theatre, African

theatre, African

art
Introduction

      an art, concerned almost exclusively with live performances in which the action is precisely planned to create a coherent and significant sense of drama, as it is presented in sub-Saharan Africa.

      The content and style of urban African theatre are influenced by both African dramatic traditions and Western theatre. The influence of Western styles is the result of a colonial presence, education in European languages, and the training of artists abroad. The degree and manner of foreign influence differ greatly from country to country, however. Such influence has hindered the development of African theatre in Zimbabwe, for example, where a minority continues to produce predominantly commercial Western theatre. The accent on Negritude in the theatre of French-speaking West Africa in the 1960s, on the other hand, was a reaction to the control of French directors, who clearly left their mark on production styles—e.g., in the Daniel Surano Theatre in Senegal, where the works of Aimé Césaire (Césaire, Aimé) and other leading playwrights are staged. The plays of Bernard Dadié (Dadié, Bernard Binlin) of Côte d'Ivoire reflect French comic traditions, and Jean Pliya of Benin is one of a number of playwrights obsessed by colonial history. The texts of Western-educated writers have built a literary style of theatre, appealing to an elite audience, in which dance and music play, if anything, a subsidiary role.

      On the other hand, at a popular level, village theatre throughout Africa is based on the traditions of music, song, dance, and spectacle and has offered a rich platform for the development of contemporary urban theatre. Theatre innovators built onto village traditions of storytelling, some borrowing production styles from the colonial music-hall entertainment staged in West African cities in the 1920s and '30s. Concert parties toured Togo and Ghana, and in the 1950s the Ghanaian “Trios” emerged, with Bob Cole and his company delighting audiences in Accra with comic dramatizations of local events.

West Africa (Western Africa)
      The first professional theatres (Nigerian theatre) in Nigeria were companies created by actor-managers. The three most successful—Hubert Ogunde (Ogunde, Hubert), Kola Ogunmola (Ogunmola, Kola), and Duro Ladipo (Ladipo, Duro)—were all Yoruba, and all started work as teachers involved in dramatizing Bible stories in African Christian churches. Ogunde's first production was The Garden of Eden (1944), staged in the Church of the Lord in Lagos. It was followed in 1945 by a secular satire, Strike and Hunger, inspired by a clash between Nigerian workers and their colonial bosses. Ogunde's success led him to form the Ogunde Concert Party, which, in a style borrowed from the current British concert parties, staged domestic comedies and astute political satires between opening and closing “glees” of song and dance unrelated to the plot.

      The euphoria of Nigerian independence in 1960 brought with it an explosion of creativity in the urban arts oriented toward new African forms and a rejection of colonial influences. This resulted in a creative confidence in literary and popular theatre that was to be influential throughout Africa. Traveling theatres, loosely known as Yoruba Opera companies, took to the road. Duro Ladipo (Ladipo, Duro) created spectacular productions dramatizing themes from Yoruba mythology and history. His trilogy on the history of the kingdom of Oyo, published in 1964 as Three Yoruba Plays (Oba Koso [“The King Did Not Hang”], Oba Moro [“The King of Ghosts”], and Oba Waja [“The King Is Dead”]), has the power and serenity of ancient Greek tragedy.

      Kola Ogunmola (Ogunmola, Kola) specialized in domestic comedies featuring himself as a brilliant actor and mime. He refined Ogunde's techniques, replacing saxophones with Yoruba drums and writing tightly constructed yet gentle social satires. His most typical play is Ife Owo (c. 1950; Love of Money), but his greatest success was with Omuti Apa Kini (1963), an adaptation of Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard. Though Ogunmola and Ladipo died in the early 1970s, their influence continued through the next decade as decorated trucks carried Yoruba Opera companies to one-night stands in towns and villages. The Yoruba music-drama Obaluaye (1970), by the composer Akin Euba, added a theatrical sophistication to their idiom, and they had a profound influence on the work of literary playwrights, particularly Wole Soyinka (Soyinka, Wole) and Ola Rotimi (Rotimi, Ola). Soyinka and Rotimi spent years as university playwright-directors, and their skills at staging their own works gave them a theatrical viability lacking in the more poetic work of John Pepper Clark (Clark, John Pepper).

