1

Passage Analysis from Woza Albert

This passage from Woza Albert is very interesting in comparison to the rest of the play.

The entire play Mbongeni and Percy are portraying the need for a saviour who will deliver

South Africa out of the Apartheid and to a better life. I think in a way the passage challenges

this idea and almost mocks it. My reasoning behind this is that the final line in this scene is

“then life will go on as before”, followed by a cry of disgust. The outcry is one of “disgust”

because the scene has gone in a complete circle, right back to where it started, and no progress

was made. This presents the question, can South African be saved or will their lives “go on as

before”? At the beginning of the scene Mbogeni and Percy are on a train, and there is this

sense of hope and excitement because they are travelling somewhere new and there is a hope

of change. The train that Mbogeni and Percy mime is a metaphor for the hope for change and a

way out of the apartheid. At first Mbogeni describes how life will change for the better and that

there will be “bread” and “wine for all”. The bread and wine he refers to here is a biblical

reference to the last supper. The “bread” is symbolically the body of Christ and the “wine” is

the blood of Christ, both symbolic of how Christ will sacrifice himself on the cross in order to

redeem the sinners and save the lives of his people. Bread and wine is also used in communion

or remembrance of how Christ sacrificed his life, so when Mbogeni says that there will be bread

and wine “for all” he is describing how everyone has been saved and they now have this

connection with their savior. The fact that South Africa will be saved almost seems inevitable at

this point, because Mbogeni delivers his lines as if he is telling a story that has already

happened. Reading this play now, post-apartheid, we see that it was actually very prophetic.

2

The next part of the passage slowly shifts to a more negative tone as Mbogeni hides

behind a “bed” and Percy, as woman, is disturbed from her sleep and cries out. The simplicity of

this setting is what emphasizes the dialogue more, which in turn adds to the confusion of this

scene. There is only a box on stage as a prop, which directs the focus on the actors, but there is

this constant switching of character roles and dialogue between Percy and Mbogeni, so the

dialogue because the main focal point. At first Percy is the woman, then he is the policeman,

and Mbogeni is a child but he also seems to be acting as the narrator and the only way to

differentiate is by listening to who is delivering the lines as well as how the lines are delivered.

The atmosphere continues to become confusing and more suspenseful especially because Percy

starts crying out in Zulu, a language that is not universal and would confuse an audience of

mixed race. Percy also has a line that says “maak die deur oop” which is Afrikaans, but even

without understanding this you can hear the heavy accent in the way that this is written or

spoken. A translation isn’t necessary because the sound of the words is familiar in English, and

the accent is what creates the foreign atmosphere. The Zulu is presented right after the

Afrikaans, emphasizing this clash of cultures that is the Apartheid, and in a way it is very

unsettling. Mbogeni describes how the peace will be ruined and the “government will begin to

take courage again”. This means that this peace that their saviour “Morena” has created won’t

last. Percy uses words like “surrounding”, “roadblocks”, and “tear-gas” which are all things that

stop or inhibit progress. This is ironic because at the beginning of the passage, progress is

exactly what Mbogeni and Percy are hoping to achieve through their saviour Morena.

The name Morena is also interesting because it obviously alludes to Nelson Mandela,

but you can also hear the word Messiah as well. A Messiah and a savior like Christ or Mandela is

3

exactly who the “hundreds of thousands” in South Africa are looking for. Percy repeatedly sings

“we shall follow Morena”, ultimately with the hope that he will lead them to a better life, but it

would seem that they are destined for failure because of the “roadblocks” that Mbogeni points

out. The most interesting part, after all of this dialogue, is that originally Percy and Mbogeni

miming being on a train. This mimed train also shows up later in the play. A train could bring

them to a new place and change their surroundings, but a train is also stuck on a track and

there is no way of changing the course that it is on. The train I think acts as another metaphor

for their lives in the sense that they will constantly be moving forward but if they remain on the

train then they will not make any progress because it will still end up back at the station where

they originally boarded. This ultimately goes back the question about the line “then life will go

on as before”. If the people of South Africa are saved by Mandela, will life be as plentiful and

peaceful as Mbogeni portrays? This is also religious allegory for Moses leading his people to the

Promised Land. How long will it take to get there, and when they arrive, will it be as they

dreamed? The answer I think is debatable, but this passage seems to lean towards the more

negative answer, that life will likely “go on as before”.