Colonial Conversion

“The Convert,”by Danai Gurira at Frank Theater

This play takes place in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in 1896-97.   It is a take on the religious side of colonialism, which in this case has been adopted by a local Shona man and woman, the latter the ‘convert.’  Christianity and Roman Catholicism were brought to Rhodesia as ideologies of brutal, racist and extractive British rule. The play is set in the period of the 2^nd Matabele war, a failed rebellion against the British occupation by the Matabele and later Shona peoples. 

 

Saved by the Cross?

It focuses on what happens to locals who adopt the ideology of the new rulers and how they become isolated from their own kin.  In this play Christianity has an advantage in the treatment of women, which is what originally attracts the convert.  The convert Jekesai is saved from being sold for goats by her uncle to an old man as a bride.  The local African Catholic teacher Chilford opposes the deal and saves her.  Chilford has rejected the ‘barbarism’ of his tribal relatives and is now estranged from forced marriage, ancestor worship and their belief in healers, though he calls them ‘witch doctors.’  He renames Jekesai ‘Ester’ and teaches her to speak, sing and read English through the Bible, following ‘the white man’s way.’

Jekesai/Ester becomes alienated from her working-class cousin in the process, who has been forced to be a miner by the British. The intolerance of Chilford towards her aunt who has not adopted Christianity wholesale also distresses Jekesai. Then she learns that some of the kinder words of the Bible mean nothing to the colonial authorities when her rebellious relative is killed by them ‘like a chicken.’ At the end she rejects her conversion and bloodily rebels - and in a way so does Chilford. 

This play will only run until Sunday, March 15, staged at the Gremlin Theater in St. Paul.  The actors are excellent and had to master British accents as well as the Shona dialect.  They take you back to this early rebellion against British colonial rule, part of a long history in Africa. 

Colonialism in Africa was only defeated many years later in the 1960-1980s with help from the U.S.S.R. and Cuba.  Nearly every liberation movement was led by Marxist-nationalists.  Angola, South-west Africa, Mozambique, Rhodesia, South Africa, Botswana  and others were all freed at various times, with Zimbabwe finally becoming independent and free of white settler rule in 1980 after a 15-year guerilla struggle.  This struggle was led by ZANU and Robert Mugabe, who later became a dictatorial bourgeois strongman and was only deposed in 2017.

Other prior reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left: 

Africa;  “Last Train to Zona Verde,” “Black Panther,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” “Mandela, Obama, Castro & Kennedy,” “Monsters of the Market,” “FGM,” “Land Grabbing,” “Girls at War,” “Famished Road.”

Frank Theater:  “Things of Dry Hours,” “Love and Information,” “The Cradle Will Rock,” “Revolt.  She Said.  Revolt Again.” “The Good Person of Setzuan,” “The Visit.”

The Kulture Kommissar

March 10, 2020