Chapter 5. Have You Seen Zandile? Gogo and her Granddaughter

Abstract

Abstract Zandile is an autobiographical play about Mlophe’s childhood. It begins with her living with her Gogo (her grandmother) in Durban and then being forcefully removed to live with her mother, Lulama, in the Transkei. The play focuses on Zandile and her development as she becomes an adult woman as well as her awareness of the tensions between traditional and Western expectations, political conflicts and social pressures. Zandile, Gogo (Zandile’s grandmother), Lulama (Zandile’s mother), Bongi (Zandile’s imaginary friend) and Lindiwe (Zandile’s friend) are women whose lives are directly and indirectly affected by the rules of the apartheid regime. The play skews the emphasis away from the oppression of African men and provides a space for the women to tell their personal stories of struggle, identity, harassment, dreams, expectations and journeys. Throughout the play the men are mentioned, but are not seen. Zandile provides the reader with an insight into the lives of three generations of African women, and the impact of the political situation on their disparate reactions highlight the conflicting interpretations of the African woman’s role in theatre, at home, as an activist, and the woman’s duty – to her husband, family and the struggle.