Tshepang: The Third Testament
By Lara Foot Newton
Analysis — slide show summary
Context:
- written 2005
- Loosely based on story of Baby Tshepang — raped @ 9 yrs by her teenage mother’s ex
in 2001
- Inspired by “20 000 true stories”
- 2015 - 2018
o124 525 reported rapes - 41% perpetrated against children
- 2019
o 42 289 cases reported
o +/- 116 rapes per day
o Estimated 1 in 9 rapes are actually reported in SA
Post Apartheid SA
- written 11 yrs after apartheid
- Not much changed for those living in rural areas
- Unemployment
- Poverty
- Education
- Alcoholism
- General impacts of apartheid
- Social
- Economic
- Cultural
Quotes:
- “ Dewaal, they say, is very clever. Apparently he got a distinction in matric for
mathematics. [pauses to re ect on the impossibility]” (pg 23)
- “ But de Villers doesn’t pay with money, he pays with vaalwyn. The dop system. All the
wine that is too oak to sell, de Villers gives it to the workers as payment. It’s been
happening for years. My father’s father was paid like that, and so was my father.” (pg
28)
- Wake, wipe, eat, drink, naan, sleep. I know because I also used to be like that.
Sometimes you can leave out the wipe, or maybe the naan, but never the drink.” (pg
28)
1
fl
, Genre & Style:
o Genre: the category (eg. Post-Apartheid South African Theatre)
o Style: How it is presented (eg. Post Modernism)
o Tshepang can be considered the following:
o Protest Theatre
o Agitprop
o Poor Theatre
o Post Modernism
o Morality Play
Protest Theatre:
✧ Makes a statement of disapproval about unfair / unjust situations — doesn’t present
solutions
✧ Sets out to e ect a change of some kind
✧ Deliberately says put to show evils that exist & demand change is made
✧ Protest possibilities:
✧ Political abuse
✧ Social problems
✧ Conservation issues
✧ Political Theatre:
• Aims to show oppressor e ects they have on the oppressed
✧ Theatre of Resistance
• Aims to mobilise oppressed into action
✧ Agitprop Theatre
• Aim to incite action through provoking audience
• Agitation: stir up public opinion/ call for change/ awaken awareness of a particular
issue & persuade audience to take some form of action
• Propaganda: information/ statements spread to help a cause — focusses on one
side of argument
Quote:
“Shame on you! Shame on all of you! Who do you think you are? Coming here with your
cameras and accusations. Painting your ugly painted ngers at us. Where were you,
where were you? This town was raped long ago… Shame on us? Shame on you. Shame
on all of us.” (Pg 40)
2
ff ff fi
By Lara Foot Newton
Analysis — slide show summary
Context:
- written 2005
- Loosely based on story of Baby Tshepang — raped @ 9 yrs by her teenage mother’s ex
in 2001
- Inspired by “20 000 true stories”
- 2015 - 2018
o124 525 reported rapes - 41% perpetrated against children
- 2019
o 42 289 cases reported
o +/- 116 rapes per day
o Estimated 1 in 9 rapes are actually reported in SA
Post Apartheid SA
- written 11 yrs after apartheid
- Not much changed for those living in rural areas
- Unemployment
- Poverty
- Education
- Alcoholism
- General impacts of apartheid
- Social
- Economic
- Cultural
Quotes:
- “ Dewaal, they say, is very clever. Apparently he got a distinction in matric for
mathematics. [pauses to re ect on the impossibility]” (pg 23)
- “ But de Villers doesn’t pay with money, he pays with vaalwyn. The dop system. All the
wine that is too oak to sell, de Villers gives it to the workers as payment. It’s been
happening for years. My father’s father was paid like that, and so was my father.” (pg
28)
- Wake, wipe, eat, drink, naan, sleep. I know because I also used to be like that.
Sometimes you can leave out the wipe, or maybe the naan, but never the drink.” (pg
28)
1
fl
, Genre & Style:
o Genre: the category (eg. Post-Apartheid South African Theatre)
o Style: How it is presented (eg. Post Modernism)
o Tshepang can be considered the following:
o Protest Theatre
o Agitprop
o Poor Theatre
o Post Modernism
o Morality Play
Protest Theatre:
✧ Makes a statement of disapproval about unfair / unjust situations — doesn’t present
solutions
✧ Sets out to e ect a change of some kind
✧ Deliberately says put to show evils that exist & demand change is made
✧ Protest possibilities:
✧ Political abuse
✧ Social problems
✧ Conservation issues
✧ Political Theatre:
• Aims to show oppressor e ects they have on the oppressed
✧ Theatre of Resistance
• Aims to mobilise oppressed into action
✧ Agitprop Theatre
• Aim to incite action through provoking audience
• Agitation: stir up public opinion/ call for change/ awaken awareness of a particular
issue & persuade audience to take some form of action
• Propaganda: information/ statements spread to help a cause — focusses on one
side of argument
Quote:
“Shame on you! Shame on all of you! Who do you think you are? Coming here with your
cameras and accusations. Painting your ugly painted ngers at us. Where were you,
where were you? This town was raped long ago… Shame on us? Shame on you. Shame
on all of us.” (Pg 40)
2
ff ff fi
