Summary
Zakes Mda’s dramatic productions extend many frontiers, including polemics. Like some of
his Southern African fellow-dramatists, the apartheid plays of Mda lent to the deprivation
of the marginalised group a sardonic voice of condemnation that characterised the era.
Most of his theatrical events were remarkable as they scanned the sordid worlds of
hopelessness, disillusionment, betrayal and degradation. His dramaturgy was mostly wry,
coarse and ‘dark’. In his post-apartheid plays, there seems to be a change of gear as the
playwright gravitates towards satire – a blend of amusement and contempt. This study
attempts to deny Mda his traditional role as a tragic and comic dramatist and situate
him as a writer of satire. The aim is to demonstrate, by means of a scholarly critique of
two plays – The Mother of All Eating (2002. Johannesburg: Wits University Press) and You
Fool, How Can the Sky Fall (2002. Johannesburg: Wits University Press), how Mda acted as
the consciousness and the conscience of his society by using satire as an instrument of
censure to castigate the politically dominant groups betraying the masses in both Lesotho
and South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001796 |
| Date | 15 October 2009 |
| Creators | Ebewo, PJ |
| Publisher | Routledge Taylor & Francis Group |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | © The English Academy of Southern Africa |
| Relation | English Academy Review |
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