Fatima Dike

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Fatima Dike, also known as Fatts Dike (born 13 September 1948) is a South African playwright and theatre director.[1][2] After writing The Sacrifice of Kreli in 1976, she became the first black South African woman to have a play published.[3]

Life[edit]

Royline Fatima Dike was born in Langa, Cape Town on 13 September 1948.[4] She was educated at Langa church schools until the government took them over in the 1950s. She was later sent to boarding school run by Irish nuns in Rustenburg.[5]

After leaving school she had a variety of jobs, including work in a steakhouse, a butcher's shop, a bookshop and a supermarket.[3] In 1972 she volunteered at the non-racial Space Theatre in Cape Town, where she was encouraged to write The Sacrifice of Kreli, about a king who takes himself into exile rather than be enslaved by the British.[5]

From 1979 to 1983 she lived in the United States, participating in a writers' conference at the University of Iowa and working with theatre groups in New York City. She took courses at New York University, though when she enrolled in a playwriting class with Ed Bullins he told her she was too experienced to be in his class.[5]

Dike lives in Langa.[5]

Plays[edit]

  • The Sacrifice of Kreli. Xhosa and English, 1976.
  • The First South African, 1977
  • The Crafty Tortoise, 1978
  • Glass House, 1979
  • So What's New?, 1991
  • Streetwalking and Company Valet Service, 2000

References[edit]

  1. ^ Flockemann, Miki; Solberg, Rolf (2015). Middeke, Martin; Schnierer, Peter Paul (eds.). The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary South African Theatre. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 293–310. ISBN 978-1-4081-7670-2.
  2. ^ Stephen Gray, 'The Theatre of Fatima Dike', English Academic Review, Vol. 2, Issue 1 (1984), pp.55-60.
  3. ^ a b Flockmann, Miki (1999). "On Not Giving Up: An Interview with Fatima Dike". In Goodman, Lizbeth (ed.). Contemporary Theatre Review: Women, Politics and Performance in South African Theatre Today. Routledge. pp. 17–26. ISBN 978-1-135-29884-5.
  4. ^ Stephen Gray, 'An Interview With Fatima Dike', Callaloo, No. 8/10 (Feb. - Oct. 1980), pp.157-164.
  5. ^ a b c d Kathy Perkins (2006). "Fatima Dike". Black South African Women: An Anthology of Plays. Routledge. pp. 39–41. ISBN 978-1-134-67358-2.
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