Sizwe Bansi is Dead is not merely a play; it is a searing indictment of the Apartheid system, specifically the draconian "Pass Laws" that restricted the movement and employment of Black South Africans. Developed through "workshop theatre"—improvisation between Fugard and actors Kani and Ntshona—the play blends comedy, tragedy, and political commentary to explore the question: What is the value of a man’s name when his survival depends on becoming someone else?
Part I: The Studio and the Man
The play opens not with the titular character, but with Styles, a photographer in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. Styles serves as the narrator and the master of ceremonies for the first section of the drama.
Styles’ Monologue
Styles is reading a newspaper, recounting headlines that range from international politics to local car plant news. This monologue is crucial as it establishes the setting—a harsh, industrial, and segregated society—and Styles’ survivalist philosophy. He tells the audience a story about his time working at the Ford Motor Company factory.
The Ford Factory Anecdote: Styles recounts the frenzied preparations for a visit by Henry Ford II. The workers were forced to scrub, paint, and present a facade of happy, efficient labor. Styles vividly describes the absurdity of the situation: grown men treated like boys, fearful of their white supervisors. He realized then that he was merely a tool in a machine, a "monkey" performing for the boss.
This realization drove Styles to quit the factory and open his own photography studio. He explains the significance of his studio to the audience:
- Preservation: In a world where Black lives are considered expendable by the state, his camera captures evidence that these people existed.
- Dignity: He allows his customers to stage their own lives, posing with props that represent their dreams rather than their realities.
- Ownership: It is the one place where he is his own master.
The Intruder
The monologue is interrupted when a nervous man enters the studio. He wears an ill-fitting suit and identifies himself as Robert Zwelinzima. He wants a photo taken to send to his wife, Nowetu.
The interaction between Styles and "Robert" is comedic but laced with tension. Styles tries to get Robert to smile, to pose, to look like a "Chief," but the man is hesitant and awkward. Eventually, the photo is taken. As the camera clicks, the play shifts its mode of storytelling. The photograph becomes the portal to the past, and "Robert" begins to dictate the letter to his wife that will accompany the picture.
Part II: The Flashback and the Dilemma
Through the letter, the audience learns that the man in the studio is not truly Robert Zwelinzima. His real name is Sizwe Bansi. The play transitions into a flashback to explain how Sizwe arrived at this point.
The Endorsement
Sizwe Bansi came to Port Elizabeth from King William’s Town to find work to support his wife and four children. However, he ran afoul of the bureaucracy. His Pass Book (or "Dompas")—the identity document every Black South African was required to carry—was stamped with an endorsement ordering him to leave Port Elizabeth within three days.
In the logic of Apartheid, this stamp is a death sentence. Without a valid work permit in the city, he cannot work. If he returns to King William’s Town, there are no jobs, and his family will starve. He is trapped.
Buntu’s Intervention
Sizwe stays with a friend of a friend, a man named Buntu. Buntu is street-smart, cynical, and understands the labyrinthine Apartheid laws better than the naive Sizwe.
Buntu tries to help Sizwe find a legal solution. They discuss various strategies:
Bribery: Trying to pay off an official (too risky and expensive).
Special Permits: Asking for an extension (hopeless).
Working in the Mines: A dangerous and brutal alternative that Sizwe rejects.
Buntu takes Sizwe to a local administrative office, but the raid they witness there confirms that the system is designed to crush them, not help them. Buntu concludes that there is no legal way for Sizwe to stay in Port Elizabeth. He must leave, or he will be arrested and forced to work on a farm for virtually no pay.
Part III: The Death and the Resurrection
The turning point of the play occurs when Buntu decides to take a depressed Sizwe out for a drink at "Sky’s Shebeen" to numb the pain of his impending departure.
The Discovery
On their way home, drunk and stumbling through the dark alleyways, Buntu disappears to relieve himself and stumbles upon a dead body. It is a man who has been mugged and killed.
