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Thursday 8 September 2011

THE HUNGRY EARTH BY MAISHE MAPONYA

           More than three quarters of the people living in the world today have had  their lives
shaped by the experience of colonialism. The past few decades have witnessed the
gradual development of post colonial drama as a challenge to the artistic hegemony
of the English and American canon. Maishe Mapomya's The Hungry Earth is one of the major
post colonial dramas. Maponya, a prominent  African dramatist, who is fully succeeded in depicting
the conditions of postcololnial society. He dramatises the personal consequences of labour system
and cultural commodification. When we go through the drama, we can trace the level of explpoitation,
it follows  the hostel, the plantation, the train, the mine compound. It is interesting that how systematically
 the scenes arranged and how it leads to the end.

          The play provides the picture of Gamboot Dance, a traditional art form of Africa, which is commodified
by the upper class, and its artistic value transformed from ritual to political value amd from cult value to
exhibition value( Benjamin). Likewise , Manjula Padmanaban dramatises the consequences of commodification of
third world bodies amd the impact of tresspassing of technological sophistication on human bodies in her inspiring drama Harvest. The Hungry Earth inspires me to read more post colonial dramas from different countries. This is what our weapons against the Western domination. Their arrival made the country static  and even it stopped the beats of the drum in South Africa. The Drum is the symbol of cultural richness if Africa. This is what Beshwana said " We blew the horns, we beat the drums, we sung the song of  Neglethu Mawethu, when this land was unknown to the white skins! shit!" (17) And again, this is what Gabriel Okara sung "Then, then I packed my mystic drum/ turned away, never to beat so loud any more"(Mystic Drum, 55). Thus dramas like The Hungry Earth got high place in Modern literature.
The Hungry Earth Sydwell Yola, Simon Mosikili and Velile Nxazonke in Maishe Maponya's The Hungry Earth .
gambia
drumming

1 comment:

  1. Manjusha:

    You make some very good connections between the other postcolonial literature you have read and this play. I also like your inclusion of the photographs. The symbolism of the drum which is also used by other African writers such as Gabriel Okara could have been expanded some more. The drum can also represent rebellion and revolution.

    `I was sopmewhat disappointed that your blog post was less than 500 words.

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