Athol Fugard's Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act As the Rejection Toward the Oppression During the Apartheid Era

ATHOL FUGARD’S STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT: A REPRESENTATION OF RACIAL OPPRESSION DURING COLONIZATION

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

DWI MONDA ADITYADARMA

Student Number: 014214136

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2009

iii

= Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened

MMaatttthheeww 77:: 66--77

TThhiiss uunnddeerrggrraadduuaattee tthheessiiss iiss ddeeddiiccaatteedd ttoo

TThhoossee wwhhoo nneevveerr ggiivvee uupp oonn mmee

vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I thank Jesus Christ for helping me to make this thesis come into reality.

My gratitude goes to my beloved parents for the greatest love that I can have. All people should be so lucky to have parents like mine. I also thank my brothers and sister for their love and sharing.

I would like to thank Mr. G. Fajar Sasmita for being so understanding, motivating and inspiring as I prepared this thesis. I also thank Drs. Hirmawan

Wijanarka, M. Hum. as my co advisor for the time, advice, and friendliness. I would also like to thank my academic advisor, Miss Dewi and Miss Tata, who directs me during these years.

I would like to thank all my friends in English Letters Sanata Dharma

University: Sinda, Ian Zidane, Dian ‘Kiting’, Ayu, Aryani and her husband

Adjonk, Lia ‘Nudtz’, Santi, Deni ‘Item’, Kristi, Sandi, Fonny and all of 2001 folks. I thank them for the true friendship they have given to me. I also thank my church friends: Andit, Dinar, Ipanx, Aswan, Paksi, Arni, Dwi, Duto, Intan, Ovie,

Wisnu ‘Toekoel’, Eko ‘Gong’ Suyatno, Yopie ‘Kemo’, Haryadi ‘Mbah Kaum’ for their support, critic and never ending help. I would thank my brother and sisters in

Domby Kids Hope: Kak Adi, Kak Ira, Kak Ita, Kak Tari for their help and their pray for me. I also would thank Bayu, David and Devi for their support and their pray for me.

viii

I would like to thank all my relatives: my aunts: Ika, Evi, Ratih, my cousin

Anto, my uncle: Agung, Totok, Tono, my grandmother and grandfather. I thank them for their advice, pray and support. Last, but certainly not least, I thank all

English Letters’ Lecturers and USD staffs, friends, and all people that I cannot mention one by one whose help is very significant in the process of this undergraduate thesis writing.

Dwi Monda Adityadarma

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ...... i APPROVAL PAGE ...... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ...... iii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ...... iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ...... v MOTTO PAGE ...... vi DEDICATION PAGE ...... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... x ABSTRACT ...... xi ABSTRAK ...... xii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulation ...... 6 C. Objectives of the Study ...... 6 D. Definition of Terms ...... 7

CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL REVIEW ...... 9 A. Review of Related Studies ...... 9 B. Review of Related Theories ...... 10 C. Review on the Apartheid Era in South Africa ...... 18 D. Theoretical Framework ...... 21

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ...... 23 A. Object of the Study ...... 23 B. Approach of the Study ...... 24 C. Method of the Study ...... 25

CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS ...... 27 A. The Characterizations of the Oppressed Characters ...... 27 B. The Characterization of the Oppressor Character ...... 41 C. The Representation of Racial Oppression during Colonization Revealed through Characters ...... 42

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION ...... 48

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 52

APPENDIX ...... 54

ABSTRACT

DWI MONDA ADITYADARMA. ATHOL FUGARD’S STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT: A REPRESENTATION OF RACIAL OPPRESSION DURING COLONIZATION. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.

The thesis shows how Athol Fugard exploits his play Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act as a representation of racial oppression during colonization through its characters. Athol Fugard’s play shows that the colonizer is dominating and controlling the life of the colonized people. The writer analyzes (1) How the characterizations of Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert representing the oppressed are, (2) How the characterization of the policemen representing the oppressor is, and (3) How the oppressed and the oppressors in the play represent the racial oppression during colonization. To analyze the play, the writer did several steps. The first was doing close reading of the play. The second was collecting all necessary data and resources, for example looking for the related studies, related theories and the most suitable approach. The related studies and theories, the approach and certain terms are found in encyclopedia and handbook. Finally, the writer found out that postcolonialism was the most suitable approach to analyze the play Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. The third was doing the analysis by answering the three questions in problem formulation. The last step was drawing a conclusion by making summary of all the findings made in the analysis. The analysis shows how the characters represent the oppressed and the oppressor people with their own stereotypes. Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert represent the oppressed, while the policemen represent the oppressor. As the oppressed, Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert bring his own stereotypes for example, frightened, cowardly, ashamed, and inferior. On the other hand, the policemen are superior. Nevertheless, due to Statements After an Arrest under the Immorality Act as a representation of racial oppression during colonization, Errol also has others stereotype that can be leveled as the oppressor character, such as educated and brave. Analyzing the three characters, the writer concludes that Athol Fugard tries to present racial oppression during colonization by stereotyped through those three characters, those are Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert who are the oppressed coloured man and white woman, and the South African policemen who are white men. Errol Philander suffers from several racial laws which was made by the South African government such as the Bantu Education Act which reduces the level of education attainable by coloured people, the Amendment of the Immorality Act which makes the relationship between a white person and a person from different race as a criminal offense, the Group Areas Act which forbids members of one racial group from occupying property for a different race, etc..

ABSTRAK

Skripsi ini menunjukkan bagaimana Athol Fugard menggunakan salah satu hasil karya dramanya yang berjudul Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act sebagai penggambaran dari penindasan diskriminasi rasial selama kolonisasi melalui karakter-karakternya. Karya drama Athol Fugard ini menunjukkan bahwa para penjajah sudah mendominasi dan mengatur kehidupan orang yang terjajah. Penulis menganalisa (1) Bagaimana ciri-ciri karakteristik dari Errol Philander dan Frieda Joubert sebagai orang yang terjajah, (2) Bagaimana ciri-ciri karakteristik para penegak hukum sebagai penjajah, dan (3) bagaimana karakter yang terjajah dan karakter penjajah dalam karya drama ini yang menggambarkan penindasan diskriminasi rasial selama kolonisasi. Untuk menganalisa drama ini, penulis melakukan beberapa tahapan. Pertama, penulis mencoba memahami isi drama dengan membaca naskah drama secara berulang-ulang. Kedua, penulis mengumpulkan berbagai data dan sumber yang diperlukan, misalnya tinjauan pustaka, tinjauan teori, pendekatan, dan terminologi tertentu, didapat dari ensiklopedia dan buku pegangan. Akhirnya, penulis menemukan pendekatan postkolonial sebagai pendekatan yang paling cocok untuk menganalisa Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. Ketiga, penulis mengerjakan analisis dengan menjawab tiga pertanyaan yang ada di formula permasalahan. Tahapan terakhir adalah menarik kesimpulan dengan merumuskan semua temuan dalam analisis. Analisis menunjukkan bagaimana karakter-karakter dalam drama tersebut mewakili orang-orang yang terjajah dan para penjajah dengan sterotipe masing- masing. Errol Philander dan Frieda Joubert digambarkan sebagai orang yang terjajah, sedangkan para polisi digambarkan sebagai penjajah. Sebagai orang yang terjajah, Errol Philander dan Frieda Joubert membawa stereotipe tertentu sebagai contoh ketakutan, pengecut, malu, and orang yang berkelas rendah. Di sisi lain, para polisi berkedudukan tinggi. Namun demikian, karena Statements After an Arrest under the Immorality Act sebagai penggambaran dari penindasan diskriminasi selama kolonisasi, Errol juga mempunyai stereotipe yang bisa disamakan dengan karakter penjajah, seperti berpendidikan dan berani. Menganalisa ketiga karakter, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa Athol Fugard mencoba untuk menggambarkan penindasan diskriminasi rasial selama kolonisasi yang membawa stereotipe melalui ketiga karakter tersebut, yaitu Errol Philander orang yang berasal dari bangsa kulit hitam, dan para polisi Afrika Selatan yang berasal dari bangsa kulit putih. Errol Philander menderita karena beberapa macam hukum diskriminasi rasial yang dibuat oleh pemerintahan Afrika Selatan yaitu the

xii

Bantu Education Act yang mengurangi tingkat pendidikan yang dapat dicapai oleh masyarakat yang berasal dari kulit hitam, the Amendment of the Immorality Act yang membuat hubungan antara seorang kulit putih dengan seseorang yang berasal dari ras yang berbeda sebagai sebuah pelanggaran kriminal, dan the Group Areas Act yang melarang anggota dari sebuah grup ras tertentu memiliki tanah milik dari grup ras yang lainnya, dan lain-lain.

xiii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Every human being in this world has differences and similarities because

God creates human beings different one to another, for example in characteristics, sex, races and skin colours. In dealing with those differences especially on races and skin colours, every human has each own views; it can be positive or negative.

