Much of the work in the field of African studies still relies on rigid distinctions of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘resistance’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘foreign’. This book moves well beyond these frameworks to probe the complex entanglements of different intellectual traditions in the South African context, by examining two case studies. The case studies constitute the core around which is woven this intriguing story of the development of black theatre in South Africa in the early years of the century. It also highlights the dialogue between African and African-American intellectuals, and the intellectual formation of the early African elite in relation to colonial authority and how each affected the other in complicated ways.
The first case study centres on Mariannhill Mission in Kwa Zulu-Natal. Here the evangelical and pedagogical drama pioneered by the Rev Bernard Huss, is considered alongside the work of one of the mission’s most eminent alumni, the poet and scholar, B.W. Vilakazi. The second moves to Johannesburg and gives a detailed insight into the working of the Bantu Dramatic Society and the drama of H.I.E. Dhlomo in relation to the British Drama League and other white liberal cultural activities.
Tabella dei contenuti
Preface and Acknowledgements
Note on Zulu Orthography
Introduction: Staging the (Alien)nation: African Theatre and the Colonial Experience
Chapter 1 ‘All Work and No Play Makes Civilisation Unattractive to the Masses’: Theatre and Mission Education at Mariannhill
Chapter 2 ‘I Will Open My Mouth in Parables’: Accounting for the Crevices in Redemption
Chapter 3 Parallel Time, Parallel Signs, Discordant Interpretations
Chapter 4 B.W. Vilakazi and the Poetics of the Mental War Zone
Chapter 5 The Bantu Men’s Social Centre: Meeting the Devil on His Own Ground
Chapter 6 The Bantu Dramatic Society According to a Gossip Columnist
Chapter 7 Contesting ‘The Bantu Imagination’: The British Drama League and the New Africans
Chapter 8 H.I.E. Dhlomo: Measuring the Distance between Armageddon and Revolution
Chapter 9 The Black Bulls: Assembling the Broken Gourds
Chapter 10 Hegemony and Identity: What a Difference ‘Play’ Makes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Circa l’autore
Bhekizizwe Peterson was Professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been active since the 1970’s in Black cultural practices in South Africa and is the writer and/or producer of internationally acclaimed films. He has published extensively on African Literature, Performance and Cultural Studies as well as Black Intellectual Traditions in South Africa.
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