      Wole Soyinka, a brilliant critic and satirist who in 1986 was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, is regarded as Africa's leading writer. His work reflects the complexities facing an African playwright writing in English, moving from naturalistic treatment of his subjects to a profoundly Yoruba view of universal themes. His early comic satires The Lion and the Jewel (first performed at Ibadan in 1959; published 1963) and The Trials of Brother Jero (1960) are popular with all levels of English-speaking audiences, but the verbal and philosophical complexities of his later works are for an intellectual elite. The Strong Breed (1963) and Death and the King's Horseman (1975) are powerful statements of cultural conflict, while Soyinka's political satires, such as Kongi's Harvest (1965), are both savage and entertaining. The Road (1965) and A Dance of the Forests (1963) delve into the dramatic contrasts of life in Africa through the complexities of Yoruba mythology. In the latter, written for and performed to celebrate Nigerian independence in October 1960, Soyinka criticized the myth of the glorious African past, rejecting the Negritude concept that the revival of African culture must be inspired by African cultural heritage alone. His drama became increasingly pessimistic—as well as more obscure—after the Nigerian civil war, notably in Madmen and Specialists (1970). He also turned to past events—for example, in Death and the King's Horseman—and to new versions of old plays. His version of the Bacchae of Euripides was staged by the National Theatre in London in 1973, and Opera Wonyosi, a version of John Gay (Gay, John)'s The Beggar's Opera, appeared at the University of Ife in 1977.

      Ola Rotimi (Rotimi, Ola) evolved a theatrical English enriched by African proverbs and idioms. His style of directing made brilliant use of dramatic movement and drew an enthusiastic response from both university and popular audiences. Rotimi excelled at historical tragedies: Kurunmi (1969) deals with the Yoruba wars and Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (1971) with the sack of Benin. He also had a flair for satirical comedy, as shown in Our Husband Is Gone Mad Again (1966). As directors, both Soyinka and Rotimi made creative use of music and dance.

      In Ghana, intercultural exchange had mixed results. In the 1960s Saka Acquaye's The Lost Fisherman, a musical based on “highlife” (see African dance), was a popular success, as was Efua Sutherland (Sutherland, Efua)'s traveling theatre, for which she created productions based on village storytelling and local themes. Her plays in English use Greek models, as do those of Joe de Graaft. Ama Ata Aidoo (Aidoo, Ama Ata) was the most successful Ghanaian playwright after the 1960s. Her The Dilemma of a Ghost (1964) explores the complex cultural conflict arising in a Ghanaian village when a young man returns from his studies abroad with an African American wife. Anowa (1970) deals with African involvement in the slave trade and the subservience of women.

       Hausa drama generally has a popular appeal and owes much to the dramatic style of traditional storytelling; it has focused on social problems, particularly those involving the Hausa family, with its tradition of polygamy. This practice has been criticized in many plays—for example, Tabarmar Kunya (1969; “Matter of Shame”) by Adamu dan Gogo and Dauda Kano. Some plays satirize the dependence of uneducated people on Muslim scholars, and some—for example, Umaru Balarme Ahmed's Buleke (1970)—depict characters who lead a hectic modern life but are nevertheless still rooted in tradition. Plays are performed often in schools and are featured frequently on radio and television.

East Africa (eastern Africa)
      An important Ethiopian playwright is Kabbada Mīkael, whose historical play Hannibal was performed at the Festival of Arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966. The best-known work of Mangistu Lammā is Yalaccha Gabbiccha (“Marriage of Unequals”), which deals with social inequality; it was staged for the first time in Addis Ababa in 1964. A play depicting a family in transition from old rural ways to the bleak uncertainty of city life is the Pinteresque Yakarmo-saw (1958; “The Origin of Man-made Taboo”), by Saggāye Gabra Madhin.