It can be positive view if all human beings can accept those differences and then live peacefully side by side or known as pluralism. On the other hand, it can be negative view if each human being cannot accept those differences and then they try to oppress their need or will toward others.

The example of the positive view is when all of human being can accept those differences and lives peacefully side by side and creates smaller community, what is called society, and country, the bigger one. On the other hand, one example of the negative view is when some people or countries are trying to force their need or will to another people or countries and trying to dominate all of aspects of the live of another people or countries, there will be a clash or war.

Colonization is also a kind of war to conquer another country to expand territory and to get benefit from the country. Discussing colonialism is discussing about imperialism of the colonizer over the colonized country because its deals with the colonizer and the colonized country. Colonizer is the stronger country that has power over the colonized country. The colonizer thinks the colonized

1 2

people are uncivilized, so that they take full control over the colonized people.

Not only do they control over the natural resources, but also the mind and cultures that they control in order to “civilize” them. However, colonialism makes the colonized people and country suffer.

In order to “civilize” the colonize people, the colonizer were applied the differences in race and skin colours and make it as their belief or idea or their way of life or known as racism. Racism itself, according to John K. Roth in

International Encyclopaedia of Ethics (1995: 722), is the belief that people is divided in stratified races, and according to its believers makes one group superior to another and has the authority to control the minority. Racism becomes the main issue, for example, when the white races as the superior race force their need or will to the black races as the inferior race.

The white races force their need or will to the other races from one generation to next generation. It is happened according to Locke and Stern in

When Peoples Meet: A Study in Race and Culture Contacts say that from early childhood the White man is accustomed to consider the Blacks as a member of the servant class, as one who definitely has the right as an inferior status in the social system. The Black man is always ready to obey the white man orders immediately. Laws restrict his freedom of movement and the entire unskilled works, unpleasant and irksome task is performed by his labour. As the result, the white child grew up in such a community familiar whose tends to regard the

Black as the unskilled work person, as an inferior to be looked down upon with feeling of superiority and worthless and respected (1946: 374).

Racism was not only applied in the social system but also was applied in the government as a policy. It was existed in South Africa in 1948, the government was enacted a policy, which was making some differences between in this case the White race and the other races such as Black or Natives or Bantu,

Coloured and Asian, called Apartheid (Marquad, The Story of Africa, 1954: 243).

Russell Vandenbroucke in his book Truths the Hand can Touch, the Theatre of

Athol Fugard, continues that the South African government has determined that there are four racial groups: White which refers to European immigrants, such as

Dutch, French, German and English; Bantu which refers to natives people which speaking native language; Coloured which refers to imported slaves people from

Asia and Madagascar; and Asian which refers to the ordered labors from Indians

(1986: XIV-XV).

He continued that the Apartheid government was trying to make some differences in South African social life, for example legalization some laws which arouse the racial discrimination between one race to another race. The racial laws such as, The 1950 Population Act which legislated race classification to every individual, the Group Areas Act of 1950 which designed to make physical separation to all four racial groups and also in this law established another law called pass laws which requiring nonwhites to carry documents if they want to move and residence to another place especially to the white areas, and the

Immorality Act of 1927 which has been called as the basic principles of apartheid because this law is very strict against racial mixing and because of that if someone break this law, he or she is betray one's racial heritage (1986: XIV-XIX).

Apartheid was not only existed in the social system or in the politic or in economic, but also was existed in the other human life aspects, in literature. Many literary authors were trying to reflect apartheid issue in their works; they tried to criticize the social condition in their life. One of literary authors whose applied apartheid issue in South Africa is Athol Harold Lannigan Fugard. He was born in

Middelburg, South Africa on June 11, 1932. He is white with English and African parents.

He wrote many plays which represent the social condition in South Africa under the Apartheid government; such as under the title as Statements (1974), he published Siswe Banzi is Dead, The Island which in these two plays he cooperated with John Kani and Winston Ntshona and Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act.

Working with bright, able actors like John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Fugard was able, through their life-experience-based acting, to return to the world of the black townships from which he had been banned. The result was a dynamic combination that gave rise to two memorable plays: Siswe Banzi is Dead and The Island. Together with Statements, these three plays form Fugard's most serious interpellation and condemnation of South Africa's apartheid laws (Wertheim, 2000: 79).

These literatures are written at Apartheid era, it can be called as a literature of protest. Apartheid is a system that gives terrible consequences to every aspect not only of the Blacks South Africans life but also of all other races, except the white, who live in South Africa.

Athol Fugard’s play, Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, is about the relationship between man and woman who fall in love, but the main problem is they are different in race and skin colours. Under their law and

government, they are forbidden to have relationship and interracial sex. This is the main problem that Athol Fugard wants to react to his society.

This play is constructed into two equal part scenes of an act: “before an arrest” and “after an arrest”. Athol Fugard wants to show that before the arrest two human beings can live side by side even though they have differences in races and skin colours and even they have a love relationship and after an arrest those two human beings cannot have a longer relationship just because the system, in this subject, the Apartheid system, forbid them to have that relationship.

The writer finds that Athol Fugard’s Statements after an Arrest under the

Immorality Act is an interesting and challenging to be analyzed because it criticized the racial problem in South Africa under Apartheid era. The characters of the play are quite interesting to be analyzed because each of the characters has differences in characteristics and each of the characters is the representation of each race in the South African in Apartheid era, Errol Philander, a Coloured principal of elementary of the location school, is the representation of the

Coloured race who is considered inferior, Frieda Joubert, who is a White librarian woman, is the representation of the White race, and the policemen, represented in

Sergeant J. du Preez, are the representation of the Apartheid government which is considered as the superior race.

However, the characters is divided into two categories, oppressed character who is the coloured people who suffer under the Apartheid laws and the oppressor characters who are the White race which has become the superior race

in South Africa under the Apartheid era; they have the right to control all aspects of all South African people, including the Coloured and Black or Native people.

Through the both characters, the oppressed and the oppressor, described in the play, Athol Fugard wants to reveal that his play is the representation of South

African society in Apartheid era and his reaction toward the racial oppression. He refused all kind of the racial oppression which was applied by South African government in South African people life especially to the Coloured and Black people, therefore, the writer finds it interesting and challenging to write a thesis.

B. Problem Formulation

In order to have thorough analysis, this thesis will be focused on the problems stated below:

1. How are the characterizations of Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert

representing the oppressed?

2. How is the characterization of the policemen representing the oppressor?

3. How do the oppressed and oppressors in the play represent racial

oppression during colonization?

C. Objectives of the Study

This thesis will be focused on the Apartheid oppression in Athol Fugard’s

Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act. This thesis is mainly to answer the three questions stated on the problem formulation above. There are

three aims that can be obtained to answer the problem formulation as represented follows:

Firstly, the first objective is to describe the oppressed character of the play, it is important to know how Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert representing the oppressed are and what oppressions that they suffer in the play.

The second is to describe the oppressor character in the play. This is quite important to know how the policemen representing the oppressor are and what they support in the oppression.

The third is to represent the racial oppression through the both characters, the oppressed and the oppressor characters in the play.

D. Definition of Term

There are some terms used by the writer to support the thesis, namely:

1. Colonialism

According to Postcolonial Discourse, colonialism means “the direct rule

of a nation or people by another nation or people (Castle, 2001: 101)”.

Meanwhile, according to Longman Dictionary of English Language and

Culture, colonialism is “the principle or practice in which a powerful country

rules a weaker one and establishes its own trade and cultures there (1992:

244)”.

2. Colonization

According to Postcolonial Discourse, colonization means “the

establishment of settler colonies in foreign lands (Castle, 2001: 101)”.

Meanwhile, according to Longman Dictionary of English Language and

Culture, colonization is the establishment of a colony in a country or the establishment of political control over an area or over another country, and sending away your citizens there to settle (1992: 244).

3. Apartheid

According to Leo Marquad in The Story of Africa, Apartheid, which is enacted by Nationalist Party, is a politics of segregation in South Africa between white men and other ethnic groups, especially black people. The

White have the rights to control in every aspects like announcing Blankes and

Nie-Blankes in post offices, railway stations and airports, separating ticket offices, making some laws that discriminate the Coloured people (1954: 243-

245).

4. Character

In drama, the characters are traditionally defined by their physical characteristics, such as gender, age, physique, clothing, class, etc. and can be understood as an individualized image of humanity and all of that make the drama’s characters is one of important elements because drama’s action springs from character (Barranger, 1994: 339-387).

