New African

The New African

A term came to general attention when used by Tim Couzens as the title of his biography of H.I.E. Dhlomo (The New African, ***, 19**), but actually a notion used extensively in academic writing about the rise of the Black writers and artists (e.g. Albert Gerárd, David Coplan??**, Martin Orkin, Ian Steadman and Loren Kruger). Basically a notion referring to the small class of “modern” African intellectuals (clergymen, teachers and other professionals) who began to appear and Organise events like the Emancipation Celebration in the 1930’s. They had a Western style education and tended identify with and indeed promote Western values and “European civilization”, and sought an identity for themselves and the black intellectual in general. This in some ways alienated them from the larger masses of black people, even when their concerns might be for the masses. Yet they and their successors provided an important impetus to the development of the evolving black urban culture and the later phase of the cultural struggle.

New African theatre

Theatre theorized, written and performed by the New Africans and their successors and heirs. The notion of a “New African theatre” is central to the main thesis of Loren Kruger’s 1999 book on The Drama of South Africa, and derives from the idea of the New African discussed above.

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