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contents
........................ ......
, Letters 5
Vol. 1 No.4 1996
Tatenda Zimbabwe w  
Publisher The Other life of Benjamin Aderounmu 17 
Oiakunle Tejuoso
Editor-in-chief All my life Translating a Griot 20
Dapo Adeniyi African Literature Now 2 5  
Art Director
Felix Omorogbe Obiora Udeckukwu at fifty 3 3  
Production Manager Revised film policy for Ghana 4 3  
Dayo Anthony
Osofisan at fifty 47  
Systems Manager
Gabriel Ojugoh Not Leeds but Lagos 50 
Marketing/Advertising Uzo Egonu an artist and a gentleman 5 5  
Director
Fidelis Akpom Jnr. Glendora Review poet 5 # |  
Theatre in the Niger valleys 6 0 !  
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Cover and Content page illustration :
Sewhenu Akron
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
Jam es G ibbs - Well-known seboiarand literary critic, has 
taught literature in Ibadan and Liege (Belgium)
Kofi Anyfdohip Director of the School of Performing Atfcf 
U rjive r^  of Ghana, Legon .and well-known poet. He tea 
founding member of the management committee of the 
W.E.B. DuBois memorial centre for Pan-African Culture, 
Accra.
Etienne Galle - W as professor of English at the Univer­
sity of Niamey, Niger Republic for many yeans. He is also 
the main translator of Wole Soyinka's works into French 
as well as some of Chinua Achebe’s. Now he teaches at 
UV ni..v ersi.t e- de Rennes-2, France.
Maurice Archibong - Is a freelance arts writer, resides in
Benson Idonije - Retired from the Federal Radio Corpi 
ration of Nigeria in 1992. He was for 35 years a present! 
and producer of programmes and broadcastingjnstru 
tor. Now he Itves in Lagos where he runs a consultant
AkinA desokan  - Journalist and novelist. Currently he is
African us Aveh - LecturesInfHm at the University of 
| :; Ghana, Legon, |
Olu Oguibe - Nigerian poet, art critic and painter. Cur 
remty he is the Stuart Golding Chair in African Art at the
11 University, oj South FlohdayLJSA.
...,......
Niyj Osundare - Professor of English at the Univers ity of
Ibadan and prominampoe^He has won. the Noma Award
v ’ ;  ,*  i t ,  / - s  V  >  . . A .  U . W  M .  .
nyomi | ^ | | ; fp^:fiterary Journalist and writer 
|  .am editor with the Weekly Momto, », touu...,
Jollms - yjpgU ijSBdisoholar o* Afncar. popular
H eteo n fh S ji| :0 th e  University of Ghana, logon-
Oribioye* Arts reporter, is on me stott ot the Daily
Ni'junn..
8 A w o d iy s-iy h iC e n e ra f Manager ot the M i#
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\ igmr—t f "  ' r ~ V - 1-----!I  /, \ ,n-
JS r \ U\ VIN j. L ,
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■ i H I
THIS reflection on the mask trad itions o f the N iger Valleys troubadour com bing the N iger Valleys, n o  doubt, is a rarity these days, especially 
since the influence of ou r g r id s  of ancient times has been considerably dim in ­
is a summary of a five-year itinerary, during  which Sola ished both by colonialism  and the im pact of the m odern m edia,, Sofa Struck by my solitary enterprise, I sat on a knoll by the river’s bank at Segou -old travelled by boat, bush taxi air plane, donkey and had an Oiorunyomi Segou of the famed trans Sahara trade route. This was midway between the desert (which 
had been left behind! and the tropical rain forest region of the Futa Jalon highlands source 
extended Sahel hike in the Dogon country, exploring ho\v of the Niger which I hoped to reach. Suddenly, I began to doubt my sanity, Hopefully, the g tent Mkm phallus would still be discharging its wild excitement of foams into the river’s vast, 
craggy basin. The the jgM of exuberant foams shrinking into froths In sandy Timbuktu made me somewhat pensive, 
these traditions have influenced theatre in the respective I needed all possible excitement on this concluding beat of a five-year itinerary, during which I had played part minstrel, part chronlcl er of the Niger’s immense cultural reservoir.
countries along river Niger ’s vast basins. Editor
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
By no means a novel motif, culture researchers have for Angled this way, today's theatre becomes the sum total of 
long trod sources of spring, river beds, and basins-even of extinct what C hris Nwamuo once described as 'a ll the dramatic and 
rivers, trying to unravel cyphers of places, events and times spectacle elements in any drama or theatrical performance with 
beyond memory’s recall. the inclusion of the medium - the physical acting area, the cinema, 
the television, the video and the multi-media productions through 
Euphrates. Sumatra N ile . T ig ris . A ll produced valleys that which life 's experiences are shared.'
dialogued with the past, that gave a hint about the present; with 
a fossil here, a hieroglyph there, and multiple evidences of The reality of theatrical practice in the subregion is  that it 
domesticated w ilds, of plants and animals, we returned to the is diverse and harbours many phases and forms. To  suggest 
library. But what did the ancients think, their sp iritua lity, their therefore that the new dimensions are a force-field, elements 
aesthetics? violently dismantling traditional African theatre, is  to misread 
these developments. The pertinent question is: how are culture 
How did their primeval cultural artefacts and codes influ­ w orkers and policy makers appropriating the changes in the light 
ence later thoughts? How were they carried over into the diverse of the old idioms?
performance idioms of the village square, proscenium stage and 
the celluloid traditions of countries of the N ig e r Valleys? Properly articulated, the new era is  indeed capable of 
integrating the cultural sensib ilit ies of the peoples of the Niger
The primary valleys of river N ig e r are Guinea. M a li, N iger 
and N igeria, through which the 
river runs, but cultural diffusion, 
and geographicalcontiguity im pli­
cate Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire 
in an immediate sense, besides 
other W est African countries whose 
tributaries derive from or end in the 
Niger.
W ith an enormous arc stretch 
of over 5 ,0 0 0  km, straddling and 
linking the old Western and Cen­
tral Sudan, the N ig e r thus becomes 
both a literal and figurative refer­
ence for W est Africa, through which 
the arts of the subregion become 
the most travelled commodity. In a 
way, the N iger is - W est Africa.
The New Theatre?
The conservatism in me some­
what strives to be reassured by the 
sentiment of the old school that 
tends to suggest that stage theatre A Dogon Kanaga dance mask ?I njtc M k L N A U j LA u
is the real theatre of immediacy
and real life concerns; but confronted with the dynamics of the Valleys. So  far, culture w orkers have continually transformed 
genre today, a genre that has been internally combusted by the indigenous forms into the new medium. O ra l forms and the mask 
reality of the multi-media -accentuated in part by the electronic code have found their ways into both modern literary drama and 
audio-visual technological revolution, such sentiment can only the celluloid, for instance. O la  Balogun, N ig e ria , and Dani 
remain a romantic pastime. O f course, the resolution can not be Koyate, Burkina Paso, have demonstrated the transpositional 
in the appropriation of the term 'theatre' as an exclusive of the character of their art through the incorporation of many folk 
electronic medium, a medium which has greatly reduced theatre's elements in their film s. Balogun revisits the theme of life 's cyclicity 
communal sharing and atomised the audience. and Koyate reintroduces the antelope and buffallo masks in 
If may be more profitable in this context however to Magic o f N ig e ria  and Keita, de bouche a O re ille  respectively. 
simply acknowledge the evolution of this form by investing it with Ta lk  of McLuhann's 'medium is  the message'.
its constitutive ingredients of mask, music, mime, pantomime, 
custume, make-up, lights, scenery and language, which,by and 
DUSK
large simply serve the agency of impersonation, that moment 
once the actor steps out of self. W ho  is she though, this meandering spring ■ the Niger?