5. Racism

According to Webster’s Encyclopedic Unbridged Dictionary of the

English Language, “racism is a belief that some of human race have

difference characteristics with the others and make them superior and have

the right to control the inferior race” (1985: 1184).

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

According Albert Wertheim in The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard “ From

South Africa to the World”, Athol Fugard’s Statements after an Arrest under the

Immorality Act is a play which confronts against the South African law which prohibited having sexual relations and marriage between people of two different races, white and coloured. He also says that it helps the non-South African reviewers to understand the play’s setting, even though, the non-South African reviewers do not yet visit the setting of the play (2000: 69-70). Albert Wertheim also states that Athol Fugard in Statements after an arrest under the Immorality

Act still uses to identify the characters as “Man” and “Woman; even their name are known just because Fugard wants his characters to be his creation and dis- creation of “Adam and Eve” (2000: 72).

Russell Vandenbroucke in his book Truths The Hand Can Touch, The

Theatre of Athol Fugard, says that most of Fugard’s works are written for a South

African’s audiences whose presume an understanding of South African society and most of his plays are set in South Africa including his play Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, and because of that Athol Fugard is considered as a South African’s playwright and his plays is “about” South Africa

(1985: XIV). He continued that Fugard’s works Statements after an Arrest under

9 10

the Immorality Act was fascinated by specific images: six photographs which were taken by the police in an Afrikaans newspaper of a naked White librarian woman and Coloured schoolteacher man as lovers (1985: 132). Russell

Vandenbroucke also state that Athol Fugard’s Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act play is about a sexual relation between Errol Philander, the coloured school principal and Frieda Joubert, the white librarian which in the

Apartheid era is illegal because of the enactment of the Immorality Act (1985:

134).

However, the writer attempts to develop something new and different from other studies, even though the above critics would very helpful the writer to make this study new and different. This study focuses on the characters of the play, and also how the characters and the Apartheid society reveal the racial oppression.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theories of Character and Characterization

Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms (1981: 20), defines

“Character as the person, in a dramatic or narrative work, endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say-the dialogue-and what they do-the action”.

one of important elements because drama’s action springs from character

(Barranger, 1994: 339-387).

In fiction, the author reveals the characters of imaginary persons. The creation of these imaginary persons so that they exist for the reader as lifelike, is called characterization (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81). According to Richard

Goldstone in Contexts of the Drama, a drama’s character is established by the dialogue spoken by the character and the dialogue spoken about the character

(1960: 6). We may regard dramatic dialogue as a means of characterization under two heads; taking, first, the utterances of a given person in his conversation with others, and then the remarks made about him by the other persons in the play. The utterances of any person in any play will furnish a continual running commentary upon his conduct and character (Hudson, 1958: 192).

In An Introduction to the Study of Literature, William Henry Hudson says that we may also regard soliloquy as a means of characterization. The playwright finds it necessary to let us know the whole mystery of his contrivance, he is willing to inform us of this person’s thought; and to that end is forced to make us of the expedient of speech, no other better way being yet invented for the communication of thought (1958: 197).

In modern play a character’s appearance is usually described in stage directions that establish physical characteristics: gender, age, profession, clothing, and class, with some implication about the character’s psychological make up

(Barranger, 1994: 339). Meanwhile, to see how a character is described by the

author, the writer chooses theory of characterization by M.J. Murphy. According to him, there are many ways to see the characters (1972: 161-173). Those are: a. Personal Description

How the author described a character's physical appearance such as the face, body, and clothes. b. Characters as seen by author

Instead of describing the characters directly, the author can describe the character through the eye of another character. The other characters speak about him or her clearly and giving an additional explanation. c. Speech

A character can give the readers clue about himself or herself the person says. Whenever he or she speaks, whenever he or she has conversation with another, and whenever he or she gives his or her opinion, he or she is giving us some clue to his or her personality. d. Past life

The author can give the readers clue to the event that helped to shape a person's characteristics through his or her past life, for example by direct comment or his or her conversation. e. Conversation of others

The author can also gives us a clue to a person's characteristics through the conversation of other people and the things they say about him.

f. Reaction

The author gives us a clue to the person's characteristics by letting us know how that person reacts to various situations and events.

2. The Relation between Literature and Society

According to Rene Wellek and Austen Warren in their book Theory of

Literature, literature is a social institution and employs as its medium language which is a social creation. Traditional literary devices such as symbolism and metre are social in their very nature. They are conventions and norms, which could have arisen only in society. Further, literature represents life and life itself is a social reality, though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been object of literary imitation (1958: 94).

They continued that, literary products may be viewed as social documents.

Literature so used yields outlines of a particular society. Indeed, such an approach fosters a more complete comprehension of the literary works as assumed pictures of social reality. Sociological and economic aspects of a society are cogently pointed out in documents (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 102-103).

Another perspective about the relation between literature and society comes from Carl Milton Hughes in The Negro Novelist, states that literature is life with all of its ramifications which concerns us. All of life must not be lost in ambiguity and in this point, is life as reflected in organized society. Related to society, literature comments upon it, ferrets out intrinsic weakness, and in a measure continues its traditions. The point of any fiction which is taken from a

social milieu is to approximate reality, and in the process such fiction becomes part of the significant experience of mankind. It becomes “revelatory of insights” or reveals the sudden understanding into the social order and into man who seeks to understand himself and society (1953: 23).

3. Theories on Postcolonialism

Post colonialism is one branch of cultural studies. There are many theories about colonialism. One of theories is Orientalism by Edward W. Said. In his book

Orientalism, he defines orientalism itself as “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the orient (Said, 1994: 3)”. The Orient means the colonized people. By using this style, Western people were able to manage and took control the Orient politically, sociologically, military, ideology, scientifically, and imaginatively. So, Western people always use force and power to dominate all aspects of colonized people’s life.

Therefore, the concept of postcolonialism is highlighting the struggle that occurs when one cultured is dominated by another culture (Bressler, 1999: 266).

Besides, postcolonialism also resist colonialists’ perspectives, for example about the stereotypes. The term “colonialism” always refers to the colonizer and the colonized people or country. Colonialism is also project of decolonizing the mind of the colonizer (Castle, 2001: 107), although the colonized people could never absurd truly the things that the colonizer has taught to them (Aschroft, Griffiths,

Tiffin, 1995: 58). The colonizers are actually not only expanding the territory by conquering other countries, but they seem more conquering the colonized’s mind.

Conquering or decolonizing the colonized’s mind is more valuable than conquering the nature of the country because it can be long lasting. The colonized will follow the colonizer’s style. Besides, The Post-colonial Studies Reader states:

“To the colonialist mind it was always of the outmost importance to be able to say: ‘I know my natives’, a claim which implied two things at once: (a) that the natives was really quite simple and (b) that understanding him and controlling him went hand in hand- understanding being a precondition for control and control constituting adequate proof of understanding (Aschroft, Griffiths, Tiffin, 1995: 58)”.

Meanwhile, Stephen Neil in his book Colonialism and Christian Mission also supports the postcolonialsm theories above. He said that the aggressions done by the colonizer are divided into five (1966: 12), they are: political, economic, social, intellectual, and religious mission. Intellectual aggression and religious mission can be clearly seen in this play. Intellectual aggression has paralyzed the power of the nation by imposing thought in which the colonized people can release that they are being colonized. The colonizers try to decolonize the colonized people’s mind by forcing their thought to colonized people. Meanwhile, religious mission gives direct threat to the traditional religious institutions on which all-ancient cultures are founded. It is said to be the most dangerous aggression since it strikes at the heart of the nation.

4. Theories of Racism

Alfred M. Lee in The Principles of Sociology, states that race is a matter of hereditary process. The hereditary process then has a very precise meaning because it is the acts which have been arisen toward them who belong to it. Lee states his definition of race as follows:

Race means a category of people who, through many generations of inbreeding, have developed common physical characteristics that distinguish them from other human (1951: 124)

Lee’s theory states that certain biological facts bear a constant relation to cultural phenomena because the capacity of man will determine the level of human nature and his culture. It may be transmitted from generation to generation

(1951: 124).

Meanwhile, Francis E. Merrill and H. Wentworth Eldredge in Culture and

Society: An Introduction to Sociology, state that racism comes from attitudes which have arose for the physical differences, and it has separated some groups of human being (1952: 231). Merrill and Eldredge’s theory supports Lee’s theory that race has an effect to cultural phenomena. In their theory, they state that race will play a central role in the formation of personality.

The personality of the Afro-American is more completely determined by the role that race forces him to play in larger society. His status in the social structure is conditioned by his skin color and his role grows out of his inferior status (1952: 232).

According to Martin Luther King in his writing Where Do We Go from

Here: Chaos or Community, racism is a philosophy based on contempt for life.

