MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!

SUMMARY

BANGILIZWE YELANE
EZAMAZWE INDUSTRIES PTY LTD
My Children! My Africa! Summary
My Children! My Africa!
Characters
Anela Myalatya (Mr. M.)
Informally known as Mr. M, he is a highly-respected and beloved teacher at Zolile High School in
Camdeboo during Apartheid-era South Africa. Mr. M is Thami’s favorite teacher (and the latter is his
favorite student) and he desperately wants Thami to succeed, but fears that his involvement with a
bad crowd will bring him down. As a result, he tries to get Isabel to work with Thami in an
interschool literary competition in the hope of landing a scholarship for his favorite student.

Thami Mbikwana
In apartheid South Africa, to be young, gifted and black is not enough. Mr. M understands this, and so
does Thami. Unfortunately, Mr. M thinks the way out is a scholarship, while Thami becomes
convinced that words are not enough and so gets involved with an underground group of political
activists seeking to meet violence with violence.

Isabel Dyson
Isabel differs from both Mr. M and Thami in one very significant way: she is white. She also attends
Camdeboo High School, which is not just an all-girl school, but also an all-white school. She wins the
debate with Thami which opens the play, develops a friendship with him and comes between teacher
and student, both of whom she respects, when they enter into conflict with each other over how to
deal with the political reaction to apartheid.

Play’s Summary
Act I
A Bantu classroom at Zolile High School in South Africa, circa 1984. Anela Myalatya is a teacher
currently moderating a debate between his student, Thami Mbikwana, and a student from a school in
the affluent white neighborhood. The white student, Isabel Dyson, from Cambedoo High School, is
declared the winner of the debate, but afterward the two students engage in conversation that
results in a blossoming friendship. This stimulates Thami’s teacher—known informally as Mr. “M”—
to invite Isabel to join along with Thami in an interschool competition for the purpose of revealing
that even in Apartheid-era South Africa, people of different races can work together toward a
common goal. Of course, there’s always the potential for the competition to net Thami a
scholarship. Isabel admits that she had been somewhat anxious about how black students might react
to a white student at first, but her friendship with Thami has convinced her that she should accept
the invitation without worry.
Isabel arrives to prepare for the literature competition, but is questioned by Mr. “M” about the
possibility that Thami might be involved in some trouble. Thami arrives before she can answer and as
they start to study, it becomes increasingly apparent that their friendship has the potential to
develop into something more romantic. When the topic of study veers into the darker and more
dangerous waters of politics, Thami gets a dressing down from Mr. “M” for being involved in political
protests that aims to vandalize rather than raise serious discourse. Thami clearly resists the
suggestion that the vandals should discuss and dispute the injustices moving them to violence rather
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than using violence, but manages to keep his temper under cover long enough for Isabel to move
things back into the realm of studying for the competition.
Isabel extends an invitation to both of them to meet for tea at her house on Sunday. When the
teacher leaves, Thami launches into a tirade against his out-of-touch thinking and old-fashioned ways,
asserting that the violent behavior is absolutely necessary in the quest to achieve racial justice. The
discussion grows increasingly heated as Isabel suggests that maybe Thami should just try talking with
his teacher, and eventually she leaves in a state of heightened agitation.

Act II
While studying with Isabel, Thami announces that he has decided to withdraw from the competition.
A planned protest against Bantu academic policies involves boycotting classes the next day. Isabel
expresses her hope that they can still remain friends, but Thami is dubious. Mr. “M” shows up trying
to get Thami to change his mind about backing out of the competition, but Thami is steadfast in his
conviction that words alone are not nearly enough to enact genuine political change. At which point
his teacher admits that the police have contacted him about naming names of those planning the
boycott. Tensions boil, and everyone leaves under a cloud of anger.
The next day Mr. “M” shows up to a classroom utterly devoid of students. Despite the risk involved
with breaking the boycott, Thami shows up with a warning that his comrades have denounced the
teacher for naming names and his life may be jeopardy. Thami then tries to convince Mr. “M” now
that time is the time to get involved and take action. The response from Mr. “M” is to speak of his
love for Africa and to mourn for all the deaths that political disagreement has already caused. Thami
tries to physically prevent Mr. “M” from leaving the school, but he does so anyway, and is
immediately set upon by a murderous mob of thugs. Thami meets with Isabel to inform her of his
plans to leave the country and join the resistance. Isabel admits that she cannot grieve for his
murdered teacher. Thami lets her know about a place that the teacher used to visit to feel a sense of
serenity and peace; a place that Isabel can go to for mourning without fear. She promises the dead
teacher that she will not waste her life.

