The X-kit Achieve! Literature series offers a unique series of visually attractive, high-quality exam preparation tools. The series has been written by top South African educationalists. The books cover all the knowledge and skills tested in the final English Home Language and First Additional Language literature exams for the FET phase.
Plot, theme, character, style, symbolism and imagery are all discussed in detail, and thoroughly taught and tested. Study and exam preparation techniques are covered and exam questions provided. Answers are also provided for all the questions to allow learners to monitor their own understanding.
This study guide aims to provide you with sufficient support for doing really well in your Grade 12 English examination. This study guide will provide:
• All the background information needed for a full understanding of My Children! My Africa!;
• Summaries, including a précis of the whole play, plus details of acts and scenes;
• Important quotes for use in exams;
• An analysis of the play that will help you understand the plot and develop insight and appreciation;
• Pointers about the characters for quick and easy revision;
• A summary of the key themes;
• Comprehensive exam preparation assistance, including test-yourself questions, sample contextual questions and full answers; and
• A glossary explaining literature terminology.
About the writer, Athol Fugard
Fugard studied philosophy, social anthropology and French at the University of Cape Town. However, he had always known that his calling in life was to be a writer. He therefore decided to leave the university before writing his final examinations and hitchhiked through Africa with his friend, the poet Perseus Adams. Fugard then worked on a steamship, the SS Graigaur, for almost two years before returning to Port Elizabeth where he wrote for the Evening Post.
Later Fugard moved to Cape Town where he married Sheila Meiring, who had been a Drama student at the University of Cape Town. Through her, Fugard became involved in theatre as an actor, a playwright and a director. In 1958, the Fugards moved to Johannesburg where Fugard worked as a clerk in the Fordsburg Native Commissioner’s Court. This was an eye-opener for him, where he saw the inhuman side of the apartheid system: “During my six months in that courtroom I saw more suffering than I could cope with. I began to understand how my country functions.”
Fugard’s writings are usually set under the shadow of the apartheid system. Although segregation and exploitation of indigenous people in Africa occurred in colonial times, it was the election victory of the National Party in 1948 that introduced the legalised system known as apartheid. Laws were passed where all people in South Africa were classified by race. Black people had to carry a dompas (passbook) wherever they went. My Children! My Africa! is set in the mid-1980s, when the intensity of the struggle for freedom was at its highest. Man
