The origin of African Drama and Theatre with Salient Elements from Selected Plays by Olaniyi Abdulwaheed

African drama and theatre started to emerge in Africa continent when British came to make their affairs of life imposed on Africans. They came with ideas; religion, education, business transaction, making Africa a raw material place where their solid land was built up by it. Through this, African lifestyle changed and wore another garment because of the predicament at the advent of British. Though Africans had their normal dramatization (in form of folklore), their experiences for the coming of British always feature in the African drama and theatre that was inherited from Europeans.

The origin of African drama and theatre based on traditional, history, and contemporary dramatic forms in Africa which range from sacred or ritual performances to dramatized storytelling, literary drama, or modern fusion of scripted theatre with traditional performance techniques.

The diversity in performances is as a result of massive spread of cultures and traditions in each country. A lot of these cultures have rich oral and ritual traditions, aspect of which survived into contemporary society. Thus, National boundaries do not usually reflect traditional territories. Therefore, traditional performances have been used as names of self- expression and empowerment by people facing hostile political or social circumstances.

 Another important element of African drama and theatre is its element that put in place in many play in order to showcase values of African culture and tradition. Modern African literature have been influenced to a remarkable degree by the continent’s long tradition of oral artistry. Before the spread of literacy in the 20th century, texts were preserved in memory and performed or recited. These traditional texts served many of the same purposes that written texts serve in literate societies—entertainment, instruction, and commemoration, for example.

However, no distinctions were made between works composed for enjoyment and works that had a more utilitarian function. Africa’s oral literature takes the form of prose, verse, and proverb, and texts vary in length from the epic, which might be performed over the course of several days, to single-sentence formulations such as the proverb. Wole Soyinka’s Death and King’s Horseman is written in Yoruba oral tradition. The collective body of oral texts is variously described as folklore, verbal art, and oral literature.

    Nigerian playwrights of the 1970s produced plays that were more specifically concerned with the social and moral effects of dictatorship than those by their predecessors. Bode Sowande explores the themes of corruption and exploitation in Afamako—The Workhorse (1978) and Flamingoes (1982). BabafemiOsofisan deploys Brechtian alienation effects as well as storytelling and role-playing to introduce revolutionary potential into plots based on traditions or legends: Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels (1991).

The history of drama during colonial period cannot mark out in the origin of African drama and theatre in relations to its influences in the African drama. Colonization led to the suppression and outlawing of many indigenous art forms, such as drumming and dancing even believes in the ancestral worship while Western missionaries sought to instil Christian values through biblical dramas pageant, Africans often adapted European dramatic form to their own satirical or political purposes.

During the early, 1970s a number of military and discriminatory regimes held power, among them the dictatorship of Idi Amin in Uganda and the apartheid government in South Africa. In opposition to then, apartheid policy in South Africa is another influence in drama and theatre. Many playwrights in South Africa played crucial roles to ensure that the situation of segregation appear on the plays that comes up at that time. Playwright like Athol Fugard features the policy of apartheid discrimination in his play titled SizweBanzi is dead to satirise the level of segregation in the country.

This type of writing usually based on the protest against the racial policy by between white, coloured and black. These regimes, playwrights turned to radical and propagandist forms of theatre. Simultaneously there was a reaction against bourgeois literary drama; theatre companies increasingly sought to speak to the urban and rural poor and to include them in their activities by moving out of national theatre buildings and into the local areas. This is done in order to provide avenue for aids, gender and development.

 One of the most powerful and effective pieces of political theatre to be produced during this period was I Will Marry When I Want (1977), a play commissioned by the villagers of Kamiriithu in Kenya from two playwrights, NgugiwaThiong'o and NgugiwaMirii. The play focuses on indigenous exploitation and was performed in Kikuyu by and for the villagers in a theatre they built. In defiance of apartheid, black theatre artists collaborated with the white intellectuals in South Africa to develop new forms of protest drama.

The period after World War II ended in 1945 led to the struggle for and achievement of independence in many African countries. The new nation-states were often established along colonial boundaries and power was handed over to a bourgeois class who had been educated in Europe. The epoch-making era of nationalism produced a number of African playwrights who merged African theatrical traditions with European forms. These plays are still widely performed and read in many parts of the continent.

