Abstract

The situation that is obtainable in South Africa judging from the historical and socio-political perspective is one in which the black majority lived under the oppressive apartheid regime designed, manipulated and controlled by the white minority. Racial discrimination, an inherent effect of the apartheid policy of the white minority has reduced the blacks to a state of the underprivileged in their fatherland. Racial discrimination in this respect means the state of feeling estranged or separated from one's environment, culturally, socially, economically, politically and otherwise. Its effects on the sociological well being of the individual cannot be overemphasized. The dramatic works of Athol Fugard, a South Africa playwright, have had close sympathy for the situation of the life of blacks in South Africa. The major literary themes of his plays include racial segregation, oppression, deprivation and subjugation. These and the inherent effects of the apartheid laws on the oppressed in South Africa are the main focus in Athol Fugard's play: Sizwe Bansi is Dead are used as a case study in this submission.