Racism is the arrogant assertion that one race is the center of value and object of devotion, before which other races must kneel in submission. Racism is the absurd dogma that one race is responsible for all the progress of history and alone can assure the progress of the future. Racism is total estrangement. It separates not only bodies, but also minds and spirits. Inevitably, it descends to inflicting spiritual or physical homicide upon the out-group (1963: 83).

In his On Racism in America, Harvey Sarles points out that racism can operate on two levels: (1) individual and/or group and (2) institutional. Individual racism simply means that one has racist views according to its definition. It is also supposed to be somewhat easy to eradicate so long as a “good” human relations approach is used to educate the racist and then prove to him that his fears and hostilities are unsound. However, institutional racism is far more subtle and very difficult to eradicate. It has been defined as the “operating policies, priorities, and functions of an on-going system of normative patterns which serve to subjugate, oppress, and force dependence of individuals or groups by establishing and sanctioning unequal goals, objectives, and priorities for blacks and whites, which forces inequality in status and in access to goods and services (1970: 49)”.

5. The Forms of Racial Attitude

Racism leads people to make a judgement by arranging human being based on the race. Discrimination is another form of racism. It is an act of discriminating human being based on race, which claims that the “purity” of each race should be preserved. The superior race should not contaminate the inferior ones (Essien-Udom, 1975: 237).

Segregation is the next development of racism, and a complete racial segregation in all spheres of life is the “ideals” of racist society. Segregation consists of segregation in residential areas, in education, and other public institutions, in public accommodations, such as rail roads, steamship lines, street car and bus system, and hospitals. The segregation also in church, factory and

employment opportunities, in legal and political status, in private business establishments, such as hotels and restaurants under customary or legal mandate or prevent racial contact on a level implying social equality or permitting social intimacy, and in other private commercial and professional services, such as department stores, undertaking establishments and doctors’ offices. Even there is also segregation in graveyard (Frazier, 1957: 281-282). Shortly there is segregation from the cradle from the grave, since racist believes that each race has a separate destiny in the world.

Meanwhile, Walton said that the prototypical racist is the one who express fear, loathing and hatred for persons who have particular race or ethnic background. Nevertheless, strangely most of them do not consider themselves to be “hateful”, but argue that they are only doing what they have to do. It is out of

“love”. Love for their particular way of life, their culture and their continued survive (1998: 4).

C. Review on the Apartheid Era in South Africa

The Apartheid policy, which was issued as the “solution” to the problems of the relation between European and non-European, began when the Nationalist

Party taking controls the South African government in 1948. The Nationalist

Party enactment this policy because the white people cannot live together with the coloured people in one community. The white people fear that if the coloured or the African people live with them, the coloured or the African people will increase

in number and would swap the whites in politically, culturally, and economically

(Marquad, 1954: 240- 242).

The Nationalist Party, which were dominated by the white Eroupean people, were tried to apply this policy in social and economic life in South Africa, for the examples were the announcement of the word Blankes and Nie-Blankes

(white and non-white) in public places such as post offices, railway stations and airports, etc., making separate services such as separating ticket offices and entrance, and also making some laws (Marquad, 1954: 245). With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Race laws touched every aspect of social life. The principal apartheid laws were as follows

(Troup, 1975: 319-326):

a. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949)

This law prohibited marriages between white people and people of other races,

especially black people.

b. Amendment to the Immorality Act (1950)

This law made it a criminal offence for a black person to have any sexual

relations with a white person.

c. The Population Registration Act (1950)

This law required all citizens to register as black, white or colored. It

established residential and business strengthened existing “pass” laws

(requiring nonwhites to carry documents authorizing their presence in

restricted areas).

d. The Group Areas Act (27 April 1950)

This law barred people of particular races from various urban areas. It

prohibits members of one racial group from acquiring or occupying property

in an area designated for a different group.

e. The Bantu Education Act (1953)

This law brought in various measures expressly designed to reduce the level

of education attainable by black people.

f. The Mines and Work Act (1956)

This law formalized racial discrimination in employment.

g. The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953)

This law prohibited people of different races from using the same public

amenities, such as drinking fountains, restrooms, and so on.

This apartheid laws makes the coloured or African people lived in the hard ways, they cannot have the better life because this racial segregation in all their social and economic life. Living under Apartheid era makes all of Black or coloured people which called as the “non-whites” faced the effect of Apartheid system, being racial. Even though their population are about four-fifth, they felt that they are the “aliens” of their own land, especially for the Bantus which also called as Natives or Africans because the white men, which their population were about one-fifth, felt that they have “the right” to control and to organize all people in South Africa, for example if some coloured or black people violate the laws, which the white men have formalized, that action is considered “wrong” and

deserving of stern punishment, another example is when the white men make the separate schools for the white and the non-white children and the whites make the large number of non-whites lived in ‘township’ (location) which consisted mainly of slums on the outskirts of the cities in order to make the young Bantu men worked in the mines and industries (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1971: 498 d).

D. Theoretical Framework

To analyze this study, some theories are applied. The theory used firstly in this study is the theory of character and characterization. This theory is needed because this study deals with the characters and how they are presented by the author with each characteristic.

The second theory applied in this study is theory of racism. It is needed since the topic of this study also deals with the meaning of racism and needed because thorough this theory it helps the writer to find out and identify how both characters of Athol Fugard's Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act as the rejection toward the oppression during the Apartheid era.

The next theory applied in this study is postcolonialism theory. It is used to find out and identify how the oppressed and the oppressor characters as a representation of racial oppression during colonization.

In answering the problems, the relationship between literature and society cannot be ignored. The form of racial attitudes is needed in answering the problems since it becomes important in analyzing this study. The review on the apartheid era in South Africa will surely give more description and explanation of

the apartheid policy which applied in laws, social and economic life in South

Africa. Later, all the theories applied in this study will help the writer in answering the problems.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

This study deals with Athol Fugard’s play Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, this play is one of trilogy play which was written by

Athol Fugard in the Apartheid era. This play was published in New York in 1986 by Theatre Communication Group Inc.. This study uses the published edition which has 29 pages and is divided into two scenes, before the arrest and after the arrest. This play was first performed on 25 March 1972 at the Brian Astbury’s

Theatre in Cape Town. This performance was directly directed by Athol Fugard.

Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act is the story about the interracial sex between Errol Philander, who is a coloured school principal man, with Frieda Joubert, who is a white librarian woman. The story is divided into two equal part scenes of an act, before the arrest and after the arrest. The story itself takes place in the floor of a library in Frieda’s house, they are naked and they are talked about their dreams, Errol Philander dreams about having a better life in

Bontrug the coloured area, lived with pride without any help from white people and Frieda Joubert dreams about having long relationship with Errol; and their life which is different one to another, Frieda lived in the wealthy and better white area and Errol lived in the second class coloured area. Even though they have many differences in their life, they have a close relationship, a sexual relationship, but

23 24

consider to some South African laws they have an illegal relationship because in that time interracial sex is forbidden under Apartheid era.

B. Approach of the Study

In this study, the writer employs Post-colonialism approach. According to

Charles Bressler’s Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice,

Postcolonialism is defined as an approach to literary analysis that concerns with literature written about colonizer and colonized countries. It usually talks about what happens when two countries clash, when one culture superior to another, and how the colonized people struggle against it. Therefore, postcolonialism’s major concern is highlighting the struggle that occurs when one culture is dominated by another culture (1999: 265- 266).

Meanwhile, according to Mario Klarer in An Introduction to Literary Studies

(1999: 96), cultural studies analyze the different aspects of human self-expression as manifestation of a cultural whole.

After reading Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, postcolonialism is chosen by the writer to analyze the play Statements After an

Arrest Under the Immorality Act because the play talks about the life of colonizers and a colonized man in a colonized country. It is also noticeable that

Athol Fugard wants to represent racial oppression which usually appears when the colonizer characters who try to dominate and control the life of the colonized character. That is the reasons why the Postcolonialism approach is applied in analyzing the play.

C. Method of the Study

The method of the study that the writer applied in gathering data for this paper is a library research. The data itself is divided into two, they were: primary and secondary data. The primary data used in this study was taken from the play itself, Athol Fugard and John Kani and Winston Ntshona in Statements.

Meanwhile, the secondary data used was taken from literature books and selected criticism.

There were several steps in analyzing this play. The first step was to analyze Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, the writer read the whole text of the play. By reading the whole play, the writer knew what social condition applies in the play and also it was important to know all the characters very well.

