The Interplay of Various South African

Languages in Athol Fugard's Plays

• We live in an era where being human means being
multilingual.

• South Africa is a unique context for the study of

multilingualism.

• During the period of

apartheid, English and
Afrikaans were the only
two languages officially
recognized.

• On 8 May 1996, the

Constitutional Assembly
recognized no less than
eleven official languages.
 ATHOL
FUGARD
• Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, director and actor. He is white with
English and Afrikaner parents.

• Fugard remembers that: “We spoke both languages with indiscriminate

proficiency”.

• He has chosen to become the voice of a race to which he does not belong per se,
but about which he knows every dark aspect or obscure intimacy.
• A complicating factor when studying
dramatic language in Fugard’s work
is the interplay of Afrikaans in almost
all his plays.

• All of Athol Fugard’s published

collections include glossaries of
South African words.
• Athol Fugard uses Afrikaans in almost all
his plays, from a few words (Hello and
Goodbye: 6 words, for example “hoer”) to
quite a lot (“Boesman and Lena: more than
200 Afrikaans words) .

• The most obvious reasons for doing this

are his mixed origins and his belief that in
South Africa people are different.

Apartheid managed to establish

borders between people that
were different; Fugard’s plays
were written with the purpose
of erasing them.
• The use and interplay of different
languages in the same play lead
to various interesting
“communicative situations” in a
play like Boesman and Lena.

• An example of how
communication can be simulated
by people who are unable to
speak or understand each other’s
languages.

• Lena becomes frustrated in her
efforts of communicating with
him when she realizes the he is a
Xhosa-speaker.
Any form of real communication
between the two characters seems to
be impossible:
“(Lena takes a few steps towards the
old man … As Lena approaches him he
murmurs a greeting in Xhosa.)
Lena: Don’t you speak English and
Afrikaans? ‘Môre, baas!’
…
LENA: What’s the matter? You sick?
Where’s it hurt?
(Nothing.)
(The old man murmurs in Xhosa.)
Stop that baboon language! Waar kry
jy seer?
(Lena turns away in violent disgust.)
Ag, go to hell! Onnooslike kaffer. My
bleddy bek af praat vir niks!”
• Lena uses a couple of racist
words (Baas, kaffer, baboon).
• Lena is so desperate to
communicate with Outa that
she later tries again to speak
with him and she is at last
successful in introducing
herself to him:
LENA: …Hey, look at me?
(He looks at her.) My name is Lena.
(She pats herself on the chest. Nothing
happens. She tries again, but this time, she
pats him.)
Outa …You … (patting herself) … Lena … me
OLD MAN: Lena.
LENA (offering the bottle). Water. Water!
Manzi!
(She helps him get it to his lips. He drinks. In
between mouthfuls he murmurs away in
Xhosa.)
Lena picks up the odd phrase and echoes it
… ‘Bhomboloza Outa, Bhomboloza’ …
‘Mlomo, ewe mlomo’ … ‘Yes, Outa, dala’ …
as if she understood him.
• In many interviews, Athol Fugard stated a positive attitude towards Afrikaans –
especially since 1994.
• With the interplay of these languages, Fugard managed to create a certain
tension that best described the South African society in the period of apartheid.

THANK YOU!