De/Re-Constructing Borders - University of Minnesota

More documents

Recommendations

Info

play’s most melodramatic stage moment, Pieter uses his hunting knife to perform a cesarean on his dead wife’s body. He pulls the male child from her belly and lifts him into a bright red wash of light as a chorus of Zulu singers chant faster and faster to a climax. This scene resonates with many elements of Afrikanerdom: the inheritance of a racist history; an established and revered patriarchy; the secret legacy of miscegenation; the woman’s role as engenderess of the Volk, or people; the mythology of being the Chosen Ones; and the symbolic capital of springbok skins, biltong, and Voortrekker heroes. The baby Jacob is described as “being plucked out of a swamp” (34). That swamp is his mother’s body, which is presented as a place where male identity is engendered, like the farm itself that is inseparable from Afrikaner identity. This tie to the land is developed––and fractured–– later in the play when Mariaan, the free-spirited and academic-minded daughter, flies the coup for America. She cuts her traditional ties as reproducer of Afrikanerdom by not staying close to home and having children. Instead, she pursues a life of the mind, a revolutionary act for a de-Witt (read Afrikaner) woman. This feeling of self-exile, of seeking “some other place” is a phrase Opperman repeats over and over throughout the play. In Part II in the vignette entitled The Salve of Self Glue, Opperman explores the rise of the official Afrikaner Nationalist Movement and the victory of the Nationalist Party in 1948 (in other words, the beginnings of apartheid). The desire to leave, to break free, is clearly becoming a tension amongst Afrikaners at the time when their political power is expanding. The tensions of the social field are manifested through two brothers, one of whom has stayed on to farm Donkerland, and the other, who has left to seek his fortune in the city. 7 Ouboet, a Nationalist supporter, has maintained the farm and is the only male left on Donkerland. His younger brother, Dirk, holds very different political views. He returns to claim his half of his inheritance after a twenty year absence during which he has been a teacher in a black school. The intense battle over land and inheritance between these two brothers, who literally stand on opposite sides of a fence as they speak their lines, is indicative of the split or rift that politics cause in South Africa and the battle amongst Afrikaners over who has the right to the land (read here the right to be an 4
Afrikaner). The border that stands between brothers, Dirk and Ouboet, is clearly seen in this exchange about Dirk’s teaching at a black school and their different notions of race: OUBOET: ‘n Onderwyser?! [A Teacher?! So, you’re a master now.] DIRK: Mnumzana. [isiZulu for teacher.] OUBOET: Mnumzana? DIRK: I taught black children. OUBOET: ‘n Kaffer skool? [A kaffir school?!] DIRK: A school, Brother, for children. OUBOET: Kafferkinders. [Kaffir children.] DIRK: Kinders. OUBOET: Kafferkinders (116). In tangible ways, and at the very site of language and communication, the political tensions of apartheid during the 1970’s and 80’s manifested themselves on the bodies of the Afrikaner people. The once unified “nation” is beginning to disintegrate and Opperman, having established the system in his play, starts to highlight the cracks in its armor. At the closing of the play, Opperman quotes a verse from renowned Afrikaans poet and playwright, N.P. Van Wyk Louw, who reminds us that “this land was not purchased/ merely on loan” (129). The notion of borrowed land, and borrowed time, is especially poignant in contemporary South Africa. Nelson Mandela lived on borrowed time for 27 years while imprisoned on Robben Island. The time has now come for the Afrikaner to pay up, and payment is taking effect at the very site of identity: land. Under the recent Land Commission, properties that originally belonged to indigenous tribes are now being redistributed to their original owners. Afrikaner farmers, who have worked the land for six generations, are being required to sell their farms to the government for reappropriation. 8 Opperman leaves the Afrikaner at this moment of landlessness and uncertainty. As we see the image of Arnold, forlornly staring at a pile of stones on the edge of Donkerland where Pieter de Witt the patriarch first planted his marker over 300 years before, we hear the female narrator’s final speech: ... while [Arnold] sat there, a snail slithered across a stone and left a little trail...a short hyphen of silver in the mighty wilderness; and then it hit him: we...we are 5
Page 1 and 2: De/Re-Constructing Borders: Afrikan
Page 3: Africa, to bring civilization to a
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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?