Importance Of Apartheid In Master Harold And The Boys

The influence of Apartheid on Hally in the play “Master Harold and the boys” by Athol Fugard .

Master Harold and the boys by Athol Fugard is written during 1950s in South Africa when apartheid was going so serious that white African is more superior than the black African .The play mainly focuses of the white and their two black servant. The boy Hally is a white who has close relationship with his servants but not respecting them sometimes. Under apartheid, nonwhite would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited. For example like there were separate public toilets for nonwhite African and they are required to bring along their passport with them when they went out for identity confirmation. Under the apartheid, Hally is affect by the concept of racial segregation and white supremacy that is clearly shown in the play.

The setting of the play shows a white family tearoom with two nonwhite servants. In the St. George’s park tea room in port Elizabeth, south Africa. The two nonwhite servants, Sam and Willie work in the tea room. Before Hally comes to the tea room, Willie is dancing with a rag for practicing ballroom dance for the coming competition while Sam is reading comic books on the table. As their master haven’t come back, so they are free in the tea room doing whatever they want without a white supervising. They are doing something that is not suitable for them as a black.