An Intellectual history of considerable subtlety and richness ... lucid andrichly suggestive ... beautifully written' -- Professor Karin Barber, University of Birmingham

An excellent and important book moving with great ease in very tricky terrain... I must confess that having finished it, I wanted to start reading it again,immediately. -- Professor Liz Gunner, Univesity of Natal

Two case studies constitute the core around which is woven this intriguing story of the development of black theatre in South Africa in the early years of the century.

The first centres on Mariannhill Mission in Natal. Here the evangelical and pedagogical drama pioneered by the Rev Bernard Huss is considered alongside the work of one of the mission's most eminent alumni, the poet and scholar, B W Vilakaze. The second moves to Johannesburg and gives a detailed insight into the working of the Bantu Dramatic society and the drama of H I E Dhlomo in relation to the British Drama League and other white liberal cultural activities. It also highlights the dialogue between African and African-American intellectuals.

The argument concerns the intellectual formation of the early African elite in relation to colonial authority and how each affected the other in complicated ways. Much of the work in the field of African Studies still relies on rigid distinctions of 'tradition' and 'modernity', 'collaboration' and 'resistance', 'indigenous' and 'foreign'. this book moves well beyond these frameworks to probe the complex entanglements of different intellectual traditions in the South African context.