My Children! My Africa! Themes

Race Theme
Race is the most prominent theme in My Chidren! My Africa!. Athol Fugard is a white South African,
and saw the impact of apartheid second-hand through the experiences of his black friends and the
black actors in a theater group he worked with. He wrote My Children! My Africa! to expose some
of the ongoing struggles of apartheid in the 1980s, particularly related to education. Apartheid was a
system of segregation laws that kept black South Africans from the spaces and resources to which
whites had privileged access. In My Children! My Africa!, two of the characters are black, and one is
white. Isabel, the white character, initially thinks that the black characters will be grateful to her for
visiting their school and will not equal her intelligence and personhood. However, she comes to love
both Thami and Mr. M, and recognize through them the way the difficulty and importance of the
struggle against apartheid. Thami and Mr. M are both proud of their race and their racial heritage,
even if they have different ideologies about what it is necessary for an individual to do to end
apartheid.

Education Theme
In South Africa at the time shown in My Children! My Africa!, schools for white and black South
Africans were completely segregated. This is shown in the play by Isabel and Thami attending
different schools, and the fact that Thami did not receive an equal education to Isabel is shown by
Isabel's shock and disgust at how simple and dull Thami's school seems. However, the play shows
that even black South Africans raised in these segregated areas had the intellect to succeed in
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academics and in life, if the government would have allowed them the chance them. The subject of
teaching and teachers is also very important to the play. All of the characters are either teachers or
students, and the traditional relationship between teachers and students is shown through the
characters of Thami and Mr. M. Mr. M keeps an emotionally distant relationship and often tells Isabel
that he will tell Thami what to do rather than ask him. Secretly, Mr. M tells Isabel that Thami is his
favorite student and that his biggest goal, after all his years of teaching, is for Thami to succeed.

Loyalty Theme
Thami's loyalties to different people are tested throughout the play. At the beginning, Thami's
strongest loyalty is perhaps to Mr. M. He does as Mr. M wishes, competing in debate and leading Mr.
M to believe that he might go on to higher education. However, he also knows that he must be loyal
to himself and his people, and he starts to feel conflicted about the education system set up by the
government for black South Africans. Once Isabel enters his life, he is also loyal to her for some
time. They practice together for their competition, meeting regularly and supporting one another by
researching and studying. However, after some time, he breaks her loyalty as a teammate and friend
by quitting the team and saying that he probably cannot see her anymore. His loyalties have been
pulled away from both Isabel and Mr. M by his new loyalty to the Comrades and the Cause, which
come to dominate his life choices.

Friendship Theme
The theme of friendship in My Children! My Africa! is most salient in the friendship that develops and
then falters between Isabel and Thami. Though separated by race and gender, it seems at the
beginning of the play that they will beat the odds and form not only a successful team but a
friendship, or even a closer relationship. However, when Thami joins the Comrades, they want him
to break off any contact with white people, and he must drop off the team and even tells Isabel that
they shouldn't see each other at all any more. Isabel tells him, "You used the word friendship a few
minutes ago. It's a beautiful word and I'll do anything to make it true for us. But don't let's cheat,
Thami. If we can't be open and honest with each other and say what is in our hearts, we've got no
right to use it" (p.51). One of the questions raised by the play is whether Thami and Isabel's
friendship could have worked out, given their many differences and the tense moment in South
Africa's history. In any case, because the Comrades believe that friendships between whites and
blacks are against the Cause, Thami feels that he has no choice.

Politics Theme
Some would say that all works of art are political in nature. However, some pieces of literature are
written with the explicit purpose of challenging people's political views and awareness of political
issues. My Children! My Africa! is an example of such a play. Athol Fugard wrote the play based on
the experiences of black people he knew and his daughter's experience growing up as a white
women during apartheid. The play asks about the individual's responsibility in relation to questions of
social justice. Mr. M believes that a broken or prejudiced political system must be attacked from the
inside, with knowledge. In contrast, Thami believes that such a political system must be destroyed
with force. Isabel's relationship to the political issue of apartheid was perhaps most analogous to the
audiences who first saw Fugard's play. They were bystanders to the political issue, perhaps directly
benefited by the dominant political system. Isabel becomes aware of the political problems that she
ignored as a child, but does not involve herself in actually dismantling the system, involving herself in
neither Mr. M or Thami's ideologies of change.

Names Theme
One's name holds a piece of one's identity, and having many names often shows the many different
relationships one has with others. In My Children! My Africa! one crucial aspect of names is how
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they reveal one's heritage as Bantu or English, which correlates highly with one's race. Isabel
struggles to pronounce Mr. M's full name and the names of others in Thami's class, showing how
uncomfortable she is pronouncing Bantu words, since she is white, comes from an English-speaking
family, and attends an English-speaking school for white children. Thami and Mr. M, on the other
hand, have no problem pronouncing Isabel's name or the names of any of the authors they discuss;
white, Western culture is a constant presence in their lives. Mr. M even shortens his name
purposefully so that all students can pronounce it, even though he is strict and traditional about
most things in his classroom. One can also choose the name they are called or gain a name as part of
their reputation. Thami and Mr. M discuss this in Act II, Scene 1. Mr. M calls Thami a "silly boy"
(p.65) and when Thami tells him not to, he asks if he should call him "Comrade Thami"(p.65) instead.
This is because the resistance fighters called themselves comrades; Mr. M uses this title ironically, to
emphasize Thami's link to them. Thami counters that people call Mr. M names: "stooge, sell-out,
collaborator "(p.66). Again, these names are said to hurt Mr. M by linking these ideas to his identity.

