De/Re-Constructing Borders - University of Minnesota

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tangibly strained. F.W. de Klerk resigned as Deputy President in June of 1996, just before the play opened in Grahamstown. De Klerk’s resignation signaled a definitive shift in political power that was no longer disputable, particularly among staunch Afrikaners. In addition, the “New South Africa” is comprised of an open field of varied forces who now (at least legally) enjoy the same rights and privileges. However, it is still a place of enormous tension, of struggles that happen on a daily basis between individuals fighting for their economic and social livelihoods. Set against the context of the new government, Opperman’s play chronicles the life of one family: the de Witt’s (literally, “the Whites”), owners of a farm named Donkerland. An epic history play, Donkerland spans three centuries: from the moment the patriarch stakes his claim on the land at the tip of the African continent; through the struggles to keep the farm and the hardships of frontier life in the 19th century; to the nation-building of the early 20th century; the height and subsequent fall of apartheid; and finally, to the present, when Donkerland is redistributed to its Zulu heirs under the Land Reappropriation Commission of Mandela’s new government. Opperman establishes the complexities of the Afrikaner in the opening monologue of his play, quoted above. His task is riddled with tensions. The search for Truth, Opperman recognizes, is not possible. He acknowledges the lies and dreams of the past. Afrikanerdom is trapped within the boundaries of its own formation and––as Opperman dares to assert––also dreams of being free of those fetters. The play is five and a half hours long and was staged in two parts with a dinner break in between. Opperman selects the most common “signposts” of Afrikaner history, the key events that punctuate the 300 years of their existence in southern Africa. He captures the mythology and history’s reverberations through the de Witt family’s actions and reactions to these events. In this way, he views the political through a personal lens. Early in Opperman’s play, land––complete with all its associations of ownership and superiority––is established as a central myth of Afrikaner culture. It is important to remember that central to the Afrikaners’ sense of identity is the myth of being the Chosen People, favored by God to inhabit and dominate the Promised Land at the southern tip of 2
Africa, to bring civilization to a dark and unruly world. This civilization is a patriarchal, heavily Calvinist, racist one. With God on their side, the early Dutch and French settlers claimed the land as their own and land became an essential part of their cultural identity. By focusing on this central element of Afrikaner mythology, Opperman calls attention to the colonial legacy of his people. 6 The play echoes with land references: in its title; in the site of the play; and its the constant battles by each of the characters to claim or detach themselves from it. The play begins as the patriarch, Pieter de Witt, plants his land claim marker in the mid 18th century; it ends with the contemporary Land Reappropriation Act. As Pieter claims Donkerland, he sets into motion the long struggle that characterizes the narrative of Afrikaner history and becomes the subject of this play. In Scene Two, Pieter marries Magriet and the couple establish themselves on Donkerland in a spartan cottage furnished with the familiar trappings of Voortrekker, or pioneer, life: a limestone fireplace, springbok-skin floor mats, a musket, and strips of dried beef biltong hanging along the ceiling. Called away to fight the Zulus, Pieter leaves his pregnant wife at the homestead, under the care of his Zulu maid and sexual consort, Meidjie. Rivalry between white mistress and black servant, between sexual competitors for the same man, predominates the scene. Magriet feels alienated when her husband speaks to Meidjie in Zulu. She demands that he not do this and requires that Meidjie learn to speak Afrikaans. Before leaving, Pieter gathers the women around the table and offers a farewell prayer from the oversized family Bible. Then he kisses his unborn child in Magriet’s belly and says, “My son...Jacob de Witt...after his grandfather ” (25). During his absence, Magriet goes into labor but the baby is breached. A neighbor woman attempts to help her behind an ox skin that separates the bedroom upstage, while Meidjie frantically carries buckets of water to aid her. Meidjie tries repeatedly to tell the white woman––in Zulu, in broken Afrikaans, with gestures––that she knows how to turn the baby but the neighbor barks back at her, “Stand back! Don’t you dare try your barbarian practices on her....This isn’t your kaffir kraal; this is a white man’s house!” (31). Pieter arrives as his wife is dying, and under Meidjie’s guidance, tries to save her. In the 3
Page 1: De/Re-Constructing Borders: Afrikan
Page 5 and 6: Afrikaner). The border that stands
Page 7 and 8: engaging expressiveness of theatre,
Page 9 and 10: BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. McNeil, Donald G. J
Page 11: 7 The discovery of diamonds and gol

De/Re-Constructing Borders - University of Minnesota

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