#blackness

Zambian-Malawian theater artist Mbene Mwambene has spent his career travelling and performing internationally. His piece “The Whispers” charts the impact of colonialism on his family history. Here, he talks to scholar and dramaturg Michel Büch about their collaboration on the piece, the concept of “white promise,” and awkward audience discussions.

So far, scholars have had surprisingly little to say about Zaide, a black character that appears in the famous novel Lazarillo de Tormes. So how does the figure of a black slave fit into a canonical work of Spanish Golden-Age letters?