 In some countries independence spawned efforts towards radical social reform into which playwrights were (and still are) sometimes co-opted. In others, the new regimes soon inspired playwrights to use theatre as a vehicle for political opposition and in some cases mobilization. Ghanaian playwright Efua Sutherland was associated with the socially reformist government of Kwame Nkrumah. She founded the Ghana Drama Studio and modernized the traditional form of Anansesem (spider stories) as a form of Everyman in Foriwa (1962) and the Marriage of Anansewa.

The early drama and theatre in Africa (especially in Ghana) portrays conflicts between parents and children in order to reflect the prevalent incident so writers come up with different view toward the spasmodic incidence in the society. This reaction of many writers serves as a call to different set of drama and theatre in Africa. Play like The Dilemma a Ghost by Ama Ata Adoo (1964), focuses on the intercultural marriage, and as well as Joe De Graft’s Son and Daughter (1963) disclose the issue of conflict between parents and children which was a common thing among people in that particular time.

Having discussed the history of African drama and theatre, a deep look is going to be taken into some African plays that portray the history of African drama and theatre and the influences (including salient points that they portray in the contemporary society), in order to reflect the issues going on in society.Some of the plays to be looking at are; Tawfeek Al-Hakeem’s ‘The Fate of A cockcroach,’ AtholFugard’s‘SizweBansi is Dead,’Wole Soyinka’s ‘Death and the King’s Horseman,’Ama  Ata Aidoo’s‘The Dilemmaof a Ghost,’ Femi Osofisan’s‘Esu and vagabond Minstrels,’NgugiWaTheog’o and NgugiWamiri’s‘I Will Marry When I Want,’TsegayeGabre-Medhin’sCollision of Altars and AthibYesin and Katedyacine’ ‘Intelligent Powder.’ These are awesome plays that can be used to trace the origin of African drama and theatre with deep look at their salient elements rendered in those plays.

The Dilemma of a Ghost

Ama Ata Aidoo’s, The Dilemma of a Ghost, is the first play to be discussed where its salient elements retained the origin of drama and theatre. The Dilemma of a Ghost is a play centres on the inter-cultural relationship or marry that oft happen between native African and African- American in Ghana. The book present the idea that, native African is the one borne in Africa and who also claim citizenship of the area while African American is one whose origin is Africa but claims citizenship of America ( or anywhere in Europe).

    The same kind of incident appears in this play in which Ato, a young Ghanian graduate who studies in Europe and comes home with Afro-American girl to marry. But conflicts arise within his family-bringing the idea that an Afro-American (Eulalie) is not part of their cultural tenets. Ato tries to make a clear-cut that Eulalie’s origin is Africa but she tends not to be like native boy (Ato) because of the slavery. Thus, Ato regards the situation as a clash of cultures.

Ato: ‘please I beg you all, listen. Eulalie’s ancestors were of our ancestors. But… as you all know, the people came and took some away in ship for slaves….’ Pg7.

 Relating to the issue of culture and identity, when two cultures meet, there is a disagreeable point. Either one believes to be superior to other or both claim equality. Ato is being confused in differentiating his culture from another. As one who has been educated in US, he tries to change his view about cultural background from his people. In this sense, Ato’s view to understand alien culture can be seen as an attempt to lose his culture. This same view can be traced to thematic preoccupation of Sidi and Lakunle in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and Jewel the. Taking look at this, Ato is eager to have marriage with Eulalie, his statement quoted thus;

Ato;‘but I’m married, maami’ pg6.

 However, for the fact that Ato’s family disregard his opinion about his marriage to Eulalie because she is Afro-American, they go against his idea due the austral behavioural attitudes of Eulalie that go against African. Eulalie presents herself as one far from his root. She engages in excessive drinking, smoking and the like in order to set herself aside from others.

Apart from clash of culture, marriage is another prominent issue in the play. The playwright takes readers along in disseminating African perspective of marriage. Marriage is a life-long contract, which prospers when there are children in it. The whole society expresses shock at the revelation that Ato and his wife delay childbirth but the perspective of Petu who is African different from this that Ato and his wife. It is in the African believes that when a man ripe for marriage, his family expect him to go ahead but it seems the philosophy of Ato changes when he attains education in abroad. 

