Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
A Brief History of African Theatre: An Overview April 13, & 18, 2016 What do you know about Africa and its people? Did you know this? Population: 1,166,239,306 Africa: An Overview Known to be the place from which the very first humans originated; Great diversity of geography, climate, politics, and languages (more than 800 spoken languages); Interactions with other cultures: ★ Northern coasts à with European and Middle Eastern cultures for millennia; ★ Eastern coasts à long history of trading relations with of the Indian Ocean, including India and Saudi Arabia; ★ Western, Central, and Southern coasts à few contacts with European maritime travelers – Establishment of small colonies; 1885: Official start of colonialism; Reorganization of colonies after WWI and WWII; Independence movement in late 1950s and early 1960s; Religious Africa Some Basic Issues and Problems Non-written languages Oral historic records (Importance of the Griot in West Africa); Colonial powers dismissal of these histories and traditions; Many of the histories were lost by the time writing symbols were adopted; Contradictions between the imposed European history and the Natives’ oral histories Double Consciousness à Assimilation ßà Matriculation Civil wars following independence – Apartheid Slavery and Slave Trade and the loss of part of the population and memory of the past – But also, impacts on World music and arts Western and Eastern religions vs Ancestral belief systems “In Africa, performance is a primary site for the production of knowledge, where philosophy is enacted, and where multiple and often simultaneous discourses are employed. Not only that, but performance is a means by which people reflect on their current conditions, define and/or re-invent themselves and their social world, and either re-enforce, resist, or subvert prevailing social orders. Indeed both subversion and legitimation can emerge in the same utterance or act.” (3) [Margaret Drewal, “The Sate of Research on Performance in Africa,” African Studies Review, 34, 3 (Dec., 1991): 1-64] Defining Theatre and Performance in Africa Pre-colonial African performance: Still a lot of research needed Complexity of forms, languages, and symbolisms Drumming Dances Masks and Masquerades (Pende Masks, Yoruba Egungun) Puppets (Bamana or Bambara) Rites and Social Drama Religions Pende Masks & Bamana Puppets Minganji Rituals and Ritualistic Performances Initiation ceremonies for boys and girls (Rites of Passage) Preparation for hunting sessions Preparation for wars Power functions Honoring the dead Daily Social Functions Ritual Main structure from Arnold Van Gennep’s ideas à Contribution of Victor Turner’s Social Drama Four stages: 1. BREACH 2. CRISIS 3. REDRESSIVE PROCESS: Ancestral transactions or sentences – Political Processes – Legal-Judicial Process 4. REINTEGRATION (or RECOGNITION OF IRREPARABLE SCHISM) Mukanda Initiates Egungun Costume & Mask Preliminary Concepts/Performance Functions Richard Schechner’s Dyad: - Entertainment - Efficacy Victor Turner’s ideas: - Social Drama - Aesthetic Performance Bakary Traoré and the Social Functions of African Theatre: - Political Functions à Criticisms – Presentation of Models - Galvanizing Functions à Collective Actions - Didactic Functions à Education and Change of Mentalities - Recollection of Major Events and Past Heroes Colonial and Post-colonial Situations The Negritude Movement - Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Léon Gontran-Damas à Black literature in Paris (1932 to 1966) - Coined by Aimé Césaire, who deliberately and proudly incorporated this derogatory word into the name of his ideological movement – 1932 Colonial and Post-colonial Situations Panafricanism - The Independence Movement à Edward Blyden, W.E.B. Dubois, Haile Selassie, Kwame Nkrumah & Sékou Touré - The belief that people of African descent throughout the Diaspora (meaning spread throughout the world) share a common history, culture, and experience and should stick together. Modern and Westernized Theatre and Performance The Role of Western Schools: > The William Ponty School for Native Teachers and Colonial Administrators (1913) In Gorée Island (later transferred to Sebikotane) Audio-Visual Media The BBC Drama Competition (1957 and onward) Radio France Internationale Competitions (1968 – 1990) The Role of Festivals such as the 1st Black World Festival (Dakar 1966) Fight Against Apartheid Mau-Mau Uprising and Post-Colonial Africa Types of Theatre Companies National Theatres and National Ballets Traveling Theatre Companies (the case of Nigeria) > Duro Ladipo > Hubert Ogunde Non-Commercial Companies Radio and Television Groups The Advent of Nollywood Hubert Ogunde (1916-1990) Duro Ladipo (1931-1978) Major Themes and Characteristics of Modern African Theatre è A Committed Theatre à No art for art’s sake: Ritualistic Theatre Memory Theatre à Historical figures (Sundiata, Shaka, Kimpa Mvita, Lumumba, Samory Touré…) Surrealistic Theatre Political Criticism Social Issues Few Names Francophone Africa: > Bernard Dadié (Béatrice du Congo…) > Cheik Aliou Ndao (L’Exil d’Albouri) > Seydou Badian Kouyaté (La mort de Chaka) > Guillaume Oyono (Trois prétendants, un mari) > Tchikaya U Tam’si (Le Zulu) > Sony Labou Tansi (Parenthèses de sang) > Pierre Ndedi-Penda (Le fusil) > Guy Menga (La marmitte de Koka-Mbala) > Norbert Mobyem Mikanza (Procès à Makala) Anglophone Africa: > J.P. Clark (Song of a goat) > Wole Soyinka (Death and the king’s horseman) > Ngugi Wa Thiongo, with Micere Mugo** (The Trial of Dedan Kimathi) > Femi Osofisan (Who’s Afraid of Solarin?) > Efua Sutherland** (Edufa) > Ama Ata Aidoo** (Dilemma of the Ghost) > Zakes Mda (We Shall Sing for the Fatherland) > Athol Fugard (Sizwe Banzi is Dead) > Hussein Ebrahim (Kinjeketile) The Case of South Africa à The history of theatre in South Africa is bound up in the complexities of its colonial and recent past. à Because of its strategic location and resources, South Africa began early to be coveted by Europeans. Beginning around 1652 the Netherlands encouraged Dutch immigrants to settle there. à British occupation starting around 1814 à Resistance against the European occupation – Death of Shaka (1828) à Independence of Union of South Africa (reconciliation of the Boers/Afrikaners and British settlers) from Britain in 1931 à Apartheid System (1948-1994) – Black people moved to townships (shantytowns) – Separate homelands in the least desirable lands à As in other African countries, indigenous performances were numerous and of long standing before the arrival of Europeans. à The first performance of a European play in South Africa came in the 1780s, and after 1801 – theatrical performances were available occasionally through visiting companies from England and elsewhere. à Because of government restrictions, many white Englishlanguage and virtually all black playwrights worked outside the subsidized theatre. à Black interest in theatre, other than traditional performance, can be traced back to at least the 1920s. In 1927, G.B. Sinxo’s Debeza’s Baboons became the first play in Xhosa language to be performed à H.I.E. Dhlomo (1903-1956) – The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongquase the Liberator (1935) – first drama in English by a black person to be published. June 16, 1976: Soweto Uprising Black Political Theatre à Political theatre grew out in the 1970s out of the Black Consciousness Movement (in universities) – Not being able to act politically, this movement chose theatre as means of uniting blacks, reminding them of their history and lost culture, and building resistance à Mbongeni Ngema, Percy Mtwa, and Barney Simon – Woza Albert! à Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona – Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, The Island à Style of Performance: Improvisations from basic storyline grounded on everyday struggles Combinations of spoken words, songs, dance steps (gumboot dance) Musicals such as Asinamali! (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNmXT1Q_ECw Sarafina (1986) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpYaGfnnnYI & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtAAhZeVBc Township Fever (1990) Woza Albert! Sizwe Bansi Is Dead Wole Soyinka Guillaume Oyono Mbia Wole Soyinka (1934) Nigerian playwright, poet, author, teacher and political activist Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature in 1986. Some of his 29 or so plays: The Swamp Dwellers (1958), The Lion and the Jewel (1959), The Trials of Brother Jero (1959), A Dance of the Forests (1960), The Strong Breed (1964), Kongi's Harvest (1964), The Road (1965), Madmen and Specialists (1970), The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), Death and the King's Horseman (1975), Opera Wonyosi (1977), A Play of Giants (1984), King Baabu (2001) Guillaume Oyono Mbia (1939) African dramatist and short-story writer, one of bilingual Cameroon’s few writers to achieve success both in French and in English. Compared Molière – created comedies that play well both on stage and on radio. Among them are Trois prétendants . . . un mari (1962; Three Suitors . . . One Husband), Until Further Notice (1967), Notre fille ne se mariera pas! (1969; “Our Daughter Will Not Marry!”), and His Excellency’s Train (1969) Favorite theme: youth versus adult, modernity versus tradition. Three satire volumes of amusing tales of life in his native village, Chroniques de Mvoutessi (1971–72; “Chronicles of Mvoutessi”).