Secondly, the writer was collecting all necessary data and sources that were needed to support the analysis. The theories of literature and its elements applied in this study are taken from John K. Roth in International Encyclopedia of

Ethics, Locke and Stern in When Peoples Meet: A Study Race And Culture

Contacts, Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in their book Theory of Literature,

Milly J. Barranger in Understanding Plays, M.H. Abrams in A Glossary of

Literary Terms, William Kenney in How to Analyze Fiction. The approach is taken from Charles Bressler’s Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and

Practice book, Mario Klarer in An Introduction to Literary Studies, Francis E.

Merrill and H. Wentworth Eldredge in Culture and Society: An Introduction to

Sociology, Harvey Sarles On Racism in America and Martin Luther King in his 26

writing Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, and for the criticisms on the play were taken from Albert Wertheim’s book The Dramatic Art of Athol

Fugard “From South Africa to the World”, and Russell Vandenbroucke’s book

Truths The Hand Can Touch, The Theatre of Athol Fugard.

Thirdly, the writer was doing the analysis. This step was divided into three steps in order to find out the answers of the questions in problem formulation. The first step was identifying the characterizations of Errol Philander and Frieda

Joubert and how they representing the oppressed in the play. The second step was identifying the characterization of the policemen and how they representing the oppressor. Finally, the third step was finding out how the oppressed and the oppressor in the play representing racial oppression during colonization that had been analyzed before. In the third step postcolonialism approach is applied.

The last step to do was drawing conclusion from analysis, by making summary of all the findings in the analysis of the play.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter consists of the analysis of the play Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act. The writer divides the analysis into three parts: the characterization of the oppressed character in the play, the characterization of the oppressor characters in the play, and the representation of the racial oppression that is revealed through the oppressed and the oppressor characters during colonization. The play itself only has three characters; they are Errol Philander; the coloured man, Frieda Joubert; the white woman and the policeman as the representation of the South African government. The organization of the analysis goes well with the arrangement of the problem formulation in Chapter I.

A. The Characterization of the Oppressed Character

1. Errol Philander

Athol Fugard gives descriptions about Errol Philander. He is Coloured man; he has married and has one child. He is a Principal of the location school.

Meanwhile, his further characteristics have to be analyzed from the dialogues and the stage directions as follows:

1. Educated

Errol Philander is an educated man. It shows when Errol talks to Frieda the time when he studies.

27 28

MAN. Then it was the night of January the twenty-fifth. My family were already asleep. It was quiet…the best time to read or study…..( 1986: 84) Furthermore, because he reads or studies, he can know much knowledge better than Frieda does, even though Frieda is white men and she works as librarian. For example, when Errol explains to Frieda the difference between life and the chemical processes are divided in four fold.

MAN. ……….But we do know that the difference between life and even the most complex of chemical processes are four-fold……..(1986: 82)

It is show that Errol is well educated, a man that studies at night when his family is sleeping and knows everything that white men do not. Errol does all of that because he wants to change the life of his people which not only have less education but also uneducated. He also knows that he and his people does not have chances in the future to change their life, it shows when Errol talks to Frieda about the conclusion of Charles Lyell.

MAN. And? Listen again. ‘... no vestige of a beginning and no prospect of an end’. The conclusion Charles Lyell after a good look at what was happening on the surface of the Earth. Principles of Geology. 1830. (1986: 84)

Here, Errol knows that without education his people will suffer because his people always has been considered as uneducated people and uncivilized people who live in poor condition. It shows when Errol met one family when he went to visit

Frieda.

coming to you, you know what I saw? Rags. I don’t mean their clothes. The people inside looked like rags. The man drinks too much, he’s useless rag. The woman’s an old rag. Their child is going to somebody’s good rag, until … (1986: 91)

Errol knows that if he does not have better education he will become like the family which he met on the way to Frieda’s house, because of that with education

Errol is trying to change his people life that live without education and wealthy life. Even though he also knows that in the South Africa the Coloured and the

Black or Native people have a difficulty to get education. The government has the authority to reduce the level of education attainable by the Black people by the

Bantu Education Act (1953).

2. Unhappy

Errol Philander is unhappy because of several problems, such as: he lies to his family, he is afraid that he is neglecting all things and he wants Frieda to see him.

2. a. He lies to his family

Errol lies to his family about his relationship with Frieda; his family, especially his wife; Selina, does not know that they have a relationship for a long time.

MAN. I don’t know. I can’t tell. I can’t see or do anything properly any more, except come here, and even that I do thinking it’s a mistake. [Pause.] No, she knows nothing. (1986: 93)

He lies to his family especially to his wife because he loves Frieda so much and do not want to loose her, though he knows that he is being dishonest to his wife and he knows that, what he is doing is a mistake, but he always lies to his family. 30

It shows when Frieda asks Errol to take his family to go to holiday but Errol refuses and he has prepared a ‘lie explanation’ to his family.

WOMAN. It’s the holiday, isn’t it? MAN. That’s one thing. WOMAN. Listen. Stop worrying about it. Take your family. I promise I’ll understand. We won’t talk about it again. MAN. I don’t want to go. I decided to settle it last night after supper. Be firm with them, I said to myself. Explain you need the time for the course. Before I could bring the subject, they started talking. When must they start packing? How much they were looking forward to it! Selina hasn’t seen her mother for three years. I couldn’t even open my mouth. I’m so bloody sick of my lies. (1986: 92)

However, Errol hates to lie to his family because he also loves his family and he cannot loose them. Errol has a dilemma because he cannot choose between Frieda and his family because he loves them all and do not want to hurt them all.

Therefore, he always lies to his family.

2. b. Errol wants Frieda to see him

Errol wants Frieda to see him as a man who is naked on the floor with her, even though she rejects it.

MAN. …… Moon’s nearly full out there tonight you know. Toringberg will be splendid when I walk back. Hell, Frieda if we could have opened those curtains…! WOMAN. Don’t! Please…. MAN. Why? What about me? I want to be seen. I want you to see me. (1986: 82)

On the text above, it is clear that Errol feels sad because Errol wants Frieda see him as a man who lies beside her naked and has relationship with her. Errol also wants Frieda to see him completely as man who loves her, not only see him who has different colour and also not a man who only satisfies her when she needs him. 31

MAN. No, I wanted to. But I thought maybe you’d had enough of me for a while…. (1986: 92)

As he loves Frieda so much, he wants Frieda also loves him as he loves her even though he knows that their relationship is not long lasting forever. It shows when

Errol talks to Frieda about the conclusion of Charles Lyell, Errol consider his relationship with Frieda as what was happening on the surface of the earth, that their relationship from the beginning that is unclear and to the end does not have a prospect to continue, because Errol knows that his relationship with Frieda is forbidden by the government law, and if he tries to break it, he will send into prison.

2. c. Errol neglects all things in his life

Errol is unhappy because he thinks that he neglects all things in his life and he thinks that he has made a lot of mistakes in his life. It show when Errol talks to Frieda that he considers himself as a brak, a mongrel dog, he says that because all things he has done is a mistake and will end up worse, for example when he made a game with Frieda about imagine how he could do if he just has only forty-three cents in his pockets, he has no family, he has no place to go, he has nothing to do and he just stands in the street. Here, Errol tells that he will spend his money to buy bread and cool drink, he also will spent his money to buy envelope and stamp to write a letter to God to confess that he has a sin which is having a relationship with another woman except his wife, but before he writes a letter he was late to do that because he wants Frieda also to confess that she has a sin too, having a relationship with him. The other example is when he says that he has neglected his work as a teacher and a principal of the location school. He 32

thinks that he does not have enough time to finish his work. Another one is that he thinks that he is hurting Frieda, it shows when Errol says to Frieda that he wants to apologize because he loves her and he knows that if his relationship with Frieda was known by her neighbour she will get into trouble, she will send into the court and will send into prison. Another example is Errol feels guilty to his family because he always, especially at night, goes to Frieda’s house and having a secretly relationship with her, and also he has been lied to his family when he says that he needs time to finish the course but the real is he does not want to take his family to go to holiday. The last example is when Errol thinks that he neither neglects his people when he feels that his people do not live in a better life. For example Errol feels that his people has been considered as people who have less education or worse uneducated. It shows when Errol talks to Frieda when he met one family who wants to go back to the location.

MAN. …. I’ll tell you something else. Coming here once… in the ‘old’ days … I passed a man and a woman and their child … little boy … going back to the location. They got names, but it doesn’t matter. You don’t know them. They had stopped half-way up the hill to rest. It’s hard walking up there with the sun on your back. All three of them … hot and unwashed. They smell. Because I was coming to you, you know what I saw? Rags. I don’t mean their clothes. The people inside looked like rags. The man drinks too much, he’s useless rag. The woman’s an old rag. Their child is going to somebody’s good rag, until … (1986: 91)

It shows that his people, represent by the family, live in a worse live because they do not have a better education, because they do not have better education they only works, in the future, as servant, as slave, or mines or industrials worker which only need less education to work there.

