ABSTRACT
When Maishe Maponya first conceived and workshopped The Hungry Earth in 1978, reactions to the play’s blatant political content, and its explicit criticism of South Africa’s apartheid regime, led him to seek legal advice. His attorney’s opinion confirmed his fears: ‘I am of the view that the play would constitute a contravention of the laws relating to racial incitement and the Publications Act and, in addition, the presentation would result in the severe harassment of both the author and the performers’ (quoted in Maponya 1995: vii). In response, Maponya cancelled the production but then, after much deliberation, he and the Bahumutsi Drama Group, which he had co-founded a year earlier, decided to perform and ‘be damned’.
