The Search for a Cultural Identity: A Personal View of South African "Indian" Theatre
Because it is a tiny community, it is often seen from without to be a homogenous group. Outsiders are often unaware of the differences between religions, languages, customs, class, and political affiliations that exacerbate internal tensions within the community. Very conscious of their minority position in the country, Indians in South Africa have also been subject to a great deal of external pressure. In the apartheid era, they were required to live in segregated areas and attend segregated schools and were also subjected to threats of repatriation to India (although these threats never materialized). At the same time, the relative affluence of some of their members and their social position caught between the haves (mostly white) and the have-nots (mostly black) made them targets of African resentment.2 As a result, there are two
ADAM LESLIE AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO SATIRE IN INTIMATE REVUE IN SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE
ABSTRACT Adam Leslie—or ‘Mr Satire’ as he was known to theatregoers—is credited with establishing intimate revue in South Africa. Between 1956 and 1977 he not only devised and directed more than thirty revues and cabarets which toured South Africa and the Rhodesias, but created, in the Adam Leslie Theatre, one of the major theatrical showplaces in the country. Yet his contribution to the development of theatre has not been recorded. His productions, an astringent blend of topical satire and entertainment, reflected the social, political and theatrical issues of the time. As an example, one such revue, Two's Company (first presented in Cape Town in 1960) is described in some detail, in relation to the actual political events and social attitudes which gave rise to the material. Revues presented in the 1960s and 1970s are discussed to ascertain the format and style Leslie adopted and the manner in which he juxtaposed satire of political values and pointed social send-ups, pungent lampoons and bawdy imperson...
Black and White in South Africa
T HE Negro problem in the United States finds perhaps its closest parallel in the native problem of South Africa. In both territories a large black and white population live side by side. The differences between the two problems, however, are greater than their similarities. The natives of South Africa live in their traditional home, and many of them cling to their native customs and language. They outnumber the Europeans nearly four to one. The Negro of the United States, on the other hand, lives a transplanted existence; he knows only the English language and American civilization. The Negro in the United States is surrounded by a majority of whites who have fastened their culture upon him. At present there are about a million and a half Europeans living in South