Historical Context

Playwrights

Percy Mtwa is most well known for his work on Woza Albert! He grew up in Wattville in South Africa and began his career as a singer and a dancer before joining Gibson Kente's company and meeting Mbongeni Ngema. In May 1980 the duo formed their own group "The Earth Players" and divised Woza Albert!. Another notable work of Mtwa's is Bopha!, which was adapted into a movie in 1993.

Mbongeni Ngema began acting in the late 1970s. Woza Albert! was his first credit as a playwright. After the international success of Woza Albert!, Ngema wrote several other plays dealing with racism and apartheid. For these, he has been nominated for four Tony Awards: in 1987, as Best Director (Play) for "Asinamali!;" and in 1988, as Best Director (Musical), Best Score (Musical), with Hugh Masekela, and Best Choreographer, with Ndaba Mhlongo, for "Serafina!" Although his subject matter is heavy, he maintains a lighthearted tone through the use of music and dance within his productions.


Barney Simon, the son of working-class Lithuanian immigrants, became an opponent of racial inequality at an early age. He directed a production of Athol Fugard's Blood Knot in 1961. In 1976 Simon and Mannie Manim opened the Market Theatre, South Africa's first multiracial cultural center. There Simon nurtured dramatists such as Fugard, Percy Mtwa, and Mbongeni Ngema--in spite of recurring financial difficulties and the constant threat of arrest for staging controversial contemporary plays performed by multiracial casts in front of multiracial audiences.

Apartheid

After South Africa gained its independence in 1910, the white minority took political control with a platform of racism that eventually led to apartheid in 1948. The goal of apartheid was to divide the white and non-white population in order to limit the non-white (and largely black African) population's power. Apartheid split families apart, banned whites and non-whites from marrying, required non-whites to carry passes to work and in "restricted" areas, established separate public facilities based on race, and set aside 80% of the land in South Africa for the white minority(16.4% in 1974). Black Africans were forcibly moved off of this property beginning in 1961, after areas called "Bantustans" were created. Many Black Africans burned their pass books, entered police stations without passes en masse, and were arrested and killed for it (Sharpeville Massacre). The most notable protester was Nelson Mandela, a member of the African National Congress, who was imprisoned from 1963 to 1990.

Comparing Woza Albert!

In South Africa, many protest plays were written against apartheid, including Poppie Nongena and works by Athol Fugard (Boesman and Lena, The Island, Blood Knot). Woza Albert! is in a similar vein of these works but is notable in that it is black South Africans directly writing the Black South African experience.


Woza Albert! also subverts the popularity of christian themes in white South African plays by using a Christ-figure to poke fun at their oppressors. Morena prays after he is imprisoned: “Forgive them, they do not know what they are doing,” but his follower insists, “They know! They know!”

Poor theatre was a performance style created by Jerzy Grotowski and popularized by his book: Towards a Poor Theatre. Poor theatre placed an importance on acting and rid the stage of all other typical play trappings. Woza Albert! uses poor theatre to focus on the characters' stories and to contrast the show with others produced in richer and whiter areas of South Africa. 

Works Cited

Apartheid.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 7 Oct. 2010, www.history.com/topics/africa/apartheid.

“Barney Simon.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 June 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Barney-Simon.

“Mbongeni Ngema.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/name/nm0628913/.

“Percy Mtwa.” ESAT, 1 Feb. 2017, esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Percy_Mtwa

“Poor Theatre Conventions.” The Drama Teacher, thedramateacher.com/poor-theatre-conventions/

“Woza Albert! Themes.” Enotes.com, Enotes.com, www.enotes.com/topics/woza-albert.