HENNIE AUCAMP: DIE AFRIKA-KONNEKSIE IN KABARET-VERBAND / Hennie Aucamp: the African connection in the context of cabaret

Abstract

Abstract This article traces a close relationship between the “black” political protest theatre and the Afrikaans form of cabaret, implying the possibility of an indigenous South African theatre form. In the seventies and early eighties two vigorous alternative theatre forms developed on the South African stage, independently of one another and from radically different experiences of the South African political reality. The one grew from a struggle for existence and voiced the protest of a politically, socially and economically deprived community. It reached back to ancient forms of African theatre and traditions and combined it with the modern sounds of South African township jazz. The other form of theatre evolved from pangs of conscience and voiced the protest of a privileged minority. It recalled an authentic and exclusively European tradition. Thus, on the one hand a militant “black” political protest theatre developed, which was intrinsically African, and on the other a literary cabaret in Afrikaans...