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Now listen son, o long time ago, when plants and animals the African past,
could speak, she was the wife of the thunder one who was 
himself the king of an old empire .. Umh, his name was Sango- God as the ultimate explanation of the genesis and 
theone who conjured fire through the mouth and nostril, and her sustenance of both man and a ll things.
name was Oya.
- Sp irit being made up of superhuman beings and the spirit 
but aber a spell of a lifetime together, Oya had to return of men who died a long time ago.
home
- Man, including human beings who are alive and those 
Oya's departure brought great sorrow to Sango who later about to be born
committed suicide. When the sad news got to her, Oya fell down 
and sobbed. Her tears gathered into a puddle, into a lake • which Animals and plants or the remainder of biological life
swelled and swelled until it burst at its seams - Oya had 
transformed herself into a river .... whom some would later call • Phenomena and objects without biological life. 7
• the Niger.
There are, broadly speaking, two types of masks. One 
represents a living person and therefore serves profane uses, 
mostly entertainment and amusement. The other type is employed 
Mask for the purposes of ritual There are however moments of dilution 
Beyond Ibn Batuta, beyond Ibn Khaldun, Leo Frobenius and of forms. By virtue of designation (eg invoking the sp irit of the 
the Prester Johns, there was the urgency to probe the past in a dead to enter into the masquerade during the dance), the mask 
more embracing manner. W e return to the traditional agencies and the dancer are sacrosanct.
for transmitting cultural heritage such as festivals, dance-guilds 
and voices of elders. The process of deriving meaning from the mask in drama­
turgic sense is such that once the mask has been foregrounded 
Despite the values of these agencies in assisting the as the primary genre, a dramatic genre can consequently be 
reconstruction of the past, they remain oral. Unlike those, constructed from its code Th e  dramatic genre becomes trans­
however, the mask and sculptures even if in part sustained by formed historically as it develops in new situations and environ­
orolity have scribal representations in their creation. It is no ments. In this sense, the mask serves as the enabling conceptual 
wonder, therefore, that the root of W est African theatre is to be metaphor of African and black drama itse lf.' 3
found in its innumerable masks.
The mask code contrasts sharply with the mimetic code as 
The mask is a code that is  capable of embodying both it w ill become obvious in the suceeding pages in the perfor­
sacred and profane contents. The mask does not offer itself to mance of the Mambissa, [Jos N igeria) K i Y i M'bock, (Abidjan, 
simple literal interpretation. In the mask is  concealed a plethora Cote d 'Ivoire) and Kalakula  (Lagos) experiences. Th is includes 
of meanings waiting to be decoded. a myriad of other sim ila r efforts across Guinea, M a li and Burkina 
Faso. W hat we now have though is  no longer the old mask, but 
As a storehouse, it is a repository of ancient and current a reconstruction in the context of popular arts.
knowledge such as myth, legend and history. Beyond this, it also 
harbours society's cultural sensibilities, its aesthetics, which Twilight
invariably straddles all the genres.
The theatre traditions of the region defy a cut and dry 
classification due to the fact that there are too many in-between 
In other words, the undecoded mask is fossilised message, 
phases and the evolution of the different forms is continually 
a single instance that is representative of other instances, other 
being renewed. Th is  partly explains the rich repertoire from 
spaces and climes, other times. Though its language may be 
which creative workers in the region (perhaps more than the other 
cryptic, it is obviously multivocal. Th is  derives in part from its 
regions in the continent) are able to tap.
primary intended meaning, and also from other meanings 
invested in it in the process of interpreting its idiom.
For ease of comprehension however, we may have to 
contend with this broad schema; dramatic ritual, the traditional 
Such diverse and dispersed meanings have been ac­
theatre Ipopular and modern traditional), the literary tradition 
counted for by problems of distance and dislocation - such as 
and secondary orality (Television; Film ; Video).
we find with the black slaves in the new world, in their attempt 
to recapture the meaning of masks from which they were 
The Igbo Egwugwu, Yoruba Egungun, Nupe Igunuko, 
uprooted, or have simply arisen from the limitation of human 
memory. Dogon Kcrnagaand Bambara Chiwara, even as dramatic rituals, 
share something in common: Nommo energy. Nommo, a con­
cept of the Dogon language, denotes utterance-power, the 
W hat thq mask seeks to capture invariably corresponds 
'magic' force of the spoken word, the sacred instance of word's
with the total universe of man as outlined by John Mbiti about
African Quarterly
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Vof. I! NO ‘i
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 IBADAN LIBRARY
efficacy, word as latent energy. The Wodabe, an extension of this performance, could 
slide into fierce rivalry, when youngsters take part in Soro, an 
In the creation myth of the Dogon, Amma, the only God, event where a suitor stands smiling while he is being hit with 
created the earth as a woman, and then married her. H is seed, slicks.
Nommo is water and fire and blood and word. Nommo is the 
pnysicai-spiritual life force which awakens all 'sleeping' forces As we move into the modern traditional era, the influence 
and gives physical and spiritual life.4 of both Hubert Ogunde and Duro Ladipo of N igeria becomes 
compelling. For one, their theatres embodied, more than any 
Beyond being invested with utterance-power Nommo, other group in the subregion, the soul of the traditional and 
like the Yoruba Ase, is the invocatory gift of its mask medium. experiments of Western dramaturgic forms. They were, in a way, 
Its ultimate theatrical direction is  to reveal and invoke the reality direct descendants of the Yoruba alarinjo  theatre and were 
of the particular made that it has ritualised. It is a theatre style, evidently the first crop of trado-modern theatre professionals.
as Jahnheiz Jahn has observed, that depends on power and 
power invpcation. It is  word power; it is dance power; it is  music In the duo, there was the attempt to make the play the
power.
Th is wos further butressed by the Hogon of Dogon 
(comprising the Malian communities of Djiguibombo, Teli and 
Ende|, HRH Emkoungan Guindo and reputed carver Yusuf 
Guindo who explained in our chat the significance to the Dogon 
of the large iminana mask, which is carved and performed 
during the Sigui initiation ceremony that comes up only once in 
6 0  years. These elders revealed that during the Sigui, the Dogon 
performs dances using the iminano to help recount the story of 
the origin of the Dogon. Only women born during this initiation 
rites in Dogon land, can wear the mask.
The mask in this sense is  invariably, also, a symbol of 
power relations. The Sigui-license granted Dogon women born 
in this era to wear the mask is indeed an exception in the region. 
Traditionally, gender disequalisation hos been effected with the 
mask. Even where the woman, as among the Dogon , had been 
the originator and agency of mask's medium, she was promptly 
emasculated from being its bearer once the mask became a 
source and symbol of communal authority.
In the north west of Cote d'Ivoire we have the Krobio, 
which is still sacred, unlike the Gbon of the north east, which has 
been influenced by Islam and is thus limited to entertainment.
The Ndah, among the Mande, falls into this category, as 
well as Koteba, which is indigenous to the Malinke worlds of 
Guinea and Mali There is also the Nigerian Kwagb-bir puppetry 
(and theatre) of the Tiv, which shares a lot with the Bornu puppet
show.
