“Any European male who has illicit carnal intercourse with a native female, and any native male who has illicit carnal intercourse with a European female…shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.”
So stipulates section 1 of Apartheid South Africa’s Immorality Act, 1927, lifted as late as 1985 with the Immorality and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Amendment Act.
The so-called “Immorality Act” is at the heart of Madonna of Excelsior, a gut-wrenching South African play that centres on the quest of a young coloured woman, the virginal Popi’s search for the identify of her white father.
Popi’s mother, Niki, was one of the so-called “fallen madonnas” of Excelsior, a group of 14 black women who, along with 7 white men, were the cause of a sex scandal that rocked Bloemfontein’s Excelsior in 1971.
The play opens with the 13 cast members singing a rousing anti-apartheid songs; one-by-one standing up from their seats scattered throughout the audience at Reps Theatre, next the cast moved into a spirited song dance that took them to the stage.
During an explosive municipality meeting, which sees Excelsior electing its first black mayor, we meet the excessively racist Afrikaaner Town Clerk, played by Nic Beukes, who berates “you people” – the black Municipality members who are the new gatekeepers in the so-called Rainbow Nation.
Beukes’ character and Popi, played powerfully by Diana Maseko, battle throughout the meeting, the Clerk’s racial slurs causing the black characters to break into song and shouts of “Amandhla! Awetu!” It is apparent this is not a new fight between Popi and this vile man who riles her with taunts of “Suikerbossie, ek wil jou hê.” (“Sugarbush, I want you”)
“I need to know” is Popi’s plea to her mother, begging her and other characters to reveal the identity of her white father; explaining that her long hair and hairy legs are signs that her mother’s husband, Mr. Pule, is not her real father.
Popi cries, “It’s my life! I have a right to know!”
“It’s my past,” Nikki responds. “Have you thought about that?”
Popi’s persistence bears fruit: she looks back in time as Mr. Pule, the Town Clerk, other characters, and finally her mother walk her through Nikki’s horrific past.
Nikki is the target of abuse from all sides: raped by Meneer Cronje; beaten by her husband when he discovers her pregnancy; and finally, berated by her daughter Popi for hiding her ghastly past. In a tragic study in contrast, other cast members jovially sing children’s song”Jan Pierewiet, staan stil!” as Nikki is raped.
“It was her choice in as much as any of us living in poverty had a choice,” offers Nikki’s friend as an explanation for why she had gone to see Mnr. Cronje.
In another shocking scene, Mr. Cronje’s wife, running the butchery and checking the staff for stolen meat, forces Nikki to undress, crying, “You must be hiding a big boerewors under your dress!” After removing her petticoat and bra, the young Nikki, played by Matshidiso Thinyane, is finally forced to remove her panties – her nudity particularly shocking on Harare’s Reps stage in a country where even strippers are not permitted to remove everything.
The story of the group of “Madonnas” – the 14 women who slept with 7 white men in exchange for financial favours – unravels in shockingly painful detail. Popi discovers the identity of her father, but it’s not enough – she wants to know if her mother loved her father and vice versa.
“Love wasn’t allowed in those days,” responds her mother. “Not between white men and black women. We were told we were strangers.”
The play climaxes with an exchange between mother and daughter, with Nikki ultimately revealing that she in fact chose to sleep with Mnr. Cronje.
“I was just a maid, just a nanny. I wanted to be in control. We all just wanted to be in control of ourselves again.”
Madonnas of Excelsior is based on Zakes Mda’s book of the same name, adaptation by Kobus Moolman and directed by Roel Twijnstra. The production has toured South Africa since 2012, and in 2013 was selected for the main programme of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa. Its multi-talented cast put on a powerful performance in Harare and the play ranks in the very top tier of performances at HIFA 2014.
