BEYOND THE ECHOES OF SOWETO
Contemporary Theatre Studies
A series of books edited by Franc Chamberlain, Nene College, Northampton, UK
Volume 1
Playing the Market: Ten Years of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, 19761986
Anne Fuchs
Volume 2
Theandric: Julian Becks Last Notebooks
Edited by Erica Bilder, with notes by Judith Malina
Volume 3
Luigi Pirandello in the Theatre: A Documentary Record
Edited by Susan Bassnett and Jennifer torch
Volume 4
Who Calls the Shots on the New York Stages?
Kalina Stefanova-Peteva
Volume 5
Edward Bond Letters: Volume I
Selected and edited by Ian Stuart
Volume 6
Adolphe Appia: Artist and Visionary of the Modern Theatre
Richard C. Beacham
Volume 7
James Joyce and the Israelites and Dialogues in Exile
Seamus Finnegan
Volume 8
Its All Blarney. Four Plays: Wild Grass, Mary Maginn, Its All Blarney, Comrade Brennan
Seamus Finnegan
Volume 9
Prince Tandi of Cumba or The New Menoza, by J. M. R. Lenz
Translated and edited by David Hill and Michael Butler, and a stage adaptation by Theresa Heskins
Volume 10
The Plays of Ernst Toller: A Revaluation
Cecil Davies
Volume 11
Edward Bond Letters: Volume II
Selected and edited by Ian Stuart
Volume 12
Theatre and Change in South Africa
Edited by Geoffrey V. Davis and Anne Fuchs
Volume 13
Anthropocosmic Theatre: Rite in the Dynamics of Theatre
Nicolas Nunez, translated by Ronan Fitzsimons and edited, with a foreword, by Deborah Middleton
Please see the back of this book for other titles in the Contemporary Theatre Studies series
Copyright 1997 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) Amsterdam B. V. Published in The Netherlands by Harwood Academic Publishers.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published by Harwood Academic Publishers
This edition published 2012 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Applications for licences to perform these plays should be addressed to Dr Geoffrey Davis, Faculty of Humanities, Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Templergraben 55, 52062 Aachen, Germany.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Manaka, Matsemela
Beyond the echoes of Soweto: five plays by Matsemela
Manaka. - (Contemporary theatre studies; v. 23)
1. South African drama (English) - Black authors
I. Title II. Davis, Geoffrey V.
ISBN 90-5702-161-7 (softcover)
Contemporary Theatre Studies is a book series of special interest to everyone involved in theatre. It consists of monographs on influential figures, studies of movements and ideas in theatre, as well as primary material consisting of theatre-related documents, performing editions of plays in English, and English translations of plays from various vital theatre traditions worldwide.
Franc Chamberlain
1. Untitled, by Matsemela Manaka, mixed media.
2. Untitled, by Matsemela Manaka, mixed media.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of the material included here. We should like to extend our particular thanks for their cooperation to Pat Schwartz of Witwatersrand University Press, Professor Ian Steadman, The Daily News, The English Academy of Southern Africa, The Financial Mail and The New York Times, as well as to George Braziller of George Braziller, Inc., New York.
Untitled, by Matsemela Manaka, mixed media
The compilation of this book has been an exciting, if somewhat protracted undertaking. Having decided to collaborate fairly closely on the project, playwright and editor, who lived on different continents, seldom found the opportunity to meet or to be in one place long enough to achieve any real progress. Thus the plays were edited and the introduction prepared in Aachen, Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Chicago, Durban, Johannesburg, Lugano, Nice, Paris and Stuttgartwhich not only serves to explain the penury of the editor but also indicates just how full Manakas schedule of writing and performance has become since he began writing plays in Soweto some twenty years ago! Without Matsemelas support and advice on the concept of this collection and his essential work on the translations, this project would never have come to fruition.
In such difficult circumstances it is a particular pleasure for both Matsemela and myself to record our debt of gratitude to the many friends and colleagues whose support has made the completion of this project possible. Our thanks thus go out to Ravan Press and Skotaville Publishers in Johannesburg, who survived against all the odds; to the members of Soyikwa and Madimba who made the performances such unforgettable experiences; to the late Barney Simon, Mannie Manim, John Kani, Allan Joseph and all at the Market whose support in mounting performances was crucial; to Ian Steadman, Maishe Maponya and Kathy Wagner at the University of the Witwatersrand for their comments, their criticism and their moral support; to critic Victor Metsoamere at The Sowetan; to Josh Makhene in London, not least for his work on Gore; to Woodie King in New York; to Don Kinch in Birmingham, the late Rufus Collins in Amsterdam, Luca Gansser in Lugano, Theo Gerber in La Tour dAigues and Monique Chajmowiez of LHarmattan in Paris for their unfailing hospitality; and finally to Anne and Michel Fuchs in Nice for their untiring commitment to South African theatre and for the delights of Colomars.
Geoffrey V. Davis
Untitled, by Matsemela Manaka, mixed media
Matsemela Manaka was bom in Alexandra, a black township just to the north of Johannesburg, on 20th June 1956. After his family moved to Soweto, he attended primary and secondary schools in Diepkloof, one of its constituent townships, and then went on to study commerce part-time at Ithuteng Commercial College, Pretoria North. Since for University entrance he required Afrikaanswhich was not offered at Ithutenghe also registered to take his matriculation (matric) examination as an external candidate at Madibane High School in 1976. On June 16 that year the Soweto uprising took place, and Manakathen just twentyfound himself in the midst of it. Although the immediate cause of the unrest was the imposition of Afrikaans as a language of instruction in schools for black children, the demonstrations also constituted a protest against the whole system of Bantu Education introduced by the National Party government under D. F. Malan in 1953 and devised by the architect of apartheid, Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, the then Minister of Native Affairs, who was later to become Prime Minister.
