26 July 2013

Dance

Agitprop, Part 5a

Umkhonto we Sizwe Toyi Toyi

Dance

Use of dance as a means of Agitprop is a South African characteristic.

It is often said, for example, that South Africa is the only place where striking workers dance as a means of protest. Whether or not it is the only place, yet it is true that this happens in South Africa and that a strike without any “toyi-toying” is a rare thing in SA, such that the words “toyi-toyi” and “strike” are interchangeable in some South African contexts.

When demonstrators dance, they are marshalled and kept to a pace and kept tight in formation.

The effect altogether is to magnify the impact of any demonstration as compared to the strolling, loose crowd that is typical of European “marches”, which rely mainly on size for impact.



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