3. Frightened

Errol Philander is frightened that both people, his people and Frieda’s people, will know his relationship with Frieda. He is afraid that his people on the location know that he always goes to the town every night.

MAN. ... Coming here tonight I heard a car coming, from the location. ... I hid under that little bridge over the spruit ... people relieve themselves there! ... I was on my hands and knees among the shit, waiting for that car to pass, so that Bontrug won’t start asking, ‘Why is the Meester walking into town every night?’ (1986: 90).

Errol is afraid that if he was caught he has a relationship Frieda by his people, he will hurt his family especially his wife, Selina and he will feel ashamed to his students.

Besides he is afraid that his people will know his relationship with Frieda, he is also afraid that Frieda’s people, here, her neighbours will know it.

Man [viciously]. It would be better if I waited until it’s dark ... remember!

He is afraid that Frieda’s neighbours will know his relationship Frieda because in that time the South African government forbid an interracial relationship which is made into a right, called as the Amendments to the Immorality Act of 1950. He is more frightened when Frieda talks to him that her neighbour, Mrs. Tienie Buys, is suspicious, and later on reported to the South African policeman, why Errol always come to Frieda house every night.

WOMAN. It really would be better if you could wait until it’s darker. [He stops. Pause.] Old Mrs. Buys is still staring and being strange. She changed her books again today. I might be wrong but....She’s taken out more books this month than she did the whole of last year (1986: 92).

His fright was proven when Mrs. Tienie Buys reported them into South African policeman, here, Detective Sergeant J. Du Preez on December the seventeenth, and later on Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert is wet-handed naked lying side by side on the floor.

Errol Philander was frightened when the police caught them naked on the floor.

[A blackout, during which the policeman exits. A sequence of camera flashes in the darkness exposes the man and the woman tearing apart from their embrace; the man then scrambling for his trousers, finding them, and trying to put them on; the woman, naked, crawling around on the floor, looking for the man. As she finds him, and tries to hide behind his back, the flashes stop and torches are shone to them. The woman scrambles away, finds the blanket, and covers herself. The torches are relentless, but we never see anything of the men behind them. These ‘flash-sequences’ are nightmare excursions into the split second of exposure and must be approached as ‘sub-text’ rather than ‘reality’.]

MAN. [terrified. Covering his genitals with his trousers he talks desperately to the torch shining on him.] Look….look-before you make up your mind let me tell you something…..I’m….I’m Principal…..I…..I won’t do it again…..I’m frightened…Ja, I’m frightened. (1986: 96)

On the stage direction, the existing of the policemen are represented as the torch and the flashes of the camera, the policeman caught Errol and Frieda naked on the floor, Errol and Frieda are frightened because they know that in South Africa the law forbids the interracial relationships between white and Coloured people.

4. Cowardly

Errol feels that he is cowardly because he cannot choose between Frieda and his family.

MAN [viciously]. It would be better if I waited until it’s dark… remember! [Pause.] My adultery? And yours? Ja. Yours! If that’s true of me because of you and my wife, then just as much 35

for you because of me and your white skin. Maybe you are married to that they way I am to Bontrug. You sneak out of it the way I sneak out of my house to come here. Let me see you choose!! WOMAN. I will. Take me with you. Now. [Silence] MAN. You’re right. I’m coward.

Errol feels that he is cowardly because Errol knows that he cannot take Frieda to go with him because the law forbids him to have a relationship with the white race, and also he cannot leave his family because he loves his family as like he loves Frieda, and he will has sin to God if he leaves his family.

5. Ashamed

Errol Philander feels ashamed because he always sneaks out by using the back door on night when he comes to Frieda’s house.

MAN. Pride doesn’t use back door! WOMAN. Sssh, please! MAN. Or wait until it’s dark. You don’t walk the way I do between the location and the town with pride. (1986: 90)

He will feel ashamed if he caught by his people, especially his family, having an affair with another woman except his wife, Selina.

He also feels ashamed when he meets a very poor family who will be going back to the location; he was looking at his feet when he walked past them.

He does that because he cannot do anything to help them. He has a will to help them but the South African government has a right to control and to dominate the life of the Coloured people.

Besides he is ashamed when he cannot do anything to his people, he is also ashamed when Frieda asks him some water when Errol tells that the dam in the location is empty.

MAN. .... There’s no water left in Bontrug. WOMAN. We’re going to have prayers for rain next week. Wednesday. MAN. The location dam is empty. Little mud left for the goats. They’re going to start bringing in for us on Monday. Got to be ready with our buckets at twelve. Two for each house. WOMAN. Then why won’t you let me send you some of mine? The borehole is still very strong. Please! It would be so easy. MAN. Thanks, but I’ll go along with Bontrug.

He feels ashamed because when he and his people need water because of the location dam is empty, they cannot do anything, what they can do is they are just only asking some water from the government, which is the white people, and also they only have two buckets water for each house and they must queue for it. There fore, when Frieda asking some water for Errol, he rejects it because when his people know that he gets from Frieda he will be more feel ashamed.

6. Inferior

Errol Philander feels he is inferior when the police caught him with Frieda.

[The man realizes he must stop, and correct, this vein of ultimate confession. With a sign to the torch he puts his hat on, then steps forward and faces her, and takes his hat off in the correct and respectful manner.]

MAN. Miss Frieda Joubert?

[The woman stops talking, turns, and looks at him. She can’t believe what he sees. She laughs with bewildered innocence. The man accepts her 37

amusements. He handles his hat with a suggestion of nervousness as he starts to talk, respectfully.]

There’s no water left in Bonturg. The dam’s empty. Little mud left for the goats. They’re going to start bringing in for us on Monday. We’ve been told to be ready with our buckets at twelve. Two for each house. (1986: 98)

He was doing that because he wants to help Frieda and himself to show to the policeman that they were not having a relationship, he comes to Frieda’s house to inform that the dam in his town has no longer water in it, and shows that he, as the coloured people who must respects the white men and consider they as a master, just wants help to lend him some of Frieda’s water.

7. Civilized

Even though he is a coloured man, he has a religion; he follows the oppressor religion, Christianity. It is clearly seen that as the oppressed or the colonized people, Errol and his people have to follow the oppressor or the colonizer religion.

It supports by Stephen Neil’s book Colonialism and Christian Mission, it is said that the aggression done by the colonizer is divided into five, they are: political, economic, social, intellectual, and religious mission (1966: 124), so it is clear when Errol wants to write a letter to Christian God.

MAN. Let’s say ten words. [Counting them on his fingers.] ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ Three left for my name His address. What’s your massage? (1986: 88)

From the text above, it is clear that Errol is Christian, it shows when he wants to write a letter he quotes the sentence from the prayer of Our Father.

The character of Errol Philander is a round character. His characteristics change when the policemen caught him with Frieda on the library, he becomes 38

uncivilized. It shows at the last text of the play, he considers that God only help the white men. God does not help him when he was set to the court and later set into prison. Besides he becomes uncivilized, he also becomes proud when he talks to Frieda that he has use some books and goes to the library.

MAN. It made a big difference….. being able to go there and use the encyclopedias, and read. (1986: 101)

It shows that Errol is proud because he feels he has made a difference when a coloured man goes to the library to use and read the encyclopedias. In that time, the coloured people were considered as an uneducated people, and also the white men has an authority to reduce the level of education of other races.

2. Frieda Joubert

Athol Fugard gives descriptions about Frieda Joubert. She is a white

European middle ages woman. She runs a library in town. She is unmarried, she was born and lived in Cradock but later she moved on to Noupoort and been living at Noupoort for six years, she met Errol Philander at the first time when

Errol came to the library to ask to Frieda whether she has Julian Huxley book

Principles of Evolution. She has ugly feet, bandy legs, the skin around her knees has a little slack, and her hair is very mousy and sparse. She has few soft and feminine contours around her hips, and her skin makes her looks old.

1. a. Frightened

She frightened that her relationships with Errol will be known by her society. It shows when her neighbour, Mrs. Buys, curious about her relationships with Errol by lending more books. 39

WOMAN. It really would be better if you could wait until it’s darker. [he stops. Pause] Old Mrs. Buys is still staring and being strange. She changed her books again today. I might be wrong but…She’s taken out more books this month than she did the whole of last year. (1986: 92)

Her fright about her relationships with Errol will be known by her neighbour was happened when her neighbour, Mrs. Tienie Buys, is reporting about Frieda and

Errol behaviour on one night to the policeman, Detective Sergeant J.du Preez. She says that she saw, for over six months, Errol Philander always comes to the back door of Frieda Joubert’s library, he goes in to the library without knocking the door because Errol has the key of the back door library. She continues that she will be ready repeating this report under oath in court, and also her fright was proven when the South African policemen forced to open her window and shone the room which she and Philander are laying side by side on a blanket on the floor by a torch. She is more frightens when the policemen started to use a camera flash to get evidence for putting them to the court and later on putting them to prison.

