SIZWE BANSI IS DEAD" JANUARY 13 & 15 8 P.M
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The Oregon Shakespearean Festival Performance of Athol Fugard's "SIZWE BANSI IS DEAD" JANUARY 13 & 15 8 p.m. JANUARY 14th MATINEE 2 p.m. "THE ISLAND" JANUARY 14 & 16 8 p.m. Broadway Performance Hall Sizwe Bansi is Dead / The Island BACKGROUND j ,LWe Bansi Is Dead, and The Island present two personal perspectives on apartheid. the South African legal system based on racial discrimination and segregation. The follow ing notes are meant to help American audiences understand the actual social context of these plays. APARTHEID In South Africa, 25 million non-whites are being denied all human rights by 4 million ruling whites, including: The right to vote. Blacks cannot vote, and Black political parties have been banned for decades. The right to citizenship. Blacks are not allowed citizenship. Instead, the South African government is setting up reservations or "homelands" for Blacks (13% of the land. the most barren and resource-poor areas) which it claims are their true national homelands. 87% of the country belongs to white citizens. This portion includes the fertile land, natural resources and the industry. The right to labor orranization. Blacks are prohibited from forming unions and from bargaining collective y. Strikes are illegal. Black workers who do much of the work in mining and manufacturing are paid a fraction of the wages paid to whites, while they work under dangerous and unbelievably oppressive conditions . The right to housing. It;s against the law for most Blacks to live in the cities where they work. Some Blacks live in ghettoes called "townships" outside the cities . Often husbands and wives are forced to live separately in prison-like "hostels." The right to free speeCh. Almost all Black newspapers and organizations have been ban ned since 1976. At that time over 1,000 Black protesters were killed by the government, many of them students who were protesting rules outlawing native languages in schools. The right to travel freely. Every African over sixteen must produce a pass on demand . ~r to a passport, the pass book includes an identity number, finger prints, a sig nature of an employer, tax receipts, and personal information. Africans can be stopped at any time; if they do not have their pass, they are arrested. Over 3,000 such arrests are made every day. This pass book law creates the circumstances governing the devel opment of the human drama in Sizwe Bansi Is Dead. RESISTANCE TO APARTHEID Resistance to the passes is one of the many ways Africans have expressed their opposit ion towards the Apartheid system. In Sharpeville in 1960, peaceful demonstrations were held against the pass laws and thousands of passes were burned. Police opened fire on the unarmed crowd. Sixty-nine were left dead and hundreds were wounded. The government further responded with the arrest of thousands of people, declaring that the organizations that had planned the resistance campaign - the African National Congress (ANC) dnd the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) - were illegal. Nelson Mandela, a leader of the ANC, and many others remain in prison on Robben Island today . This creates the context for The Island, a story of two cellmates serving sentences for the crime of opposing the pass book system . TH.E CURRENT SITUATION Like slavery in the U.S., apartheid developed because it is extremely profitable to the minority that controls the South African economy. But such a system of oppression can not continue to exist without challenge by those who suffer under it. In an effort to suppress resistance, South Africa has been waging a brutal war against the people of Namibia who are seeking independence . South Africa continues to occupy Namibia in viol ation of U.N. mandates and worla opinion. Recently. South Africa invaded and occupied parts of Angola as well. Nearly all the countries of the world have voiced their opposition to South Africa's apartheid system, its illegal occupation of Namibia, and its invasion into Angola, and have called for economic sanctions. But the U.S. repeatedly has undermined those in itiatives. The U.S. during the last session of the U.N. Security Council stood alone i" its veto of a resolution which would have condemned South Africa's invasion of Angola. U.S. banks, corporations and the U.S. government continue to provide economic, military and diplomatic support to an isolated South African government . Billions of dollars in loans support the South African economy, and hundreds of