The Dramaturgy of Revolt (review of Belinda Bozzoli, Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid, Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, 2004)¶
Charles Tilly (2005). The Dramaturgy of Revolt (review of Belinda Bozzoli, Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid, Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, 2004). Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1. Taylor & Francis.
| Type | other |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1912–1986 |
| Regions | Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Themes | resistance social movements, politics ideology elections, methods data sources |
| Citation key | tilly2005 |
Argument¶
Tilly reviews Bozzoli's study of the 1986 mobilisation in Alexandra Township, which uses a theatrical metaphor to examine how participants acquired and projected power. He credits Bozzoli with conveying a profound local drama, built on trial records, interviews and Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. His central criticism is that the dramatic frame favours local causes, direct effects and conscious intentions over invisible violence, incremental effects, environmental influences and unintended consequences. He also notes that the book leaves open how far Alexandra resembled other townships or rebellions elsewhere. He says openly that as an outsider and European historian he cannot judge the accuracy of the reconstruction.
Evidence and method¶
Tilly's review rests on Bozzoli's book. Bozzoli's own sources, as he describes them, are her advisory work in the 1987 Mayekiso trial, interviews with most of the defendants, the 1987 Zwane trial records and interviews with Zwane and his attorneys, Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in Alexandra, newspaper accounts and police records. Tilly adds no independent data.
Place in the debates¶
- Origins of 1980s township militancy: indigenous youth-led vs ANC-organised (see Resistance and liberation movements). Reports Bozzoli's view that militancy was indigenous and the ANC was catching up and co-opting it. He does not adjudicate the point, saying he cannot judge the accuracy of her reconstruction.
- Explanatory limits of narrative/dramaturgical versus conventional social-movement analysis (see Resistance and liberation movements). Sceptical. He argues that dramatic form distorts explanation when complex, indirect mechanisms actually drive events, and he asks for comparison and attention to networks and resources.
Findings¶
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Tilly sets out the explanatory cost of the dramatic form. (p. 3)
It also imposes serious limits on explanation, since dramatic conventions give priority to local causes, direct effects, and conscious intentions.
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Bozzoli's evidence base is trial records, interviews and TRC hearings. (p. 3)
Bozzoli advised defence attorneys in the 1987 Supreme Court trial of Moses Mayekiso and others, interviewed most of the defendants in that trial
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Bozzoli stresses indigenous origins of militancy and an ANC that followed rather than led. (p. 3)
Bozzoli insists on the indigenous origins of Alexandra's shift to militancy, and portrays the ANC as seeking to catch up with and co-opt township militancy rather than organising it.
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Bozzoli links the generation of militants to the changing state approach to townships. (p. 3)
She sees the state's shift from township 'welfare paternalism' to 'racial modernism' during the 1960s and 1970s as having shaped a new militant generation in Alexandra and elsewhere.
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Tilly notes an inconsistency in Bozzoli's population figures for Alexandra. (p. 3)
Established as a 'native' township in 1912, Alexandra housed either 120,000 people (p. 1) or 75,000 people (p. 20) in the 1980s.
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Activists governed Alexandra briefly in 1986 before the state retook control. (p. 4)
By late April of 1986, the township council had resigned, and the two groups of activists, in uneasy coalitions, provided whatever government existed in Alexandra.
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Memory of the revolt privileged the older, acquitted leaders over the imprisoned youth. (p. 4)
Most remarkably, youth activists imprisoned for sedition largely disappeared from public life and memory, while the elders - all acquitted - came to represent Alexandra's nationalist resistance.
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Bozzoli argues the TRC fixed a myth of a unified, ANC-aligned community. (p. 4)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Bozzoli argues, cemented in place the myth of a unified, determined, deeply nationalist, but police-victimised community aligned closely with the ANC.
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Tilly identifies the lack of comparison with other townships as the book's main gap. (p. 4)
What we outsiders don't know at the end is to what extent Alexandra's experience resembled or differed from that of other townships.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial records of Ashwell Zwane and others (1987) | state archives | 1987 | One of three large blocks of evidence from which Bozzoli constructs her narrative of the 1986 Alexandra mobilisation (as described by the reviewer). |
| Interviews with Moses Mayekiso trial defendants, and with Ashwell Zwane and his attorneys | interviews oral history | 1980s-1990s (not specified) | Supplies participants' accounts of the uprising, the people's courts, and biographical sketches used for the generational argument. |
| 1987 Supreme Court trial of Moses Mayekiso and others (defence work and materials) | state archives | 1987 | Bozzoli's involvement as adviser to the defence gave access to evidence and defendants, forming the first block of evidence. |
| Truth and Reconciliation Commission Alexandra hearings | commission or official report | 1990s (not specified) | Observed by the author and used to analyse how public memory and the myth of a unified nationalist community were formed. |
| Newspaper accounts, police records and other observers' writings | newspapers periodicals | 1980s | Supplementary material to the three main evidence blocks, including for hour-by-hour chronologies of the Six Day War. |
New data¶
Bozzoli's interviews with Mayekiso trial defendants and with Zwane and his attorneys, plus reconstructed hour-by-hour chronologies of the 1986 Six Day War; no dataset size is given in the review.
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
The book under review is a theatrical, narrative case study of a single township (Alexandra, 1986). It rests on trial records, interviews, and TRC testimony, organised by dramaturgical conventions. Tilly, the reviewer, says he cannot judge accuracy and asks for more comparative and causal analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Bozzoli builds her narrative chiefly from three large blocks of evidence: Mayekiso trial defendant interviews, the Zwane trial records and interviews, and TRC Alexandra hearings, supplemented by newspapers and police records. (p. 231) | Reviewer's description of Bozzoli's sources: trial materials, interviews, TRC hearings. | Partial data |
| Alexandra's shift to militancy was indigenous; the ANC sought to catch up with and co-opt township militancy rather than organising it. (p. 231) | Bozzoli's narrative from interviews, trial records and TRC hearings, as relayed by the reviewer. | Partial data |
| The state's shift from township 'welfare paternalism' to 'racial modernism' in the 1960s and 1970s shaped a new militant 'Comrade Generation' that led the 1980s risings. (p. 231) | Bozzoli's generational account supported by biographical sketches of Sebola, Zwane and Mogano, per the reviewer. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The Truth and Reconciliation Commission cemented a myth of a unified, nationalist, police-victimised community aligned with the ANC, while imprisoned youth activists disappeared from public memory and the acquitted elders came to represent the resistance. (p. 232) | Bozzoli's analysis of trial outcomes and TRC hearings, as summarised by the reviewer. | Partial data |
| Reviewer's critique: the dramaturgical approach privileges visible violence and local causes, leaving indirect effects, comparison with other townships and unintended consequences unexplained. (p. 232) | Reviewer's methodological judgement, not based on data. | Asserted |
| Bozzoli's account contains inconsistencies, e.g. the Alexandra population given as 120,000 (p. 1) and as 75,000 (p. 20), and promised hostel information that disappears. (p. 231) | Reviewer's reading of the book's internal figures. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
Tilly states that he is an outsider who has never visited Alexandra and cannot judge how accurately Bozzoli reconstructs the episode; he can only report what the treatment conveys to an outsider.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The review identifies no systematic comparative data: Alexandra is not compared with other townships or with movements outside South Africa. Evidence on pre-existing interpersonal networks, the sources of weapons, hostel residents' roles, and witchcraft relations is missing. Network data, police and security-force records, and comparative township case studies would test the claims better, and many of these exist in archives and in the TRC records.
Replicability: Not applicable.