by Kitso Seti
We smiled both sadly and happily, packed our bags, and kissed our single mothers goodbye. We were on the quest of bettering our families’ lives through university degrees. It will see each other when time permits. They sang “Ndasuka ekhaya ndinesimilo, ndafika eGoli saphela nya” – “I left home with discipline, when I arrived in Gauteng, it disappeared” or however one translates it. We’d sworn to keep the discipline and all the home teachings we were brought up by. As time flew, we took part in the #RhodesMustFall movement, it was there that we would be introduced to Feminism. By then, we were still sharpening our Pan Africanist politics, so this was quite a lot for us. We learnt that those Black Radical Feminists were not only fighting for equality with men but to squash male dominance to its roots. “What is ‘patriarchy in IsiXhosa?” “It is unAfrican for women and men to share the same dish.” “Go away with your Western influence.” We retaliated. The things Feminists said made no sense to us. We had thought that they wanted to take over and shut us down. Treason!
As a new and excited reader of Bertolt Brecht’s didactic and dialectical theatre, I quickly associated the play with the aims of educating and bringing about change. Brecht’s theatre opens for a conversation. The director, Nwabisa Plaatjie, hosts a short Q&A session after the play to discuss what the production has put in our courts. Even after the show you carry on to have a conversation with yourself. I am a firm believer that art must make one uncomfortable yet relate to either the characters and/or the events. When We Awake does not sell emotions – even though it plays with different kinds of them. It is not a play where one feels pity for the character and the people whom the characters relate to. It tells one that a lot must be done. This is war – okay maybe I am exaggerating. People must not just relax and carry one with bringing others down. The time has arrived – 'The Womb' no longer believes in an eye for an eye, but an eye for your whole generation and future generations. This is what protest theatre is. The role of such art is to portray society as it is, with the aims of shaping it.
I am a firm believer that art must make one uncomfortable
Sun Setting in the East
When We Awake puts Georg Wilhelm Hegel’s Master/Slave dialectic in the stage: two consciousnesses meet for the first time at a battle of death, both seeking recognition from one another while cancelling each other out.
Lights are dimmer as the play shows the East side. The East is patriarchal land, misogyny is the order of the day. There is a belief that feminism is a mental disorder that these women need to be cured from. The men denote that the women are fighting because they lack a ‘good fuck’. The men in the East carry on instilling unto women that they (men) are the dominant species. Masculinity rules. The men believe that the women have Western influence. The men dominate and cancel any woman voice – the benefits that women receive are limited, women are reduced to the level of nurture and mothering. The East is led by a politician who has his praise poet that sings all he and his people want to hear. One who is not paying much attention would think that the poet is praising men, whereas he is shaming these men in a very sarcastic way, fuelling on why men should be killed. PHAMBILI NGEMASCULINITY!
There is great lighting as the play shows the West side. In the West, a group of women named ‘The Womb’ rule. It is a feminist side. A matriarchy leads the village that is unapologetic about being women. The women want to kill all men, for the absolute rule of women. As they narrate the story, we hear it being said “In the West, the womb is impregnated with fear. Women give birth to fear. They want to bury fear.” AMADODA ZIZINJA! They first link men to dogs, every time they speak of men, they refer to them as dogs. This is done is a sarcastic manner, so we laugh. They eventually get tired of turning men to dogs and finally activate mission 'exterminate all men'. There is a call of all women to take part in this movement of killing men and destroying all their traces. As they throw all the phrases about killing every man on earth, both Nolufefe and Sisipho (actors) are pulling strands of cellotape, the “krrr krrr krrr” sounds of the cellotape paints a picture of the characters’ wrath.
They first link men to dogs, every time they speak of men, they refer to them as dogs
These women live in a place called the Mountain of the Misty Rainbow, protected by the Dlangamandla women. The Womb lives by the principle of the 1967 SCUM Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men) by Valerie Solanas whose belief was also to eliminate the male sex because men have ruined the world, and that women must fix it for themselves and themselves only. They are exerting a revenge of centuries of misogyny.
The women succeed in their mission of exterminating men until only two men remain: the poet whose wife is sick (cursed) and seeks medication from the Mountain of the Misty Rainbow, and another man who seems to know a lot about the doings of the women. I am reminded about the #NotAllMen defence that men would shout as women would say that #MenAreTrash. The poet sells himself to the Queen Mother as a man who has no blood in his hands, he is not responsible for the bad behaviour of other men and believes that is only those who have sinned that must be punished, not everyone.
It was heavy. Straight on point, not dilly-dallying
You cannot watch this play and continue to sit on your chair the same way you did when you arrived. In fact, you cannot even sit, but place your bums on the edge of the chair. You smile and produce that small “he he” laugh, asking “how do people write this beautifully and revolutionary?”, while you also question societal norms. The play is focused both on form and content. It is a play on a play that has rich content, opening about a conversation. It then depends if the conversation will be between who and who: within victims; between victims and perpetrators; or within perpetrators. I couldn’t talk at the Q&A session; I was still swallowing all that I had been chewing. It was heavy. Straight on point, not dilly-dallying. “Wow” was the only word I could utter. I kept on smiling and smiling, while my mind was running wild. This is a beautiful piece of art. Nwabisa has outdone herself. One cannot take away anything, both Sisipho Mbopa and Nolufefe Ntshuntshe are superb actors.
Their acting was beautiful, the changing of roles, to showing emotions, to passing the message through their bodies. Their presence was up. We have to also appreciate the legendary Mncedisi Shabangu and Andrew Buckland whom the play was first workshopped with, and Oarabile Ditsele and Sizwesandile Mnisi who played a good role in the further development of the play. It is also beautiful when artists collaborate to give us magnificent work. Here is to more and more protest theatre. Here is to always reminding people that our generation and many of those that came before us have never known peace, thus until we reach that fully peaceful point, we will continue to fight for our own, using the only weapon we have sharpened: art.
Kitso Seti is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Politics at the University of Cape Town. His main focus is on how theatre can be used to conscientize people – he is dealing with Black Consciousness theatre. Outside of school, he moonlights as an artist, from a rapper to a theatre maker. He currently is working with a music band titled The Muzos, their combination is titled Frank Talk, and they have produced an event named We Blacks at UCT in September 2019.
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