THE  HUNGRY  EARTH

                            Maishe Maponya was one of the major figure in the African literature. He was born in 1951 in Alexandra township in Johannesburg. Maponya,like all south Africans, had been personally affected by the discriminatory practices of the apartheid system. He was actively involved in the Black Consciousness Movement which emerged in the 1970s.He wrote his famous play ‘The Hungry Earth’ in 1978.

                             In ‘The Hungry Earth’ Maponya portrays the real life situations and the sufferings of the black peoples in South Africa, especially the working people in the gold mine industry. He also focuses on the problems like child labour,poverty,family breakdowns,colour discriminations etc..The play consists of a prologue, six scenes and an epilogue. Each scene focuses on a different aspect of apartheid oppression.

                          The play opens with an introductory song which is followed by a prologue. The first scene in a hostel room.  The four main characters and umlungu (the white man) appears in this scene.Matlhoko,Usiviko,Beshwana,Sethotho are the child labourers who are working in the gold mine. They discussed about the white people and the evil deeds they had done against them. They come and capture their prosperity and make them as a puppet on a string. In this scene, we see that Sethotho is not against the white man.

                             Scene two is in a plantation. The four child workers, a visitor and an investigator are the characters in this scene. There takes place a conversation between the visitor and the child workers about their works and life in the mine. They are all thirteen years old and they never go to school.It shows the social situation of that time in Africa.In the third scene,in the train,we can see the white man’s imperialism up on the black people.The ticket examiner and the child workers are the characters in this scene.

                                    The fourth scene is in the mine,where the child labourers are working.All the four children,Jannie,a white miner and a compound manager appear in this scene.Jannie gave orders to the boys to drill the rocks.Then there takes place a great explosion and the miners collapse.Lots of people died in that explosion.Through this the dramatist shows us the common thing that happened in African mines and the sufferings of the people who were working in the mines.Here we can also see some economical problems. The child labourers worked hard in the mine but they didn’t  get the satisfied salary for their work.In this scene there is also a small description about the gumboot dance.It is a traditional ritual in Africa.It evolved in the mines as a means of communication between black workers who were not allowed to speak to one  another.

                               The fifth and sixth scenes in a compound.In the fifth scene we can see the presence of some tourists and in sixth, there enters a female character.She is the only female character in this play.She is a prostitude.The situation changed her as a prostitude.Her husband is a mine worker and died in an explosion.

                                 The Hungry E arth is a suitable title for this play.In the last scene, the woman lamented that our men will never stop dying to feed this hungry earth.The use of the language zulu in some of its songs  and dialogue as an affirmation of black south african’s cultural heritage.