1. b. Superior

She is superior to Errol. It was happened when she starts to lose control of the appearance of Errol Philander who turns to be the inferior to her.

[the woman now to lose control. The man’s ‘performance’ has now degenerated into a grotesque parody of the servile, cringing ‘Coloured’.] WOMAN. Sit down! MAN. Bonturg’s dry. Little mud in the dam. WOMAN. Come! MAN. Water, Miesies. Please, Miesies….water…. WOMAN. The way you… MAN. Just a little….We’re thirsty….please, Miesies… [The woman, now almost hysterical, looks around wildly for an affirmative action.] WOMAN. Sit down….here….and read…. 40

MAN. Water, Miesies, water, Miesies. WOMAN. No, no…stop it….[knocking the hat out of his hand.] STOP IT! MAN. I’ll…. I’ll just go. I’ll use the back door. (1986: 99)

She is angry to Errol appearance who tries to become like a servant, who has to respect to his master when he wants to talk to her about how he and his people needs a water because the dam on the location is empty, to avoid him from sending him to the court, and because of that she is becoming like the master who teach her uneducated servant to study or read.

1. c. Civilized

As the oppressor, Frieda is a Christian; it shows when she imagines writing a letter when Errol asks her.

WOMAN. ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who.....’

It is clear that she quotes from the pray of Our Father, she write that because she knows that she has a sin to God because she has an affair with a married man.

Therefore, she wants to write a letter to God to forgive her and Errol. Even though she is civilized, she also became uncivilized; it shows when she says that the white men have a prayer in order to beg for the rain.

WOMAN. We’re going to have prayers for rain next week. Wednesday. (1986: 89).

Frieda Joubert is round character; it show when Frieda became inferior when she was asked by the policemen to give evidence on the court to make Errol Philander sends to prison. She cannot reject it because if she rejects it she also will send to prison and because of that she cannot live properly anymore.

B. The Characterization of the Oppressor Characters

In this analysis the writer finds one oppressor character in the play, the policeman as the representation of South African government.

The Policeman as the representation of the South African Government

The policeman is superior to Errol Philander. The writer thinks that the reason why the policeman is superior to Errol because they can control all of the

South African society. It shows when the policeman caught Errol and Frieda naked on the floor of the library with the charge of Immorality Act.

POLICEMAN. Frieda Joubert. Ten, Conradie Street. European. Errol Phliander. Bontrug Location. Coloured. Charged : Immorality Act. (1986: 94)

The South African government has some rules which separated the white people and the coloured people. One of the rules is The Amendments to the Immorality

Act of 1950; it is a law which made a criminal offence for a white person to have any sexual relations with a person of a different race. Besides making the

Amendments to the Immorality Act, the government also made a law that barred people of particular races from various urban areas, called the Group Areas Act of

27 April 1950. It was shown when all of the coloured people lived in one area called ‘location’.

MAN. ….[Pause]. I’ll tell you something else. Coming here once…in the ‘old’ days….I passed a man and a woman and their child…little boys….going back to the location. (1986: 91)

C. The Representation of Racial Oppression during Colonization Revealed through Characters

Racism is a belief that one race is superior to the other races and become the centre of society; therefore they separated some groups of human being because of the physical differences for example the superior race is white and the other hand the inferior race is black or coloured race. The superior races think that they have the power to control other races life; they control not only bodies but also minds and spirits, and become the dominating race which controls the entire society’s life, such as economic, education, public service, politic, religion, etc.

In Athol Fugard’s Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, the setting of the play is in South Africa. Related to the history, South Africa, when

Athol Fugard made this play, was under the dominant race, not in number but in the authority, the white race. In this country, the white race control and dominate all society of South African life. That is why, it can be said that the characters of the play represent both the oppressor and the oppressed people. Physically, Frieda

Joubert and the policeman are white people, so they represent the oppressor.

Meanwhile, Errol Philander is a coloured man, so he represents the oppressed people. In this play, Errol Philander the oppressed man who suffers the racial oppression by the white race.

Therefore, Errol as the oppressed man, he was suffered by several racial oppressions. The first racial oppression is South African government has make a law that the white men have to control about the education of another races for 43

example the coloured people. The white have the absolute authority to reduce the level of education of another race, as called by The Bantu Education Act (1953).

Here, the coloured people have less education than the white people. The coloured people have no future to get a better education. It shows when Errol meets one family who has a child, in his mind the little boy, in the future, if he does not get a better education, he will be the same as his parents.

The white people have to make a difference about the level of the education, they do not want the coloured people be the same level with them.

However, Athol Fugard with his characters, Errol Philander a coloured man, is trying to level the white people’s education. For example, in the play,

Athol Fugard represents Errol as an educated man, he always studies or read a lot of books, therefore, he knows everything that the white people do not know, for example he knows the difference between life and the complex of chemical processes are divided into four and he knows that the place which he lived was a sea million times ago. Another one is when Frieda was asked by the policemen why she has relationship with him, she was confessed that it is exciting to talk to

Errol because she has a friend who can talk about everything. 44

WOMAN. I found myself seeing books and articles in newspaper which I thought would help him. He’s a very fast reader … and shy … at first … but once we started talking it was almost hard to keep up with him. And exciting. For me too.

It is ironic because the white people with their law, The Bantu education Act, were trying to reduce the level of the education of the other races. But with his character, Freda who is the white person, Athol Fugard wants to show that even though the white people were trying to reduce the level of the education of Errol

Philander, Errol becomes more intelligent, smart, and know about everything than

Frieda Joubert.

The second is the South African government has separated residence between the white and the Coloured society, it shows when the policeman dictated his statement to the audience.

POLICEMAN. Frieda Joubert. Ten. Conradie Street. European. Errol Philander. Bontrug Location. Coloured. (1986: 94)

It is clear that the white areas have an address but in the other side the coloured location just mention by the policeman as “location”, it is referred on the Group

Areas Act ( 27 April 1950 ). The white people were trying to separate between their life and other races because they feel that they have the authority to control or to maintain the other races, and also they do not want the other races have a property in their place.

The third racial oppression is when he was walking at night and stopped at

Tobias’ house, which all of his family are sleeping on the floor, which only has two rooms. 45

MAN.’…I stopped in front of old Tobias’ little place with the five of them inside at the moment sleeping on the floor……I looked at it and said “House”….(1986: 85)

He feels that his people are very poor and cannot live well. It was shown on

Tobias’ family house; they do not have any kitchen and even a garage. It is different from the white people life, they lived in a better condition and they have a better house than Tobias’ house, so Errol wants to change it; it shows when

Errol talks to Frieda if he has another chance to make everything different, he will help his people.

MAN. It’s true. I’m hungry enough to make every mistake….even bark. [Pause] But if that one day also had a real chance to start again – you know, to make everything different – and forty-three cents would buy me even just the first brick for a five roomed house…I’d spend it on that and go hungry (1986: 89).

It shows that Errol will sacrifice to help Tobias’ family to get a better house. He wants to see his people to get a better life. Even though, he helps them when he imagines it when he has a game with Frieda and when helps Tobias to build a house from the sand.

MAN. I built a five rooms house. [She laughs.] I did! Lunch-time. On the way home I passed a little boy … Izak … his older brother Henry started school this year … Izak Tobias … anyway was playing there in the sand with some old bricks and things. I stopped and watched him. Building himself a house he said. Told me all about it. His mother and his father and his baby brother sleep, in one room, and he and his sister and his granny in the other. Two rooms. It’s the house he lives in. I know. I’ve been in it. It’s a Bontrug house. [Pause.] You know what I made him do? Build a separate room for his granny. Then I explained that when his sister got big she would need a room for herself. So he built another for her. When I left him he had a five-roomed house and a garage…. (1986: 82).

Besides Tobias’ house, the coloured people also lived in worse condition because of racial oppression, when the coloured people child only has an old toy. 46

MAN. ….. Izak Tobias … anyway was playing there in the sand with some old bricks and things (1986: 82).

Izak Tobias, the coloured child, only has some old bricks and things to play; he does not have a new toy because his father does not have enough money to buy it.

Another example is when Errol talks to Frieda that he wants to buy a car.

MAN. [Pause.] Hey. You know what I was thinking coming here? I must try and buy a car this year. Good second-hand car.

It was caused by Izak Tobias’s father and Errol Philander job, the coloured people only has a less job to take, such as works as a servant, slave or better from it, works in mines or industrial.