N guessan A yateau , Ivorian com edian sa y s : 7 hove o tall 
The Fulani Gerewo/and Tuareg llloudjon o fN iger Repub­ ord er o f jo k es'  A ll photos by Sola Olnrunyomi
lic are more of dramatised initiation performances. No doubt, 
the Niger serves more than a grazing ground for the appetite ritualised context of reality. Said Sussanne Wenger, the Osogbo- 
of the Fulani. I saw in the river a courier of ethnic cultural identity based Austrian artist and Yoruba traditionalist in a conversation:
on arrival at the Malian town of Sivera. Almost feeling a sense 
of deja-vu, I watched single Fulani men participate in a dramatised 'Duro was a genius. He was the first that really made the 
beauty contest in order to win the attention of eligible women. myth of Sango and other O risa  alive on the stage . W ith Duro 
The main event is the Yaake, a late afternoon performance in Ladipo and the older Ogunde, it was possible to get the religious 
which the men dance, displaying their beauty, charisma and experience on the stcjge. '
charm. Suddenly, I realised I was watching a replay of sim ilar 
motions from far away Niamey (Niger), Gusau and Kotonkarfe So intense were some of these outings that our informant 
(Nigeria) revealed that she and her family had to escape from the theatre 
during the performance of Oba Koso because, 'It was like a
I O L l t s i a C R A  ' " v u w - l  V a in  NO *
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
violation of taboo, a violation of privacy for the O loriso. profound sense the colonial order, they evoked a pre-colonial 
past based on iegends, as in the play La Ruse de Diegue. The 
Script theatrical experiment of W illiam-Ponty was to have a profound 
influence on French W est African theatre, being the 'nursery' of 
Basically, these traditions have influenced modern dra­
the region's elite
matic forms. According to S id ib e V a ly/ that icon oflvorian and 
West African theatre, the first level is  through the transposition of The basic imperative of this theatre is drawn from a French 
cultural artefacts, both verbal and visual. Modern Ivorian drama desire to perpetuate an Aristotelian tradition of tragedy but 
uses proverbs, for instance, and traditional artefacts such as beyond this, it required that the characters be of noble birth or 
cowrie shells to adorn the stage for specific effect. Besides this, illustrious men and that the themes be drawn from history or myth. 
characters wear masks and there is sufficient synthetic assim ila­ W ith  a region where historical traditions have been kept alive by 
tion of the old forms. Apart from costumes, myths and legends, the griots, equivalent local references were easily found in the 
the new theatre also takes ori board a certain sense of irony which likes of Soundjata, Samoory Toure and Abraha Pokou - the 
the traditional form utilises. Baoule female saviour figure, who risked her life and sacrificed 
her daughter to sove her community like Moremi of Ife who has 
Why did these forms not evolve into a travelling theatre resurfaced in Femi O sofisan's theatre as Titubi in Morountodun. 
troupe, apart from the experiences of N igeria 's Yaruba travelling Titub i's sim ilarity with Nokan's Pokou is  further demonsvated in 
troupes and Ghana's concert parties? W h ile  research is still that she strives to be not only a nation-builder, but also a figure 
apace on this, it is significant to note that one factor, at least, that of democratic principle.
assisted the popularity of the alarinjo  travelling theatre was the 
fact that early enough, Yoruba masq-dramaturgy broke out of the W ith independence in tow, the playwrights tried to recon­
cocoon of lineage practice and became a property of the social struct historical figures in a larger project that negated earlier 
guild. Th is way, it became multiplied by dispersal. attempts by colonialism to render superfluous the sp irit of African 
history and civilisation. Dadie revisits in his plays the essential 
If modern drama was influenced at all by the travelling themes of Senghor's negritude. showing the contradictions 
troupes in francophone W est Africa, according to Valy, it must inherent in European rationalism by its own materialism.
be from these sources. He cited Amon Dabie and Bernand Dadie 
as representing such groups because of their proximity to Ghana Other writers turned inwards, in the sense of questioning 
in the coastal areas the new order and emphasising the need for accountability in the 
new nation. Bernand Zaorou Zadi, who is the current Ivorian 
Otherwise, there is  little evidence of indigenous travelling Minister of Culture, belongs to this tradition. By stressing the need 
theatre in other parts. It is important to make a distinction here, to uphold (not merely glorify] aspects of the past that symbolised 
from the griot tradition where the Jali could move from place to courage, honour and self-sacrifice, his Didiga Theatre, like other 
place but was neither conceptualised nor developed along the recent theatres, links up with the traditional theatre which had as 
lines of a travelling troupe. An experience close to this form is that its main function 'to offer the living the lesson of the noble deeds 
of students who during the long vacation perform from one place of the ancestors' as a collective means of positively mediating the 
to the other future.
Even for the griots, their sphere of activities is receding. Zadi uses his theatre to query basic assumptions of society; 
They may still play a role during funerals or baptism, but the for example, he made a woman to wear a mask on stage and 
practice has somewhat receded toMalinke area and other urban there was some uproar against it Zadi justified this to me one 
areas where you have the Malinke community. d rizz ling  Augustmorning athis make-shiftampitheatre in the Lyce 
Technique area of Abidjan, saying;
The griots themselves are complainin g of fheir slow disap­
pearance. They try to explain this effacement as a manifestation W e  have moved to the phase of 
of social alienation and regression. In a way, it is the destruction modern theatre, so I con ask 
o' an identity. a woman to wear a mask. What 
I have on stage is no longer 
If we focus attention slightly on the role of the Chief in black tradition, but a revision of it . ' 7
West African theatre of French expression, it is due largely to 
The writer for him should be free because the play is not a 
what Colin Grandson's study since the William-Ponty Teachers' 
faithful representation but a recreation. Traditional forms can be 
College,Senegal, in 1933 revealed:
incorporated but the writer is  not obliged to respect the rules of 
tradition.
'the historical Chief and his present equivalent, the political 
leader, appear as the main character in more than fifty percent M ali's modern stage theatre is relatively underdeveloped 
of the Black African plays of French expression since indepen­ compared to its neighbours Th is is however surprising in relation 
dence.' 5 ro its rather high showing in celluloid production Partly due tothe 
paucity of theatre troupes in the country, a prominent playwright 
Although these plays did not in itia lly challenge in any like Moussa Konate had written 'mental' plays in the tradition of
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
Hakim El-Tew lik's Fate of a Cockroach, even if his primary or esoteric approach. No doubt, Soyinka's The Lion and the 
impulse and social circumstance differ slightly from the latter. Jewel, Tria ls of Brother Jero, and Rotimi's O ur Husband Has 
Gone Mad Again are cast in the popular mode in spite of being 
Between Le Dernier Pas, L'Ordu diable, ie  Cercle au in the literary idiom
Feminin and Fils du chaos we find a theatre ouvre of denounciation, 
almost anarchic, which Konate prefers to the engagee tradition. Once we acknowledge the d ivision of society into classes, 
then it should be possible to see how even a supposedly popular 
Konate espouses his 'non-interventionist' stance as in cultural event like a literary drama can be turned esoteric by 
formed by a belief that 'Literature can not change society.' W ith merely making it inaccessible to some publics The walls of the 
the demise of this influential playwright, it is  still unclear in what university, where these theatresthrive, still intimidate the average 
direction the Malian theatre w ill go. Nigerian, in the same way that the French cultural centres, which 
harbour most of West African francophone modern theatre 
Wole Soyinka represents another important moment in the habits, are somewhat put-offish elite outposts.
evolution of the region’s literary drama. His'mythopoeic' attitude 
to history, his 'constant penchant for transforming experience Above all howeve', generating a popular tradihor w
into metaphysical trans-historical, mythic dimensions'6 stands 
him out. Th is attitude partly explains the suggestion in the preface 
of Death and the K ing 's Horseman:
'The colonial factor is an incident, a catalytic incident 
merely. The confrontation in the play is  largely metaphysical, 
contained in the human vehicle which is  Elesin and the universe 
of the toruba mind - the world of the living, the dead and the 
unborn, and the numinous passage which links all: transition. 
Death and the K ing 's Horseman can be fully realised only through 
an evocation of music from the abyss of transition.'
