In these last two weeks we will study the history and features of Apartheid as practiced in South Africa, and look at the prison system, township administration, the history of Robben Island and the struggle of the political prisoners under Apartheid.
We will also read The Island, by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. The play texts for The Island, and My Children, My Africa are now added as PDF's under 'Additional Readings' on the website. You will also view a few short clips from the original production of The Island, to give you feel for the play, as a full screening of the play is not available, but you'll get a taste of it in performance.
Part of what this week will introduce as well, includes an example of 'political prisons' which exist only for the purpose of political repression. As is the case elsewhere such as in Northern Ireland, Russia, even Guantanomo Bay, and elsewhere, where prisoners are condemned sometimes for life, for political activity as opposed to what we might refer to as criminal activity by a western or U.S. standard. However, as we will see, the lines can blur between political activity and criminal activity in two basic ways. First, political activity might be deemed 'criminal' by a state through legal means either by the legislative bodies or the courts. In these circumstances, even membership in a particular political party is deemed a crime. Second, as in the case with Nelson Mandela, political activists resort to armed acts of resistance that can be seen as 'criminal' even if the resistance is justified by systematic racist or other forms of massive political and social repression. Mandela himself was given a life sentence for both being a member of the African National Congress, an outlawed party and for bombing public utility facilities, thus branding him a terrorist.
The Island Athol Fugard. The Island (1973) Athol Fugard A Quick Rundown of The Island - The Island is a Fugard play that resorts to the Classics to protest Apartheid. It takes place in four scenes, opening with a lengthy mimed sequence in which John and Winston, two cell mates in prison on Robben Island, carry out one of the totally pointless and exhausting tasks designed by warders to break. Fugard was born in South Africa in 1932 to English and Afrikaner parents. In 1935, his family moved to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He studied philosophy and social anthropology at the University of Cape Town, but dropped out before his final examinations. He then spent two years working in East. AT: Die Hodoshe Span A: Athol Fugard, with John Kani and Winston Ntshona Pf: 1973, Cape Town Pb: 1974 G: Drama in 1 act S: Robben Island prison, c.1970 C: 2m. One of the simplest and finest products of anti-apartheid theatre, The Island draws on Greek tragedy to suggest that there is a higher law of humanity than the law of the state. The Island By Athol Fugard Pdf Creator Posted on This article addresses the creation of Athol Fugard's plays not as performances or as texts, but as material objects, and examines how the meaning and value of his plays were constructed through the interventions of his publisher. Essay on The Island, by Athol Fugard 1261 Words 6 Pages. The Island is indeed an actor's play, for acting is its central metaphor and idea: acting as a means for the acting out of one's life, acting as a form of survival, and acting as a basis for (political) action.
Finally we will look a the style of drama created by Athol Fugard, which while based in narrative realist drama, has some interesting and specific features to the way he constructs his plays, how they are presented and performed.
Legal basis for Apartheid:
By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between black and white South Africans. The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white. A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored.
A series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country's land for the white minority, and 'pass laws' required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas. In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.
The white government of South Africa was made up largely of two groups, descendants of Dutch and German immigrants and colonists, and English speaking colonists from England. The majority was of Dutch descent and collectively they were known as 'Afrikaners, and the language they spoke was known as 'Afrikaans.' While they made up only roughly 5.2% of the population they dominated South African politics throughout the 20th century, or until the end of Apartheid. It should be noted that some white South Africans opposed Apartheid, particularly from the English speaking colonists, some of which were active members of the African National Congress, the leading protest party against Apartheid.
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Athol Fugard:
Athol Fugard was born in 1932 and is a South African playwright, actor, and director of Afrikaner descent, who writes in English. He is best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy Award winning film of his novel Totsei. The recipient of many awards, honors, and including the 2005 Order of Ikhimanga in Silver 'for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre' from the government of South Africa he is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Athol Fugard Quotes
Not unlike Ariel Dorfman whose works were influenced by British playwright Harold Pinter, Fugard was influenced by the great political German playwright, Bertolt Brecht. Brecht wrote plays from the 1920's through the 1950's and developed a form of theatre, known as 'Epic Theatre' that was specifically designed to be 'Didactic' rather than based on Dialectic. Brecht believed the main function of theatre was to 'evaluate and instruct' rather than to lay out different points of view to fight it out on stage, as with the Greeks. Brecht's main objective was to ask the audience to interrogate the situation presented onstage to provoke action, rather than just an emotional response. He felt that emotional responses could leave the audience in a state of complacency, offering them a catharsis, or emotional awakening, but leave them to focus on the their own emotions rather than social action.
The Island By Athol Fugard Pdf Free I Love
The main features of Epic Theatre, included the development of actors who could simultaneously portray the emotional and dramatic action of characters, and at the same time comment on the actions of the characters. This allowed the actors to become political agents in their own work in order to bring to the audience the nature of their experience as 'citizen actors' as well as artists. Often the nature of Brecht's theatre includes opposing styles of theatre, such as serious drama combined with satiric comedy or street theatre to blend into a social critique of society. This acting style was also very physically based and included a sort of ‘vaudeville' kind of musical theatre. In general this form of acting became known as 'Gestic' theatre, based on a strong physical life, or one filled with 'gestures.'
According to Loren Kruger:
'The Serpent Players used Bertolt Brecht's elucidation of so-called Gestic acting, didactic theatre and social critique, as well as their own experience of the satiric comic routines of urban African vaudeville to explore the theatrical force of Brecht's theatre as well as the immediate political relevance of a play about land distribution. Their work on the Caucasion Chalk Circle, and, a year later, on Brecht's version of Antigone, led directly to the creation, in 1966, of what is still South Africa's most distinctive Lehrstück or 'Learning Play,' The Coat, based on an incident at one of the many political trials involving the Serpent Players. The Coat dramatized the choices facing a woman whose husband, convicted of anti-apartheid political activity, left her only a coat and instructions to use it.'
