Zulu's Singing Against Oppression

by Luc Opdebeeck, Formaat, The Netherlands

Bergville, South Africa: From 27-29 November 2001 I conducted a Theatre in Development workshop with Theatre of the Oppressed Techniques in Kwazulu/Natal, where 80% of the population belongs to the Zulu nation. The workshop was part of a two weeks' training programme in Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools by the Dutch Agromisa Foundation. The 18 participants worked as local health and social workers, operating in the rural areas of the Dragon Mountains.

Powerful images
In three days, the participants learned basic Image and Forum Theatre techniques, in order to be able to facilitate a dialogue with the local population. The training was related to the Uthekela District Child Survival Project, in an area where abuse and disease are commomplace. One of the images the participants made may illustrate this:

Relatives, three men and a woman are at the table, eating and drinking. A child is squatted down on the other side of the room, head bowed, hands before her eyes. The sculptress of the image positioned herself between the adults and the child, hand on her chin, her index on her temple, thinking.

I asked the participants to look for action impulses for the protagonist in this image. Four possible actions were shown:

1. Comfort the child
2. Lead the woman at the table to the child (which the woman in the image rejected)
3. Take the child to its family
4. Open your arms, invite the child yourself

Obviously, the child symbolized the many AIDS orphans in the area. The solutions were intensively discussed by the participants.

I asked them to make a real image of the situation of the people in Kwazulu/Natal. It was created by all the participants. Within a few minutes a giant living painting portraying different aspects of poverty, especially housing problems, developed. The ideal image, in contrast, was very simple: two people holding hands, smiling at each other. Then we returned to the real image and I asked five people to step out of the image and think of the first step to be taken toward the ideal image, and change the real image accordingly.

After a long silence and some intense studying of the image, the participants inserted new characters into the image, being the facilitators, whose task it was to activate the image, to help and support the people. The final conclusion was that "Us facilitators have to invite the poor to act, to look at the picture: both facilitators and the poor must come into action; if we don't act, nothing will change.

This all happened in one morning session.

A Forum Scene Develops
In the afternoon I worked with a smaller group on the basics of Forum Theatre. Building up from images they made, we developed a slide show first. The topic was child abuse and alcohol, and lead to the following slide images:

1. A man is fired from his job in Johannesburg
2. He comes home and is welcomed by his wife and teenage daughter
3. His wife asks for money but he shows her his pockets are empty
4. The man is at a bar, drinking
5. The man is thrown out of the bar by the barkeeper
6. The drunken man comes home, sends his daughter to a shop to buy liquor
7. Daughter is at the liquor store
8. Daughter comes home and drops the bottle, which breaks
9. The man hits the child with a stick, the wife tries to intervene
10. The child is lying on the floor. The woman is beaten up.

The participants turned these images into a full-blown forum scene, which was presented to the other half of the group, the same evening. The actors and actresses came on stage singing and dancing, as a means of introduction and motivation. The lyrics of the song are always connected with the theme of the Forum. Then the Forum started, and the scene was played in a Dario Fo style. One of his famous quotes is that "humor opens the people's brains". At Formaat we try to use that principle in our Forums as well. This style is very different from the usual approach to serious problems in the Netherlands, especially in youth theatre, where fear and guilt are often sub-themes of the plays. Here in South Africa, the participants showed the courage to be happy and would still tackle a serious problem. Besides: they were the living proof of the fact that "anyone can act, even the actors", as this was their first encounter with Forum theatre ever.

An unexpected solution
The spect-actors now tried to change the scene with various interventions. They tried to calm the man down, to persuade the employer to take the man back and they tried to protect the child. But the Forum was not convinced. Then the youngest participant came on stage and went straight to the parents of the drunken man. She asked them to mediate. They came to the house and sat down with their son. The Forum agreed that this would have a strong impact on the man.
The topic of alcohol was then discussed at length. I had the impression that a Forum play on this topic would be very useful and necessary.

Trespassing cattle
The next day, the group would develop their own topics and learn how to joke a Forum. They made two Forums, one about the role of traditional medicine in the spreading of AIDS and one about racism in modern-day South Africa. Both topics are more or less taboo, as traditional medicine men and women still have a great authority and are respected as bearers of the African cultural heritage. On the other hand, by using razors to carve into the arms of HIV-infected people, they do more damage than good. How to find the balance between modern and traditional worlds?

Racism of course was supposed to banned from South Africa after the 1994 elections. A simple example shows there is still a lot of work to do. The enormous estates of white farmers still dominate the landscape of many provinces. If cattle of a black farmer goes astray and "trespasses" the land of a white farmer, the cattle is taken to a regional compound. The black farmer can collect his cattle there, paying for transport, food and lodging of the animals. If he pays, this money goes to the Farmers Association Fund, which is a white farmers' organisation. If he cannot pay, his cattle is lost.

Both Forums were very impressive. The participants discovered many ways of commencing a dialogue with the rural population, which is usually malinformed and suspicious towards outside interventions. The next day, a Forum in a rural community would be staged. The workshop participants were free to arrange this they way they wanted. I would be one of the spect-actors.

The Forum in Rookdale
What happend the next day was absolutely wonderful.

The people in the community of Rookdale were presented with a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop in a nutshell, covering all the basic elements. Rookdale was chosen because of a facility for AIDS orphans, but not only the people of the orphanage came. The room was completely filled. The performance started with a singing and dancing introduction, that created an atmosphere of "common desire", and a strong motivation towards the Forum.

By introducing Image Theatre, the spect-actors were warmed up. The people were invited to present problems of their own. A physically handicapped man showed how he is treated by others: food is thrown at his feet. The ideal image to this scene would eventually be someone kneeling down, offering him food. In the Zulu tradition, women kneel down when they offer a man food. This is a sign of respect.

The Forum had been prepared by the participants of our workshop and showed a scene where a girl is bullied and treated as a kind of slave, having to do chores for the whole neighborhood.
The spect-actors tried many solutions and enjoyed the spectacle thoroughly. The session ended as it had started, in song and dance. The 90 minutes I thought it would take had turned into 2½ hours of concentration, playing and singing against oppression.

I will never forget those voices, singing in harmony.

The complete workshop was videotaped. A roughly edited tape with Dutch commentary is available at Formaat.

Under Pressure 9, January 2002