But beyond the dramaturgy, Soyinka's attempt at profess­
ing an African theory of tragic art, remains the most promising up 
till date. He says in The Fourth Stage:’
‘Tragedy, in Yoruba traditional drama, is the anguish of 
this severance, the fragmentation of essence from self. Its music 
is the stricken cry of man’s blind soul as he flounders in the void 
and crashes through a deep abyss of aspirituality and cosmic 
rejection. Tragic music is  an echo form that void, the celebrant 
speaks, sings and dances in authentic archetypal images from 
within the abyss. A ll understand and respond for it is the 
language of the world . '
Despite such acknowledgement of the essence of African 
aesthetic, a writer like Soyinka still remains relatively obscure 
even to the Nigerian theatre audience. W hat explains this?
Generally speaking, the literary tradition is more tempered 
than the popular tradition, the latter being more impulsive, 
National Institute o f Arts, B am ako , M ali
conventional and affective. It is no wonder therefore that quite 
often, there has always been the attempt to negotiate the stricture
depend on the ability to develop an interpretive community It is 
of this divide.
ultimately this community that can decode and relate to the new 
cultural expression. If our literary drama has not sufficiently 
Biodun Jeyifo may be correct to suggest that a schism 
become popular, it is due largely to the fact that it has not 
between the literary and the popular traditions in drama need not 
sufficiently developed an interpretive community or put differ­
be mandatory, but the same historical, cultural and ideological 
ently, integrated itself into the codes of that community. And this 
underpinnings of art which he alludes to, are at the very core of 
would be due not only to textual but also extra-textual consider­
the inevitability of such a schism.
ations.
The division does not simply end with the literary and the A relatively new theatre sub-genre that has gradually 
popular, because even the literary is capable of either a popular worked into public reckoning in the last two decades is the
African Quarterly
dm the Arts
V olt/ NO 4
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
experimental theatre, a popular theatrical idiom that is geared 19 56) written as a student at the College Envangelique de 
towards stimulating community development. Limbamba has often been cited as a case in point.
Th is practice has been variously described: Theatre For It has been suggested that the most prominent troupe 
Development (TFD) Theatre for Integrated Development (TIDE), working exclusively for children is Etoundi Zeyanga's Bobo et 
Theatre for Integrated Rural Development (THIRD), Community Mange Tout. Based in Younde and founded in 19 8 4 , the group 
Theatre (CT) and Community Theatre for Integrated Rural Devel­ of two stand-up comedians perform a number of slap-stick 
opment (CTHIRD). comedies to children. Its plot is  always weaved around the two 
stock characters: Bobo, who is  small, witty, intelligent and 
Th is  tradition of theatre practice seeks to provide an Manage Tout: fat, stupid and-ugly.
alternative medium and approach through which the marginalised 
rural and urban poor can address their own problems. To this Another group w orking in th is area is  Bounya Epee's Trotty 
effect, it utilises a dramaturgical procedure that is collective and Show, founded in 1 9 8 8 . Th is  theatre has a lso moved into the 
emphasizes participation. television studios. The only independent children's theatre troupe 
in the country so far is  Yaounde C hild ren's Theatre Collective 
In addition, the experiment operates from within the founded in 1 9 8 9 .
cultural matrix of the people using forms like song, music, dance 
and also puppetry, mime and story-telling. Chuck M ike of the But across the subregion theatre has been the victim of the 
Performing Studio W orkshop (PSW ), N igeria , in order to show development of cinema and other media. W hat cinema has 
fidelity to this matrix has somewhat strained his practice by done, generally, is to take the best of the theatre and poaching 
working from stage to script, not from script to the stage. along with it, the theatre audience. The likes of S id jir i Bakaba, 
Isaac Bankole, Therese Taba and Bienvenue Neuba came from 
Oga S . Abah, an influential popular theatre practitioner at the stage theatre, but can only be watched now on Ivorian 
the Ahmadu Bello University, Za ria  identified three levels with screen.
which the oral medium is  incorporated.
'One, it defines o r names the Television
problems which need to be addressed . . .o r  Since 1 9 5 6  when the Western Nigerian Television (W NTV) 
was established, TV  plays have become very central to its 
W hat Paulo Fre ire calls codification. Two, 
programme. Today, N ig e ria  has over forty TV  stations, thereby 
it is through the ora l medium that expanding the scope of such plays.
analyses o f the issues are carried out.
And thirdly, the ora l may Plays by Duro Ladipo and Hubert Ogunde formed the 
nucleus of that pioneer effort, and they were mainly in Yoruba 
work in combination with gestures 
Language. Soyinka 's first short play, M y Father's Burden, in 
to concretise the issues and thereby English, had its premiere production in 1 9 6 0  on the same station.
provide a visual d im ension.'
Th is  pattern is  somewhat replicated among the other large 
Along with Ross Kidd of the International Council for Adult language groups such as the Hausa and the Igbo. Multi-linguistic 
Education, Toronto Canada, Ta r Ahura, Michael Etherton and reg ionssucha stheN ig er delta areas of N igeria  and the old Mid- 
David Cook, this theatre form was introduced in Igyura, Benue W est have resorted to either English or Pidgin language for the 
stale, N igeria  among many other site projects that have been production of their TV  plays. N igerian Te levision Authority (NTA) 
accomplished over the years. Enugu'spopularplayA'Iasquerac/e and Hotel de Jordan of N TA  
Benin are two such compelling features. -The Masquerade's 
Then there is also modern Cameroun's children's theatre pidgin idiom is  by no means suggestive of lack of linguistic 
which can be traced back to the cultural practice of the people homogeneity among the Igbo, but due more to the national 
with the many children games, dances, in itiations and folk- accessibility of pidgin as a medium of [cultural) communication.
narrative performances.
The Village Headmaster was one experiment that tried to 
W h ile  such theatre has somewhat receded to the prov­ serve as the melting pot of N ig e ria 's  babel cultures [not lan­
inces, where some elder on some moon-lit night would narrate the guage) in its junction setting of O ja  village.
age-old stories of the clan, through which society's ethics are 
imparted, what we now have for the urban child are radio, comic The Masquerade's attempt in this direction was limited 
strips, and the television's world of Sesame Street. largely because only southern voices were represented.
Some amateur efforts in schools and colleges, at times in The popular agricultural Jos TV  play Cock Crow at Dawn 
the Sunday Schools, have also contributed to this development reversed the situation whereby northern voices became more 
and there has been some excellent results. The example of prominent.
Guillaume Oyono Mbia with Three Suitors, One Husband (
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The three most popular soap operas up till date are *ry to develop my ideas on African art with any African a-'tist who 
Ripples, 5upp/e Blues and Checkmate - which >s the equivalent has a philosophy identical with me..'
of America's Dynasty Th is latter trend in Nigerian TV genre 
represents, perhaps, the most radical rupture with ihe old cultural Carnivalesque
matrix of the mask code
Sometimes though Demas Nwoko, that prodigious theatre 
However, the Igbo video scene is replete with mask motifs practitioner of the Mbari era, comes off like a dreamer gone far 
Living in Bondage, acclaimed as the first Igbo video film, beyond an early rise. And somehow, too, he gets a multitude of 
narrates how the lead character uses charm to become rich, by fellow travellers
killing his wife Nncka the Pretty Serpent merely intensifies this 
supernatural ambience, with Nneka casting spell on any man she H is ideas of working with 'any African artist' is informed 
sufficiently has interest in, turning him into her zombie by what he had elsewhere alluded to as the need to perpetuate 
'our artistic traditions' What he is calling for is  a medley of sorts, 
In Ikuku we find the finest expression of this tradition. A the stuff of which the carnivalesque is made
nouveau riche Igbo in Lagos faces problems with his business 
which is on the decline because he had abandoned his duties to That passion to identify and claim Africa's artistic person­
ancestral masks, of whom he was supposed to be a custodian. ality is a feature that we con readily identify with ~ar Ukoh, 
In a spirited attempt to find a resolution to the impasse created by Werewere Liking and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti through their respec­
this supersensible intervention, he returns home However, un­ tive experiments Mombissa, K i Y i M'Bock and Kalakuta
able to cope with the rigour of self-effacement and communal 
responsibility, a burlesque scenario is created as he tenders to the Mambissa
gods, through the elders, a letter of resignation!
