The subaltern speaks: Themes and perspectives in Zimbabwean theatre and performance

Abstract

In this article, I want to look at selected theatrical texts written and/ or performed between 1980 and 1996 in Zimbabwe. During this period, the newly inaugurated Zimbabwean government adopted socialist realism to guide cultural production in the country (Ravengai 2006). Theatre and theatrical texts were therefore purposive activities imbued with socialist ethos – the subalterns speaking back to Rhodesian discourse and neo-colonial power, which in yesteryears could not be written or performed openly without censure. Gayatri Spivak (1988) observes that colonial discourse establishes the West as the Subject while the rest of the world is the Other. In the constitution of the Other, the West inflicts what Spivak calls epistemic violence on the Other which seeks to obliterate the text that the Other can invest its itinerary. Rhodesian discourse attempted to achieve the same results of ‘silencing’ the subaltern. It is perhaps appropriate to ask the same question that Spivak asked: Can the subaltern speak? Using their own subjectivity and agency, subaltern Africans can speak and know their conditions. I analyse these theatrical texts through the lens of socio-historical theory which assumes that a theatrical text contains extra-textual elements which point to something beyond itself. These clues offered by the text invariably point to the context(s) containing their real meaning. These contexts are first suggested by the theatrical text which contextual material I then use to explain the thematic significance of the theatrical text. My observation is that playwrights of the period valorised the power of the subaltern giving a stinging attack on the white and emerging black petit bourgeoisie.