All the world’s a stage: Anelisa Phewa and Lebohang Motaung in J Bobs Tshabalala’s ‘Khongolose Khommanding Khommissars’. Photos: Lungelo Mbulwana
In the theatre, language is not only a means of communication but a powerful tool through which identities are shaped, celebrated and contested.
Two productions — J Bobs Tshabalala’s Khongolose Khomman-ding Khommissars at The Market Theatre and a revival of Paul Slabolepszy’s Saturday Night at the Palace at the Joburg Theatre— offer an interesting reflection on how South Africans speak.
Both playwrights, who are vastly different in their approaches to writing dialogue, shed light on the nuanced relationship between language, identity and power dynamics.
Tshabalala possesses a unique vantage point. As someone who masterfully navigates Xhosa and English, he embodies the meeting of cultures and languages.
He says, “I am very aware in South Africa what English is equated to socially — the tension of a particular proficiency with the English language — and what that means in terms of a person’s background or a person’s upward social mobility.”
Tshabalala confronts the weighty connotations attributed to English — the language of the coloniser. His work explores the diverse ways in which English is wielded by different groups in the black community.
The multiplicity of “black Englishes” becomes a dramatic tool in his arsenal, allowing him to shape characters, dynamics and tensions.
This theatrical verbosity, as seen in his playful satire Khongolose Khommanding Khommissars, encapsulates the performative aspects of language, specifically within the country’s political circles.
In the play, five politicians embrace linguistic showmanship, using intricate idioms and vernacular to assert their cultural capital and lay claim to authority. The result is comedic language games that could be described as a marriage between political cadre-speak and heightened English. At first, it sounds quite Shakespearian.
Tshabalala says, “I often make the proclamation that I detest the vulgar assumption that I write in English. I say this to be contentious and cheeky, because I do write in English, but I’m making a proposition that I’m not writing an English that is universally known. It is a particular type of English. It is a very South African English which is a very local English.”
He adds, “As a South African playwright, a black South African playwright, when it comes to writing, particularly heightened text in the South African paradigm, I often think about the ‘highness’ of the language of the native speakers of isiXhosa who raised me use.”
The way his characters speak mirrors the political speeches that saturate the South African public sphere. Through the fusion of language play, Tshabalala delves into the complexities of translation, interculturality and the dynamics of communication.
This reflects the broader political pattern where command over language and translation is often a battleground for competing ideologies.
His use of language is a conduit for understanding the intricate dance between those who wield power and those who seek to challenge it.
Slabolepszy’s Saturday Night at the Palace, first staged in 1982, provides an historical alternative to hear the politics of language.
He has always navigated South Africa’s linguistic terrain with a distinct flair, creating characters who speak with a vivid spectrum of English expressions and colloquialisms, often informed by Afrikaans.
Like Tshabalala’s, his characters grapple with the intricacies of language as a marker of social status, aspiration and belonging. The language they use is both a reflection of their identities and a tool for navigating their sociopolitical setting.
They assert their agency, often using humour and wit to disarm those who might judge them for their simple use of English that is muddied with popular expressions.
With Khongolose Khommanding Khommissars, Tshabalala breaks new ground. He has claimed a heightened use of English that feels entirely local and recognisable. The Shakespearean-ness of his dialogue adds a political tension point.
His assertion that he writes a “particular type of English”, one that is uniquely South African, challenges ideas of linguistic purity and ownership. This sums up the long-standing essence of local theatre’s engagement with language — the recognition that it is an ever-evolving entity shaped by history, culture and the interplay of voices.
What is clear from these two productions is a realm where power dynamics, cultural identities and historical legacies converge. These are spaces that invite audiences to be entertained by the nuances of expression, translation and negotiation.
Shakespeare is often considered a distant figure writing in a foreign tongue. His work finds a place in this discussion — a reminder that language, whether dirty or divine, is a vessel through which stories are told, identities are shaped and a nation’s history is etched.
• Khongolose Khommanding Khommissars runs at The Market Theatre until Sunday, Saturday Night at the Palace is on at the Joburg Theatre until 20 August. Book at Webtickets.
• Greg Homann is the artistic director of The Market Theatre Foundation. His influential work as an award-winning director, dramaturg, playwright, educator and academic has made him a leading figure in the South African theatrical landscape.