It did not take too long after a first encounter with this 
W ith the introduction of the home video, no doubt, an Nigerian artiste about a decade ago, to whiff the presence of a 
additional channel was created for theatrical expression. The visionary, cultural Pan-Africanist, even if a little unorthodox in his 
stylistics of this medium is quite diverse. W hile the mask code is ways
quite trenchant, it is by no means the 
only outlet in terms of style. Themes of 
'modernisation' are becoming increas­
ingly popular and the commercial 
impulse of producers have driven 
many to dilute their art to serve this 
end.
Besides this, there is another 
tendency to expand the income space 
by accommodpting the resolution of 
plots in favour of Judeo-Christian and 
Islamic positions, a factor that in itself 
subverts mask narrative.
There are however complaints 
of proliferation of the medium. In this 
regard a timely caution has been 
given by the maverick Ibadan based 
screenwriter, Charles Ogu, during 
the shooting of his new title Harry's 
Crew. In a rather anecdotal style he En route D jenne: 'the N iger is both the literal a n d  figurative reference  for West 
quipped: 'now they are flooding the Africa, through it the arts o f the su b re g io n  becom e the m ost travelled comm odity'
market, but let them remember that 
W ith braided hair - his modest register of alternative 
you don't learn to fall into a pit, al! it takes is the first step. A lot 
outlook, and a dangling ear ring, Tar Ukoh comes off as an 
of'our video practitioners may soon get flushed off in their self- 
intriguing bohemian. He is also a philosopher and multi-genre 
mpelled deluge.' DAW N performer, who skilfu lly captures the essence of Africa's artistic legacy H is 'total theatre' compelsthe audience to notice a master 
singer-dancer, puppetry expert, choreographer - with the direc­
I have started building the nucleus of the type of studio torial energy of late Hubert Ogunde.
I am advocating
'I w ill name the centre The New Culture Studio where I w ill Listening to Ta r's music, watching h-m perform, you are
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trapped into a colourful spectacle of mask stagecraft comparable geared towards a re-affirmation of faith in ourselves Today, the 
only to the Riviero II mad house - K i Y i M ’Bock of W erewere Liking Mambissa  has resurrected, like the undying phoenix, from the 
in Abidjan. Like Ki Y i M 'Bock, Ta r's  Mambissa strives towards ashes of cultural despair into a colossus of cultural self identity 
the melange and aesthetic hodge podge of Africa's diverse with a mission to take A frica 's place in world history
theatre traditions. H is  renditions are usually in the various 
Nigerian languages, as well as in Sw a hili, Zulu, French, Span­ Ki Yi M'Bock
ish, Portuguese and English. Th is  has made his expressive art a 
unique and dynamic cosmopolitan entertainment genre 'That idealist who fled her native country for Cote d’Ivoire', 
was the way an angry, cynicalCamerounian criticdescribed her. 
When again I fielded questions to Ta r last harmattan he W hen I met W erewere Liking during rehearsals other Village K i 
revealed a resume of superlatives that ran like eternity. H is  Best Yi, she still wore the looks of a dreamer.
of Africa won, in 1986 , the first prize of N TA  National Merit 
Award in dance drama. He returned first p rize winner in 1 9 8 8  She did indeed have the ambience of a roomer - like the 
with a musical opera, Songs of W isdom, at the N igeria  Festival Fulani cattle rearer, with eyes gazing at, through and beyond me 
of Television Programmes (N IEFETEP) S ix  other consecutive into a distance you could not decipher. She was perhaps 
awards were won in the variety/ light entertainment on the same wondering what to do with a dishevelled knap sack carrier who 
occasion. The group's performances in the 1 9 8 0 s  have been well had just intruded into rehearsal well space. Somehow, we 
applauded, a factor that led to its nomination for the 1 9 9 0  eventually fix an appointment and an interview got underway 
Nelson Mandela Prize  in African Music by U R TN A , Nairobi after three failed attempts
Kenya. W hile  the Mambissa  strives to collapse distance by re­
enacting and re-interpreting A frica 's rich cultuial reservoir, the Liking had left her native country, Ca meroun, some say, out 
primary imagination of the group has been influenced by the best of spite, after starting as a singer, to explore the cultural 
of the Kwagh-Hir. environment of Cate d'Ivoire.
The T iv  Kwagh-Hir theatrical repertoire is  infused with a 'That is  not true' she fired back, 'although I d id  sing from 
variety of poetic forms ranging from the heroic, didactic, religio- age sixteen to eighteen, but I  was painting already I  moved on 
medicinal to the elegiac and romantic. to writing poetry, and then to theatre When I left my country at 
twenty-seven , I  was already known as a coming painter, a poet 
A single thread that runs through them all is  the interroga­ and playwright, a woman with ideas, and a wife and mother! I 
tion of essences-what is man, his place in the universe, the nature exhibited in Abidjan in 1975 , as part o f a series o f international 
of human existence, the basis for his cornucopia of problems and exhib itions. I returned to Cote d 'Ivo ire in 19 7 8  to work at 
above all, why is  man replete with foibles? Abidjan University doing research into Negro-African traditions 
and aesthetics for s ix  years, before I  founded the K i Y i group'.
For an exuberant art form that had thrived since ages, it 
was not until December 19 7 3 , during the festival of traditional And what is  K i Y i M 'Bock?
dances held in a ll states of N igeria , that the Kwagh-Hir puppet 
and masquerade theatre of the T iv  communities settled in Gboko, 'Knowledge of the Universe ', she says, drawing from the 
Makurdi and Katsina-Ala began to work itself into national sagely wisdom of her South Cameroun Bassa.
reckoning.
In the context of artistic creation, however, the micro­
But what is Mambissa? Tar responds in a detour: 'You village, Ki Y i M 'Bock, operates as a community in a living and 
watch the performance, you listen to the music, you dance to the work space equipped with infrastructure for creating, promoting 
pulsating rhythms and the curious question comes back again; and diffusing the arts.
what is Mam bissa? '
There is  an art gallery, a museum, a photographic and 
Mambissa, he fina lly offered, is a historical and cultural audiovisual laboratory, studios for sculpture, painting, weaving, 
excursion into the deep, troubled soul of Africa. Mambissa is a sewing..,. Beside the home-made costume for each show, a 
RETURN TO  SO URC E, as we approach the dawn of the 21st commercial clothes label now exists: K i Y i lines, a new source of 
century and its challenges. Mambissa  is  African pride. income in addition to recipes from all over Africa.
Tar located M am bissa 's etymology in the resistance Liking further enthused:
against slavery and colonialism. Those brave sons of Africa who 
fired the forge of resistance were called Mambi, while the 'Young people from a ll over, and from a ll ethnic orig ins, 
courageous daughters of Africa were called Mambissa. Children have seized this unhoped for chance, taking up dance, singing, 
of lion, wounded but unbeaten! writing, acting, in a harmony where team sp irit, change and 
discipline constitute the basis o f an undertaking that is, to say the 
In a tone sim ila r to W erewere L ik ing 's, Ta r preaches the least, singular Nothing is left to chance at K i Y i village, for not 
rediscovery of Africa. A Mam bissa  performance is therefore only must each member master h is daily programme, he must also
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interest himself in what the others do, so as to be able to fulfil any musical comedy about desert and forest meeting.
role, especially in a tour abroad.'
