The apartheid impact in Botswana
Dumisani Ncube | Wednesday April 20, 2016 18:00
On Saturday evening the Company@ Maitisong theatre crew staged a poignant apartheid era story titled Born Around Here at Maitisong Theatre. South Africa-based playwright Phala Ookeditse Phala directed the theatrical play.
On an improvised stage sat five people on stools holding logs as they took turns to tell how the apartheid regime affected their lives and of their significant others.
The main focal point was on an old man Rra-Sheila played by Teto Mokaila who suffered from a deep depression after he lost his daughter Sheila during the apartheid bombings by the South Africa Defence Force (SADF) after she had eloped with a man to South Africa.
While on stage Rra-Sheila would hallucinate, seeing his daughter Sheila as he spoke of her the audience would also see Sheila illustrating how she got involved in the apartheid struggles.
Due to his depression issues, he received assistance from an elderly woman Naledi played by Naledi Thabakgolo who also lost her child in the Phiring bombings in 1988.
Rra-Sheila would not only talk to himself, but made it his mission to collect writings of different accounts of Batswana people that died during the apartheid era.
On stage they would also sing various liberation struggle songs that carried different messages.
They possessed some level of professionalism as they expressed different emotions on stage relating to the scenes.
One notable affected casualty was Zakes played by Kabelo Mojuta, an Umkhonto we Sizwe fighter who escaped South Africa with his young brother who was killed by Boer solders along the way.
Zakes went on to seek for refuge at Rre Sheila’s place where he ended up eloping with Sheila and they later died in a bombing scenario.
Concluding the play actors carried different souvenirs such as clothes of their beloved ones that died during the apartheid era and covered them with a South African and Botswana flag.