CROCODILES

BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS
THE PLAYWRIGHT • Michael Williams is a writer of plays, musicals, operas,
and novels and the Managing Director of Cape Town
MICHAEL WILLIAMS Opera in South Africa.

• He began writing "radio plays" while studying at the

University of Cape Town and had his first novel
published when he was twenty-five years old. He has
written operas for young people based on African
mythology, as well as the libretti for symphonic operas
that have premiered around the world.

• Michael is the author of several books, including the

highly praised young adult novel, “Crocodile Burning”.
He finds writing fiction to be the perfect antidote to the
drama of keeping an opera company alive in Africa.
 VOCABULARY:
Act = a section of a play that contains several scenes
Scene = a small part of a play that usually takes place in in one setting; an act has several scenes.
Setting = the place and the time where the action happens (where and when).
Stage directions = the instructions to actors about how they should behave and move on
stage. These are written in italics and between brackets.
Characterisation = the way the writer describes a character (uses appearance, descriptions,
actions and dialogue).
Exposition = the introduction (beginning 0f the play) of characters, plot and setting.
Climax = highest point of action (most interesting/ emotional)
Soliloque= single, long speech by a character to himself and audience. Other characters are not
aware of what is being said.
 “ISEZELA”

AFRICAN MYTH MUSICAL

• African myth of a crocodile • Play within a play
• Myth represented by toy crocodile • Musical directed by Mosake
• Represents the false beliefs held by people • Workshop production
that harm themselves and their fellow South
Africans.
• Protest Theatre
SETTING – MOST SCENES
Soweto 1990
Community Centre
SOWETO,
SOUTH AFRICA
• Soweto is an urban settlement or 'township'
in South Africa, southwest of Johannesburg.

• Soweto was created in the 1930s when the

white government started separating
Blacks from Whites. Blacks were moved
away from Johannesburg, to an area
separated from white suburbs by a so-
called cordon sanitaire (or sanitary
corridor). This was usually a river, a railway
track, an industrial area or a highway etc.
They did this by using the infamous ’Urban A
reas Act' in 1923.
SOWETO b la c k c it y in S o ut h A fr ic a, but until
est
• Soweto became the larg n ly a s te mporary
d h av e st at us o
1976 its population coul h a n nesburg. It
a w or k fo rc e fo r Jo
residents, serving as th e id re gime. There
t du ri n g th e a p ar
experienced civil unres ru li ng th at A fr ik aans
, spark ed b y a
were serious riots in 1976 e violently
sc ho ol s . Th e ri o ts w er
be used in African ki ll ed an d more than
ki ng st u d en ts
suppressed, with 176 stri s fl ared up again in
s fo llo w e d , b u t ri ot
1,000 injured. Reform a c ia l e le ctions were
l th e fi rs t m u lt ir
1985 and continued unti
held in April 1994.
 APARTHEID
• Under apartheid, South Africans were categorised into
four racial groups: Bantu (South African natives),
Apartheid officially became a way of coloured (mixed-race), white, and Asian (immigrants
life in South Africa in 1948, when the from the Indian sub-continent.)
Afrikaner National Party came into
power. In Afrikaans, "apartheid" means • All South Africans over the age of 16 were required to
“apartness” or “separateness.” More carry racial identification cards.
than 300 laws led to a • Members of the same family often were categorized as
partheid’s establishment in South different racial groups under the apartheid system.
Africa.
• Apartheid not only banned interracial marriage,  but
also sexual relations between members of different
racial groups.
PROTESTS AND UNREST

• During apartheid, Black people were

required to carry passbooks at all times to
allow them entry into public spaces
reserved for Whites. This occurred after the
enactment of the Group Areas Act in 1950.
During the Sharpeville Massacre a decade
later, nearly 70 Black people were killed
and nearly 190 wounded when police
opened fire on them for refusing to carry
their passbooks.
BANTU EDUCATION
SYSTEM
• Apartheid limited the education the Black people
received. Because apartheid laws reserved
skilled jobs for Whites exclusively, Black people
were trained in schools to perform manual and
agricultural labour, but not for skilled trades.

• Fewer than 30 percent of Black South Africans

had received any kind of formal education
whatsoever by 1939.
DAWN OF DEMOCRACY
• The South African economy took a significant hit in 1986 when the United States and Great
Britain imposed sanctions on the country because of its practice of apartheid. Three years
later, F.W. De Klerk became president of South Africa and dismantled many of the laws that
allowed apartheid to become the way of life in the country.

• In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after serving 27 years of a life sentence.
De Klerk and Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their efforts to unify South
Africa. That same year, South Africa’s Black majority won rule of the country for the first
time. In 1994, Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president.
HIV/AIDS
• HIV is a virus that damages the immune system.
Untreated, HIV affects and kills CD4 cells, which
are a type of immune cell called T cell. Over
time, as HIV kills more CD4 cells, the body is
more likely to get various types of conditions
and cancers.

• HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids. The

virus is not transferred in air or water, or
through casual contact.

• Without treatment, a person with HIV is likely to

develop a serious condition called the acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome, known as Aids.
ACT 1 ; S C E N E 3 IGHT.
STREETS O F SOWET O A T N