Cassandra Kipp

A film adaptation of a theater production of one story of the fight against apartheid in South Africa, Darrell Roodt’s Sarafina! uses the musical genre to convey the pain and hope of rebellion while providing aspects a stage production can’t include. Sarafina begins a teen girl with fanciful dreams, finding joy within but escapism from life as a black person in apartheid South Africa. When impassioned and subversive teacher Mary Masombuka encourages her, Sarafina reapplies the desire to be something larger than herself to the Soweto Rebellion. After Masombuka is killed, her protesting students are massacred, and she is imprisoned, Sarafina! reevaluates the enthusiastic use of violence. Violence, oppression, and mob mentality are framed through a strategic musical lens.

Sarafina! puts the cost of apartheid and violence on clear display. Sarafina’s hair, which she brushes happily at the beginning but is dirty and unkempt by the end, symbolizes the reevaluation of her values and loss of youth. She begins concerned with stereotypical teenage girl anxieties, fixated on being famous and looking the part. Her experiences reveal a grim and hopeless reality, and now her appearance and fame don’t matter. It’s subtle, but outwardly reflective of her internal world. Nelson Mandela, meanwhile, serves as a sort of unresponsive god to Sarafina. She questions him for guidance and displays his photographic bust on her walls, dreaming of his influence and the freedom from apartheid he symbolizes. Mandela is, in context, a symbolic figure, but also represents a reality Sarafina can’t handle. Masumbuko’s gun, which Sarafina throws away at the end of the film, represents Sarafina discarding violence in her resistance. Furthermore, the characters themselves are amalgamated types of roles in rebellion: Sarafina is a young, punchy leading girl, while classmate Crocodile is an enthusiastic rebellion participant, and fellow student Guitar represents the emotional lens and the informant. This simplifies a complicated historical event into a comprehensible narrative. The Soweto uprising itself fought racial and socioeconomic status quo. By nature of the topic, the film is about overthrowing it. The Boer white South Africans are rightfully depicted as disgusting, oppressive colonizers. While the use of violence is criticized the Soweto Rebellion’s principles are not. Depicting the complicated nature of responses to oppression further deconstructs the status quo. Constable Sabela participates in apartheid brutality on the Boer’s behalf to benefit himself. Sarafina’s mother is a housekeeper for Boers, to Sarafina’s disapproval. Masombuka attempts to resist, and is killed. Sarafina and her class do the same and are broken. The film attacks the cycle of violent oppression.

The film combines stage and cinematic elements to structure this attack. An easy answer to why the film is a musical is to contrast the themes with generic expectations. The songs are, however, firmly entrenched in the narrative. Outside of its literal music, Sarafina! repeats the musical or rhythmic elements of protest. Marching, chanting, and running carry a thriving beat, applying art to rebellion. While tonally echoing the story, musical numbers also explains characters and internal worlds. The opening song “Sarafina!” lets the audience see Sarafina’s goals and hopes; “The Lord’s Prayer” reveals the schoolchildren’s need for religion, devotion to Masombuka, and potential for unification. “Sabela,” after immolating the Constable, takes a melancholy moment of pause, past the threshold of no return. It bridges a tonal transition to following reflective numbers. Visually, J and L cuts provide a sense of melancholy as the film descends. The delayed payoff gives a moment of pause and consideration, and often connects something that bodes poorly to its dramatically ironic results. For instance, the principal and a Boer discuss finding which teacher could be dispensing anti-colonialist views, and Mosembuko’s voice begins speaking these views as the two men consider. These can be replicated onstage; the camera angles, however, cannot. Wide shots convey the protest’s scale, combining community with ensemble choreography. Close ups, such as one on Sarafina’s face as she cleans a wound Sabela inflicted on Crocodile, convey conviction and narrative shifts—this is the moment, for instance, where Sarafina’s drive to resist bubbles forward.

Roodt is a white South African, known for his anti-apartheid stories and sheer output. Seeking to express South African stories with honesty, he nonetheless takes a centrist lens. “I didn’t [create anti-apartheid films] from a leftist, agit-prop point of view; rather, I tried to explore characters caught up in quagmire of those turbulent times,” Roodt assessed. Presumably, the combination of interests drove his desire to adapt a stage musical about South African apartheid and the complicated nature of violent protest. Sarafina! is itself relevant, as the socioeconomic problems it depicts are ongoing. Police brutality, racial oppression, and debates about returning violence onto oppressors are constant news. The Palestinian genocide is the horrific act of an apartheid state; this is not bygone history. Even at the time of release, the Rodney King riots and South African political overhaul were ongoing. The film’s anti-violence stance is unfortunate. While Sarafina! could be a call to action, it instead condemns violence but offers little alternative.

Roodt, Darrell. “Darrell Roodt: Dodging the Bullets.” Interview by Shaun de Waal. Mail & Guardian, 2013. https://mg.co.za/article/2013-04-26-darrell-roodt-dodging-the-bullets/.

Roodt, Darrell. “Interview: Darrell Roodt on Treurgrond.” Interview by Danie Marais. Litnet, 2015. https://www.litnet.co.za/interview-darrell-roodt-on-treurgrond/.

Roodt, Darrell. Sarafina! Hollywood Pictures, 1992.