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- Female: 2
- Male: 1
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Context
Charlie is an American journalist who has come to Zatembe to write about the conflict within the nation. Tshembe is a local man who has been living in London but returned home for his father’s funeral. In this heated scene, Charlie declares his desire to rise above the existing, ingrained race relations. Instead, he wants to understand and potentially publicize the Africans and their struggle through his writing. However, Tshembe calls out Charlie's unspoken paternalism and unconscious
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START: CHARLIE: Well, Mr.--
TSHEMBE: (Turning, crisply) Matoseh.
CHARLIE: (Hand extended) Morris. (They shake It is cursory, abrupt; the pace set by the African’s disinterest) How’s about a drink? I know where they keep the liquor and its pretty decent stuff. Even without ice.
[... …]
END: TSHEMBE: I don’t care what happens here--anywhere! (She writhes in agony) I am not responsible. (Then stillness: the “sleeping lioness” of the lore. She rises; a tremor of wakefulness possesses her and she reaches out for him and dances the unmistakable dance of the warriors--beckoning urgently, insistently.) It is not my affair! (Abruptly she sweeps up a spear and thrusts it before him and he clutches it, automatically, to stop it falling, then sees it in his hand. Screaming.) I HAVE RENOUNCED ALL SPEARS!
Lorraine Hansberry. Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry. 1972. pp.94-105
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