The Politics of Criminology in the Selected Plays of Athol Fugard and August Wilson

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue I, January 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Politics of Criminology in the Selected Plays of Athol Fugard and August Wilson

Ngong Joseph Sam, Ph.D
Department of English and Literature, The University of Maroua, Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, Cameroon

Abstract: South Africa suffers from high levels of crime and violence. So Apartheid has been replaced by violent crime. Apartheid’s physical violence could be seen as South African Police regularly suppressed protests marches. The South African police killed approximately twenty thousand young people during the Soweto Uprising of 1976 when black students protested against the use of Afrikaans as language of instruction. Besides, the xenophobic attacks of 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2019 indicate that crime is extremely high in South Africa. Similarly, the United States of America continues to record high rate of violent crime, particularly, in African American neighbourhoods. Crime has recorded untold suffering on blacks in both communities and is still felt today. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the Politics of Criminology in the selected plays of Athol Fugard and August Wilson. Using the Postcolonial theory and Psychoanalysis, the paper argues that blacks are lured by whites to commit crimes that would prevent them from engaging in mainstream activities. Thus, crime in this context is observed as a political manoeuver used by whites to exclude Africans and African Americans respectively. Consequently, the characters in the selected plays of both authors are deracinated from their patrimony and cultural identity. The paper further argues that crime like sin seems to have an indefinite path, but it can be reduced if many blacks study and practice law in racial communities. The way forward to the problem of crime lies in the comprehension, application and the mastery of black codes vis-à-vis white laws. Therefore, it is observed that Fugard and Wilson have contributed immensely to African and African American criminological thought.

Key Words: Criminology, Politics, Postcolonial, Psychoanalysis and Patrimony.

I. INTRODUCTION

This study examines the politics of criminology in the selected plays of Athol Fugard and August Wilson. The plays in question include Fugard’s Statements:Sizwe Bansi is Dead,The Island,Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act (1986), The Blood Knot(1972),Master Harold and the Boys(1984), Sorrows and Rejoicings(2002) and Wilsons’s Fences(1986), The Piano Lesson(1990),Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom(1985), Gem of the Ocean(2003) and The Seven Guitars(1986). The study discusses how blacks are discriminated and lured by whites to commit crimes in order to prevent them from engaging in mainstream activities. Crime in this context is regarded as a political manoeuvre to exclude Africans and African-Americans respectively.

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