Buntu searches the dead man’s pockets and finds his Pass Book. The book identifies the corpse as Robert Zwelinzima. Crucially, this book has a "Section 10" endorsement—a valid workseeker’s permit allowing the holder to live and work in Port Elizabeth.
The Proposition
Buntu has a radical, dangerous idea. He proposes that they switch the photographs in the books.
- They will take the dead man's book and paste Sizwe's photo into it.
- They will leave Sizwe's book (with the expulsion order) on the dead body.
By doing this, "Sizwe Bansi" will be found dead in the alley. The man standing there will become "Robert Zwelinzima," a man with legal status.
The Great Debate: Identity vs. Survival
This proposal triggers the emotional core of the drama—a fierce debate between Buntu and Sizwe about the nature of identity.
Sizwe’s Resistance: Sizwe is horrified. He argues that his name is his legacy. It is the name given to him by his parents, the name his children bear, and the name that links him to his ancestors. To give up his name is to commit spiritual suicide. He asks, "How do I live as another man’s ghost?" He fears that by becoming Robert, he will forget who he truly is.
Buntu’s Pragmatism: Buntu counters with cold, hard reality. He argues that to the white government, "Sizwe Bansi" is just a number, a labor unit, a ghost. The name means nothing if the man bearing it cannot feed his children.
“That book, Sizwe, is your soul! ... Burn that book? Burn yourself!” (Buntu mocking the system’s logic).
Buntu convinces Sizwe that pride is a luxury he cannot afford. If he wants his children to go to school and his wife to eat, "Sizwe Bansi" must die so that the breadwinner can live. The system has already stripped him of his humanity; swapping a name is a survival tactic, not a sin.
Part IV: The Transformation
Sizwe eventually relents. The switch is made. The real Sizwe Bansi is "dead," left in an alleyway (symbolically represented by his old passbook). The man who walks away is Robert Zwelinzima.
Return to the Studio
The play circles back to the opening scene in Styles' studio. We now understand the subtext of the photography session. The man posing is the "new" Robert. He is taking a photo to send to his wife, Nowetu.
The letter he dictates is full of double meanings. He tells her that "Sizwe Bansi is dead," but that she should not mourn, because the money he sends her is real. He is navigating a schizoid existence: he is Robert for the white man and the police, but he remains a husband and father in his heart.
The play ends with the photo being taken. Ideally, the image captures a smiling, confident man—a man who has beaten the system, even if it cost him his name.
Key Themes and Symbols
1. The Pass Book (Dompas)
The Pass Book is the antagonist of the play. It is more than paper; it is an instrument of control that dictates a Black man’s worth, movement, and very existence. The play demonstrates how a bureaucratic document becomes more powerful than the human being it represents.
2. Photography and Illusion
Styles’ studio represents a space of illusion and agency. In the studio, Black South Africans can construct their own image, unlike outside where their image is constructed by the state. The photograph freezes a moment of dignity in a life otherwise defined by humiliation.
3. Masculinity and Providerhood
Sizwe’s crisis is deeply tied to his role as a father. The Apartheid system emasculated Black men by treating them as "boys" (as seen in the Ford factory). Sizwe’s decision to kill his identity is the ultimate sacrifice of a father—destroying his ego to preserve his family.
4. The "Ghost"
The concept of the ghost pervades the text. Sizwe feels he is becoming a ghost by taking a dead man's name. Buntu argues they are all ghosts in the eyes of the Apartheid regime—unseen and unheard unless they are laboring.
Sizwe Bansi is Dead is a masterclass in minimalism. With only two actors and simple props, it conveys the monumental weight of institutional racism. It does not offer a happy ending in the traditional sense—Sizwe survives, but at the cost of his identity. It is a victory of survival, but a tragedy of the self. The play forces the audience to confront a system where a man must essentially cease to exist in order to be allowed to live.
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