Death and the King’s Horseman

The next play is to discuss is WoleSoyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. The setting of this Nigeria and reflects the Yoruba oral tradition. Though the play is written in English, Yoruba, not on everyday speech but poetry and many of the Nigerian drama and theatre usually take deep look into the cultural believes and practice of the people in the country irrespective of the tribe. This play is a good example of the traditional tenets of Yoruba people in the country.

 The Yoruba share with many other African people the fundamental belief in the continuity of life, and the relevance of the dead to the living and future generations. Many Yoruba tales of origin affirm that their different communities are founded by some larger- than-life ancestors, to whom the people owe everything including the very essence of their being. The ancestors have established for all time the basic charter of life, which could be adapted and modified, but not completely changed.

 The play, Death and the King’s Horseman, focuses on the ancestors believe of the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria before colonial rule. It is the real incident that usually takes place in Nigeria among Yoruba tribe. But at the advent of colonial rule, there was a kind of intervention intending to bury the tradition.So this is what Soyinka focuses in the play. The ritual suicide of the horseman comes from an important chief (very close to the king while alive), so everything that king engages in, he is part of it, therefore, it is mandatory for him to commit suicide (according to Yoruba tenet) and be buried (with king) when the king crossed the gather to heaven.

 In this sense, the playwright creates characters that represent the king and horseman in order to fish out element of tradition in the play. Elesin as a character in the play falls in the victim of horseman, so he is being given different kind of honour he never thought before.

PRAISE-SINGER: Elesin-oba! Are you not that man who

Looked out of doors that stormy day

The god of luck limped by, drenched

To the very lice that held

His sores and wished him fortune.

Fortune was foot-loose this dawn, he relied.

Till you trapped him in a heartfelt wish

That now returns to you. Elesin-oba!

I say you are that man who

Chanced upon the calash of honour

You thought it was palm wine and

Drained its contents to the final drop. [15]

 People give honour, adulation to Elesin because of his life-span with the king. Even market women in the play always prize him with clothing of alari and sanyan. While going on the street, he is always tie up with rich attire by people in the city and in the cause of this, drummers beat drums in admiring mood to make him forget his sudden death that will befall him immediately the king demised.

Lack of understanding or inability to understand indeed seems to be responsible for the catastrophic intervention of the colonial district officer, Simon Pilkings, in an age-old custom still steadfastly adhered to as recently as 1946. His wife who is even more willing to get know the end is thought to be more understanding than her husband, in the end shows she cannot fully grasp the idea behind what she refers to as barbaric ritual suicide. She calls Olunde callous for not showing strong feelings of bereavement at the thought up to expect his father’s death once the king dies, and that for the past month since he learnt of the king’s death ‘my father has been dead in my mind…(and) I’ve lived with my bereavement so long now that I cannot think of him.’                                                                                                                            

The belief in the ancestors is well brought up in the play I  addition to the beautiful oral tradition make the play a better look in order to serve as a source of reference to African drama and theatre during the colonial period.

Esu and Vagabond Minstrels

Another dimension of play to be discussed now is Esu and Vagabond Minstrels. The play is a call to for everyone in Africa to look back and check their concerns in civilisation and development which has brought many Africans farther and farther away our humanity.

  The play features with Yoruba cultural tradition through which origin of African drama and theatre can be traced to its root. The appearance of characters in the scenes suggests how Africans usually dress in their reactions to the festival.

    In the beginning of the play, characters appear on the stage where each holds calabash cup while younger men and women bearing large gourd go around serving.

   For the fact that the setting play the play is in Africa, costumes used while on the stage look African and this makes distinction African plays and Europeans.’

   The arrangement of sitting (of audience) is in African way just like Egungu festive in Yoruba. So audience sits round the actors and actresses (giving story) and they are participated with the incidence happening in the play. Therefore, a member of audience races a song chanted thus;

‘Olufe, wagba’akara         darling, chop akara!

Ma d’olosilohun                make you no mind de rumour

Wole, koti’lekun!              Shut de door and window

Khaki tount’agbara           khaki and agbada

Awo  lojo n rin                   de two deywaka together

Ti khaki bagbagba’agbara   khaki comes to power…’ [pg13]

 The song above is satirical in nature that renders voice on the greedy politicians who are not expected to be in the position of power but they are there by hook and cook.

