Cover Texts Bayreuth African Studies 61 - 70
Bayreuth African Studies 61
Victor Samson Dugga
Creolisations in Nigerian Theatre
Nigeria's triple historical heritage of autochtone cultures, of Islamic Jihad,
Christian missions and British colonialism conditioned a cultural development of continuous
change before and after independence. The interaction of "the nations within the nation" in
the 90s further enhanced a variety of creolisations in the arts, visibly in the theatre.
The revival of Eggon festival performance as revitalisation of ethnic identity within the
Nigerian nation, Soyinka's and Osofisan's usage of Yoruba traditions in a new form of
social documentation theatre, Amatu Braide's and Bose Tsevende's theatre for special
purposes are the examples chosen by Dugga to illustrate the changes in the art as well as
the new role of the cultural elite in the 21st century Nigeria. He points to the emergence
of a new cultural policy, yet to be programmatically formulated, that envisages cultural
diversity as major asset to Nigerian cultural identity.
Victor Samson Dugga teaches Theatre at the University of Jos/Nigeria. He has written and
directed a variety of plays, he staged plays of the African classical dramatists, initiated
popular theatre/TfD projects, he writes poetry and short stories. His short story "Over the
Bar" won a first prize in a writing contest organised by the Swiss Association for African
Studies and FIFA in Zürich 2001.
"Dugga succeeded in working out the multi-faceted trends in Nigerian theatre. His
reasoning power has the force to convince the reader of the validity of his arguments."
- Said Khamis
Bayreuth African Studies 62
Ulli Beier (ed.)
Yoruba Poetry - An Anthology
Yoruba poetry - with its condensed, startling and often witty imagery and its
evocation of layers of historical and mythological allusion - is one of the world's most
fascinating literary traditions. Ulli Beier's classic anthology of Yoruba poetic texts has
given English speakers a taste of this poetic repertoire. Compiled and translated in
collaboration with deeply informed Yoruba colleagues, it draws on a wide range of Yoruba
genres, from sacred Ifa divination poems to riddles and humorous songs, to offer memorable
and often sharp-eyed commentaries on Yoruba life. The poems were chosen for their ability
to communicate even in translation, and the English versions are vivid and appealing works
of art in their own right. This new edition brings the reader invaluable additional
background information in the notes, and an expanded introductory essay exploring the
delights and complexities of Yoruba poetic language.
Karin Barber
Bayreuth African Studies 63
Bode Omojola
Studies In African Pianism
Studies In African Pianism is a collection of seven original piano compositions,
which evoke different features of African music. The piano is often treated as a 'surrogate'
African instrument, evoking the character of Yoruba music. The works have been performed within
and outside Nigeria. Two Nigerian Dances premiered in 1997 at the University of
Leicester. With their aesthetic appeal, these pieces will be of great artistic value to
composers and musicologists who are interested in the intercultural dynamics of modern African
music.
Bayreuth African Studies 64
Bode Omojola
Three Yoruba Sacred Choral Works
Three Yoruba Sacred Choral Works is a collection of three original compositions,
which evolve from the composer's work with young music students and choristers in schools,
universities and churches in Nigeria and Ghana. The adoption of a generally diatonic vocabulary
instead of a modernist pitch-building system, reflects the composer's consideration for the
musical preferences of most college and church choral groups in Africa. Choral groups, as well
as scholars and teachers of African music, will find this collection delightful and valuable.
Bayreuth African Studies 65
René Philombe
Bedi-Ngula, L'Ancien Maquisard
De tous les écrivains camerounais, René Philombe est certainement celui que les
circonstances ont le moins servi. Mais il est sans doute celui qui s'est le plus investi pour
organiser sur place, au Cameroun, une vie littéraire animée. Son opiniâtreté à initier la
création d'institutions durables relève pour ainsi dire de la légende. Avec l'APEC, les Èditions
Semences Africaines, sa librairie, le CREPLA, René Philombe peut être considéré comme le père
de l'institution de la littérature au Cameroun.
Ambroise Kom
Bayreuth African Studies 66
Wole Ogundele, with a foreword by Wole Soyinka
Omoluabi - Ulli Beier, Yoruba Society And Culture
The Yoruba word omoluabi is difficult to translate. If you ask a hundred Yorubas,
you are likely to get a hundred definitions. It is a term of appreciation for a man who has
integrity, wisdom and patience. Somebody said: "Omoluabi is a man who has two hundred friends."
This book explores one omoluabi's life.
"Ulli's affair with Nigeria was love at first encounter. There are not many people who breathe
and live culture, and perhaps even Ulli was unaware at the time that he belonged to that
minority breed - he would find this out on his first encounter with Yoruba culture ... Without
being fulsome or uncritical, Ogundele has captured for us the essence of the wanderer who came,
saw, and was conquered, whose approach to life rescued the word "expatriate" from its usual
negative connotations." - Wole Soyinka
Wole Ogundele has taught African Literature in English at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife,
Nigeria, since 1980. He now does translation from English into Yoruba and is currently working
on a critical history of written Yoruba history. Omoluabi is his cultural biography of Ulli
Beier.
