Black South African Women: An Anthology of Plays

353 Pages·1998·1.99 MB·English

by  Kathy Perkins

Black South African Women
In the first anthology to focus exclusively on the lives of black South African women,
this volume represents the work of both emerging playwrights and national and
international award-winners, including
Gcina Mhlophe Fatima Dike
Duma Ndlovu Sindiwe Magona
Maishe Maponya Lueen Conning
Ismail Mahomed Thulani Mtshali
Muthal Naidoo Magi Noninzi Williams
Written before and after apartheid, the plays present varying approaches and theatrical
styles from solo performances or one-handers to collective creations. This volume
presents an array of women’s and men’s voices, and includes interviews with the
playwrights themselves, who candidly discuss the theatrical and political situation in the
new South Africa.
The plays dramatize issues as diverse as women’s rights; displacement from home;
violence against women; the struggle to keep families together; racial identity; health
care; and education in the old and new South Africa.
Black South African Women: An Anthology of Plays is a unique and valuable
sourcebook for anyone interested in the drama and politics of South Africa.
Kathy A.Perkins is Associate Professor at the University of Illinois. She is the editor
of Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays Before 1950, co-editor with Roberta
Uno of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color (Routledge, 1996) and co-editor with
Judith Stephens of Strange Fruit: Plays on Lynching by American Women.
To the memory of Marion Perkins, Sr. (1922–1998)
Black South African Women
An Anthology of Plays
Edited by Kathy A.Perkins

London and New York
First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York,
NY 10001
© 1998 edited by Kathy A.Perkins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Black South African women: an anthology
of plays/edited by Kathy A.Perkins. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. Contents:
Introduction/Kathy A.Perkins—A Coloured place/Lueen Conning—So what’s new?/Fatima
Dike— House-hunting unlike Soweto/Sindiwe Magona— Cheaper than roses/Ismail Mahomed—
Umongikazi/The nurse/Maishe Maponya—Have you seen Zandile?/ Gcina Mhlophe—
WEEMEN/Thulani S.Mtshali— Flight from the Mahabarath/Muthal Naidoo—Sheila’s day/Duma
Ndlovu—Kwa-landlady/Magi Nonzini Williams. 1. Women, Black—South Africa—Drama. 2.
South African drama (English)—Women authors. 3. South African drama (English)—Black
authors. 4. South African drama (English) 5. Blacks—South Africa— Drama. 6. English Drama—
20th century. I. Perkins, Kathy A., 1954–. PR9366.7.W65B58 1999 822–dc21 98–18547 CIP
ISBN 0-203-98361-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-18243-3 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-18244-1 (pbk)
Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction 1

