The representation of Zimbabwean identities in the drama Fidelis (original) (raw)
Related papers
2005
In this thesis I analyse representations of identity and nation in two plays. The plays are satires in the "community theatre genre" from Zimbabwe. The background for this work is the understanding of cultural expressions and popular culture as a form of mass media; as such they are utterances which take part in hegemonic battles. The context is the political situation in Zimbabwe in 1999, when the opposition was gaining a foothold and there was a certain silent optimism concerning future development of democracy and strengthening of human rights. The plays I analyse criticise the regime. "The Members" (Amakhosi) criticises corrupt MPs and "Ivhu versus the State" (Rooftop) recounts the intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am interested in how resistance in the plays is expressed and the differences in strategies between the plays which are from different geographical settings. My theoretical position and concepts derive from cultural studies, discourse theory and postcolonial studies. These theories and conceptual framework emphasise how the public sphere consists of conflicting discourses, and that political struggle is also a politics of discourse. A post-colonial reading strategy focuses on hybrid representations which avoid narratives told in polarisations and essential conceptions of identity. These theories are the background for my reading strategies. I analyse the plays in relation to how they recount/narrate actual conflicts in Zimbabwe-which lines of conflicts do they comment on? How is identity represented in the narratives of gender, class and race? How are the powerful/leaders recounted? How do they talk about inequality and the relationship between white and black? Do the plays offer multiple or stereotypical representations of identity? I analyse how they experience and narrate their nation-do they provide space for a multiplicity of national identities? How do they narrate strategies for political change? I demonstrate that both plays anticipate the political and socioeconomic crisis which been developing in Zimbabwe since 2000. I also show that the plays' strategies of resistance are the basis for the present opposition.
Genealogy, 2022
Between 1983 and 1987, three years after Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain, there were disturbances in the Ndebele dominated Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, resulting in the massacre of an estimated 20,000 unarmed civilians by an elite armed unit sent by the newly elected democratic (Shona dominated) government. This has become known as the Gukurahundi. The atrocities ended with the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987; however, the Gukurahundi issue has remained sensitive, due to the official silence on this painful period, which has lasted many decades. Victims and families in this community have been given no closure. This article examines the portrayal of identity/genealogy issues by two stage plays: 1983: Years Before and After and Speak Out! The view that we take is that theatre offers a map of individual and social experience that provides a tapestry of the people’s suffering, pain, concerns, hopes, and aspirations. We observe that the plays under study grapple with issues of identity emanating from the undocumented deaths and disappearances of people during the Gukurahundi, whose effects manifest today in the lives of the survivors and children of victims, through failure to obtain birth certificates and identity documents, and through an identity crisis. We conclude that theatre has provided an avenue for the victims of the Gukurahundi to share their experiences and to protest against their continued marginalisation.
Zambezia, 2004
This article examines transculturalism in Zimbabwean theatre in the postindependence era. It begins with a historical background to the socio-cultural forces that shaped attitudes to cultural life, first in the colony, and later in the postindependence period. The article argues that prejudice, ignorance, fear and mutual suspicion lead to theatre and performing arts emerging out of decades of colonialism largely segregated and highly confrontational, along lines of race and class. While acknowledging collaborative work done immediately after independence, the article then argues that it is only a decade or so after independence in 1980 that theatre practitioners from the two competing traditions i.e. former white theatre and community-based or people's theatre in the townships, come out of their cultural straitjacket and begin to produce collaborative work in earnest. Realizing the tremendous potentialities that could be realized through cross-cultural cooperation in the arts, confrontational attitudes between black and white gradually wane after 1990, leading to cross-cultural interaction that has produced plays of outstanding cultural and artistic merit.
1984
Focusing on the experience of one of seven working groups at a theater-for-development workshop in Zimbabwe, this report details the urocess followed by many groups, and reveals some of the major learnings, dilemmas, contradictions, strengths, and limiting factors found in a practical village-based theater-for-development process. A brief discussion of theater-for-development (TFD) presents this drama form as an experimental collaborative process designed to take theater out of urban enclaves and make it accessible to the masses, presenting such common concerns as crop production, water shortages, immunization, literacy, and family planning. A day-by-day diary account of this working group illustrates an overview of, and specific tasks involved with, the production of a "theater pungwe"-people's theater. A TFD model lists educational objectives for the drama process and defines the workshop objectives, which are: (1) to train development cadres and theater artists in theater-for-development, and (2) to start a TFD program in Murewa area of Zimbabwe a training and popular education/culture program. The report's concluding sections provide an analysis of the workshop, including constraints, relationship with villagers, organizational strategy, and team work. An extensive bibliography is included.
Africa Development
When conducting research with historically marginalised peoples, such as Zimbabwe’s autochthonous San, it is necessary to observe the most sensitive ethical and methodological practice. The San are a group of people living largely on the edges of the contemporary market economy in the whole of southern Africa, including Zimbabwe. The San of Zimbabwe often work as unskilled labourers for their Ndebele and Kalanga neighbours in rural areas of Matebeleland. Historically, the San’s identity and culture was denigrated in popular oral and media myths. This article presents a theoretical and methodological approach steeped in critical social sciences and cultural studies to restore the San image through making the San themselves the constructors of contemporary cultural texts about their way of life using modern film and video technologies. The San tell their stories after being trained in filming and editing techniques by researchers from Midlands State University. The negotiation of spac...
Narrative and ideology: 50 years of film-making in Zimbabwe
Media, Culture & Society, 2005
This article reviews film-making in Zimbabwe over the period 1948-2000. During this time, the country made the transition from British colony to independent nation in 1980. The dominant source of funding for Zimbabwe’s film production has been external, beginning with the founding of the Central African Film Union in 1948 by the British government. Over the 50-year period under review, the political history of the country has been turbulent and democratic practices have been at best, fragile. An economic and political governance crisis, which began to unfold at the end of the 1990s, has further undermined prospects. The article provides insights into the problems and prospects of African countries as global players in the production of media.
This article analyses the construction of imagined identities of Zimbabwean nationhood in two televised documentaries, Nyadzonia Massacre and Colonial Era Atrocities, aired on Zimbabwe national television. Using qualitative semiotic analysis and borrowing from post nationalism, this article analyses how the two documentaries interweave memory and violence with the politics of nationhood and belonging during the Third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe. The paper also analyses how the films were packaged in order to undermine the semiotic resistance and autonomy of the viewer to create oppositional readership of the films.