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Abstract
Lara Foot Newton’s play, Tshepang: The Third Testament, is based on the 2001 rape of a nine-month-old child in South Africa (the child, who survived, was renamed Baby Tshepang, or “Hope”). Systemic exploitation and poor living conditions—including alcoholism, poverty, war, unemployment, lack of education, and toxic constructions of masculinity—have engendered child sexual abuse in post-apartheid South Africa. By analyzing how the play diverges from the searing media accounts of the 2001 rape case, the article will demonstrate how cycles of violence and structured oppression have contributed to the prevalence of child rape and the ways in which the play invites productive engagement with the issue. Part of this discussion will include an examination of the figure of the rapist as presented in the play: abused and traumatized throughout his childhood, he ultimately becomes the victimizer.
Notes
1 Posel, “The Scandal of Manhood,” 242.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 242–3.
4 Ibid., 243.
5 The child, who survived the rape, was renamed Baby Tshepang, or “Hope.”
6 Nuttall, “Girl Bodies,” 18–9; This number of child rapes explains Newton’s dedication in the play: “Based on twenty thousand true stories,” v.
7 Nuttall, “Girl Bodies,” 20.
8 Ngesi, “Unrepentant Rapist.”
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 My emphasis.
12 Coetzee, “Hope for Baby.”
13 Ibid.
14 “Baby Rape Sparks Outrage.”
15 “Life for South Africa’s.”
16 “South African Government.”
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 “Constitution of the Republic,” 1255. There is also an African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and it considers the conditions specific to an African cultural context. Articles 11, 21, and 26 concern, respectively, the education of girls who become pregnant, child marriage, and protection against apartheid and discrimination.
20 Posel, “The Scandal of Manhood,” 240.
21 Ibid., 247.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 272.
25 Ibid., 277.
26 This article’s discussion of child rape is not at all related to the “myth” in South Africa that having sex with a virgin child will cure HIV/AIDS.
27 Rapoo, “Theatre, Place and Privation,” 66.
28 Knittelfelder, “The ‘Ordinary’ Cruelty,” 169–70.
29 For simplicity’s sake, I will only use the name Tshepang and not Siesie. Further, the name Baby Tshepang has been used thus far to refer to the actual female baby from the 2001 case while Tshepang refers to the character in Newton’s play.
30 Newton, Tshepang, 29.
31 Houvrou is the term for a paid-for mistress, a prostitute.
32 Newton, Tshepang, 29.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid., 30.
36 Ibid., v.
37 Ibid., 24, 26, 32–3.
38 Ibid., 36.
39 Ibid.
40 Naai means fuck; Newton, Tshepang, 27.
41 Official London Theatre, “Lara Foot Newton.”
42 Sarafina Magazine, “Celebrating South African Women.”
43 Newton, Tshepang, 42.
44 Ibid., 39.
45 Krog, Country of My Skull, 396.
46 Ibid., 396; Blumberg, “The Politics of Hope,” 128.
47 See note 42 above.
48 Newton, Tshepang, 34.
49 Smith, “The Relation between HIV,” 6; Blumberg, “The Politics of Hope,” 121–2.
50 Newton, Tshepang, 24, 34, 36.
51 Graham, “‘Save Us All’,” 109.
52 Graham, State of Peril, 182.
53 Vaalwyn is fermented wine; Newton, Tshepang, 28.
54 Newton, Tshepang, 19.
55 Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 256.
56 Vogelman’s study is from 1990 and apartheid ends in 1994, so his research is important because it illustrates victimizers’ views on rape during the tail end of the apartheid era.
57 Vogelman, The Sexual Face, 109.
58 Hamburger, “Introduction,” 9.
59 Newton, Tshepang, 24.
60 Ibid., 39–40.
61 In 2002, IOL titled one of their news stories, “I watched my boyfriend rape Baby Tshepang,” and the judgement inherent in this testimony from Potse’s girlfriend Lya Booysen is clear. It demonstrates the ease with which the media denigrated Booysen as morally corrupt for watching a child rape and doing nothing to stop it. It is easy to forget that Potse used to “beat [Booysen] up and abuse her,” and that she genuinely feared for her life, another victim in a cycle of violence.
62 Newton, Tshepang, 43–4.
63 Ibid., 42.
64 See note 55 above.
65 Blumberg, “The Politics of Hope,” 129.
66 Newton, Tshepang, 44.
67 See note 27 above.
68 The only time Tshepang makes an indirect “appearance” on-stage is when Simon acts out the rape using the broken broom Margaret used to beat Alfred as a child and a loaf of white bread, which is the stand-in for Tshepang; Newton, Tshepang, 42.
69 Newton, Tshepang, 23, 24.
70 Laaitie means youngster; Newton, Tshepang, 33.
71 See note 7 above.
72 Newton, Tshepang, 26.
73 Posel, “The Scandal of Manhood,” 247.
74 Nuttall, “Girl Bodies,” 22.
75 Ibid., 23.
76 Ibid.
77 Ibid.
78 Ibid.
79 Ibid., 22.
80 Ibid., 26.
81 Blumberg, “The Politics of Hope,” 121–2.
82 Newton, Tshepang, 45.