African Theatres and Performances [Hardcover]

African Theatres & Performanceslooks at four specific performance forms in Africa and uses this to question the tendency to employ western frames of reference to analyze and appreciate theatrical performance. The book examines:

• masquerade theatre in Eastern Nigeria
• the trance and possession ritual theatre of the Hausa of Northern Nigeria
• the musical and oral tradition of the Mandinka of Senegal
• comedy and satire of the Bamana in Mali.

Osita Okagbue describes each performance in detail and discusses how each is made, who it is made by and for, and considers the relationship between maker and viewer and the social functions of performance and theatre in African societies. The discussions are based on first-hand observation and interviews with performers and spectators.

African Theatres & Performancesgives a fascinating account of these practices, carefully tracing the ways in which performances and theatres are unique and expressive of their cultural context.

'African Theatres and Performancesis perhaps the first book by an African scholar to assert its prerogative to apply the term African to a specific tribal or regional performance tradition without feeling the need to fulfil the post-imperial requirement of felicitating with regional traditions elsewhere on the continent. The book is a bold and brilliant intervention in cultural and performance studies on Africa, and I hope that it will help to refocus African theatre pedagogy and inspire other focused reading of Africa's vast performance forms and traditions.'- Platform

'The descriptions of the particular events attended for the writing of this book are admirable in their clarity, including fascinating details...Readers are l#L