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Building Cohesion among Bakgatla Male 
Adolescents: A Performance as Research 
Approach 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Written 
By Tefo Omphile Paya 
 
 
 
 
 
Supervised  
By Warren Nebe 
 
 
 
This research report was submitted in May 2011 at the University of the Witwatersrand in the 
faculty of Humanities and was submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters of Arts in 
Dramatic Arts. 
 
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STANDARD PLAGIARISM DECLARATION 
 
 
1. I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another`s work and to pretend that it is 
one`s own. 
 
2. I have used the author date convention for citation and referencing. Each significant 
contribution to and quotation in this essay from the work or works of other people has been 
acknowledged through citation and reference. 
 
3. This Research Report is my work. 
 
4. I have not allowed and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing 
it off as his or her own work. 
 
5. I have done the work processing and formatting of this assignment myself. I understand that 
the correct formatting is part of the mark for this assignment and that it is therefore wrong 
for another person to do it for me. 
  
 
 
 
                     
_______________________    _______________________ 
Signature                                                      Date 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Acknowledgments: 
 
In this journey towards the Son I was guided greatly by my art, my mentors and loved ones 
who have been there to support me.  I hope that the group carries on with their journey and are 
able to find something to help guide them further in their journey of life. Something I hope they 
have gained from the journey we took together or will gain from us travelling further, as our process 
is still not over. I have gained wisdom and guidance from them, so I am still committed to carrying 
on working with the group. But I have faith that they will travel further, on other journeys, and find 
guidance from others including themselves. 
 I would like to thank my dear friend and co-researcher Lancelord Tabona Mokgwathi, my 
friend and colleaugue Gao Lemmenyane, my dear parents Mr. & Mrs. Motshwane, my supervisor 
and mentor Warren Nebe, then finally, but mostly I would like to thank the group of young men that 
I worked with. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Abstract 
 This practice led research explores masculine identity construction among young 
Bakgatla men. The research consists of a process-orientated performance intervention and a 
written component. I worked with a small group of young men of the Bakgatla tribe in the 
village of Mochudi, Botswana. Together we explored Masculine Identity, rites of passage and 
what it means to be a man within their community. 
 
 This report begins within an introduction that frames the study. Then it proceeds in 
episodes until the overall conclusion. The first episode gives further context of the study by 
explaining the problem statement and rationale. Then the second episode goes on to give 
the aims of the study and how it was originally planned before commencement. In the third 
episode I discuss the theory relevant to my field of study.  The following episode then goes 
into the pragmatics of the research and the analysis of key findings. The last episode I 
foreground my findings and the limitations of my study and suggest a possible way forward. 
The method of research used is practise-based research and the problems the study 
addresses are those of ethics versus aesthetics when applying theatre to a community 
setting and also the issue of the young men of the Bakgatla tribe being marginalised when it 
comes to dealing with issues about them. 
 
 The practice led research demonstrated how a facilitator can use heightened 
performance effectively as a way of mirroring and deepening community-based 
interventions. Evidence was found that such a method could be more effective in finding a 
balance between ethics and aesthetics, resolving an on-going problem in other applied 
theatre methods that use performance processes of personal narratives to assist individuals 
and groups. This study also foregrounds knowledge about young men of the Bakgatla tribe 
and conclude that they should be given a space, similar to the kgotla, to confront and 
dialogue problems that face men in a contemporary Botswana.  
 
 
 
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Key Terms 
 
Performance 
Masculinity 
Narrative 
Identity 
Practices as research 
Rites of Passage