07/06/2026
Drama for Life Statement: Africa Belongs to All – A Declaration Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Afrophobia
Drama for Life, the University of the Witwatersrand’s postgraduate academic, research, and community engagement department dedicated to Applied Drama and Theatre for social transformation and healing, was founded on the unshakeable principle that Africa belongs to all. This is not a slogan but our foundational creed—a commitment to an Africa that is inclusive, interdependent, and whole.
In the face of rising tensions across South Africa in 2026—marked by xenophobic rhetoric, Afrophobic violence, and targeted attacks on fellow Africans—we stand resolute. We unequivocally condemn all forms of discrimination, prejudice, xenophobia, and Afrophobia. We reject, without reservation, any and all forms of violence, intimidation, scapegoating, or exclusion directed at individuals based on nationality, ethnicity, migration status, or origin. Such acts betray the very humanity we seek to affirm through our work in drama therapy, performance ethnography, and arts education. They fracture communities, undermine the dignity of every African, and contradict the Pan-African vision of unity, solidarity, and shared prosperity.
Afrophobia—the targeted fear, hatred, or dehumanisation of fellow Black Africans from across the continent—represents a particularly insidious form of self-division. It echoes colonial logics of fragmentation and “divide and rule,” even as it emerges from contemporary realities of economic hardship and social strain. Yet no grievance, however legitimate, justifies violence or exclusion. We refuse to accept narratives that pit African against African. Instead, we affirm that true African-centered scholarship and practice must confront these contradictions with courage, creativity, and care.
As an African-centred postgraduate academic and research department, we assert our inalienable right to:
• Teach, mentor, and engage all Africans—students, scholars, artists, and practitioners from every corner of the continent and its diaspora.
• Embrace expert teachers, collaborators, and knowledge holders from across Africa, whose diverse perspectives enrich our curricula in applied drama, theatre for social justice, performance as research, and expressive arts therapies.
• Foster critical reflexive praxis that interrogates power, heals trauma, and builds bridges across borders—physical, cultural, and imagined.
Our classrooms, stages, festivals, and research projects are spaces of radical inclusion, not exclusion. We will continue to welcome, protect, and amplify voices from Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and every African nation, just as we honour South African voices. Diversity is not a threat to excellence; it is its foundation. Unity is not optional—it is our ethical imperative.
Drama for Life calls on all institutions of higher learning, cultural organisations, government bodies, and civil society to join us in rejecting hatred and investing in dialogue, education, and artistic interventions that rebuild social cohesion. Through performance, storytelling, and embodied learning, we transform division into possibility.
Africa belongs to all. Let us live this truth—not merely proclaim it.
Drama for Life
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa
First published April 2026
