The Sunday News
Charles Dube
READING the blurb we get that this play is actually based on this author’s novel Harvest of Thorns. The first thing learners want to understand is the meaning of the play since it seems hidden. They need to read and deduct the hidden meaning.
Fortunately, for those learners who before reading the text start by reading the brief given at the back of the text, in this text there are summaries given about what the play is really about. But may I warn learners that this is not enough until they read the play and prove the authenticity of the given ideas, prove these facts and support them with textual evidence. The same applies with basing your knowledge on study guides.
The best advice is for learners to read and come up with their own comments. They can write their own opinions which are acceptable as long as they support their ideas with textual evidence.
The only difference is that they are unknown writers, but, gradually with time they can be recognised. To kick-start the discussion on our chosen text we can borrow this paragraph found at the back of the text. This information also makes learners develop an interest to read the text.
“The play follows the fortunes of the Tichafa family, predominantly explored through the exploits of their son Benjamin, whose Rhodesian childhood is stepped in pervasive repression, racism, crushing poverty, moral and religious bigotry, cultural decay and social and political strife.
He is inadvertently caught up in a violent, historic struggle that forges him into untimely self and manhood. The book is a vivid — and often prophetic, for its times — panorama of the tenuous healing and emergent challenges and contradictions of a new Zimbabwe”.
After reading this summation one is bound to say the whole text has been explained and there is nothing more to examine or analyse in this text. But, wait a minute, there is a lot more to discover in the stated play. You have to read the story twice maybe to come out with the basic meaning.
You need to understand the role of all the characters found in the play. The teacher has to make sure learners understand the historical background of the story.
Most learners currently studying this play are born frees, that is, they were born after independence and have little knowledge about Rhodesia, racism and the liberation struggle.
Most young people have little knowledge about culture. With little knowledge of all this it might be very difficult for the learners to understand this play the first time they read it. The summary at the back of the play goes on to give more insight of what to expect in the play as learners read on:
“Harvest of Thorns Classic: The play is an endearing love story, a recreation and celebration of a bygone epoch, a graphic portrait of a gruelling war; a tale of sacrifice, lost traditions and fractured lives.
The individual and collective experiences and ideologies of the characters peopling this tragi-comedy challenge us to question presumed notions of ‘heroism’, commitment and betrayal. The text is a wry metaphor for the universal human condition”.
From the cited examples, we get answers to some questions we might have asked as we read on. For example, we have already been told that the play is a tragi-comedy, a love story, a tale of sacrifice, lost traditions and other things. This means that when we start analysing the play we start from a certain level, trying to prove whether the suggested views are true. Trending the love story, is it the love between Benjamin Tichafa and Nkazana or the love between Clopas Wandai J Tichafa and Shamiso?
There is a lot of humour in Clopas’ broken English as he speaks to his boss the District Commissioner for Makonde. His boss keeps on correcting him. There is more humour in the letters Clopas writes to Shamiso the woman he gets attracted to among those who are queuing to get birth certificates from the District Commissioner’s office. The letters are written in broken English and one wonders how Clopas was employed there.
Learners should make sure that they go over those letters thoroughly so as to get the feeling of the writers. Characters are quite many, therefore learners need to understand how they relate so that they do not confuse the storyline or plot.
Experts are of the view that almost any drama is meant to be performed by actors, and seen by an audience, live, in real time. When reading a drama or play on the page, you are missing all the parts of a performance that bring the words to life, such as intonation, movement, costumes, props, set, lighting sound effects, and music.
Stage directions come in handy in such situations as they will give some approximation of these elements but it is up to the learner to stage the scene in his mind, imagining how the characters might look, speak and act.
Watching the drama being acted out helps learners to understand the play better. Some artistes have tried to seek permission to act out some plays to help learners with great appreciation from schools. But that is not enough as funds are limiting progress.
On the government side there used to be the Audio Visual Services which offered videos on some drama texts especially on Shakespeare but that department folded up some years back leaving schools stranded. If such programmes could be revived with local content as the key, learners could absolutely benefit. More reading of the suggested play to come in later articles.
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