the issue of commitment by making reference to Brecht’s notion of “Alienation”, Bhabha’s concepts of Mimicry, and Ashcroft’s et al. concept of “Appropriation and Abrogation”. Our focus was on elements such as characters and language that prove Fugard’s political commitment.