Childhood and Coming of Age Theme

Childhood is one of the most important themes in My Children! My Africa!, as might be guessed
from the appearance of the word "children" in the play's title. The play can be seen as a
"Bildungsroman" or coming-of-age literature, since over the course of the play both Thami and Isabel
mature in many ways. Thami makes the life decision not to further his education but instead to leave
the country and join a movement of black people fighting physically for change. Isabel realizes how
closed-minded she was throughout her childhood, interacting with black people only rarely and with
them in service roles. She comes to see Thami as a close friend and Mr. M as a mentor. The theme
of childhood is stressed through flashbacks. Thami tells a story to the audience about how he used
to love school when in Second Form, and was even asked to read an essay he wrote to the entire
school. He takes the audience through his growth from Second through Tenth Form; he progresses
from enthusiasm to cynicism about the education system. Mr. M also tells a flashback story about
when he was around ten years old, around the same age Thami was in his story, when he argues
with Thami in their last scene together. Mr. M tells Thami about the teacher who inspired him to
love books, showing how little Mr. M changed, following that inspiration to read and teach until it
brings him to his death.

Q&A
1. What are differences between Thami’s and Mr. M’s ideologies of change?

Thami believes that there must be a violent uprising that forces the government to end
apartheid or at least change some of its laws and policies. In contrast, Mr. M believes that
change must come slowly and happen by black people becoming educated so that they can
influence lawmakers with their words and ideas.
Thami sees Mr. M's ideology as too slow and sympathetic to the white people; he believes
that Mr. M feels this way because he is old and was raised all his life within a backwards
system that he has come to believe is okay. Mr. M, on the other hand, feels that Thami and
Comrades' cause lacks stability and morality.

2. Does the play indicate the author’s viewpoint on whether it is better to fight with
words or stones ?

Mr. M warns Thami that words are stronger tools for change than stones or even bombs,
since words can influence white people to make large changes to apartheid where stones can
only express anger and incite violence in return.

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Thami and Mr. M are both presented as strong, intelligent characters. But because Fugard
was not black or directly part of the resistance to apartheid, it could be guessed that Fugard is
more likely to believe in Mr. M's ideology, since he was an intellectual himself and wrote
plays focused on the injustices of apartheid rather than participating in acts of physical
violence. He also creates something of a martyr figure in Mr. M, who is killed for his
difference in ideology even though he was a poor black man himself.

3. What is the significance of Isabel being a female? Why do you think the playwright
made this choice ?

Athol Fugard carefully chose to make gender equality as well as racial equality a theme his
play. He does this in two big ways: by making the character of Isabel a girl, and by making
the debate at the beginning of the play about women's rights to education in South Africa.
Linking the ideas of gender and racial equality could help non-blacks and people outside of
South Africa to begin to understand the struggle of black people during apartheid.

4. Was the ending of the play hopeful or tragic? How was it hopeful or tragic for each of
the characters?

The end of the play should be read as tragic, since Fugard intended the play to help people to
understand the terrors of apartheid and provoke them to seek change.
At the end of the play, Mr. M has died, and Thami has given up any dreams of higher
education to join in the movement for change through physical violence. Some might not see
this as tragic, but it is clear that Mr. M's goal for him will not be fulfilled. Isabel promises to
fulfill Mr. M's goal, but because she is white and not Mr. M's favorite student, this is not
really an equal substitution. Isabel always had hope for her future, since she is white, but the
play ends with the black characters not achieving what they want.

Metaphor and Similes in the BOOK

1 "Enthusiasm for your cause is most commendable but without personal discipline it is as
useless as having a good donkey and a good cart but no harness" (Simile)

2 "My unruly behavior? I caught that disease in the location, I'll have you know." (Metaphor)

2.1 Isabel speaks this quote jokingly to Mr. M early in the play. However, Isabel's use of the
metaphor of the location giving someone disease suggests the complex and incendiary
dynamics between the characters, since it refers implicitly to the belief that the segregated
areas in which blacks lived were dangerous and could "infect" one with bad behavior.

"I've got a whole zoo in here, a mad zoo of hungry animals...and the keeper is frightened!"
(Metaphor)
In this quote, spoken directly to the audience, Mr. M talks passionately about the emotions
inside of him. He uses this metaphor of animals in a zoo to show how he tries and fails to
control his emotions, and how powerful and fierce they can be. This instability is a result of
his internal conflict over how to best serve his students and his country under apartheid.

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