Don’t scorn words. If the struggle needs weapons give it words, My Africa! Thami. Stones and petrol bombs can’t get inside those armoured cars. Words can. They can do something even more devastating than that … they can get inside the heads of those inside the armoured cars.” This powerful play by one of South Africa’s most famous playwrights delivers a forceful message to a modern world plagued by political and social conflict. Burning questions asked by those who lived through apartheid are as relevant today as they were thirty years ago. What is the best way to bring about political and social change? Violent action or transformation through words and ideas? Fugard’s play is about a school teacher who has invested all of his dreams for a better society, a better South Africa, in one of his pupils. The school teacher and the brilliant young man come into conflict with each other because they choose different solutions to their country’s educational and political problems. A moving play that will challenge South African learners to engage with universal questions about education, relationships, authority, politics and humanity.
