Theme

Some would say that all works of art are political in nature. However, some pieces of literature are written with the explicit purpose of challenging people's political views and awareness of political issues. My Children! My Africa! is an example of such a play. Athol Fugard wrote the play based on the experiences of black people he knew and his daughter's experience growing up as a white women during apartheid. The play asks about the individual's responsibility in relation to questions of social justice. Mr. M believes that a broken or prejudiced political system must be attacked from the inside, with knowledge. In contrast, Thami believes that such a political system must be destroyed with force. Isabel's relationship to the political issue of apartheid was perhaps most analogous to the audiences who first saw Fugard's play. They were bystanders to the political issue, perhaps directly benefited by the dominant political system. Isabel becomes aware of the political problems that she ignored as a child, but does not involve herself in actually dismantling the system, involving herself in neither Mr. M or Thami's ideologies of change.