Word: zulu
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Against Odds. Built on a legend, the opera has itself become one. Its central theme follows the life and death of a Zulu giant named Ezekiel Dhlamini, a prizefighter of the 1950s who became the heavyweight champion of black South Africa and was known throughout the union as "King Kong." A hero until his death four years ago, he has since become something of an African god. He would clobber his challengers in the ring and later pulp them for good measure in the street outside. Braggart as well as warrior, he let his crown slide, ended...
...missionary doctor, according to one Zulu schoolboy, "prays over you before he kills you." It is a fair measure of Anthony Barker's own humility that he concedes some truth to the schoolboy's definition. As an Anglican medical missionary on a Zululand tribal preserve. Barker has indeed prayed for (and among) his charges. As a district surgeon battling impossible disease with often inadequate tools, he admits to times when a life may have been shortened by his fumbling instead of lengthened by his skill...
...Barkers' surprise, patients were at first embarrassingly scarce. The Zulus aloofly decided to see what the doctor could do before entrusting him with their bodily ills. Community status came in time; with it came Barker's discovery that the Zulu's ritual way of thinking made medicine an exercise in etiquette as well as a practical science. No visit to a tribal chief, healthy or not, was complete without an injection or, at the least, the prescription of a placebo. On house calls, a patient remained untended, no matter how ill, until the end of a lengthy...
...deaf-mute students of Washington, D.C.'s tiny Gallaudet College last year mimed Othello in sign language. Next year tribesmen in Southern Rhodesia will play Macbeth costumed as Zulu warriors in animal tails and feathers. As for his native England, the playwright's blessed plot resounds with Shakespeare, from the Old Vic to Regents Park, where the lyrics of The Tempest boom through stereophonic loudspeakers suspended from the trees...
...acted action. Almost all his players are amateurs, and he has obviously tried to make them relax and act natural; but except in one exciting bull session among Negro intellectuals, most of them seem stilted; Rogosin thinks that they felt awkward speaking English. Zachariah Mgabi, a Zulu office worker whom Rogosin spotted one day in a railroad station, is an exception. At times he plays with a wild, shy, serious charm that is irresistible. At times his natural, gentle face suggests a black St. Peter...