Murdering the soul: Representing rape and the commodification of children in Botswana

This article uses a devised play, Murdering the Soul, to explore issues concerning sexual abuse of girls in southern Africa. University of Botswana students created the play in 1998–1999 through improvisation, research, debates and group scriptwriting. The devising took place under my supervision, but with many inputs from Childline and Ditshwanelo (Botswana’s principle watchdog on human rights), as well as from two anonymous young (but adult) survivors of sexual abuse who acted as research informants. This article focuses on the interaction between theories and praxis, especially as they have become crystallized through the alchemy of performance in Gaborone, as well as through an adapted version in Zomba and Lilongwe, Malawi, in 2004. The finished play was in a mixture of English and Setswana for the Gaborone version, and English and Chichewa for the Zomba version.