      Somali (Somalia) theatre has been firmly established since the 1950s and is very popular; many scripts still remain to be published, however. Shabeelnagood (Leopard Among the Women), by Xasan Sheikh Mumin, a play depicting a heartless, wily trickster who marries naive young women, was published in Somali with an English translation in 1974; it was first performed in Mogadishu in 1968 and also had a long provincial tour and radio serialization. Somali theatre has been compared to that of the Elizabethan era in England in its combination of popular entertainment with high art and its ability to excite the interest of a broad cross section of society.

      Swahili (Swahili literature) drama is particularly popular with school and college students, especially when it explores the conflicting pressures of traditional and modern values. Penina O. Muhando (Muhando, Penina O.)'s popular play Pambo (1975; “Decoration”), depicting this conflict, ends with the central character's reluctant rejection of self-seeking careerism in the interest of his family and community.

       Zulu drama is most successful in serialized radio plays, which are immensely popular and have huge audiences. One of the best-known examples, which has been published, is D.B.Z. Ntuli's Indandatho-yesithembiso (1971; “The Engagement Ring”).

      Protest theatre in South Africa emerged under inventive and dedicated directors—Athol Fugard (Fugard, Athol) working through improvisation with John Kani and Winston Ntshona; Barny Simons, the artist behind the Market Theatre for Black Artists in Johannesburg; and Maishe Maponya and his versatile Soweto company. The works of these directors have no sophisticated sets and may be staged in any venue. They speak of the tragedy of South Africa, with twists of humour touching on the most dire of situations—a quality found throughout Africa in village and urban drama. A stark contrast is provided by the officially sponsored vapid extravaganza of the musical Ipi-Tombi. An unofficial musical was Poppie Nongena, starring Thuli Dumakude in successful seasons in London and New York City in 1984.

      In Zimbabwe the most effective theatre was in the hands of small semiprofessional companies such as The People's Theatre, directed by Ben Sibenke in Harare. In Zambia Stephen Chifunyise toured villages with his company, setting up a dramatic dialogue with his audiences.

Elizabeth Ann Wynne Gunner Peggy Harper

Additional Reading
Studies on contemporary African drama and on theatre in African languages include B.W. Andrzejewski, “Modern and Traditional Aspects of Somali Drama,” in Richard M. Dorson (ed.), Folklore in the Modern World (1978), pp. 87–101; Michael Etherton, The Development of African Drama (1982), which analyzes the literary and traditional roots of African drama from East and West Africa and draws on a wide range of plays; Biodun Jeyifo, The Truthful Lie: Essays in a Sociology of African Drama (1985), a work setting plays by such diverse figures as Soyinka and Fugard in their sociological context and including an essay on the social and dramatic significance of Yoruba popular theatre; Eldred Durosimi Jones, The Writings of Wole Soyinka, rev. ed. (1983), a major critical introduction to Soyinka's drama; Robert Mshengu Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa (1985), a stimulating study of the cultural and political context of South African drama by Gibson Kente and other black South African playwrights and including plays by Fugard, Ntshona, and Kani; Oyin Ogunba and Abiola Irele (eds.), Theatre in Africa (1976, reprinted 1978), a collection of 10 essays on traditional and modern drama in Africa; Yeni Ogunbiyi (ed.), Drama and Theatre in Nigeria: A Critical Source Book (1981), an excellent survey and overview of Nigerian theatre, both traditional and modern; Bakary Traoré, The Black African Theatre and Its Social Functions (1972; originally published in French, 1958), focusing on a particular variety of theatre in traditional societies in former French colonies and covering the plays of Keita Fodeba; and Harold A. Waters, Black Theatre in French: A Guide (1978), including a general introduction and covering the plots of some 150 plays, grouping them thematically.Elizabeth Ann Wynne Gunner

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