A journey through apartheid: the impact of 'Sarafina!' and 'Asinamali!'

SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE SHOWCASED

- TASHMEER CHETTY

UKZN's Howard College Department of Drama and Performance recently hosted a three-day showcase of South African theatre productions, as a part of its third-year module, "directing and the actor".

Of the many illustrious and popular titles, I only watched the matinee show of the late Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina! and Asinamali!, directed by resident drama tutors, Sisanda Radebe and Khayelihle Ngcobo, respectively. These plays opened to packed theatres of enthusiastic audiences

The productions are popular names in theatre.

Ngema, a renowned actor and theatre maker, wrote and produced the two plays during the 1980s, amid the oppression of the apartheid regime. The success of both was astounding.

Sarafina! earned the lead actress, Leleti Khumalo, the Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical. The play was adapted into a film, directed by Darell Roodt, and starred Whoopi Goldberg, John Kani and Miriam Makeba, with Khumalo reprising her titular role.

Asinamali! toured globally after its initial debut at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg in 1985 and won multiple awards, including the Vita Award for acting, for the play and its cast.

Sarafina! is a tale of struggle, focusing on the lives of the Soweto township schoolchildren during apartheid, specifically the golden girl Sarafina. It tells of the uprising against the oppressive Bantu education and its Afrikaans instruction, offering us a window into the bloody past of our country.