IV.

Theater of the Independence Period

The period after World War II ended in 1945 led to the struggle for and achievement of independence in many African countries. The new nation-states were often established along colonial boundaries and power was handed over to a bourgeois class who had been educated in Europe. The epoch-making era of nationalism produced a number of African playwrights who merged African theatrical traditions with European forms. These plays are still widely performed and read in many parts of the continent.

Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka wrote his first plays in the late 1950s. Soyinka’s versatility can be seen in his prodigious output of plays from 1957 on. A Dance of the Forests was written for the Independence Day celebrations in Africa in 1960. It was officially banned for its veiled prophecy of internecine conflict. The Lion and the Jewel (1959) is a witty comedy set in rural Nigeria, while The Road (1965) explores the mystical connections between Yoruba and Christian religions. The Universities of Ibadan and Ife fostered a generation of playwrights, including John Pepper Clark, who was the first to make explicit connections between Greek tragedy and African ritual in Song of a Goat (1963), and Ola Rotimi, who dramatized a Yoruba version of the Oedipus myth called The Gods Are Not to Blame (1968).

In some countries independence spawned efforts towards radical social reform into which playwrights were (and still are) sometimes co-opted. In others, the new regimes soon inspired playwrights to use theater as a vehicle for political opposition and in some cases mobilization. Ghanaian playwright Efua Sutherland was associated with the socially reformist government of Kwame Nkrumah. She founded the Ghana Drama Studio and modernized the traditional form of Anansesem (spider stories) as a form of Everyman in Foriwa (1962) and the Marriage of Anansewa (1975). Her political leanings were followed by two other important Ghanaian playwrights, Joe de Graaft and Ama Ata Aidoo.

Raymond Sarif Easmon of Sierra Leone scathingly attacks ethnic prejudice and power mongering in his play The New Patriots (1966). Ugandan playwrights Robert Serumaga (A Play, 1967) and Byron Kawadwa sought symbolic, mythical, and abstract forms in which to express their opposition to the regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin. Serumaga founded the first professional theater group in Uganda and achieved international success with his play Renga Moi (1972). Contemporary Ugandan dramatists such as Alex Mukulu continue in this political “art theater” tradition.

The 1950s was a period of relative cultural freedom in South Africa and a number of successful collaborations between black and white artists and producers took place. White South African playwright Athol Fugard founded The Rehearsal Room, where he worked with a number of black intellectuals—including Bloke Modisane, Lewis Nkosi, and Nat Nakasa—on No Good Friday (1958) and King Kong (1961). The Union of South African Artists founded by Es’ kia Mphahlele produced both these plays.