Gcina Mhlophe’s Have You Seen Zandile? The Black South African Tradition as a Political Statement

Abstract

[ES] Este ensayo intenta demostrar que, aunque la dramaturga Gcina Mhlophe insiste en que sus obras no son políticas, mediante la presentación de su experiencia personal y legado de su herencia negra sudafricana (danza, oralidad, canciones), muestra la existencia de una cultura sudafricana en un momento histórico en el que el apartheid intentaba borrar cualquier vestigio de una cultura que no fuera la occidental. [EN] This essay tries to show that, although Gcina Mhlophe insists on her plays not being about politics, through the presentation of her personal experience and the legacy of her traditional Black South African heritage (dance, orality, songs), she asserts the existence of a Black South African culture at a time where apartheid was trying to erase any trace of any culture other than the one existing in the Western world.