 There is African belief in the god of mischief (popularly known as Esu). Africans believe in the existence of Esu as a supernatural being created by God in respect to administer evils. But people in African setting take Esu as a god, who is capable to ease their sorrow irrespective any consequence that may arrive from it in the end. They make promise to him for if their request is given, they prepare sacrifice to compensate the deed. This belief made known in the conversation between Jigi, Sinsin, Omele and his colleagues when they are in need of food, so they go to crossroad where Esu always lodge and they eat up the food prepared for mischief spirit. Nonetheless, they face the consequence of the action.

  ‘Have I gone mad, or am I hearing you correctly, Omele? Are you telling us to steal food from a god?

 This incidence showcases the Africans tradition that food to be given to Esu always place at the crossroad and it is a taboo for anyone to eat from the food unless one call for the wrath of Esu.

     Paganism moves forward in every section of the play in which the faith of characters is traditional in order to distinguish anything African away from that of British. Every scene in the play appear to be like shrine, so characters are communication with spirits directly on the stage while acting is going on. Here is the statement of hooded figure that begins to come alive from the signboard and it engages in conversation with the characters. The figure turn out inform of old man he speak thus;    

        ‘The owner of the world

          Has created balance between the forces of good

And those of Evil. He appointed Esu

         To watch over them, and I am his priest.

         But everywhere, Evil is in the ascendant!

         My ears fill daily with the woes of the affliction.

         Speak! Tell me your wishes, you who would eat

         The offerings of Esu!’ pg31

 The statement of the Evil priest reflect he supernatural beings in Africa and with their mighty power, they can grant help to people who seek refuge to them.

 Dancing is a great deal that features crucially in the play. Through the statement by Old man, reader can deduce the power that connects dancing, singing in relation to the spirit. The spirit promises Omele and his friends that the power being given to them can only function if they sing and dance very well to anyone who is suffering and favour will be upon them base on the greed to dancing. Thus in the cause of singing (and dancing), the spirit will appear and give them aid and irrespective of any suffering they encounter, it is not going for long. So the old man gives out his words.

    ‘As you sing and dance, whatever his pain,

    Whatever his suffering, it will end!’ pg33

 All elements feature out in the play can be used to trace the origin of African drama and theatre as regards to the musical effects, dancing, costume employed by characters and mode of stage performances that reflect traditional value, are all thing that make the play comes to be selected in analysing African drama and theatre.

  Intelligence powder

The play brings out the idea in which it usually strange to human belief in society. IntelligencePower presents the life of a young boy (Jeremy reed) who is rarely found in the society because of his uniqueness of lifestyle, in the sense that he is being called power because of his colour or identity.

Jeremy reed, the central character in the play represents the idea of sentiment popular among people. Some do not recognise a particular person in society because of race or colour but playwright argues that no matter the race or colour, one has to be respected.

 Reed unlike the other children, he is being distinguished to be highly intelligent to the extent that every idea that comes across him always turn to thought, so he is able to construct electrics supply in which other has never done before.

Through the incidence in the play Intelligence Powder, the development of science in the early age can be related to the story line of the play. So the origin of African drama and theatre can be deduced through the theatrical element employed in the play.

I Will Marry When I Want

The play examines the struggles of the community and the valorisation of Mau Mau and freedom fighters of masculinity which is tied to their cultural life.

Ngugi’s drama celebrates some Gikuyu cultural formsto those that are not in tandem with contemporary living and call for revision. Those who led to the incidence (of Mau Mau) in kenya can be categorised as the architects of people’s fate as it is presented in the story line.

 The living condition of the people of Kenya is the main subject matter that the playwright emphasize in story line of I will Marry When I Want in which the life of Kiguunda (labourer), his wife,Wageli and teenage daughter, Gathoni represent the true miserable life condition of people in Kenya. The playwright presents these characters as an attack to the government in order to stir to the call of the masses.

The expanse of land that meant for farmers to plant crops and some beneficial thing has been sold to the imperialist. So the playwright reflect the life of Kiguunda who is one time a peasant, using it as a means of livelihood, but unexpectedly his life changed and become ordinary man on the street who has nothing to do.

As a socio-realism play, the story lambasts those who fetch corruption in the pocket and throw the effect to people to battle with in Kenya. The writer paint the picture of the living condition of the people in which many residents of the country live manage head under the thatched roofs where there are decayed folding chairs use to furniture the house.

