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popular campaigns over the years not only reflected our political and cultural thought: the scene becomes the policy .of the Congress movement but also played even more· sombre. a vital role in framing it. Yet it will probably ·be in the field of literature that THAT A VOICE OF PROTEST, of defiance, of sanity, should Fighting Talk will be equally remembered in' the long have been drowned out in thls way is frightening. Even run. For some of the best talent in our country was more frightening is the marked absence of protest. Like first unearthed, and was found a forum, by Fighting so many other barbaric assaults on freedom in South Talk, .and it provided an organ for some of our best Africa, .this ban will pass ignored or unnoticed by the non-white writers: Alfred Hutchinson, Zeke Mphahlele, Alex La Guma, Dennis Brutus, Richard Rive, Lewis majority. It is just one of the many blows under which Nkosi, Arthur Maimane, Can Temba, and T. Gwala. 'we reel, or submit tamely, or even silently applaud. Most of these found their feet-and their voices-in Perhaps the silencing of Fighting Talk is just a sign Fighting Talk. Established white writers also made their that our fighting spirit ·has also been crushed? M·any appearance, often to state a case on a controversial no doubt can be excused for their' silence or apathy. cultural theme:. AIan Paton, Athol Fugard, Nadine But that the informed and aware and sensitive.' those. Gordimer, H. C. Bosman and Lionel Abrahams. who progress to value human life and human values­ It is silenced now. Its absence leaves a great gap in should remain silent-this surely is unpardonable. .• SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO the boy as he is brought to the empty Principal's office under suspicion of A Symposium murder. "Meneer" is not there because Sponono in turn has "finished" him. Jolyon Nuttall on the THE PLAY MOVES on two planes. Acts I and 11 deal with the realistic facts of life in the reformatory and the steady Published with the detericration of the relationship between Paton-Shah Sponono and the Principal. Act III be­ permission of The Daily News, comes the trial of the Principal in Spo­ Durban nono's mind as he sits at the empty desk of his mentor. The figures from the earlier a·cts pass in and out of the wit­ Play ALAN PATON and Krishna Shah's play Sponono proved a milestone in South nesS box as the Principal stands in the African theatre. dock. Is the Principal guilty in not for­ If in the final analysis the work were giving Sponono, as Sponono forgave SPONONO ascribed a failure, there would be suffi­ others, or is he not guilty? In the deci­ cient'in it that was new, 'that was evoca­ sion lies the climaxing power of the tive, that was the embryo of so much to play. come, to make it a worthy venture. But, with a steady progression towards a SUCH IS THE THEME. What is the me­ Third Act of extraordinary power, it is dium? Again, a note from the director's a triumphant success. log book: "This is pure theatre-mixture What are Paton and Shah trying to of songs, dance, music, mime etc. Play express? And what are they trying' to h~s all these." It is because it has these, incorporate in this essentially indigenous in the idiom of Africa that this play re­ play with an essentially universal theme? presents an indigenous milestone. And In notes from a director's log-book com­ it is on this plane that Shah's direction piled .by director Shah during rehearsal comes into its own. Throughout the play and printed in the programme, Paton there are grouped on stage two blan­ describes the play with chara·cteristic keted ·choirs: Theirs, in the Zulu tongue, simplicity: "Two people .are trying to the chants that record the ebb and flow 'contact' one another." of emotions in the minds of actors. In the sce.nes in the reformatory yard, Shah mE TWO PEOPLE are the Princfpal of makes full use of the songs and dances a Johannesburg reformatory and one of the people, and the unteachable of the boys committed to the institu­ ability of his cast to mime and mimic. tion-!- The Principal thinks and rules by In the primitive court ritual in Act Ill, the laws of society. The boy-Sponono a "sangoma"--diviner-is introduced to -thinks by the laws of God, of which hunt out the guilty one. the greatest is that man should forgive. Throughout, a discipline has been In each is bound the other's faith. And maintained that makes these features fit in each, through the failure to contact, the play. Shah is of the Method scho.ol is the other~s undoing. of acting. It is unlikely, with the inherent "Where's Meneer? ... Where's Me­ talent of his cast, that he needed much neer? ... He is my only hope," cries Method in schooling the actors. • THE NEW AFRICAN 4 MAY 1963 77 SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO drama at the reformatory is removed ground that has nurtured them. The from the social realities that determine tutelage advanced by the principal gets the lives of the people-hardships in too big for him to control and he runs the townships, poverty, unemployment away-desertion in the play. Sponono z. N. etc.-it becomes a tussle between men's does not realise that he has overgrown minds-a kind ·of spiritual idealis.m as wardship, hence he says to the principal: Published with the opposed to social realities. "When I needed you most you were not permission of Spark What we cannot overlook, however, is there. Why were you not there?" that the white man's burden (or paterna­ The answer that he had finished does lism) is only the 'other way round of not satisfy Sponono. It is as if Sponono THE WIDEST POSSIBLE praise has been explaining white supremacy. Looked at would go on to say: "You destroyed me accorded Alan Paton's and Krishna this way the top dog is white and the and you shall destroy yourself." Shah's Sponono. True indeed the pro­ black man is the ·ward to be looked after. duction and talent assembled are of The white man cannot forsake this mis­ STRIPPED OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY and merit and technical points of production sion. Sponono says: "You are charged spiritual idealism it becomes a grim are well handled. The questions we would (also) for having deserted your religion. struggle between man and man. Of course like to answer are: what is the message There cannot be a greater offence." the one is black the other white. It all conveyed by the play and what is its Sponono find~ the principal guilty. He ends in a deluge. Spon-ono's victory is a social significance? sentences him "because .he did not know dream, a make-believe as fantastic as Counterpoised at contact point are that he was his brother's keeper." what he would have liked young Ha'­ three strands of thought-ehristian penny to uphold. Is it far-fetched to say rriorality explained in the words "forgive THIS SEEMS to be a satisfactory solution Sponono is doomed to an end as sad as seventy times seven"; the white man's of the problem. But it does not instil Ha'penny's? burden of looking after the black and any joy, it leaves everybody disillusioned. What is quite clear is that the princi­ trying to adjust the world to suit them This is the highest point Christian mora­ pal's mission (the white image) has both; and the black man's burden of lity (in the play) can reach. There is failed. Christianity has not given the trying to find a place in the sun. virtue in forgiveness or conversely an solution. The spiritual world of Sponono Reduced to simplest of terms it is a eye for an eye. Sponono forgave through is far from reality. projection of the African Image, an at­ and through but could not forgive the But it cannot escape the reader, in­ tempt to explain social relationships man who did not forgive him. cluding the author, that the struggle of between black and white such as we have This pathetic note is the climax. The man against man is, at its highest and in South Africa from a common point contact point which would have been most idealistic, not a struggle for spiri­ of view acceptable between both black Christian morality has failed. The tual values or black against white, or and white. spiritual idealism falls apart. Sponono against Christianity; nor is it even a and the principal do not understand each variant of white supremacy, but for THE REFORMATORY is an interesting setting other. In the nursing of spiritual values equality of opportunity for all. • for this social milieu. But because the they have overlooked the social back- Z.N. SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO SPONONO Alan Paton talks about SPONONO Question: in Krishna Shah's Director's Log Book, he dred, so you do something about the three hundred you quotes you as saying 'Two people are trying to "con­ can do something about. tact" each other and this is its thesis'. Would you like to add to this? Question: Did you bring in the other stories from Paton: Two people are trying to reach out to each other Debbie Go Home just to counterpart the main Spono­ and that is the whole thesis.

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