Identity+Crisis

Pgs. 50-51 One of the main themes throughout this course has been the identity crisis faced by the Africans. In “My Children! My Africa!”, the South African government is trying to take away the Black African’s culture and history by suppressing them with inadequate education. On page 50, Thami has realized that the school he attends is meant to be a “trap” to take away the knowledge of his own history and replace it with lessons about the history of the Europeans and their colonization of Africa. Even scholastic competitions such as Thami and Isabel’s are based upon European culture. The authors Thami and Isabel must learn about include Jane Austen and the Bronte Sisters: some of the most prominent British authors of the 19th century. By the time this play was written, books such as Nervous Conditions, Things Fall Apart and When Rain Clouds Gather had all been written, but instead of exploring their own culture, the black African’s were taught about the culture that colonized them. The government of South Africa used education to suppress the black Africans: if they read book such as Things Fall Apart, a feeling of revolution would be instilled in them and cause trouble for the government. Just as Isabel said, white people called the rebellion “unrest”, while for the Africans it was a beginning.