By 1992, Liking refocused her imagination on the diverse 
Founded in 1985 , the Ki Y i group is conceived as a Pan social malaise in the continent. 'W idow  Dilemma' is about the 
African movement on contemporary artistic creation. It comes out condition of African women up against some strange traditions, 
as a minf-African multi-artistic project and hopes to give Africa the while 'Ya Match' is a lyric choreography on the subjects of 
easons to look towards the future with hope. money and misery. Th is concern spilled into 1 993  when 'Water 
H ero 'w a s produced, and she denounces the evils of secrecy.
Liking hopes for an aesthetics that can unite in one Ouvre 
the creativity of writers, poets, plastic artists, actors, singers and 'Craddle Awakening'-, which was premiered in 1 99 3 , was 
dancers with a view to presenting a 'utopia' of a new Africa that taken on tour to Accra, Ghana in 1996 . Th is theatrical concert, 
would at least dream for herself. in a way, marks the group's recent musical inclination, and what 
it has achieved in two years with Zairean musician Ray Lema. In 
Sidibe Valy said of her effort: the movement dedicated to the late Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, the 
'What Werewere Liking is doing is  positive. She is stage grew dim, the drums slower, paces heavy and studied and 
associating theatre, dance, puppetry and choreography. She the visage of the lead actor became sombre - as the cast 
has an approach of theatre which is global and this is  a direction floundered, eyes dilated, with hands stretched skywards grop­
in which African theatre should move. To that extent, she is to be ing, groping, they ask: what happened to the continent he slaved 
encouraged as she is opening paths to the future development of for?
African theatre. She is bringing together different forms, to create 
a total theatre. So, what else is hidden about this woman who 
has made such a great impact on African Youth?1 And she 
continues:
'I am also a Pan Africanist. My earliest influences were 
from Kwame Nkrumah, Azikiwe...people who spoke of a great 
united Africa. I was a child during independence when the 
women sang praise to those heroes....
What I learned about African culture, I learned through 
women's songs, women from my ethnic group are very patriotic. 
They have fought to create the image of a great Africa, within 
their children's minds.'
If Liking has dedicated her songs and studies across Cote 
d'Ivoire, Mali and Cameroun to women, it is  because she is 
convinced that spirituality is important for humon development, 
of which the woman must be availed.
Her belief in Pan Africanism is  informed by an assessment 
that poses the ideology as the only way to correct the many 
wrongs done to Africa. Therefore, Pan Africanism isthe only way 
to bring Africa together in solidarity between brothers and 
between sisters.
The themes of her production are quite diverse. They range 
from the struggle of the African woman in contemporary society 
to Pan Africanism. There are also environment related themes 
and social dilemma narratives. Her 1985  'Mixed-Up Woman' 
narrates the instance when a woman is latent energy invested Elder Carver: Y usuf Guindo, Ende village, Dogon, Mali
with enormous power by the cultural context. Thus, we find a 
woman who does not need power because she is herself power
The K i Y iM 'Bock  theatre repertoire is  indeed multinational 
both in content and in form. W h ile  the persistent message is the 
'Caesarean', 1986 , explores Africa's vicious circle which 
integration of the African Peoples, the aesthetics of delivery is 
makes her tomorrows difficult to have a natural birth, while 
drawn from different sources in the continent
'Singue M ura', 1990 , is a hymn dedicated to African and 
universal Woman. A  measure of her diversity is seen in the 
Costuming at any session is always a pool cf Afnca's
environment sketch, 'A Touareg Married a Pigmy', 1992 , a
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medley of histrionics. The stage is  adorned with raffia stripes, emphasise the inscription of a unique practice and theory of 
gourds and rattle gourds, cowrie shells and the like. The counter-culture. H is mask d isp lay of ancestral sculptures triggers 
Affoungb/andrum- the conveyor of secrets, the tam-tam, maracas off a vibrance of figuratives. The ir simultaneous evocation of 
and flutes carved locally, are some of the musical equipment several dimensions of time is  realized through the congealed 
used. In one breadth, Liking pushes to prominence Kunlu drama; narratives of these figural sculptures, their condensation of myths, 
Kunlu being a Bantu concept of evolving the African aesthetic. engagement in current dialogues and ability to prognosticate
This is given meaning by her mask code of presentational style, 
buttressed through action, structure, characterization and audi­ H is  performance venue is  called a shrine, reflecting that he 
ence reaction intends it to be more than a nightclub, it is meant to be a place 
of communal celebration and w orship . Rather than the 'tribal' 
If what you expect in the structure of a K i Y i performance communalism of old, however, h is new society is a ra lly ing point 
is some arcane linearity, set in historical time, then you w ill be of Pan-African progressivisrp Felo alludes to th is stylization of the 
disappointed. For rather, what you w ill probably get is  a African shrine as a place of worship  that embodies all the 
simultaneity of both historical and mythic time - with a participa­ attributes of the performative arts.
tory chorus and audience.
The ritual paraphernalia at the shrine include the statutes 
Announcement: There w ill be no rehearsals tomorrow. of Esu, Sango, Ogun and O risa  O b eji, with these, portraits of 
Sunday is  a rest day in the village Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and Funmilayo 
Ransome-Kuti adorn the w orsh ip  cubicle. There are also earthen
Kalakuta m o und s c o n ta in in g  
Whereas W erewere Liking merely glared into space honey, palm oil-soaked 
wondering what to do with me after I had intruded into her w ick and cowrie shells. 
rehearsals, with Fela in Lagos it was different. He hauled Som e kola  nuts are 
invectives at me and punched holes in my rather calm posture, placed in a covered 
suggesting that my knap sack reminded him of the fabled eternal ca labash. A keg of 
bearer of sins. 'A ren 'to ld  men expected to be more guarded with p a lm w ine and three 
their utterances?' I hit back and Fela dissolved into a bottles of Gordon Gin 
mischievous grin. 'W ha t again do you want foolish boy?' are tucked in a corner. 
A sacrificial cock in the 
W e settled into an intervew session that lasted some two cubicle, looks away ex­
hours, during which he threatened thrice to terminate our pectantly. The musical 
discussion grumbling that foolish 'Un ive rsity  people' like me accom panim ents for 
could ask foolish questions. divination rites are only 
fo u r: m etal go ng, 
By evening I was back at his shrine (self-styled Kalakuta wooden rattle, conga 
Republic by the 70s) and like many other shrine members sat drum, and a W estern, 
patiently under drifting marijuana smoke clouds. But unlike b rass drum-set with cym­
many, I was this time not particularly anxious about his musical bals. The cubicle has 
performance, rather, it was h is 'invocative Saturday Divination red, blue and green 
Night', that 1 was awaiting. bulbs on. The wick is  lit 
fo r the ritual to com­
As I soon realised, a Kalakuta performance embodies the mence, but the proceed­
mask code in several ways. The inscription of white chalk ing ritual is  a revision of 
(powder) on the faces of band members at the beginning of the an ancient practice At 
performance, relates to the symbol of man conquering death in another level, it reveals 
Yoruba ritual drama. Fe la 's communion with the past is  a sort of the impact of the city 
ritual device to affirm presence with the ancestors. Th is  merely and urbanity on erst­
complements Fe la's last names: Anikulapo (one who conquers while folk aesthetics and the rippling changes in their figural 
death), a cultural sign ifie r which refers to this concept of continu­ devices and meanings.
ity. It is  more than an ideational category, it implies both 
sameness and difference. By the power of the mask, you cannot The ritual commences w ith the clanging of a metal gong 
die; when 'death' is  reckoned with, however, it is  deemed to and wooden rattle, followed by the conga. Then the drum set and 
represent a transition to other spheres of performance. Life is cymbal is  unleashed on the shrine in on upbeat, high tempo 
believed to be a sort of self-regenerative, transformative, univer­ pace. For a while, it is  repetitive but suddenly takes a faster 
sal energy wound off by a firs t cause in the breath of Olodumare, tempo, reaching a crescendo with the ris ing  smoke of the 
burning wick. At that moment, Feta appears, with a fewvotarists 
Since colonialism soughtto explain away non-lslamic, non- —  all,masked in white (chalk) powder on their faces. In these 
Christian Africa as sim ply indescript, Fe la 's aesthetics seems to few minutes, one begins to observe a gradual encoding of
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diverse signifie rs in the performance.
