Our fucked up history!

Madonna of Excelsior. PACOFS production at the National Arts Festival.

Our fucked up history! That’s the gut-wrenching sense with which one walks away from this production, based on a story by Zakes Mda which itself was based on the Immorality Act case involving residents of Excelsior in the Free State.

In the 1970s, 14 black women became involved in illegal relations with five white men. When the women gave birth to fair-skinned “coloured” babies, they were arrested with the men under the Immorailty Act, which forbade sexual intercourse across apartheid colour lines.

The charges were later withdrawn, presumably because of the prominence of the white townsfolk implicated in the case.

Kobus Moolman’s script for this production comes alive around the identity quest of Popi, one of the “coloured” babies and now a councilor in the democratic Excelsior town council: Who is she and, perhaps more importantly, who is her real father?

Despite her achievements in the new South Africa, Popi is hobbled by her physical appearance - the fair skin, straighter hair and hairy legs – and the whispers within the community about her ancestry. The "boesman meit" (Bushman maid) slur from the white racist Tjaart cuts deep. Popi’s mother, Niki, was one of the women arrested in the Excelsior Immorality case but, together with the other women in the community, she has buried the past away deeply. Now Popi forces her mother to reveal all.

It is a painful story which reflects on the worst aspects of our past and brings into sharp relief the pain which affects all South Africans almost two decades after democracy. The chorus singing across languages is haunting and moving and a number of the actors stand out, although other characters require perhaps a more nuanced handling, especially where the power interplay between Boer men and African women is reflected. Most disconcertingly was the audience's laughter during extremely painful moments in the script.

Moolman's script needs to be tightened - I think fully 20 minutes can be shaved off quite easily without losing the sense of the story. The set is well-conceptualized but presents a hugely dysfunctional scene as the play progresses - I don't think this was director Roel Twijnstra's intention, although it becomes a clever metaphor for the "mixed Excelsior" storyline. - Ray Hartle