Identity in Motion: Woza Albert!

This article aims at showing how Mtwa, Ngema, and Simon’s play Woza Albert (1981) presents identity as performative, not fixed and static. I argue that the play helps deconstruct the idea that identity is given. As the contact with oppression generates different reactions and, therefore, different possibilities and multiple layers of identity, this play offers new alternatives for understanding Black identity rather than racialized categories of black and white. These alternatives are achieved through dramatic actions as well as through the existential transformational moments that take place throughout the performance. The play emphasizes the idea that there is a possibility for the Black identity to exist beyond racist categories through highlighting the importance of being human and achieving oneself. Therefore, the play profoundly presents socio-political and racial-existential dimensions that help concretize and universalize Black identity. Keywords: Woza Albert, performativity, identity construction, Blackness, Apartheid