My Children! My Africa! Essay Questions

What are differences between Thami’s and Mr. M’s ideologies of change? What are the merits of both methods? What are the downsides to the different ideologies?

Thami believes that there must be a violent uprising that forces the government to end apartheid or at least change some of its laws and policies. In contrast, Mr. M believes that change must come slowly and happen by black people becoming educated so that they can influence lawmakers with their words and ideas. Both ideologies have their merits, since Thami's has the potential to achieve change faster while Mr. M's results in less violence and danger. Thami sees Mr. M's ideology as too slow and sympathetic to the white people; he believes that Mr. M feels this way because he is old and was raised all his life within a backwards system that he has come to believe is okay. Mr. M, on the other hand, feels that Thami and Comrades' cause lacks stability and morality.

Does the play indicate the author’s viewpoint on whether it is better to fight with words or stones? Where?

Mr. M warns Thami that words are stronger tools for change than stones or even bombs, since words can influence white people to make large changes to apartheid where stones can only express anger and incite violence in return. Thami and Mr. M are both presented as strong, intelligent characters. But because Fugard was not black or directly part of the resistance to apartheid, it could be guessed that Fugard is more likely to believe in Mr. M's ideology, since he was an intellectual himself and wrote plays focused on the injustices of apartheid rather than participating in acts of physical violence. He also creates something of a martyr figure in Mr. M, who is killed for his difference in ideology even though he was a poor black man himself.

Why do you think the playwright included the scenes where only one character was onstage and spoke to the audience? What effect does this have on the plot, character development, and themes of the play?

When the characters of My Children! My Africa! give monologues alone onstage they are able to reveal things to the audience that they can't say to one another. The relationships between the characters are quite constrained by age, race, and propriety; Thami and Mr. M have difficulty communicating because of their roles as teacher and student, while Isabel and Thami have different views on race relations and gender equality. During these monologues, the audience can travel in time to Thami's past as he reflects on his views on education under apartheid, or hear Isabel's true thoughts about the location before she became friends with anyone from there. The plot is punctuated by these interspersed monologues, and they deepen the audience's understanding of characters and themes.

What is the significance of Isabel being a female? Why do you think the playwright made this choice?

Athol Fugard carefully chose to make gender equality as well as racial equality a theme his play. He does this in two big ways: by making the character of Isabel a girl, and by making the debate at the beginning of the play about women's rights to education in South Africa. Linking the ideas of gender and racial equality could help non-blacks and people outside of South Africa to begin to understand the struggle of black people during apartheid. It gives a point of comparison, since both are hierarchies that some justify by reference to tradition and genetic differences. Furthermore, Fugard has written that he was very inspired to write My Children! My Africa! by seeing his daughter, a white woman, grow up during apartheid. This was likely a big part of his decision to create the character of Isabel and bring the issue of gender equality into the play.

Was the ending of the play hopeful or tragic? How was it hopeful or tragic for each of the characters?

The end of the play should be read as tragic, since Fugard intended the play to help people to understand the terrors of apartheid and provoke them to seek change. At the end of the play, Mr. M has died, and Thami has given up any dreams of higher education to join in the movement for change through physical violence. Some might not see this as tragic, but it is clear that Mr. M's goal for him will not be fulfilled. Isabel promises to fulfill Mr. M's goal, but because she is white and not Mr. M's favorite student, this is not really an equal substitution. Isabel always had hope for her future, since she is white, but the play ends with the black characters not achieving what they want.