Master Harold and the Boys Historical Context

Master Harold and the Boys Historical Context

Separate and Unequal

In the mid-twentieth century, the country of South Africa was dominated by the policy of apartheid, a separation and segregation based on race. Strict policies prohibited and governed such Issues as intermarriage, land ownership, and use of public facilities. In "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys, Sam illustrates the division quite clearly: "I couldn't sit down there and stay with you," referring to a "Whites Only" bench upon which Hally sat. The laws deliberately set out to humiliate people of color, even to the point of determining who could sit on a particular bench Errol Durbach explained the psychopathology of apartheid in Modern Drama: "It is not that racial prejudice is legislated in South Africa. It insinuates itself into every social sphere of existence, until the very language of ordinary hu­man discourse begins to reflect the policy that makes black men subservient to the power exer­cised by white...
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