Form as weapon: The political function of song in urban Zimbabwean theatre- How theatre utilizes and sometimes legitimizes political protest

In Zimbabwean society, what may not be spoken sometimes becomes acceptable in song-whether to avoid social taboos and enable a wife to complain agains t her mother-in-law, or in broadening the boundaries of political protest. In this article, Martin Rohmer looks back to the ways in which song enabled forms of protest against forced labour and other aspects of colonial rule- in times of outward as well as of direct struggle-and considers how urban t heatre groups in independent Zimbabwe have adapted the tradition to their o wn, contemporary ends.