They do not have any other jobs to take because the white people have a law that makes racial discrimination in employment, The Mines and Works Act

(1959).

The next oppression is when the police man caught Errol with Frieda at

Frieda’s library with the charge of Immorality Act.

POLICEMAN. Frieda Joubert. Ten. Conradie Street. European. Errol Philander. Bontrug Location. Coloured. Charge: Immorality Act. (1986: 94)

The South African government is represented by the policemen which forbids the interracial intercourse because the government wants to separate the white and the coloured race in order to control the Coloured race. It refers to the Amendment to the Immorality Act of 1950. This law is used when they caught Errol and Frieda who are laying side by side on the Frieda’s library floor, and also use this law to send them to the court and later on set they to prison, but the truth is only Errol 47

who sends up to the court and sends up to prison, Frieda only has to give an evidence as a witness in the court. It is shows on the last of the play,

MAN. …… And it’s a court case. That on the night of January the twelfth 1966, I…..who had been made in his image….. did lose a part of me. They did it I say. They dug a hole and buried it. Ask the dogs. And then Frieda comes in to give evidence. (1986: 107)

On the stage directions above, it is clearly seen that Errol thinks that Frieda betrayed him when she gave evidence to the court, because he thinks that if she does not give evidence to the court she cannot do anything in her life. It shows on the last dialogue by Errol. He says that if the government takes away her eye, body, tongue, hands, and everything in her life, she cannot live and she cannot do anything.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

Through the play Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act,

Athol Fugard conveys the representation of the racial oppression during colonization which he had ever experienced. He wants to describe the condition during the colonization that makes the oppressed people suffer. The oppressors always try to dominate, to oppress, and to control not only the mind of the oppressed people but also all aspects of oppressed people life by making stereotypes that the oppressor are always better than them, so that the oppressed people obey their commands. Therefore, the writer sees that Athol Fugard wants to represent such kind of stereotypes and in addition, he wants to prove that the oppressed people was suffer because of racial oppressed under the white people domination and authority. Athol Fugard shows the representation of racial oppression during colonization through the three characters of the play Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act.

The first element analyzed in this study is the oppressed characters. The oppressed characters of the play are Errol Philander and Frieda Joubert. The writer tries to characterize the oppressed character by seeing at the way he speaks and the stage direction. Then, the writer concludes that the characteristics of Errol

Philander are unhappy, coward, ashamed, and inferior to the oppressor characters, educated, civilized and brave man. Meanwhile, Frieda Joubert is an educated woman, afraid, civilized, and she is superior to Errol Philander.

48 49

The second element analyzed in this play is the oppressor character. In the play, the oppressor character is represented into one character; the minor character is the South African policemen. The writer concludes that the characteristics of the policemen as the representation of the South African government, the writer concludes that the characteristics of the policemen are superior to Errol and they are threatening.

The idea of and the racial oppression during colonization in this play are represented through the three characters. The characters of Errol Philander, Frieda

Joubert, and the policemen represent the oppressed and the oppressor people physically and characteristically. Physically, the skin colour of these three characters is different. Errol Philander is a coloured local people, so he represents the oppressed, even though Frieda Joubert is a white European woman she is considered as the oppressed because she has a relationship with a coloured people which, in that time, it is forbidden by the South African law. Meanwhile, the policemen are white European people because in that time the South African government is being controlled by the white people so they represent the oppressor. Characteristically, they are also different because there are certain stereotypes to differ the characteristics of the oppressed and the oppressor people.

Stereotypically, the oppressed is coward, ashamed and inferior. On the other hand, the oppressor people are superior, brave and educated.

Nevertheless, in Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act,

Athol Fugard shows that as the oppressed man, Errol Philander, which is educated, civilized and brave, and his people suffered and experienced a lot of 50

racial oppression by the oppressor people. The oppressor people were trying to dominate and to control the life of the oppressed people. For examples, they do not want to be the same level in education with the oppressed people, they do not want have the same place of living with the oppressed people, and they do not want their people have an interracial relationship with the oppressed people, so they make some of law that forbid or reduce or separate the oppressed people with their life, such as The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) which prohibits the marriages between white people and people of other races, Amendment to The

Immorality Act (1950) which makes any sexual relations between a white person and a person of a different races as a criminal offense, The Population

Registration Act (1950), a law which required all citizens to register as black, white or coloured. This law established residential and business strengthened existing “pass” laws (requiring nonwhites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas)., The Group Areas Act (27 April 1950) which barred people of particular races from various urban areas. This law prohibits members of one racial group from acquiring or occupying property in an area designated for a different group., The Bantu Education Act (1953) which brought in various measures expressly designed to reduce the level of education attainable by black people, The Mines and Work Act (1956) which formalized racial discrimination in employment, and The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) which prohibited people of different races from using the same public amenities, such as drinking fountains, restrooms, etc. 51

Summing up, Athol Fugard’s Statements after an Arrest under the

Immorality Act depicts the condition of the coloured people under the domination of the white people in South Africa. The three characters also represent the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor people, which the oppressed people are, always have some racial oppression by the oppressor people. Athol

Fugard’s Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act also gives a description that the oppressed people, which is the coloured people, will always have to suffer of racial oppression by the oppressor, which is the white people, during the colonization on the Apartheid era.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M.H.. A Glossary of Literary Terms, Sixth Edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1993.

Aschroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge, 1989.

______. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1995.

Barranger, Milly S. Understanding Plays. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1994.

Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, Eight Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prantice Hall, Inc., 1999.

Frazier, E. Franklin. Race and Culture Contacts In The Modern World. New York: Alfred a. Knoff. Inc., 1957.

Fugard, Athol. Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act. New York: Theatre Communication Group, Inc.,1986.

Holman, C. Hugh, William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature, Fifth Edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986.

Hughes, Milton Carl. The Negro Novelist: Discussion of the Writings of American Negro Novelist 1940-1950. New York: Citadel Press., 1953.

Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1966.

King, Martin Luther. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community. Toronto: Bantam Books. 1968.

Klarer, Mario. An Introduction to Literary Studies. London: Routledge, 1999.

Locke, Alain and Bernhard J. Stern. When People Meet: A Study in Race and Culture Contacts. New York: Committee on Workshop, Progressive Education Association. 1946.

Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture. Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 1992.

Marquad, Leo. The Story of South Africa. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1966.

52 53

Merrill, Francis E. and Wentworth Eldredge. Culture and Society: An Introduction to Sociology. New York: Prentice – Hall. 1952.

Murphy, M.J.. Understanding Unseen. An Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students. London: George Allan and Unwin, Ltd., 1972.

Neil, Stephen. Colonialism and Christian Mission. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 1966.

Roth, John K.. International Encyclopaedia of Ethics. London: Salem Press Inc., 1995.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Sarles, Harvey. On Racism in America. Black Americans. ed. John F. Szwed. Washington D.C.: Voice of American Forum Lectures, 1970.

The World Book Encyclopedia vol. 17. Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. 1971.

Troup, Freda. South Africa: A Historical Introduction. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1975.

Vandenbroucke, Russell. Truths the Hand can Touch, the Theatre of Athol Fugard. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1985.

Webster Encyclopaedia Unbridged Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Portland House, 1989.

Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Javanovich Publisher, 1977.

Wertheim, Albert. The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard “ From South Africa to the World”. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.

APPENDIX

Summary of Athol Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act:

Errol Philander is a coloured man who has married and has one child. He is not only the principal of the location school, but also the teacher of that school.

He lived in the place that the South government prepared for the coloured people, called location. Frieda Joubert is an unmarried white European middle ages woman who live in town. She runs a library and also makes it as her office. Errol meets Frieda on December the seventieth, when he wants to borrow a book from

Frieda Joubert’s library.

At the first time, Errol and Frieda are starting to talk about his course. But later they are closed to each other, they began to talk about their daily life, and later on they have an affair. They have to keep secret their relationship because they know that their government forbids an interracial relationship. Errol has to sneak when he wants to visit Frieda, he is afraid that Frieda’s neighbor will know their relationship and reported them to the policemen or when he wants to go back to his place, because he will feel ashamed if his people know that always go to the town every night. Besides that he afraid that his family especially his wife knows that he has a relationship with another woman and afraid that they will leave him alone.

Errol and Frieda’s fright becoming reality when the South African policemen force to open the library and caught them wet-handed, lying side by side in the blanket on the floor. Errol is wearing a vest and Frieda is naked. They

54 55

immediately shone the room and take a picture to get evidence to set them to the court. The policemen investigate them by using the flash of the cameras, later on

Errol and Frieda confess that they have an interracial relationship to the policemen and after that Errol set into prison.