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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Towards an Authentic African Theatre
Author:Agovi, K.E.ISNI
Year:1991
Periodical:Ufahamu
Volume:19
Issue:2-3
Pages:67-79
Language:English
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:African identity
theatre
Architecture and the Arts
Abstract:This paper deals with the emergence of the literary theatre in Africa and its aspirations towards a sense of an ultimate African identity. Authentic African theatre seeks to entrench notions of 'rootedness', 'continuity', and 'relevance' as cardinal considerations in its range of vision. The efforts to achieve these objectives is the central preoccupation of this paper. Theatrical experiments in the quest for authenticity include the use of oral tradition, the involvement of the audience in the performance, and the use of improvisations. There is now common agreement that the literary theatre in Africa originated in the contradictions of the colonial situation. From the colonial 'ideology of imitation' to the contemporary assertions of 'African identity' in the face of neocolonialism, the literary theatre in Africa has responded with an increasing consciousness of a return to the past. It has sought to establish a relationship of relevance between the past and the present in a movement that assumes that African voice and African concerns ought to be the starting point. Notes, ref.
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