Majiet could refer to a historic playwright or to a play.

Majiet is a play by Achmat Dangor (1948-2020)

The original text

Published, and possibly performed, by Johannesburg: Open School on the Move, 1986. A copy of the play text held by NELM.

Translations and adaptations

Production history

1992. Performed by students at the University of Zululand under the direction of Sisho Maphisa.

Sources

https://sahistory.org.za/archive/majiet-play-achmat-dangor-1

http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/DC/pos00000000.043.053.2240/pos00000000.043.053.2240.pdf]

https://sahistory.org.za/archive/majiet-play-achmat-dangor-0

Majiet, the author of an 18th century play

A Malay slave, said to be the son of the revered Sheik Jousuf, (though Jill Fletcher refers to Majiet as a Malay girl), who wrote an unnamed play in Arabic script in 1740. It appears to have been in transliterated "kitchen Dutch"/Afrikaans, and tells the story of a slave girl who, having resisted the advances of her master, is assaulted by her son.

According to Stephen Gray (1978b) the text of the play is extant, but is held in a private collection. Performances of this, and other similar plays of protest, are assumed to have been performed in secret in the slave lodge at the top of Adderley Street (now the Cultural History Museum.

The story (text?) of Majiet's text or that of Dangor seems to have formed the basis of a 1998 Musical performed at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town. [Information on the musical yet to be found]

Sources

Fletcher, Jill 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg. (This is the official title, but the dust jacket of the original edition bears a different title: The Story of South African Theatre: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Both titles are cited by sources.)

Stephen Gray 1978b. "Our forgotten drama: Stephen Gray looks at the continuity of South African English drama". Speak, 1(2):13-16; 46-47.

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