You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock / Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint'
Imbokotho is a bristling example of protest theatre making during the
height of apartheid. Created in ensemble fashion in 1986 by director
Phyllis Klotz in collaboration with performers Thobeka Maqhutyana,
Nomvula Qosha and Poppy Tsira, this play stands as a contemporary South
African classic.
The play focuses on three central characters: Sdudla, Mambhele and
Mampompo living and working in a Cape Town township trying to eke out a
living in a racially, socially and economically unequal world. There are
few work opportunities and there is a great deal of red tape to be
self-sufficient. Men are glaringly absent from this world - working as
cheap migrant labour in urban areas. Women have to undertake great risk
to see their husbands and to try keep a semblance of family
cohesiveness. Helicopters fly above and state security police surveil
the area. The play shows how these women work miracles to ensure the
survival and wellbeing of their families at all cost.
Following the famous 1956 slogan of the South African woman's march
against apartheid laws, this latest publication in 2021 is a testament
to the contemporariness of this play. Its themes around gender activism
and the need for gender parity remains as true today as it did fifty
years ago. Fresh and full of life, this is an important historical
document and will be a landmark play for high schools and students of
theatre.