Kathy A.Perkins
1 A Coloured Place 13

Lueen Conning
2 So What’s New? 43

Fatima Dike
3 House-Hunting Unlike Soweto 92

Sindiwe Magona
4 Cheaper Than Roses 102

Ismail Mahomed
5 Umongikazi/The Nurse 117

Maishe Maponya
6 Have You Seen Zandile? 146

Gcina Mhlophe
7 WEEMEN 192

Thulani S.Mtshali
8 Flight from the Mahabarath 214

Muthal Naidoo
9 Sheila’s Day 273

Duma Ndlovu
10 Kwa-Landlady 312

Magi Noninzi Williams

Bibliography 345
Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful for the support and guidance of the numerous people who helped
make this collection a reality.
I would like to thank sincerely the following individuals for their assistance in guiding
me to the plays, festivals, writers, and various research information: Walter Chakela,
Kendall, Lizbeth Goodman, Deva Govindsamy, Khubu Meth, Gita Pather, Kriben Pillay,
the United States Information Service (USIS)—Johannesburg and Durban, and Ian
Steadman.
For the personal support from the many friends and colleagues who made my visits to
South Africa a wonderful experience: Ben Cashden, Michael Kaiser, Nomvula Meth,
Shereen Mills, Matthew O’Leary, Mahomed (Babs) Abba-Omar, Margery Moberly,
Logan Shunmugam, Zodwa Shongwe, and Juliet Walker.
For those individuals who were instrumental in assisting with the manuscript,
providing guidance and inspiration: Nancy Davis, Jane de Gay, Richard Gibbs, Ann
Haugo, Kwaku Kurang, Kathryn Marshak, Dawn Plummer, Libya Pugh, Sandra
Richardson, and Sandra Seaton.
My four trips to Africa would not have been possible without support from: University
of Illinois (UIUC) Research Board, Dean Kathleen Conlin (UIUC College of Fine &
Applied Arts), and the UIUC International Programs and Studies.
Finally, for personal support from family, friends, and colleagues here in the United
States: Daniel Anteau, Timothy Eatman, Steve Pelphrey, Alphonse Perkins, Linda
Perkins, Minerva Perkins, Judith Stephens, Barbara Cohen Stratyner, Kristina Stanley,
Vincent Wimbush, and Paul Zeleza.
Many thanks to my editors at Routledge, Talia Rodgers and Sophie Powell, for the
opportunity to work together again. Special thanks to Glenda Younge, at University of
Cape Town Press.
My greatest gratitude is to the writers who made this collection possible. Thank you
for sharing your wonderful stories!
Kathy A.Perkins
Champaign, Illinois
Introduction

