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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Ebrahim Hussein's dramaturgy: a Swahili multiculturalist's journey in drama and theater
Author:Fiebach, JoachimISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Research in African Literatures
Volume:28
Issue:4
Pages:19-37
Language:English
Geographic term:Tanzania
Subjects:theatre
Swahili language
literature
drama (form)
About person:Ebrahim N. Hussein (1943-)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820782
Abstract:In this article the author argues that African artists and intellectuals have much to tell about (multi)cultural openness, about self-evident, unproblematized readiness to coexist with other cultures or cultural elements, and about turning them into productive factors for one's own creative work. They are not neurotically fixated on 'pure identities'. His experiences with Ebrahim Hussein's attitude and work as a writer and theatre historian serve as a case in point. Ebrahim Hussein started writing plays as a student at University College, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1966-1967. At least since early 1967, Hussein was confronted with different approaches to drama and theatre structures, in particular with Western models of advanced theatre arts in the 20th century (Brecht). In the mid-1970s, Hussein appeared to have left Brecht behind to adopt a Tanzanian/Swahili traditional narrative form as an apparently purist African, truly Tanzanian type of theatre/drama. He freely uses narrative and performative techniques that epic theatre had revived or newly introduced into the international theatre in the 20th century, and at the same time he draws on the literature, thought, and ways of perception of his own rich Swahili culture as a major source of inspiration. Bibliogr.
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