June 23, 2006
By Ndaba Dlamini
A THEATRE production, Black Dog Inj' Emnyama, currently running at the Market Theatre, provides some insight into events leading up to the 16 June, 1976 student protests that gave the draconian apartheid laws international exposure.
Staged as a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the June 16, 1976 uprising, Black Dog tells the story of six young South Africans from diverse backgrounds, from the charismatic figure of Madoda, a chain-wielding student leader, to Raymond, a young white conscript.
According to, Clare Stopford, the director of the play, it is also a celebration of the life of Barney Simon, a renowned playwright and theatre director and co-founder of the Market Theatre who passed away in 1995.
Using the African tradition of telling stories, Black Dog was originally created by Simon, and original cast members Kurt Egelhof, Marie Human, John Ledwaba, Neil McCarthy, Gcina Mhlophe and James Mthoba, in response to the increasingly harsh political realities of the 1980s.
Black Dog takes the audience back to 1948, when DF Malan officially included the policy of apartheid in the Afrikaner Nationalist Party platform, bringing his party to power for the first time.
A deep rift, fuelled by apartheid, existed between whites and "non-whites", which culminated in the 1976 student riots that claimed hundreds of young lives.
"In 1984, when Barney Simon and his co-writers created Black Dog, he believed theatre had a crucial part to play in 'the war of information' raging in the country," says Stopford. "The state suppressed news as well as ideas. In the media, the public saw images of township rebellions, police brutality, the effects of the pass laws and the mass removal of people from their homes (to name a few examples)."
Christian national education brainwashed young conscripts into defending South Africa's borders against "black communist terrorists" and activists died in detention. "Simon saw the urgent need to cut through this misinformation with theatre that told the truth. He wanted the audience to know each other. He wanted us to feel the human textures behind the slogans," says Stopford.
Now, 22 years later, Stopford says Black Dog illuminates who we are and how we got here. "It reminds us where we come from and challenges us to reassess our current values. For those who lived through the times, the play makes visible their sacrifices and struggles."
Black Dog was workshopped in 1984 and performed in the Barney Simon Theatre. It showed at the Edinburgh Festival and also had a run at the Tricycle Theatre in London followed by a run at the Market Theatre.
The play is on until 9 July at the Barney Simon Theatre, at the Market Theatre. Tickets are available at Computicket.
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