(University of the Free State, 2009) Keuris, Marisa
English: In his epic play on Afrikaner history (from the Great Trek in 1838 to the birth of the
new South Africa in 1994) Deon Opperman (award-winning South African playwright)
presents the parallel and interlinked histories of two families – represented
by a white patriarch and a black matriarch and their various descendants – against
the background of important historical developments in South Africa. The article
focuses on the depiction of the birth and demise of Afrikaner nationalism by
identifying the “self” in Opperman’s Donkerland, and by discussing the relationship
of the self versus the “other” in this play.