multinational corporations such as Chrysler and Ford have laid off workers here at the same time they are expanding their investments in South Africa. Such investments are extremely profitable in large part due to the repression of African It/orkers . The Reagan Administration has recently extended U.S . ties with South Africa, which Alexander Haig called "a new beginning of mutual trust and understanding between the U.S . and South Africa, old friends." Many organizations and individuals in the U.S . have been seeking to curtail these ties. WHAT THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA WANT Resistance to apartheid, both inside South Africa and throughout the world, is growing . The majority of people in South Africa are fighting to end aoartheid and to build a new society free of racist poison. In 1955, Africans, Asians and White South Africans met in Kliptown. They unanimously adopted the Freedom Charter. It states: "We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and White, and that no government can justly claim auth ority unless it is based on the will of all the people; that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality; that our country will never be prosperous or free until all the people live in brotherhood enjoying equal rights and opoortunities; that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthrights without distinction of colour, race, sex, or belief; .. And we pledge ourselves to str ive together sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes set out here have been won. The people shall govern!" Program notes : Susan Revotski, Doug Stanley, Selma Waldman, Tom Cipolla Additional Information, contact: The American Friends Service Committee, 632 -0500 The Church Council of Greater Seattle, 525-1213 • "Sizwe Bansi IS Dead" "The Island" devised by Athol Fugard, John Kani and devised by Athol Fugard, John Karli and Winston Ntshona Winston Ntshona Cast : Cast: Styles and Buntu J. Wesley Huston John J. Wesley Huston Sizwe Bansi Jam.es Avery Winston James Avery Time: The Present Location: The Island Location: Style's Photographic Studio, Time : Today ~ew Brighton Township, Port Elizabeth, South Africa Directed by Luther James Directed by Luther James Produced by special ~rrangement with Produced by special arr.angement with Samuel French, Inc. Samuel French, Inc. Lighting Operator and Tour Design by Lighting Operator and Tour Oesign by Douglas Nelson Douglas Nelson The Actors: JAMES AVERY J. WESLEY HUSTON 1981 roles: Othello in Othello. Winston in The 1981 roles: John in The Island, Launce in Two Island, Host in Two Gentlemen of Verona. Gentlemen of Verona, Sailor/Officer/Gentle· Work with OSF: Sizwe Bansi in Sizwe Bansi is man in Twelfth Night. Dead. Second Roman Citizen in Coriolanus. Work with OSF: Styles/ Buntu in Sizwe Bansi is Host of Garter Inn in Merry Wives of Windsor,. Dead, Sicinius Velutus in Coriolanus, Gardener toured with Sizwe Bansi is Dead (1980). in Richard II. Work outside OSF includes: Winston in The Work outside OSF includes: John in The Island. Island, title role in Sizwe Bansi is Dead (Marquis Styles/Buntu in Sizwe Bansi is Dead (Marquis Public Theatre): roles in Merchant of Venice Public Theatre, San Diego); Constable in understudy to Bill Marshall in Othello. Mr. ' Love's Labour's Lost, Randall in Slow Dance Katz in Hot L. Baltimore (Old Globe Theatre). on the Killing Ground (UCSD): Yepicodon in B.A. in drama and literature from UCSD. Cherry Orchard, Basque in Misanthrope, Rev. Special note: James enjoys writing, swimming Purlie in Purlie Victorious, Malcolm in In White and general nonsense. America (Missouri Repertory Company); Johnny in Last Street Play (NYC); Artistic Director, Southern California Black Repertory Theatre, San Diego; Recipient of the 1979 Old Globe Atlas for best character actor; wor k in television and films. B.A . in political science and MFA in acting from UCSD. The Sponsors: In recognition of the birthday of Dr . Martin Seattle Central Community College Luther King (January 15) a special forum will American Friends Service Committee be held that day at 1:15 P.M. in the Perform Crossroad Ecumenical Theatre Group ance Hall, immediately following the official Paul Robeson Theatre Group ceremony. A panel, including members of the cast and several experts in South African affairs will discuss the plays and related matters and AGENTS : Tom and Pamela Cipolla answer questions. Admission is free. SPECIAL ASSISTANCE: South African Investment Committee, Church Council Greater Seattle Southern Africa Solidarity Committee .