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Intro
Act 1 begins in Mr. M’s classroom at the all-Black Zolile High School, where Black student Thami Mbikwana and visiting white student Isabel Dyson have a heated debate over women’s rights. Thami’s classmates vote Isabel the winner of the debate, and afterward, Thami and Isabel bond by talking about their families and their plans for the future. In a monologue, Isabel explains how truly seeing the Black township of Brakwater for the first time during the inter-school debate taught her that Black people are actually her equals. She feels like she’s discovered “a new world” and is eager to return.
Next, Mr. M pays Isabel a visit. He proposes that she and Thami join a quiz competition about English literature, and she enthusiastically agrees. Mr. M hopes that the literature competition prize money could cover Thami’s college tuition, but Isabel wonders if Mr. M might be trying to impose his own wishes on Thami’s future. In a monologue of his own, Mr. M quotes the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius and explains that he has dedicated his life to education, which Mr. M considers the surest path to creating virtuous citizens and societies. Nevertheless, as he sees poverty and violence spreading around him, he also struggles to keep alive his hope for the future. He even starts to wonder if he is on the wrong side of history.
Isabel and Thami practice for the literature competition, quizzing each other about English poets’ lives and works. When Thami comments that Black people should tear down white colonizers’ statues, Mr. M furiously replies that this is a distraction from Black people’s fight for political rights. Thami admits to Isabel that he thinks Mr. M is full of “old-fashioned ideas” like the literature competition. According to Thami, Mr. M supports the oppressive apartheid government by continuing to teach. Isabel begs Thami to reconcile with Mr. M, but Thami thinks it’s impossible. Isabel is hurt, but she reaffirms that she deeply values her friendship with Thami.
Act 1 ends with Thami’s monologue: he explains that he used to love school and dreamed of becoming a doctor, but now he realizes that what his country most needs is political change. Under the apartheid regime, the brightest Black students are still forced to work humiliating jobs and have no chance of social advancement. In school, they learn about European colonization—but they get their true education on the streets, where they learn about the history of the anti-apartheid movement.
At the beginning of Act 2, Thami tells Isabel that he’s quitting the literature competition. The community protest movement is boycotting the school system, which means he can no longer compete. While Isabel doesn’t want to lose her friendship with Thami, she explains that she understands the protest movement’s goals: she now sees how apartheid laws are designed to keep Black people poor, landless, and trapped in subordinate roles, while the government teaches white people like her to view Black people as inferior. Then, Mr. M walks into the room and defends the school system: while he detests the official curriculum, he insists that words, not weapons, are the key to social change. Mr. M pleas with Thami to keep coming to school, and he reveals that the government wants him to report any students who stop attending. Thami calls Mr. M a traitor to the anti-apartheid movement.
Soon, the community violently rises up against the government. In a monologue, Mr. M recounts his horror at what he sees: policemen attack and arrest his young students, one of whom even writes “Liberation First, Then Education” on the wall.
Mr. M vigorously rings his school bell in his classroom and calls out his students’ names. A rock shatters the schoolhouse’s window, and Thami comes inside to tell Mr. M that the Comrades (the leaders of the protest movement) are after him because of rumors that he is a police informant. Offering Thami his beloved dictionary, Mr. M again proclaims that words are the most powerful tool for political change. Then, he reveals that he is an informant: he thought it was the only way to stop the violence, but he’s no longer sure he made the right decision.
Mr. M tells Thami why he became a teacher: on a school trip as a young boy, he looked out over the Wapadsberg Pass at the vast Karoo desert and asked his teacher about Africa. His teacher told him about all the continent’s peoples, rivers, and mountains. When Mr. M realized it was possible to learn all this from books, he decided to become a teacher, too. But years later, he is disappointed to see what has become of Africa, of all its young people’s promise and potential. He proclaims, “My children…my Africa,” and tells Thami that he’s not afraid to die for his values. He runs outside, where an angry mob awaits, and they kill him.
After Mr. M’s death, Isabel visits Thami one last time. Thami has to leave South Africa because the police are after him, and Isabel is devastated about Mr. M’s death. She doesn’t understand how Mr. M’s community could murder him, but Thami explains that Mr. M was a traitor and the community killed him in self-defense. Still, he and Isabel both admit that they loved Mr. M to the end, even if they disagreed with his worldview. They say goodbye in Xhosa, Thami’s native language, and then part forever.
The play closes with Isabel alone at Wapadsberg Pass, paying her respects to Mr. M. She promises that she will dedicate her life to fighting for justice and equality in South Africa and beyond.
