남아공 극작가인 애솔 푸가드가 집필한 소설 『초치』는 아파르트헤이트 역사를 비롯한 인종주의와 계층차별을 주제로 백인정부가 흑인들의 삶을 어떻게 피폐하게 만들었는지를 중점적으로 다룬다. 특히 이 소설은 인종주의 역사의 부정적인 단면이 흑인들 사이에서 흑인들 간의 폭력을 만연하게 한 사회상을 초점화 하고 있다. 본 연구는 『초치』를 중심으로 남아공에 흑인 갱스터리즘이 확산된 사회적 원인을 찾아보고 흑인들의 다양한 심리와 고통, 그리고 그들 스스로가 회복하려는 흑인들의 위상을 구체적으로 논의할 것이다. 흑인폭력이 남아공의 주요한 사회문제로 대두될 만큼 심각한 현상으로 자리잡은 원인을 규명하는 것은 남아공 흑인사회를 이해하는 중요한 토대가 될 수 있을 것이다.

This research examines the influence and co-relationship between South Africa`s Apartheid and Black Africans` lives through playwright, novelist, journalist, and director Athol Fugard`s Tostsi. His novel Tsotsi is set in 1956, in Sophiatown, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Fugard leads the readers to access realistic aspects of South African society by means of depicting Black Africans` violent events happening in this township. Fugard has consistently centered on Black Africans` gangsterism, not on White`s racial discrimination against Black people. The reason he chose to concern himself with this subject is because most writers in South Africa have treated racial problems, rather than the serious matters caused by the wide gap between the rich and poor. His novel, Tsotsi treats this important situation in South Africa and insists that Black African crime has been fundamentally connected with the state`s own unjust use of violence. That is to say, state-led racial discrimination resulted in Black Africans` poverty and crime and especially gangsterism in Black African society. However, the seriousness of this problem can be extended in that the responsibility for Black African crime was previously simply ascribed to Blacks` inborn violent disposition or racial inferiority, and at the same time, overlooked the unreasonable social framework. Fugard emphasizes that these previous descriptions are not true and social injustice make Blacks Africans turn to violence. The South African government and Whites in general tried to evade their own historical guilt and blamed Black Africans because of this prevalent prejudice concerning race. Recognizing the seriousness of this problem, Fugard portrayed violence between Black Africans to let readers perceive the South African national absurdity and the unfairness of Apartheid. For this reason, Fugard described this social aspect in Tsotis. Therefore, this present research intends to embody Fugard`s narrative`s strategy related with the cause and self-conquest of Black-on-Black crime.