AFRICAN DRAMA
Athol Fugard: Sizwe Bansi is Dead
Examine the view that life is meaningless for the blacks in South Africa
Explanation
The first thing that attracts the reader is the separated family life of couples brought about by husbands or wives leaving their families to seek jobs in other townships. Sizwe's letter to his wife in King William's Town while he is in Port Elizabeth seeking a job brings out this fact. Buntun lives alone because his wife "only comes home weekends." The cruel apartheid system which separates these families places them under great emotional stress.
There are constant police raids that, sometimes result in violence and the deportation of blacks from one township to another. Sizwe narrates one such raid when he is staying with Zola. He is ruthlessly dragged out when found hiding under a table and taken to the Labour Bureau where his passport is stamped. Sizwe has to move to Buntu's place to escape this constant police harassment. The police raids are an enforcement of the inhuman residential laws which seek to regulate the movement of blacks.
There is also the issue of the passbook. The passbook is the instrument used to destroy the blackman's identity, he becomes a mere figure on the computer. With the passbook, the blackman's sense of self-respect, dignity and pride is eroded and his dehumanization is complete. Buntu asks Sizwe:
"When whiteman looked at you at the Labour Bureau what did he see? A man with dignity or a bloody passbook with NI number?" The truth of this dehumanization becomes all too clear when in his metamorphosis into his new identity as Robert Zwelinzima, Sizwe becomes psychologically confused and says: "I am all mixed up. Who am I? This is the final fact of the predicament of the Blackman in South Africa.
The issue of the restrictive labour laws in white townships that make looking for a job a nightmare may be also considered. Buntu's story of the difficulty he has before securing a job even though he was born in Port Elizabeth is a case in point. Buntu talks of his tiring movements between King Williams town and Port Elizabeth, carrying letters back and forth to get Sizwe's passbook stamped. Even when the Blackman gets a job, he is used and dumped. The laborious life of Outa Jacob brings this fact out. Blacks are also exposed to the occupational hazard of working in the mines. Sizwe himself tells us working in the mines is not a well-paid job. Besides, "many blackmen get killed when the rocks fall."
The unequal development between black and white townships is also hinted at. Sizwe tells us that in King Williams. There is the issue of segregation in education which limits the chances of blacks getting good and well-paid jobs. The reader gets the impression in Sizwe's letter. This fact is brought into prominence by the stark illiteracy of Sizwe which makes it impossible for him to get a job even Jam( as a garden boy because that requires a knowledge in "seasons and flowers". The hopeless fact of Sizwe's situation qualifies is revealed in his bland statement "I can't read." It is in these specific and general ways that life becomes meaningless for blacks in South Africa.