Arena (1975)

"I Talk About Me - I am Africa" (1980x8)

: 03, 1980

The growth of black consciousness through the 1970s has produced an explosion of original new theatre in black South Africa. At a secret performance in the backyard of a Soweto shop, a radical poet recites his banned work accompanied by drums and songs. In a ghetto hall, two men in chains portray their escape from prison and their dream of liberation - a dream that is shattered by the grim reality of working in Johannesburg's mines "6,000 feet underground ... in the dusty caves of gold". And the women of Crossroads shanty town re-enact their fight with the police and the bulldozers which have harassed them for years. Tonight's film investigates the remarkable emergence of a vivid and defiant theatrical life.