Browsing by Author "Hurst, Christopher."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Albert Sumbo-Ncube : AmaNdebele oral historical narrative and the creation of a popular hero.
(2000) Hurst, Christopher.; Lenta, Margaret Mary.
In 1998 I conducted a series of interviews with Zimbabweans who recounted, often using English, their memories of Albert Sumbo-Ncube. From these I have selected and transcribed five interviews with ZIPRA ex-combatants in which they tell the story, as they remember and elaborate on their memories, of Sumbo's escape from Rhodesian police custody at the Victoria Falls in 1977 during the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. The interviews represent Sumbo as a hero and reveal the folk hero creation process at work. This hero figure was created by people who needed an effective figure of oppositional propaganda and who did not have access to the technology and resources of the Rhodesian government. Their narratives were communicated orally and they fused material found in the Rhodesian government-controlled newspapers with an amaNdebele oral tradition. I shall draw on Hobsbawm's (1972) notions of the social bandit and Robens's (1989) study of the folk hero creation amongst post-slavery African-Americans in order to understand the ZIPRA guerrillas' hero creation. The Sumbo folk hero creation served to promote an ideal self for the Zimbabwean guerrillas and their recruits. Sumbo's daring and his ability successfully to defy authority evoked admiration amongst the guerrillas in the 1970s, and in 1998 revives for them the idealism of the struggle. In Zimbabwe the 'hero' has become a contested category, because of the government's will to control the historical representation of the liberation struggle by promoting an official history with official categories of heroes. Working with Barber's notion of popular African arts (1987 and 1997), I argue that a folk hero can be redefined as a 'popular hero' when created by a proletariat and expressed by means of a popular art form. The interviewees use a specific form, the oral historical narrative, to preserve and transmit the Sumbo hero figure. I argue that though this oral historical narrative is less fixed in form and occasion than praise poetry, songs and genealogies, it nevertheless possesses identifiable and recurrent characteristics and I have established a number of criteria for identifying oral historical narrative as a genre. In order to avoid taking a generalised and essentialising approach to the notion of 'African culture', I have drawn on theory that is as specific as possible to the understanding of oral historical narratives within the context of siNdebele speakers in Zimbabwe. I have drawn on research published by Hofmeyr (1993) and Scheub (1975) because they focused on Nguni-speaking societies. Their research is further supported by my own research conducted in the rural area of Tsholotsho in Zimbabwe. The analysis of the oral historical narrative genre used by the interviewees demonstrates that significant formal and performance skills occur in this type of narrative which takes place within apparently informal conversations.
Workshopped plays in a South African correction centre : negotiating social relations through theatre.
(2009) Hurst, Christopher.; Von Kotze, Astrid Erika Liselotte Veronika.
From 1999 until 2008 I worked with offenders making plays at Westville Medium B Correction Centre, using collective techniques to address social issues and involve the audience in debates. This work was inspired by the Southern African Theatre for Development of the 1980s. During 2002 and 2003 the offenders created and performed the two plays which form the case studies for this research. Isikhathi Sewashi (The Time of the Watch), presents their experiences of growing up under apartheid, political faction fighting, and crime and asks the audience to generate solutions to crime. Lisekhon’ Ithemba (There is Still Hope) addresses the prejudice of the correctional staff and offenders towards those living with HIV/AIDS. Offenders were involved in the research process and conducted group interviews with 110 members of the audience. I conducted interviews with 21 performers and used classical Grounded Theory to analyse the interviews. The theory that emerged demonstrates how the offenders, performers and audience used theatre to negotiate social relations. The plays negotiated the stereotyping of offenders, managed conflict, and increased care for offenders who were ill. Offenders also used the plays to negotiate power relations involving the correctional system and the numbers gangs. Collective play-making techniques allowed western and African aesthetics to combine. The aesthetics of Epic Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed combined with those of isiZulu popular performance. The theories of Freire (1996:64), Brecht (in Willet 1964: 57) and Boal (1979:xix–xxi) had the intention of promoting actions and change of a social and political nature. Both Soyinka (1976: 51) and Kamlongera (n.d. 18-26) argue that theatre that engages an African worldview has its roots in social functions involving man and his environment. The offenders’ identification with characters and situations, their feelings of regret and self-pity, drove their critical engagement with the plays. They then formulated solutions and took action to effect change. Some of their actions challenged the authority of the correctional system and the numbers gang. The binary formulation of Aristotelian and non-Aristotelian theatre in the work of Brecht (in Willet 1964: 281) and Boal (2000: xix –xxi) is contradicted in this case study. Elements from both forms co-exist here. The audience’s responses to the plays reflect what Freire (1996:33) refers to as domesticating oppression but also demonstrate praxis which emerges as forms of resistance, and self-creation. The offenders’ potential to effect change in the correction centre, however, remains limited. My findings address current debates in the field of Prison Theatre (Thompson 1998:11 and Balfour 2004: 1-18) about the potential for theatre to effect change beyond offending behaviour and to include systemic change within the correctional system. Collective play-making provides offenders with a voice in the correction centre. The power of collective play-making is that cultural production remains in the hands of offenders and becomes a means through which they can expresses their concerns and sense of reality. Further research around collective play-making in other contexts and involving communities with different cultural resources is needed to validate the emergent theory presented here or to arrive at further reformulations.