IDENTITY AND DEMOCRACY IN PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTEST THEATRE IN ZIMBABWE: 1999-2012 BY KELVIN CHIKONZO DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THEATRE ARTS DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE SUPERVISORS PROFESSOR I. MUWATI AND DR S. RAVENGAI JULY 2014 Identity and Democracy in Pro-democracy Protest Theatre in Zimbabwe: 1999-2012 Kelvin Chikonzo January, 2014 ABSTRACT This study investigates a brand of theatre that is oppositional to oppression. This theatre, which this study calls protest theatre, predicates its practice upon democratic intentions and values. In Zimbabwe, some scholars valorise protest theatre’s oppositional and adversarial stance to the state as an indicator of how it imbues democratic values. Some scholars also celebrate the manner in which it provides counter hegemonic space to enhance citizenship as a reinforcement of pro-democracy’s protest theatre’s democratic affinity. This, in my view, creates a problem in the sense that, these scholars pay scant attention to subtle processes of exclusion, paternalism and domination that are, unfortunately, inherent in protest theatre. Whilst there can be little doubt to the fact that protest theatre provides democratic space that enhances citizenship through theatre, there is also a need to interrogate the manner in which it accords subaltern voices agency or authority over their intellectual and physical actions in designing, implementing and modifying the discourse of social and political reform that pro- democracy protest theatre espouse during and after the Zimbabwean crisis. To this effect, this study investigates the harmony, dissonance and tension between democratic intentions and practice in prodemocracy protest theatre. It interrogates how selected performances of protest theatre represent the agency and interests of marginalised sections of society. It examines relations of power that obtain in protest theatre with the intention of exploring how protest theatre accords subaltern citizens the ability to design, modify, implement and lead, at an intellectual level, the struggle for democratic reform in Zimbabwe. This study, therefore, investigates practices that undermine the democratic intentions of protest theatre such as exclusion, paternalism and construction of derogatory identities through biased representation of the agency of various social groups in various performances. Consequently, the study analyses how various performances mediate on the identities of various social groups in order to legitimise the moral and intellectual control of the struggle for democratic change by certain social groups at the expense of others. The study also explores how selected productions liberated or undermined the semiotic autonomy of the spectators. It looks at the relationship between style and democracy with the intention of analysing how selected performances enabled or undermined the audience’s right to create their own meanings from various performances. Hence, this study also extends its democratic thrust by way of analysing directorial endeavours to create open performances as opposed to enclosed performance that lock meaning and interpretation to directorial intention. Thus the efficacy of style to democratic commitment is a key aspect of inquiry in this study. This study employs post-linear performance theory to examine issues of power between the performance and their spectator in as far as the generation of meaning is concerned. It also deploys theories of democracy, particularly those of the public sphere and counter public sphere in order to ascertain the extent to which selected productions created citizen forums that were in keeping with democratic expectations. Theories of power have been useful as they help to track issues of domination and strategies of domination that normally undermine democratic intentions. The study uses techniques of performance reconstruction in addition to those of analysing live performances. It also makes use of semiotic theory. The data gathered through these methods is interrogated through the theoretical framework thereby linking theory to methodology. i | P a g e DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to the actors, actresses, directors and producers who participated in the protest theatre movement in Zimbabwe. Without your conviction and dedication to the advancement of democratic ideals, there would be no protest theatre to write about. This thesis celebrates your gallantry in the face of overwhelming odds. This work serves as an acknowledgement of the trials and tribulations you encountered in the line of duty. It is also a critique of your efforts. I hope that this study provides some reflexive space to ponder on your achievements and failures. ii | P a g e ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my eternal gratitude to three men who advised me on this thesis, Dr. TK Tsodzo, Dr. S. Ravengai, and Professor I. Muwati. Dr. Ravengai, you are a star. Dr. Tsodzo, you were awesome. Professor Muwati, your help was priceless. May God Bless You All. Many thanks go to the University of Zimbabwe for affording me the opportunity of writing this thesis. To the University of Cape Town, I cannot thank you enough for the summer school. It was an eye opener. To colleagues in the department of Theatre Arts; Nehemiah, Dorica, Kuda, Ngoni, Peace, Chiedza, and Tatenda, thanks so much for the moral support. To Kate, thanks so much for understanding me when I had to work over the weekends. To my boys, Ngoni, Tine, thanks so much for giving me the reason to work harder. To God who made this possible; I will forever believe in You. iii | P a g e ABBREVIATIONS AIPPA Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (2002) BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CIO Central Intelligence Organisation COPAC Constitutional Parliamentary Committee HIFA Harare International Festival of the Arts GBH Grievous Bodily Harm GPA Global Political Agreement GNU Government of National Unity MDC Movement for Democratic Change MDC (T) Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirai MP Member of Parliament NACZ National Arts Council of Zimbabwe NGO Non-Governmental Organisation ONHRE Organ for National Healing and Reconciliation PAIF Protest Arts International Festival POSA Public Order and Security Act (2002) TFD Theatre for Development TIE Theatre in Education UZ University of Zimbabwe UK United Kingdom WUP Witwatersrand University Press ZACT Zimbabwe Association of Community-based Theatre ZANU (PF) Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front ZBC Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation iv | P a g e TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABBREVIATIONS iv CHAPTER 1: INRODUCTION 1 1.1 Research Problem 1.2 Area of Investigation 2 1.2.1 Delineation of Study 2 1.2.2 Area of Investigation: Protest Theatre 3 1.3 Objectives 9 1.4 Research Questions 10 1.5 Justification/ Rationale 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 The Historicist School 15 2.3 Socialist, Marxist and Pro-state Approaches to Democracy in Protest Theatre 17 2.4 The Revisionist Non- Marxist approach to Theatre and Democracy 20 2.5 Censorship, Repression and Advocacy 22 2.6 Style and Democratic Function in Protest Theatre 26 2.7 Theatre and Democracy outside the Field of Protest Theatre in Zimbabwe 27 2.8 Theatre and Identity 30 2.9 Conclusion 32 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 34 3.1 Introduction 34 3.2 Theories of Democracy: The Public Sphere, Counter public Sphere 35 3.3 Theories of Power: Foucault, Gramsci, and Guha 39 v | P a g e 3.4 Post linearity Performance Theory 47 3.5 Conclusion 52 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 53 4.1 Introduction 53 4.2 Historical Reconstruction of Mavambo (1984) 53 4.3 The Reconstruction of Workshop Negative 56 4.4 Historical Reconstruction: Heaven’s Diary (2005), Decades of Terror (2007), Madame Speaker Sir (2007) and No Voice, No Choice (2011) 59 4.5 Problems Encountered With Historical Reconstruction 60 4.6 Selection of Case Studies 61 4.7 Obtaining Data from Live Performances: Rituals (2010), Waiting for Constitution (2010), and Protest Revolutionaries (2012) 64 4.8 Problems Encountered in Analysing Live Performances 65 4.9 Theatre Semiotics 66 4.10 Linking Theory and Methodology 69 4.10. 1 Mise-en-scene 70 4.10.2 Dialogue 71 4.10.3 Gesture and Movement 72 4.10.5 Staging Dynamics 73 4.10 Conclusion 73 CHAPTER 5: PROTEST THEATRE AND DEMOCRACY IN ZIMBABWE: 1980 – 1998 75 5.1 Introduction 75 5.2 An Interrogation of ZACT through A Democratic Lens 76 5.3 Background Information to Mavambo (1986) 82 5.3.1 Mavambo as a Democratic Performance 82 5.3.2 Staging 83 5.2.3 Song and Dance 84 5.2.4 Casting 84 5.2.5 Story-telling 85 5.2.6 The Construction of Subaltern and Elite Agency in Mavambo 86 vi | P a g e 5.3 Interrogating Workshop Negative: A Democratic Gaze 90 5.3.1 Background Information 90 5.3.2 Synopsis 90 5.3.3 The Workshop as a Subaltern Counter Public Sphere in Workshop Negative 91 5.4 Conclusion 96 CHAPTER 6: THE CONTEXTUAL ENVIRONMENT OF POLITICAL PROTEST THEATRE: 1998-2012 97 6.1 Introduction 97 6.2 Protest Theatre during the Crisis days: 1998-2008 97 6.3 Protest Theatre in the Era of the Global Political Agreement: 2009-2012 107 6.4 Conclusion 114 CHAPTER 7: THE CONSTRUCTION OF VOICES AND AGENCY OF THE PEOPLE IN SELECTED PERFORMANCES OF PROTEST THEATRE DURING THE CRISIS YEARS: 1999-2008 115 7.1 Introduction 115 7.2 The Construction of Subaltern Agency and Consciousness in Heaven’s Diary (2005) 115 7.2.1 Background Information