Only the metal-gong and wooden rattle maintain a repeti­ Melange
tive, continuous stream of clanging, while the accentuation of the 
The 1 9 6 5  W o rld  Negro Arts Festival in Dakar, Senegal 
conga and drum set and cymbals denote alteration of tempo. The 
and the 1 9 7 7  Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Lagos, 
impact of the repetitive clanging here, as in traditional worship 
N igeria , provided the forum for the expression of the various 
forms, is  clearly evocative, a device by which elements of the 
theatrical traditions of the subregion, apart from other cultural 
etheral and supersensible world are invited into ritual preceedings.
events.
The ritual process continues with Fela leading a few other 
It is in this context that Festival Pan Africaine du cinema el 
votarists to the cubicle. He assumes a crouching position, picks 
de la Television de Ouagadougou (Fespaco) Les Marche de Arts 
up some cowrie shells arid lobes of kolanut, throws them on a 
du Spectacle - Aficain (MASA), Abidjan, and the Pan African 
spread out tray and begins to observe intently. H is  brows betray 
Festival o fA rts and Culture (P A N A FE ST j have become important 
different moods from anxiety, perplexion to elation and satisfac­
tion. At this point, he takes a bite of the kolanut, dips his left fingers stop gaps.
into the honey mound for a taste. A lso, some Gordon gin is 
W est Africa remains a celluloid power in the continent 
sprinkled on the floor for the ancestors, after which he empties the 
partly due to its numerous national film festivals, but above all it
contents into the four fire points. Fire infused with methanol, the 
flame rises, bathing this Chief Priest 
from torso up, but he is unyielding, does 
not move.
The cock is  ripped at the neck, 
with bare hands. Gradually, the Chief 
Priest stands up, holding the cock above 
his mouth and sucks the drippling blood.
H is body is covered with sweat; his 
eyes, thunder-shot, are glittering; his 
teeth, blood-red, are grating. He is  past 
concentration; he merely glares into 
space, momentarily suspended in the 
middle of nowhere. He is seemingly 
attempting to move but somewhat re­
strained by what the rest of us cannot 
quite see. H is  biceps are enlarged in this 
intense struggle to break off, his head 
gradually drops to the right and he starts 
to mumble or chant, but it is incompre­
hensible. Meatiwhile, he seems to fi­
nally succeed in breaking this invisible 
fettering chain - and only then does he The Ki Yi M'Bock village, Abidjan mini-theatre under construction
seem to regain consciousness of his 
immediate surrounding. W ith  unsteady steps, he moves to the owes its strength to the bi-ennial Fespaco held every other year. 
right of the cubicle and picks up a long canvas soaked in water. Th is fiesta, no matter how often you make its pilgrimage, 
Gripping it with two hands, he sw irls it round, moving back­ unleashes on one not only a feverish feast of celluloid but also an 
wards, eight steps, but with head thrust forward - gazing at the eerie a ir of the quixotic. As I walked post Hotel Independence 
cubicle. He repeats this motion and then replaces the canvas. He during the last edition, I ran into mufflered Diabia, medicine men, 
finally pours somepalmwine into a calabash and takes a sip. The looking through the hour glass of time, foretelling the future, 
remaining content and an extra calabash are handed over to a predicting the past-with their heads bowed. They urged potential 
votarist, who now takes the two calabashes up stage and feeds clients to buy remedies which - apparently -could cure in one 
the other members of the band. Fela, now back on the stage, is dose, illness as varied as fever, asthma, haemorrhoids and guess 
handed a nine-centimetre long wrap of marijuana. He takes a what-probably Marquezian bubonic plague?!
long drag, as if it is  some kind of oxygen survival dose. He emits 
the smoke in one cloud-cluster and momentarily, h is head A ll the some, this cultural event provides a forum where 
disappears into it. He emerges to start prophesying and recount­ W est African film makers exhibit the immense and diverse 
ing the ritual encounter. H is  ambience is of one who has just narrative possib ilities that abound in the subregion. For instance, 
returned from a distant journey. at the centenary celebration of cinema in the world and the silver 
jubilee of Fespaco, Ouagadougou, 1 9 9 5 , the citation of jury
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president noted of M a li's Cheick Oumar S issoko 's Guimba, comes in diverse forms. Gombe/e, L'enfent terrible and Magic 
which was the grand prtx winner: of N igeria  fall under myth, while Keila,de bouche o ' O ra ille  and 
Guimba receive epic treatment. Even Fespaco's grand prize 
.. .this extraordinary title, which is  as profound in its Eslallion de Yennenga is derived from a legend The legend tells 
thematic thrust, as it is steeped in deep cultural codes and figural ofa princess named Yennenga, a distinguished w arrior whowon 
devices., enhancing its aesthetics . ' countless battles for her father Nedega, the M ossi chief of 
Gambaga people.
A 1 993  Kora films production, Guimba is the story of 
Africa, a continent so beautiful and blessed, but one that has Issa Traore de Brahima's 1 9 9 4  Gombele relives an old 
been raped and bled white through the actions of its ruling elites. Burkina myth that albinos change into sp irits . Just why would this 
notion not be evoked inthechildren when, suddenly after Kalifa s 
The occasional 'intrusion' of the narrating griot lends the (the Albino child) diappearance, a series of terrible incidents 
film an epic ambience. befall his playmates in the district.
In the same breath he constructs, deconstructs and recon­ L'enfent terrible (1994) by M a li's Kadiatous Konate is 
structs his narrative, sparing neither ruler nor ruled. almost an exact replication of the Yoruba Ajanlala  myth. Th is  is 
the story of a child who knew how to walk, talk and eat from the 
Though its setting is a village - S itika li - its symbolic day he was born. In Ajantala's case he eats a meal of some three 
dozen wraps of corn mealie and yet yawns of hunger.
In L'enfent, few days after his birth, he sets out in search 
of his brother. He finds him and together they continue their 
journey.
W hat follows are the adventures of an ungrateful child who 
involves his brother in h is exploits and misdeeds.
O laBalogun's M agic, 19 9 3 , revisits ancestral mask: the 
bronzes of Ife and Benin, made through the lost wax casting 
method and the incarnated stately royal masks of the Igala with 
a singular message: life 's cyclicity.
M yth's capacity to dialogue with the post finds an aestheti­
cally profound treatment in Kouyafe's Keita.
'Open your ears wide and listen carefully.
Everything started with the 
setbacks of a poor antelope.
That day, the antelope was
trudging along looking for a
water point to quench its
thirst when a great diviner
hunter happened to pass by. ..you get me ?'
