Die Negersklaven

Die Negersklaven ("The Negro slaves") is a German historical-dramatic tableau ("ein historisch-dramatisches Gemählde") in three acts by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819)[1].

Not to be confused with two French plays called

The original text

An anti-slavery work based on records of and writings about the slave trade. First published in 1795 or 1796 (by Kummer in Leipzig, and Wallishauser in Vienna) and first produced in 1796

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Dutch as De Negers ("The Negroes") by Pieter Gerardus Witsen Geysbeek and published in Amsterdam by Joannes Roelof Poster, 1796. Performed in Amsterdam in 1976.

The Dutch title not to be confused with any one of the two French plays called Les Nègres

Performance history in South Africa

1849: Performed in Dutch (and wrongly advertised apparently as De Neger - "The Negro") by Tot Oefening en Vermaak on 26 September in the Drury Lane Theatre in Cape Town, with as afterpiece Vier Schildwachten op éénen Post (Vogel) and a "divertissement" called Geene Bandieten (an original work by an unknown South African author). Thus an evening devoted to a protest about the slave trade and forced labour.