South African women do things, but very little is known
about us. Even during the era of protest theatre, most of the
plays produced were by men and about men in the
struggle. One of my pains that I’ve had to live with was the
fact that a lot of these women were the ones left behind by
men who had to go into exile, to prison at Robben Island
or were dead. So who do you think was keeping this
country going? It was us!
(Fatima Dike interview, July 22, 1997—Cape Town)
I have always been fascinated by drama’s unique power to educate audiences about
histories and cultures. My hope is that this anthology, one of the first to focus exclusively
on the lives of black South African women through drama, will contribute to the reader’s
understanding of the position of these black women. This anthology fills a major gap,
since the majority of published plays on South Africa focus primarily on men. These
plays, written during and after apartheid, represent the work of black South African men
and women. (The term “black” in South Africa refers to Africans, and a segment of both
Coloureds (people of mixed race), and Indians who identified with the Black
Consciousness Movement of the 1970s; my collection reflects the work of all three
groups.) The writers range in age from their late twenties to early sixties and come from
diverse educational and theatrical backgrounds. This anthology marks the first
publication for some, while others have already garnered national and international
reputations.
My interest in South Africa dates back to 1979, when my sister introduced me to a
group of South African exiles studying here in the States. These students occasionally
came by to the apartment my sister and I shared in New Jersey, where they discussed
events in South Africa and the impact of apartheid. Having grown up in Alabama during
the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, I had little difficulty relating to their stories of
racial oppression and violence. One of the students who visited us, Duma Ndluvo, went
on years later to write Sheila’s Day, a play exploring the parallels between apartheid and
segregation in the United States.
In the early 1980s, I took the opportunity to design lighting for several South African
artists in the New York area. Through my contact with these artists, I was kept abreast of
the cultural and social situation under apartheid. Throughout the 1980s, South African
plays such as Sizwe Bansi is Dead, Bopha!, and Sarafina, gained tremendous popularity
Black South African women 2
in the United States, offering insight into the terrible conditions under which black South
Africans were forced to live. By the end of the 1980s, rumors abounded regarding the
release of Nelson Mandela and the debanning of the African National Congress (ANC).
On February 11, 1990, Mandela was released from prison at Robben Island, and a year
later apartheid was legally abolished. In April of 1994, black people voted in South
Africa’s first non-racial election. The following month the world witnessed Mandela’s
inauguration as the country’s first black president. With these various events, my interest
in South Africa heightened. I kept hearing talk about the new South Africa and the
emerging rainbow nation. What was this new South Africa, and where did black women
fit into the scheme of things?
I began seeking some answers in the dramas of the old and new South Africa, but
discovered there were very few plays that dealt with the role of black women, and even
fewer written by black women. While stories by and about the lives of black South
African women tend to fare better than their counterparts throughout the continent, there
still remains a tremendous absence of literature on their lives. According to South African
writer Ellen Kuzwayo, “I always felt there was this great heroic contribution and
achievement by women, but nobody knows about it outside of the country, and maybe
even within the country. Because of the structure of society, with women right at the
bottom, they did not come out to be seen as the real motivating element in the lives of the
people, or the country as a whole.”1 In terms of drama, I should not have been surprised
by the lack of available material on women. Even in the United States, African American
women have been publishing in significant numbers only in the last decade and their
numbers are still small when compared to black men and whites.
SO WHAT’S NEW?
Through attending, reading, or working on South African productions in the United
States, I became aware of the limited opportunities for black South African women
playwrights and performers. Most accessible published South African plays are by males
such as white playwright Athol Fugard, and black male writers Mbongeni Ngema and
Percy Mtwa. Because there are so few published plays by and about black women of
South Africa, dramatized interpretations of the role women play in that society are
minimal. The available plays by black women are usually published through small South
African presses.
On the international scene, roles for women in South African productions often feature
them as exotic characters in musicals such as Ipi Tombi (Where are the Girls?). During
the 1970s and 1980s, lavish musicals like Ipi Tombi, primarily produced and marketed by
whites, enjoyed successful runs internationally and with mainstream theatres in South
Africa. Such productions have been criticized for exploiting indigenous cultures for
commercial gain and for their appeal to mainly white audiences. A few plays by black
women, such as Have You Seen Zandile? and You Strike the Woman, You Strike the Rock,
received significant recognition at home and abroad during the 1980s.
Women are practically invisible in the internationally acclaimed male-authored protest
plays of the 1970s and 1980s; such plays as Woza Albert and Asinamali focus primarily
on the oppression of blacks by whites. Given the nature of apartheid, many black male-
Introduction 3
authored dramas focused on employment, since most men labored in the cities and had
greater exposure to whites than women did. But very few works included other aspects of
black life, except for such black male writers of the same period as Matsemela Manaka
and Gibson Kente. Both wrote plays focusing on family life and featuring female
protagonists. However, these works were rarely seen outside of the townships and did not
gain international exposure. In much South African theatre, according to Zakes Mda
peasants and other rural dwellers were ignored as subjects of artistic
attention. Once in a while, on very rare occasions, there would be a bright
spark that would illuminate other aspects of the people’s life, such as
Gcina Mhlophe’s (1988) Have You Seen Zandile? Other exceptions were
You Strike the Woman, You Strike the Rock, which examined the role
women played in the South African liberation struggle, and Imfuduso,
which was on the questions of forced removals, in this case at Crossroads
in Cape Town. It is significant that these plays were either wholly created
(written, directed, and performed) by women, as in the case of Mhlophe’s
play, or women played a major role in creating them.2
In recent years, a number of male playwrights have written plays that focus on black
women and the dilemmas of daily life. While numerous male writers have included
women in their works, only a few have portrayed women in a sensitive and realistic light.
This minority group includes Zakes Mda with his anthology And the Girls in their
Sunday Dresses, and the works by several men included in this collection. Most
1 James, Adeola, editor, In Their Own Voices: African Women Writers Talk, Portsmouth, New
Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 1990.
2 Mda, Zakes, compiled and introduced, Four Plays, Florida Hills, South Africa: Vivla Publishers,
1996.
recently Athol Fugard has featured black women as his subject in his post-apartheid plays
My Life and Valley Song.
ZANENDABA (TELL US A STORY)
In June of 1995, I made the first of four trips to South Africa to seek out women
playwrights willing to tell their stories. I was somehow not convinced that women in
South Africa were as silent as I had been led to believe. Within eight hours of my arrival
in Johannesburg, I visited Kippie’s, a popular club in the heart of the city, which at the
time hosted a women-only night once a month. At Kippie’s I was introduced to South
African women from all walks of life—class, education levels, and racial classifications.
The night featured poetry, music, and dramatic readings for an enthusiastic crowd. A
large table prominently displayed international and national literature by and about
women, including material on health issues. Since I was a recent arrival to the country,
the women were as anxious to share their stories as I was anxious to hear them. One
theme that reverberated throughout the night was the feeling that the centrality of black