Black Theatre in Apartheid South Africa Sample Clauses

Black Theatre in Apartheid South Africa. Unlike the white South Africans who owned means of communication, blacks were too poor to own, run or have access to formal forms of media, like newspapers, radio and television, and were compelled to find other means to communicate and express themselves. Theatre was one of these means. There were also other forms of performance, such as dances and rituals. Xxxx Xxxxxxx notes that throughout the centuries and in various parts of the world, theatre has been used in transferring all kinds of information and knowledge, both educational and entertaining. As a vehicle for non-formal education in Third World countries, it has attracted increased attention.30 Nevertheless, change and developments in Black Theatre were influenced by theatrical performances, especially those by white settlers and missionaries. Likewise, blacks in South Africa, being denied political means, used cultural means to express their aspiration above. Blacks’ skin colour consciousness, provoked by discrimination and oppression by white settlers, gave rise to a positive notion of theatre in the cause of black liberty. Black Theatre came to mean theatre that espoused the principles of Black Consciousness31 and reintegrated blacks into their history and culture to forge solidarity and political consciousness. In the face of apartheid, Black Consciousness had to unite blacks and theatre was to be part of this attempt.32 Xxxxxxx writes, At the end of the fifties, and following the banning of ANC and the PAC, we begin to see the emergence of what has been called protest literature. This kind of writing follows the disillusionment that came in the wake of the banning of the major political organizations. Here we see the return of the concerns of Xxxxx. We see the dramatic politicization of creative writing in which there is a movement away from the entertaining stories of Drum, towards stories revealing the spectacular ugliness of the South African situation in all its forms: the brutality of the Boer, the terrible farm conditions, the phenomenal hypocrisy of the English speaking liberal, the disillusionment of 30 Xxxx Xxxxxxx, Learning by Performing Arts. [1992], p.17 31 Black Conscious in South Africa will be dealt with in the next chapter 32 Temple Hauptfleisch and Xxx Xxxxxxxx, South African Theatre. [1984], p.144 educated Africans, the poverty of African life, crime, and a host of other things.33 In this context, Black Theatre became politicized as black playwrights sought means to address ...