The pain of suffering and great battle with wretched life of the people in Kenya is so shrill for the fact that this led to NgugiWaTheong’o and NgugiWaMiri to co-authored this play so that the life of the people will not remain the same.

The Fate of Cockroach

 The play examine the colonial struggles, challenges some Africans faced in the cause of fighting for freedom from the white colonial masters

The tittle of the play is symbolic in nature in the sense that cockroach here serves as the effects of imperialism and the characters (especially Adil, Samia, and the king) represent the reaction of the people towards the incidence.

Adil and the king symbolised the true African who are in the interest of the masses during the colonial era. Their aim is to get Africa from the hand of imperialist irrespective of suffering or any discrimination that occur during the process of fighting, so the playwright present the hurdle of cockroach to represent the challenges people encountered during the colonisation.

However, Samia, Adil’s wife serves as another predicament that befalls the people. She wants to kill the cockroach so that she will achieve her aim. But in the real sense, if cockroaches are killed, the freedom that people fighting for will not reach the hand of the people.

Nonetheless, Adil, her husband is of the opinion that the cockroaches should not be killed and they should depart freely without arming them. Therefore he put in his efforts in order not to arm cockroach and die in the cause of his struggles.

Freedom is neither gained by force nor through nonchalant attitude to the struggles. This is the idea that playwright presents to the readers, so he makes positive view and contrast among the characters in the play.

                                                               

Collision of Altars

‘Collision of Altars’ by TsegayeGabre-Medhin(written from eastern part of Africa), the play examines religions value and conflict that usually occur between three religions presented in the play (Islam, Christianity and traditional religion). Each of the faiths are pronounced when the large metal pieces in the heart shaped wall blaze out, first in the form of a writhing enormous serpent, vex, as the star of David, third as the holy crescent and of these symbols always gives light when a character belong to it speak.

The playwright place each religion in the play side by side; their similarities and situation where there conflict between them. The traditionalists believe in the existence of ancestors (which serve as aid for them) so before the conversation of anyone who belongs to this group started, serpent light comes up. They depend on the dead souls and not God unlike other religion that appear in the play.

Christianity as the playwright reflects their belief in the play, their faith dangles in trinity and before any action is performed in the play, they give homage to their lord for audience to recognise them.

 In related issue, the third religion, Islam has different faith that different from other religion. Their beliefs dwell on only one God (Alah) and take Mohammed as His messenger. The readers deduce from the play that other religion (esp. may be their opponent) because each faith represents its idea.

These are the common things that the writer presents to show the view of lifestyle of people in Ethopia and this can be used trace the origin of drama and theatre in Africa (as the faiths of people examined in the text).

SizweBansi is Dead

The play sets in South Africa during the period of apartheid era. Apartheid is a policy introduced by the white who make attempt to acquire large expanse of land owned by the native blacks. Not only are that, white in their aim of giving out obnoxious law that will segregate white from black.

This level of discrimination is so high to extend that many writers dwell writings on the racism. So, SizweBansi is Dead is a common play that discusses the issue of oppression.

  The play dramatizes horrible condition of no-white; Styles, SizweBansi is and their struggle towards making the condition of black people evacuate from South Africa. Therefore, despite the fact that blacks face different kind of dehumanisation, they are not tire of fighting for their right.

 Blacksare being relegated from the whites’ counterparts so they are only allowed to live in least environment that different from whites.’ Anyone who will go the white environment has to obtain pass like international traveling card that require passport and all the personal information of the black has to tag with the passport; the place of work, residence and amount of earning per month.

The playwright shows the record of inhumanity treatment of common people which Styles sum up in the following way. ‘This is a strong-room of dreams. The dreamers? My people who you never find mentioned in the history of book. [Pg12-13]

 In this sense, the society (in South Africa) does not claim better life and welcomed development fail to exist among black creatures.

To show the level of deprivation, the chorus is so much that even the mourners in the funeral parlour joined in this celebration of life. Styles use his photography studio a house of dreams where people can temporarily hold a smile which needs to be captured in the photograph because the characters live in a trashed area like tramps moving from one place to another.

References;

·         Encyclopaedia 2009

·         Exam focus literature, 2006-2010

·         BimpeAboyade’sWole Soyinka and Yoruba Tradition in Death and King’s Horseman