As Kruger observed in The Coat, 'The participants were engaged not only in representing social relationships on stage but also on enacting and revising their own dealings with each other and with institutions of apartheid oppression from the law courts downward', and 'this engagement testified to the real power of Brecht's idea to abolish the separation of player and audience and to make of each player a ‘statesman' or social actor…. Work on The Coat led indirectly to the Serpent Players' most famous and most Brechtian productions, Sizwi Bonzei is Dead, (1972) and The Island, (1973).'
Fugard developed these two plays for the Serpent Players in workshops, working extensively with John Kani and Winston Ntshona, publishing them in 1974 with his own play Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act. The authorities considered the title of The Island, which alludes to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was being held, too controversial, so Fugard and the Serpent Players used the alternative title The Hodoshe Span (Hodoshe, a carrion fly, being slang for the Afrikaner guard who supervised the prison work gang).
Kruger again suggests: 'These plays (brought) Brechtian technique and attention to the demonstration of social situations and encouraged audiences to analyze rather than merely applaud the action'; for example, Sizwe Banzi which 'combined Brechtian critique and vaudevllian style, especially in Kani's virtuoso improvisation – even provoked an African audience's critical interruption and interrogation of the action.' While dramatizing frustrations in the lives of his audience members, the plays simultaneously drew them into the action and attempted to have them analyze the situations of the characters in Brechtian fashion.'
The Island, by Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona and John Kani:
The Island, by Fugard, Ntshona and Kani, takes much of its environment and action from experiences on Robben Island, even though Robben Island itself is not named. Rather the title refers not only to the Island Prison known as Robben Island but to the existential state of being a political prisoner as well. Indeed the cell itself can be viewed as a kind of island within the larger psychological and physical world of prison life.
The events of The Island, take place within four scenes, and mostly within the cell of the two prisoners, John and Winston. John has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and Winston has been sentenced to life. During the days they suffer mind numbing labor and at night, they rehearse a small performance of a portion of Antigone, by Sophocles, for the prison entertainment night coming up. As the play progresses, we learn about their lives, and a crisis occurs when John learns he is about to be released early, after three years living with Winston in their cell.
Fugard The Island Pdf
During Nelson Mandela's imprisonment and as told in his book, The Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela spoke of how he and his fellow prisoners would often produce plays including Antigone, and Julius Caesar, as ways of thinking and discussing politics. They viewed the plays as political discourse.
While John and Winston's relationship is tested, we see the brutality of prison life, particularly for political prisoners strips them of any sense of hope. As you read the play think about the parallels between Antigone and The Island, and how a pivotal act of compassion by one character actually allows them to re-connect their relationship.
My Children, My Africa: Free iptv m3u playlist download.
My Children, My Africa, is a three character play that takes place largely in a Township school in South Africa during Apartheid. Black Africans were evicted continuously from the late 19th the end of Apartheid, from what became 'White Only' areas and they were forcibly moved to so-called, 'Townships' often at the edge of major cities. In many instances the land was not owned by the Blacks who lived there, so without property rights, most of the homes were considered legal residencies. This sort of 'Catch 22' system of forced displacement meant that the municipality's were not required to provide basic services including, health care, water, or formal education anywhere close to the standards enjoyed by the white communities.
Education for Blacks, or 'Bantu Education,' came under the Administration for 'Bantu' or Black education. In 1974, South Africa passed the Afrikaans Medium Decree, which forced all blacks to study most subjects including math, science and technical crafts in Afrikaans, which was unfamiliar and limited to the descendants of the original Dutch settlers. Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of Bantu Education at the time, was quoted as saying: 'A Black man may be trained to work on a farm or in a factory. He may work for an employer who is either English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking and the man who has to give him instructions may be either English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking. Why should we now start quarrelling about the medium of instruction among the Black people as well? … No, I have not consulted them and I am not going to consult them. I have consulted the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.'
The decree was resented deeply by blacks, because Afrikaans was widely viewed—in the words of Desmond Tutu bishop of Lesotho — as 'the language of the oppressor'. Teacher organizations such as the African Teachers Association of South Africa objected to the decree. A change in language of instruction forced the students to focus on understanding the language instead of the subject material. This made critical analysis of the content difficult and discouraged critical thinking.
The Island By Athol Fugard Pdf Free Online
The resentment grew until 30 April 1976, when children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion then spread to many other schools in Soweto. Black South African students protested because they believed that they deserved to be treated and taught equally to White South Africans. Mp3 converter software, free download. Students proposed a meeting on 13 June 1976 to discuss what should be done. Students formed an Action Committee (later known as the Soweto Students' Representative Council) that organized a mass rally for 16 June to make themselves heard.
Some 20,000 students marched to Orlando where they were eventually met by police and army units who let dogs loose on the crowd. The crowd stoned the dogs and then the police opened fire killing at least 170 school children with some estimates as high as 700.
Athol Fugard Written Works
The uprising in Soweto marked a turning point for the African National Congress, and the South African Government and created enormous international backlash.
While My Children, My Africa, does not refer to the massacres in Soweto per se, the context for the play is one in which education itself is under question. English had been a common language of instruction in Bantu Schools along with tribal Bantu languages and our play assumes English as the main language of instruction.
During the riots of Soweto and in other parts of the country, many young men and women met as part of the resistance movements growing during the 1970's and 1980's. At times some teachers might be seen as sympathetic to this resistance, but some were seen as collaborators who would report the students activities to the white authorities. Even if a teacher reported organizers in order to try and protect students from the police, such an act would be seen as traitorous to the general cause. It is on this question that some of the action in My Children, My Africa, depends.
