Umongikazi: The Nurse

Umongikazi: The Nurse is a play by Maishe Maponya (1951-2021).

Sometimes cited in isiZulu (Umongikazi) or in English (The Nurse) alone.

The original text

A highly politicized play about the racism and incompetence in hospitals and making a call for unionisation, it uses techniques of multiple roleplay, caricature, flashbacks and revolutionary songs to show the radicalization of a young nurse Nyamezo.

Published in Doing Plays for Change: Five Works (Edited by Ian Steadman, 1995), Four Plays (edited by Zakes Mda, 1996) and Black South African Women: An Anthology of Plays (edited by Kathy A. Perkins, 1999).

Published (as Umongikazi/The Nurse) in Four Plays is a collection of dramatic works, edited by Zakes Mda (1996)

Published (as Umongikazi: The Nurse) in Black South African Women: An Anthology of Plays edited by Kathy A. Perkins (1999).

Performance history in South Africa

1983: First performed at the Market Theatre as Umongikazi by the Bahumutsi Players, directed by Maishe Maponya with Fumane Kokome, Maishe Maponya, Gcina Mhlope and Bennett Tloana.

1983: Toured Britain and Germany in the same year.

Sources

Theatre programme held by NELM: [Collection: MAPONYA, Maishe]: 2012. 332. 1. 5.

Andile Xaba. 2021. 'Collective memory and the construction of a historical narrative, analysis and interpretation of selected Soweto-based community plays (1984–1994)'. Unpublished PhD thesis.

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