By Jingye Tang
Since the Black Lives Matters movements in 2020, popular and academic appeals for further decolonization in education and pedagogy have been actively responded by secondary and higher institutions in the Global North. In the Global South where the connection between education system and colonial rule was more explicit, decolonizing education is often perceived as the first step to demolishing the colonial architecture and laying foundations for society-wide recognition of independent nationhood.
In recent initiatives in ridding racism- and colonialism-infused content from education, the one individual who has ascended to the center of the stage is Shakespeare, the British playwright whose work has dominated the English canon and pedagogy for centuries. On 14th October, a government funding body of New Zealand announced its cease of providing fundings to a secondary school competition for Shakespeare plays after questioning the relevance of this “Elizabethan playwright” to “a decolonizing Aotearoa in the 2020s and beyond”.
After providing financial support for Shakespeare performances for decades, the New Zealand government’s sudden U-turn is very telling about its interpretation of the connection between Shakespeare and colonialism. However, when we trace colonial histories specific to countries, we often find that the relationship between the works of Shakespeare and the colonialist manipulation of education is a nuanced one.
“The prince of darkness is a gentleman” – King Lear, Act 3, Scene 4.
On one hand, the manipulation of Shakespeare for generating a continuum between hegemonizing white culture and enforcing colonial rule and ideologies was evident in a range of anglophone colonies in Africa. Alongside the Bible, the British colonists prided themselves with bringing works of Shakespeare to Africa and presenting the continent on “one more English gift to the world…[which] had brought light to darkest Africa”, as sarcastically written by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a prominent decolonial writer from Kenya.
Under the name of bringing “civilized culture”, the British colonists were in reality instilling a cultural hierarchy based on race. Deliberately, Shakespeare was boasted by colonial educationists and administrators as one of the best, if not ‘the best’ writer in the world. Ngugi, who grew up in Kikuyu, Kenya, could still remember that Shakespeare in his high school was as important as an annual event like Speech Day. In comparison, the culture of the colonized population was subsided and led to be considered inferior to Western culture.
From today’s perspective, Shakespeare is also not completely unbiased in issues regarding race and European conquering. His last play, The Tempest, told a story of a group of Europeans conquering a foreign island, while the character who was the only native of the island, Caliban, rebelled and failed comically.
Many saw this play as an allegory of European colonialism that already began at the time of Shakespeare. The play itself was also put into conversation with and challenges by reinterpretations of modern authors, such as Aime Cesaire and her Une Tempete, which is set in Cameroon using all characters from The Tempest and focusing on race and anti-imperialism.
“There is some soul of goodness in things evil. Would men observingly distill it out.” – Henry V, Act 4.
This comes to my next point: on the other hand, when used correctly, the language of Shakespeare can also be used effectively against colonial rule. After all, many of the themes in the works of Shakespeare – the pursuit of freedom and justice, patriotism, and humanism – resonated much and interacted with the pursuits of figures in decolonial history.
On Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and other South African political prisoners were imprisoned, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare smuggled into the prison by Sonny Venkatrathnam – later to be known as the “Robben Island Bible” – was a pivotal vehicle for displaying collective might against Apartheid South Africa. As the prisoners would circulate the book and pick a section to sign their names, the 35 quotes from numerous plays of Shakespeare handpicked by 35 political prisoners together formed a collective declaration against the racist regime.
Nelson Mandela, for instance, signed his name next to one of the passages on Julius Caesar, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant only taste of death but once.”
What powerfulness and courage lies in this personal manifesto! While these elegantly written sentences again demonstrated that the works of Shakespeare can be the ideal vehicle for conveying the noblest qualities of human beings, it is up to educators to turn Shakespeare’s timeless celebration of humanism into stories that are grounded in time and space of decolonization history.
In order to achieve this, social enterprises that target decolonization in education should actively facilitate the process of uncovering the stories of the indigenous and presenting them from the gaze of the indigenous.
A case of Learning Shakespeare in an alternative way in action:
A senior theatre lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, Nicola Hyland, was quoted for her commentary on how potentially Shakespeare can be taught. She gave the example of the story of forbidden love between noble Hinemoa and illegitimate young warrior Tūtānekai – much resembling Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette.
Nicola said, “It would be a massive, awesome act of decolonization if we discovered our own stories first and discovered Shakespeare afterwards.” The key to decolonizing education indeed lies in giving more voices to the indigenous and problematizing hegemonic knowledge.
In the case above, would it not be more intellectually stimulating if students would discuss the similarities between the two stories and how, despite the lack of written language and colonialization, the powerfulness of story-telling and drama makes it possible for Māori legends such as Hinemoa and Tūtānekai to survive through word of mouth? This can constitute a moment of indigenous empowerment and allows students to rethink the canon of drama.
To learn or not to learn, is that the question?
So, should Shakespeare continue to be allowed to appear in school curriculum? I believe firstly, we should always avoid questions that simply paint a black or white image of Shakespeare. Answers to such are bound to create an even more radicalized and divided portrayal of what could have been a source of artistic inspiration and significant critical energy.
We must come to the understanding that there is more than just one Shakespeare and that there is more than one pedagogy. Students can learn about Shakespeare from the prisons (now museums) on Robben Island. They can learn about Shakespeare from modern interpretations of his plays set in different times and different space. They can learn about Shakespeare after hearing a legendary love story of their own ancestors. They can learn about Shakespeare from films, broadcasts, theatre…
Ultimately, decolonization in education should be a generative process. It critiques and eliminates the biased, racist, and Eurocentric worldview in education as much as it creates and nurtures a humanitarian and egalitarian view of the world. Long as the spirit of human creativity and longingness for humanism carries on, William Shakespeare and his plays will never be forgotten.
References
The Robben Island Shakespeare | Folger Shakespeare Library
How Hinemoa’s unrelenting love for Tutanekai conquered all – Whakarewarewa
Further reads