Theory question 102
Other Set Texts: African DramaLiterature 2, Section A. Athol Fugard: Sizwe Bansi is Dead
Comment on the theme of the search for identity in the play.
Show the model answer
Under apartheid a black man's identity is his passbook; without the right stamp Sizwe cannot work in Port Elizabeth.
Sizwe is ordered back to King William's Town; he wants to stay and work for his family.
He and Buntu find a dead man, Robert Zwelinzima, with a valid passbook.
Buntu persuades him to take the dead man's photograph and name: Sizwe Bansi 'dies'.
Sizwe resists: 'I am a man'; losing his name is losing himself.
Styles too finds identity by leaving the factory and owning his studio; photographs preserve people's dignity.
The play shows how the system destroys personal identity and how people struggle to keep their humanity.
Use incidents from the play.