The one who tells the story is Djeliba Koyate, an old praise 
singer. At the twilight of h is life, a mysterious hunter entrusted him 
a last mission: tell young Mabo Keita the orig in of his name, A 
name that carries a whole epic, that of the founder of the 
Mandinga empire - Soundjata Keita, also called - the buffalo's 
son,who after a prolonged pregnancy had cried from his 
mother's womb:
W erew ere  Liking setting out
'M o the r! . . .  my time is  up, deliver me'.
reference to the present is  not lost on the viewer, Guimba is 
indeed archetypal, o statement about the human condition, and From one production to another, one discovers that a good 
the quest to unfetter our shackles in whatever contrasting situa­ number of W est African cinema is replete with these motifs.
tions we may find ourselves.
These days Fespaco secretariat seems more interested in 
The celluloid expression of W est African mask narrative creating structures and diversifying its operations. Two such
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
recent structures are the Pan African Association of Film Makers, 'goskia ' in Hausa means 'truth'. So the name means something 
(FEPACI) and The International African Film s and Television like 'artistic reminder of echoes of truth'.
Market (MICA) .
Here is indeed the truth of the marvellous world of stories. 
Fepaci is geared towards assisting a collective action by The company of three action-storytellers conducts research into 
African film markers, in an environmentthat is  generally as hostile stories, proverbs, riddles, children's game and traditional A fri­
to celluloid promotion. Mica on the other hand, seeks to promote can singing and dancing.
sale, help to establish contacts and exchanges among directors, 
producers and distributors. The Zigas show marks a sharp break with classical theatre, 
deliberately so, to achieve real, genuine audience participation 
Fespaco details basic regulations governing participation, The group proclaims of itself: 'Z ig a s: a new genre, born of 
competition and selection of jury in the bi-ennial festival. W hile  traditional evenings.'
the event is open to all African film makers and their films, the 
National Organising Committee (NOC) reserves the right to Actor Yoshua Kossi Efou's Aftoungb/an Theatre Workshop
accept films with a special interest to the festival.
The committee requires all directors and producers of entry 
films to send documents on each title and advertise them forty-five 
days prior to the opening of the festival Copies of the film must 
also have been sent thirty days before the opening date of the
festival.
Any film at 
the festival maybe 
shown atleastfour 
times, after which 
the consent of the 
owner must be 
sought for further 
showings.
A ll W est Af­
rican co un trie s 
observe either an 
annual or a b i­
ennial national fes­
tival of arts during 
w h ich , among 
other events, the From  L'enfent terrib le : Film b y  
different theatre K adiatou  K on a te  (M alian)
troupes make their 
presentations.
Though excluding the anglophone world for now, M A SA 
has considerably integrated the different national festivals. A 
MASA event may be more than what is needed for a kaleiodoscope Sidibe V aly: P ro fesso r o f  theatre. U n iversity  o f  A bid jan , 
of the different theatrical traditions of the subregion. The M A SA  C ocody, Cote d 'Ivoire
creates a medley of forms ranging from music and drama to in Cote d'Ivoire is  also a highly experimental group. H is  stage 
dance, puppetry and song. direction uses the technique of theatre-within- theatre quite dose 
to groit theatre, with its recounting and intense living of 'the past 
In the 1995 edition, Aluvi-G Amedegnato's Coagulated for the audience of today.'
Words attrocted critical observation to its compelling perfor­
mance The group's name: Attoungblan, is an Akan word meaning 
talking drum, Akan being the language of the ethnic group in 
Amadegnato is a founder of the Zitic  story te ller's company Southern and Central Cote d' Ivoire and Ghana. The Attoungblan 
in Lome, Togo, which had great success with more flexible is  regarded as a repository of all secrets, its words functioning at 
structure Hence, the Zigas company, which he found in 19 9 3 . several different levels depending on the circumstance, and it is 
The name is a combination. Z igvid i is Ewe for 'big nose', and the most sacred.
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For the Sonongnien group of until he could resist if no longer. He leapt evolution of the caste.Initiative at subre­
Burkino Faso, whose sub-genre is tradi­ into the circle - but because he did nor gional cultural integration has however 
tional dance, the group's history is per­ know how to dance, he simply got in the been left almost entirely to the culture 
haps, as interesting as its performance. way. workers themselves without any semblance 
of assistance coming from the Economic 
The group was created in 1 9 8 5  in 'Annoyed, they stopped and taught Com m unity of W e st A frica n States 
Zoula, Sanguve province. It includes the him a couple of steps to improve things. (EC O W AS). Th is  has greatly reduced the 
leading village dancers and musicians When he at last decided to go home, the possib ility of interraclion among the com­
among those selected to perform during sp irit gave him a magic tail. Back in the peting theatre traditions of W est African 
the national cultural week. Most of the village he had magic powers, and all Countries. According to Simeon Berete, an 
Bezemo (or Baziemo, or Bazioma), all learned of his sk ills  at singing and danc­ Ivorian poet and translator, the refusol of 
seem to claim descent from Wangara, ing. And his descendants, the Bazemo, member states to honour Article (iii) of 
the mythical ancestor to whom the sp irits inherit his gift.' EC O W A S treaty - which abolishes ob­
revealed the art of singing and dancing. stacles to free movement, and thereby 
The story could have been retold, cultural motion, is tantamount to 'cultural 
'One night in the time of the ances­ with only a slight variation, by a Malinke negation.' By this stance, he says, the 
tors, a man named Wangara went into Jo/ior Yoruba Ayan, the Bazemio mythol­ community is  se rv ing  the interest of 
the bush where he came across sp irits ogy merely attempts an explanation of the recolonisalion rather than integration. G R
dancing in a circle in the moonlight. He 
admired the performance unobserved;
Notes X 0  W V &
..from the MINAJ stable
1. Chris Nw am uo,'New Dimensions in Onuora Ossie Enekwe 
African Theatre,' N igeria  Magazine; is one of Nigeria’s 
Lagos: 1984 , p .40. best known writers of 
2. John Mbiti, African Religions and prose fiction, a poet, 
Philosophy. Garden city, N  .V. Doubleday drama critic and 
and company, 1970 , p .20. university teacher.
3. The thrust of Harry Garuba's argu­ jCaptivating and 
ment in his Ph.D thesis 'M ask and Mean­ educative stories 
ing in Black Drama: Africa and the of-battle" in the 
Diaspora'. University of Ibadan, 1988. Nigerian experience 
4. Jahnheinz Jahn attempts to evolve as has never been 
critical terms from the Africa cultural envi­
ronment in Muntu. New York, Grove told before.
Press, 1961. THE RACE is a 
5. Sidibe Valy is a Professor of dramatic tender, gripping 
arts in the French department of the Uni­ and compassionately 
versity of Abidjan, Cocody, Cote d'Ivoire. written story oflxilo, 
6. Colin Grandson in 'Chief in Contem­ a beautiful butterfly 
porary Black Africa Theatre', Theatre in challenged to a race 
Africa Ed. Ogunba and Irele, Ibadan by a young kestrel bird...
University Press, 1978 Witty and 
7. Zadi is  regarded as belonging to the engaging.
experimentalist school. ... no child's bookcase 
8. Biodun Jeyifo in 'The Truthful Lie: should be without this 
Essays in a Sociology of African Drama': 
London; New Beacon, 1985  p .27. hugely entertaining and uplifting 
9. Soyinka. Myth Literature and the 
African W orld. Cambridge University picture book. UAvailable from bookthopt and at our office:
Press, 1979 . p. 145. M4F1A, ALIfU>MNFMO. oIKlAAUSYT1JR - ELEA TGP,OOSFU FT CALW:B 00I-L20LCW9J70I3R00S. AJ DFH.APX.0 .0DE1O-2X0R9 53278237S3 ..setting the pace in quality publishing.
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