SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD – ATHOL FUGARD
The play “Sizwe Bansi is Dead” captures the implications of colonialism and apartheid practices in South Africa. Athol Fugard wrote ‘Sizwe Bansi is Dead’ in order to outline the socio-cultural and political experiences of blacks under the apathy system in South Africa. The identity of Africans is disrupted by the inhumane and unjust system of apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid is a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa. In other words, apartheid is a policy of racial separation in South Africa. Apartheid refers to situations where Africans are deprived from exercising political and economic rights. Apartheid is a severe inequality that comes with racial discrimination. The lives of black South Africans are therefore marked with restrictions and injustices. Blacks are not allowed to vote and to have access to employment, residence, education and social facilities in their own country. Any black person found outside the allowed residential area without a permit from an employer or magistrate will be arrested. The black South Africans are expected to carry an identity document called Pass at all times. Any African who failed to present ‘the Pass’ is considered a law breaker. ‘Pass’ is the short form of passbook.
The whites belittle Africans because they (whites) believe they are more human than blacks whose status is reduced to nothing. Fugard used the words ‘boys and girls ‘for African men and women to mean blacks are inferior in the apartheid society. All whites are masters while blacks are servants. Racism is severe because black South Africans are denied the social, educational, political, health and economic benefits as citizens based on their skin color. The black South Africans have to carry a residence permit that grants them the opportunity to live in township. The houses of blacks are raided in order to evict illegal blacks who do not have valid passport. Sizwe Bansi for instance is dragged from the house of Zola to the administrative office where his passbook is endorsed for deportation to King William’s Town. This compels Sizwe Bansi to change his identity to that of a dead man called Robert Zwelinzima in order to stay and get a job in Port Elizabeth. Sizwe Bansi’s death is metaphorical as the title implies. Sizwe Bansi acquires a status of “living – dead”. The conversation between Sizwe Bansi and Buntu confirmed it in “it’s your only chance, No Buntu, what’s it means? That means Sizwe Bansi is dead, we burn this book, and Sizwe Bansi disappears off the face of the earth” pg. 183 – 187. The camp in which Robert Zwelinzima stays suggests that, the painful experiences of blacks during the apartheid system cannot be compared with the luxuries of the whites.
The passbook and the Influx Control Act are used to regulate the free movement of black South Africans in their own country. The passbook is an identity for blacks in South Africa while the Influx Control Act is to regulate their movement in their own country. Fugard highlights the effects of apartheid that restricts Sizwe Bansi from staying and seeking jobs in Port Elizabeth. Sizwe Bansi is surprised about restrictions around the passbook and the Influx Control Act. Sizwe Bansi is treated like a stranger in his own country because he does not have a valid passbook. He is given three days to report to the Bantu Affairs Commissioner in King William’s Town with a valid passbook. This is indicated in the lines of “Sizwe wants to stay in new Brighton and find a job; passbook says NO! Report back. Sizwe wants to see his wife and children; passbook says NO! endorse out”. Pg 180 – 181
During the apartheid system in South Africa, blacks were used as cheap laborers. Blacks are unskilled laborers who toil in duties such as waiters and cleaners. Sizwe Bansi could not apply for the job of a garden boy because he cannot read. Apartheid system decides the type of education blacks should have. The education prepares blacks to work for their white masters. The education does not prepare a black to compete with a white man for any work in a corporate world. The type of education a black man receives makes him to own nothing except himself. (Refer to page 164). The blacks form low class workers due do their low education. Blacks work without a retirement benefit. In the apartheid system the whites only need the services of blacks. The apartheid system is heartless.
Fugard outlines how whites take blacks for granted. This is because the whites believe that blacks are fools who can be ordered to act against their will and emotions. This is realized when the Bass Bradley asks Styles to tell the boys (Blacks) to look happy, sing and smile while they work to impress Mr. Henry Ford (pg 153). The apartheid law which includes Population Registration Act, the Group Areas Act, Separate Amenities Act and the Education Act make the blacks in South Africa to own nothing, not even themselves. Styles confirmed this in the sentence “your life doesn’t belong to you. You have sold it. what the hell is the use of that?”.
Blacks who work in the mine companies of whites are not treated well. Buntu said “if you need work so bad, go knock on the door of the Mines Recruiting Officer. Dig gold for the white man. That’s the only time they don’t worry about Influx Control”. Sizwe states “I don’t want to work on the mines. There is no money there. And it’s dangerous, under the ground. Many black men get killed when the rocks fall. You can die there”. It is only in the mines company that the whites don’t worry the blacks with the Influx Control Act. This is because the blacks dig gold for the whites. (Pag 173 – 174). Apart from this, blacks have to struggle for hawkers’ permit, residence permit and the passbook that control all their activities. Fugard evokes the feelings of pity and hopelessness of blacks who awaits death as their source of liberty from aparthied. Buntu points this out in the line of “That’s it, brother. The only time we’ll find peace is when they dig a hole for us and press our face into the earth”.
To conclude, aparthied has negative effects on South Africa especially on the citizens who have black skin color. This leads to racism and poverty. Athol Fugard used his drama of ‘Sizwe Bansi is Dead’ to ask some rhetorical questions on the reality of Africa’s independence. Fugard wants to find out if modern Africa is under the indirect rule of the whites? What happens to Africa’s valuable things like minerals and natural resources? Do whites still control the minerals and natural resources that constitute the wealth and source of Africa’s development? Are the youths and leaders of Africa patriotic? Did Africa’s governments inherit injustice from their colonial masters? An answer to these questions sums up the theme on effects of colonialism and apathied in South Africa. Indeed, colonialism, apathied or racism has done more harm than good in South Africa and Africa as a whole.
CREDIT TO MADAM SITSOFE GANU
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
S. D. A. COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
ASOKORE – KOFORIDUA