Majiet

A Malay slave (said to be the son of the revered Sheik Jousuf, though Jill Fletcher, 199*, refers to a Malay girl) who wrote a 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, 1978**??, the text of the play is extant, but 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 formed the basis of a 1998*?? Musical called *** performed at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town by the **** Does it relate to Achmat Dangor’s play? ]

Sources

See Fletcher, 1994; Gray, 1978

Return to ESAT Personalities M

Return to South African Theatre Personalities

Return to Main Page