The first truly continentally representative collection of modern African drama in any language, this Norton Critical Edition includes plays from Egypt, Algeria, the Republic of South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya.
"Backgrounds and Criticism" presents documents on modern African drama generally and on the assembled texts and authors specifically, including little-known materials. Featured are essays on Tawfik al-Hakim, Kateb Yacine, Athol Fugard, Wole Soyinka, Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, and Femi Osofisan.
Preface
The Texts of the Plays
Tawfik al-Hakim·Fate of a Cockroach
Kateb Yacine·Intelligence Powder
Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona·Sizwe Bansi Is Dead
Wole Soyinka·Death and the King's Horseman
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin·Collision of Altars
Area Ata Aidoo·The Dilemma of a Ghost
Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii·I Will Marry When I Want
Femi Osofisan·Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels
Backgrounds and Criticism
AFRICAN DRAMA AND THEATRE
Frantz Fanon·On National Culture
Wole Soyinka·Theatre in African Traditional Cultures: Survival Patterns
Ngugi wa Thiong'o·Enactments of Power:
The Politics of Performance Space
Biodun Jeyifo·The Reinvention of Theatrical Tradition
Don Rubin·African Theatre in a Global Context
Joachim Fiebach·Dimensions of Theatricality in Africa
David Kerr·Art as Tool, Weapon or Shield?:Arts for Development Seminar, Harare
TAWFIK AL-HAKIM
Paul Starkey·[Trends in the Drama of Tawfik al-Hakim]
Denys Johnson-Davies·Introduction to "Fate of a Cockroach" and Other Plays
Richard Long·[Philosophical and Psychological Themes in Fate of a Cochroach]
KATEB YACINE
Bernard Aresu·[The Theatrical Carnivalesque in Intelligence Powder]
Jacqueline Kaye and Abdelhamid Zoubir·[Populist Aesthetics and Idioms in Kateb Yacine's Theatre]
Kamal Salhi·The Pragmatics and Aesthetics of Kateb Yacine's Theatre Practice
ATHOL FUGARD, JOHN KANI AND WINSTON NTSHONA
Athol Fugard·Introduction to Statements
Russell Vandenbroucke·"Robert Zwelinzima Is Alive"
Hilary Seymour·[Artistic Ambivalence in Sizwe Bansi Is Dead]
Dennis Walder·The Statements Plays
WOLE SOY1NKA
Wole Soyinka·Author's Note to Death and the King's Horseman
Wole Soyinka·Towards a True Theatre
Annemarie Heywood · The Fox's Dance: The Staging of Soyinka's Plays
Adebayo Williams·[Cultural Death and the King's Horseman]
Michael Etherton·Tribute to Wole Soyinka
TSEGAYE GABRE-MEDHIN
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin·Author's Note to Collision of Ahars
Richard Pankhurst·Collision of Altars: Notes on History
Biodun Jeyifo·Art and Ideology in the Plays of Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin
Jane Plastow·[Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin and Ethiopian Reformist Theatre]
AMA ATA AIDOO
Lloyd W. Brown·[Oral Tradition in Dilemma of a Ghost]
C. L. Innes·[Motherhood in Ama Ata Aidoo's Plays]
Vincent O. Odamtten·A Bird of the Wayside Sings
NGUG1 WA TH1ONG'O
Ngugi wa Thiong'o Women in Cultural Work: The Fate of the Kamurntu People's Theatre in Kenya
Oliver Lovesey·I Will Marry When I Want
FEMI OSOF1SAN
Femi Osofisan·[Formal Strategies and Social Commentary in His Plays]
Sandra Richards·Hegemony Rests with the Audience
Abiola Irele·[Form, Content, and Context in Femi Osofisan's Drama]
Chris Dunton·[The Theatre of Femi Osofisan]
African Drama: A Chronology
Selected Bibliography