Bayreuth African Studies 67
Ambroise Kom (ed.)
Remember Mongo Beti
Le présent mémorial évoque l'itinéraire au cours duquel Mongo Beti traverse non
seulement des forêts et de mers, mais engage aussi de luttes héroïques intie des projets
ambitieux, produit une oeuvre puissante et crée de nombreuses légendes qu'il nous laisse en
héritage. Loin d'être un recueil de panégyriques, l'ouvrage s'apparente à un album de
photographies prises avec des caméras diverses ayant chacun son angle visuel. Comme il faudra
beaucop de temps et beaucop de travail pour véritablement explorer et saisir dans toute leur
complexité les multiples facettes de l'homme que fut Mongo Beti et pour donner de son oeuvre
tous le éclairages utiles, les textes ici réunis ne sont qu'une invitation au voyage, une
incitation à engager un périple sur le traces de l'écrivain camerounais.
Ambroise Kom a enseigné les littératures africaines, africaines-américains et caraïbes dans de
universités aux États-Unis, au Canada, au Maroc et au Cameroun. Il a également été professeur
invité en Allemagne, en France et en Afrique du Sud. Il a dirigé plusieurs collectifs et publié
des ouvrages sur Chester Himes, George Lamming et les enjeux culturels de la condition
post-coloniale en Afrique.
Bayreuth African Studies 68
Wotsuna Khamalwa
Identity, Power, And Culture: Imbalu Initiation Among The Bamasaba In Uganda
Identity, Power, and Culture: Imbalu; Initiation among the Bamasaba takes the
reader through the labyrinths of ritual in general, and initiation ritual in particular. It
describes the initiation ritual of the Bamasaba through its seven phases, which like a
symphony, builds up momentum towards a climax before tapering off to the end.
The subtle and intricate ritual symbolism behind the personages, items, actions and gestures is
carefully brought to the fore, revealing the underlying themes of identity and power, both
personal and communal, interwoven within this cultural ritual practice.
Wotsuna Khamalwa, PhD (Bayreuth, Germany) is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology and
Religious Studies, at Makerere University in Uganda. He has lectured in several universities in
Kenya and Uganda, and has authored many articles in his areas of expertise. Besides teaching,
Dr. Wotsuna Khamalwa is a senior researcher. He recently won the prestigious Leverhulme Senior
Research Fellowship in Anthropology, and spent a year at the University of Wales, Lampeter in
the UK. He was subsequently awarded a Bene Merenti by that university in recognition for
his work.
Bayreuth African Studies 69
Alexie Tcheuyap (ed.)
Cinema And Social Discourse in Cameroon
Cinema and Social Discourse in Cameroon analyzes a cinema that, after a
series of state-controlled productions that aimed to create a fictitious image and consolidate
a long autocracy, has been inaugurating some major thematic and aesthetic innovations for the
last twenty years. There are daring ideological stances in the films of post-1980 filmmakers
that now address national issues that go beyond the redundant theme of marriage, which
saturated the cinematic imagination for years.
The essays in this volume use film semiotics, postcolonial inquiries, as well as cultural
theories to stimulate alternative, innovative, and radical analyses that interrogate and disrupt
official discourses and preconceptions about national culture. They also reveal the diverse and
creative voices in Cameroonian film, ultimately deepening our understanding of the language and
social discourse of a vibrant national cinema.
Alexie Tcheuyap is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of
Calgary. He has published Esthétique et folie dans l'œuvre romanesque de Pius Ngandu
Nkashama (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1998) and De l'écrit à l'écran. Les réécritures filmiques
du roman africain francophone (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2004). He has also edited
special issues of Présence Francophone and Études Littéraires on the subject of
African literature and film. His other articles have appeared in CiNéMAS, Research in African
Literatures, Études Françaises, Présence Francophone, Notre Librairie, Palabres, Protéee, Mots
Pluriels, CinémAction, and elsewhere.
Bayreuth African Studies 70
Haike Frank
Role-Play In South African Theatre
The passbook has been the symbol of apartheid racism. For black, coloured and Asian
South Africans the passbook dictated their official and racial identity. It determined where
they could work, love and live, but also when they had to leave the city and return to their
"homeland". The passbook fixed the roles which non-whites were allowed to play within the
apartheid regime, and it enforced double identities. Under the cover of the "yes Baas" role
of the "good kaffir", black South Africans asserted their personal and true racial identity.
The necessity for a role play and multiple identities in real life is reflected on stage, where
shifting identities and role changes carried the essential political and social messages. But
changing roles on open stage also became the aesthetic icon of South African theatre that
adapted Grotowski's "Poor Theatre" to a distinctly South African style.
Improvisational methods, innovative aesthetics and financial constraints have shaped Athol
Fugard's theatrical style in his early plays. Role changes dominated the multi-racial theatrical
experiment of Workshop '71, and it became the trademark of black theatre, where Bopha! or
You Strike the Woman, You Strike the Rock bring the life experience of a whole community
on stage with only three actors.
Role play comprises both the aesthetics and the politics of South African theatre under
apartheid.
