ANTI-APARTHEID VOICES IN ATHOL FUGARD’S MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! AND SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study examines the profound effects of the apartheid system on South Africans through Athol Fugard’s My Children! My Africa! and Sizwe Bansi Is Dead. With a specific focus on the psychological effects stemming from coerced displacement, racial prejudice, and the denial of fundamental rights, the study aims to unveil the truths of a long history of racial segregation. Besides, it attempts to show how writers in South Africa actively resisted to the apartheid system through their literary works to subvert oppressive regimes. Employing the postcolonial approach to literary criticism, the study endeavours to investigate the blacks’ alienation and dilemma of belonging in the light of Frantz Fanon’s ideas on identity and the psychology of the oppressed. It maintains that Fugard’s plays voice the plight of the oppressed and rise against the different stereotypes given to the blacks in South Africa.