Grassroots struggle: The representation of the black voice in Maishe Maponya’s The Hungry Earth (1980)

Khaya M Gqibitole,Shamsuddeen Bello

doi:10.4102/lit.v41i1.1634

Abstract

Maishe Maponya is regarded as one of the pre-eminent, militant and critical voices of South African theatre. He was not only active in the black people’s struggle but also a committed playwright. To him, identity and belonging were inseparable in his quest for total liberation of the black people. Even commentators who often viewed his work as too radical and less creative could not silence the voice of the masses in his productions. Importantly, his productions not only spoke against the oppression of the black people, but also survived the draconian laws of the apartheid era. As Silber noted in 1984, Maponya and his group used the theatre of the struggle to conscientise their audiences about the socioeconomic conditions of their people. This article explores how Maponya used theatre to subvert the state and echo the travails of black people during apartheid in one of his plays, The Hungry Earth (1980). This article argues that the play is based on the people and their struggles – a clear indication that Maponya consciously articulated the hopes, dreams and frustrations of the people. The article also acknowledges the influence of Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) on Maponya’s unflinching ‘call to cultural arms’ against apartheid, regardless of the lurking dangers.

Highlights

Maponya’s name is synonymous with the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) because of how BCM ideals influenced and shaped his thoughts and productions
The Hungry Earth presents us with a proletariat–bourgeoisie conflict and demonstrates that it is born out of the capitalist system of division of labour, one that divides people into groups based on the manner of their production and contribution to the state
Maponya utilises the play to condemn the regulatory apartheid policies and capitalist wheel that crushes the bones of black people in the mines and plantations

Summary

Introduction

Maponya’s name is synonymous with the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) because of how BCM ideals influenced and shaped his thoughts and productions. The Hungry Earth, despite the limits of its proclaimed truth, is replete with historical claims on the effects of the capitalist system on individuals in mines, hostels, plantations and compounds It stages black labour and experiences during apartheid, narrated through the voice of victims of the system, and yet can be as unreliable as any account of events of the period. The Hungry Earth presents us with a proletariat–bourgeoisie conflict and demonstrates that it is born out of the capitalist system of division of labour, one that divides people into groups based on the manner of their production and contribution to the state Maponya presents these antagonistic classes as dependent on each other: whilst the bourgeoisie owns and controls the mines and plantations, the proletariat services them with blood, bones and sweat. Fugard dealt with these kinds of specifics but was more interested in the depth of the bits of individual experiences than Maponya, who was more into the political dimension of art than the artistic representation of events

Conclusion

Data availability statement