“Then and Now”
Durban, South Africa
The site for this year’s Chariot Festival for a four day span, Easter weekend, is at the Old Drive-In Theatre. Remember those popular spots in the 50’s and 60’s? Those drive-in movie arenas? It’s a thing of the past. Who would have even thought then, those vintage times, that an exotic event, such as the Ratha Yatra (Chariot Festival) would occupy the space?
And who would have ever thought then and even to the time of the 70’s and 80’s that apartheid would become dissolved? In our presentation of “Lonely People” the audience particularly responded to the South Africanised version, courtesy of our local playwright Krsna Candra. One of the more grave segments of the drama was a character called Kotze. The African zealot speaks, “The government made us do it, we had no choice. You had to do it, or they would do you in, like the rest of the buggers. If we caught a person of colour trying to even take one of the privileged buses, we would make an example of the rascal then and there. If we caught a person of colour travelling here and there looking for a job and he didn’t have his dompass- we didn’t just teach him a lesson; we taught them ALL a lesson!”
Kotze went on, “I’ve tortured, I’ve maimed, I’ve killed, I’ve made parents childless and turned children orphans…and today as we live, ‘together’ I can’t, I can’t get all of those innocent people, children, I can’t get them out of mind- they just won’t get out of here!” Kotze breaks down and drowns in his drinking (his habit) and his loneliness.
The message resonated with listeners and once again were reminded that all this skin colour and cultural differentiation is merely a mundane perception and in the long sum is unhealthy.
6 KM
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