A History of Theatre in Africa

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Edited by Martin Banham

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published March 2004, 400 pages, cloth

ISBN 0521808138

This book offers a broad history of theatre in Africa. The roots of African theatre are ancient and complex and lie in areas of community festival, seasonal rhythm, and religious ritual, as well as in the work of popular entertainers and storytellers. Since the 1950s, in a movement that has paralleled the political emancipation of so much of the continent, there has also grown a theatre that comments back from the colonized world to the world of the colonists and explores its own cultural, political and linguistic identity. Chapters include an examination of the concepts of 'history' and 'theatre'; North Africa; Francophone theatre; Anglophone West Africa; East Africa; Southern Africa; Lusophone African theatre; Mauritius and Reunion; and the African diaspora.

Contributors: Martin Banham, Kole Omotoso, Ahmed Zaki, Kamal Salhi, Khalid AlMubarak Mustafa, John Conteh-Morgan, Dapo Adelugba, Olu Obafemi, Sola Adeyemi, Mohamed Sheriff, Asheri Kilo, Jane Plastow, Ciarunji Chesaina, Evan Mwangi, Amandia Lihamba, Eckhard Breitinger, David Kerr, Yvette Hutchison, Luis Mitras, Roshni Mooneeram, Osita Okagbue

 Contents

Preface -- Martin Banham
1. Concepts of history and theatre in Africa -- Kole Omotoso

2. North Africa
(a) Egypt -- Ahmed Zaki
(b) Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia -- Kamal Salhi
(c) Sudan -- Khalid Al'Mubarak Mustafa

3. Francophone Africa south of the Sahara -- John Conteh-Morgan

4. Anglophone West Africa
(a) Nigeria -- Dapo Adelugba and Olu Obafemi, additional material by Sola Adeyemi
(b) Ghana -- James Gibbs
(c) Sierra Leone -- Mohamed Sheriff
(d) A note on recent Anglophone Cameroonian theatre -- Asheri Kilo

5. East Africa
(a) Ethiopia and Eritrea -- Jane Plastow
(b) Kenya -- Ciarunji Chesaina and Evan Mwangi
(c) Tanzania -- Amandina Lihamba
(d) Uganda -- Eckhard Breitinger
6. Southern Africa -- David Kerr
7. South Africa -- Yvette Hutchison
8. Theatre in Portuguese speaking African countries -- Luis Mitras
9. Mauritius and Réunion -- Roshni Mooneeram
10. Surviving the crossing: theatre in the African diaspora -- Osita Okagbue