Transculturalism in Post-independence Zimbabwean Drama: Projections of Zimbabwean Theatre at the Onset of a New Millennium

Abstract

This article examines transculturalism in Zimbabwean theatre in the postindependence era. It begins with a historical background to the socio-cultural forces that shaped attitudes to cultural life, first in the colony, and later in the postindependence period. The article argues that prejudice, ignorance, fear and mutual suspicion lead to theatre and performing arts emerging out of decades of colonialism largely segregated and highly confrontational, along lines of race and class. While acknowledging collaborative work done immediately after independence, the article then argues that it is only a decade or so after independence in 1980 that theatre practitioners from the two competing traditions i.e. former white theatre and community-based or people’s theatre in the townships, come out of their cultural straitjacket and begin to produce collaborative work in earnest. Realizing the tremendous potentialities that could be realized through cross-cultural co-operation in the arts, confrontational attitudes between black and white gradually wane after 1990, leading to cross-cultural interaction that has produced plays of outstanding cultural and artistic merit.

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