Concepts in African Theatre

What word described beauty? The physical and the abstract

• Ere

• Ajami

• Ewa

• Animism

Answer explanation

"The Yoruba word ewa (beauty) describes both the physical and the abstract. The search for beauty might end at the door of the physically attractive as well as the house of the morally upright. Hence the simple saying ‘Iwa l’ewa’ rendered as ‘Character is beauty’" (Omotoso 7)

Questions to think on: How might this impact this group of people's approach to theatre? How might this have influenced their actor's choices?

What is the word for someone who is a judge of beauty?

• Yoruba Artistic Criticism

• mewa

• Amewa

• Efe

Answer explanation

"As documented in Bower’s Grammar and Dictionary of the Yoruba Language published in 1858, amewa (one who is a judge of beauty) and mewa (to be a judge of beauty) demonstrate a consciousness of that which would be adjudged beautiful in the Yoruba environment." (Omotoso 7)

Questions to consider: Who is a judge of beauty? Is it all of us? Does this person define beauty or simply judge it?

Yoruba theatre does not aspire to represent ______, rather it attempts to ​ interpret and ​reinterpret it. (Omotoso 8)

Answer explanation

The author describes various festivals and occurrences of theatre while he lived in Nigeria. How does this quote provide context for the purpose behind these festivals and public theatrical events?

How does Omotoso (the author of the article we read) define performance?

• A celebration for the audience and the performers. Everyone should be involved and an active participant

• Actors on stage in isolation from the audience

• Omotoso does not define performance.

• Performance can be anything.

Answer explanation

"The performance is a celebration to be enjoyed by both the audience and the performers in a unified encounter of participants, rather than by players and onlookers in isolation." (Omotoso 9)

Questions to think about: How does this speak to a sense of community? Is theatre essentially community?

What occurred at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885?

• Africa was plotted out into countries by people who had never been to the continent.

• Lots of interesting conversations I'll bet

• The members of the conference decided that it was foolish of them to meddle with the affairs of a continent they were not familiar with.

• The beginning of Africa's post-tribal state

Answer explanation

"The post that is relevant to our situation and our history is the post-tribal state. The post-tribal state can be said to have been inaugurated at the Berlin Conference of 1884-5. Africa was delimited and mapped as a place of modern states with no consideration of tribal borders and cultural differences." (Omotoso 10-11)

Questions to think about: How did this post tribal state impact how African theatre was handled?

What group does the author specifically mention that aided in the attempted erasure of Yoruba culture and language?

• THE ENERGY COMPANY

• outsiders

• Church Missonary Society

• Europe

Answer explanation

I hope someone got THE ENERGY COMPANY reference.

Omotosu mentions how the missionaries caused them to move from ajami scripts to Romanized alphabets. The church also doubled as a school. So they decided what the children were learning and what language they were learning in.

Questions to think about: What were the possible impacts of the church controlling parts of the education system? How could this have impacted how the people viewed their theatre history?

What was the name of the year-round festival that focused on ancestor worship?

• Funerals

• Ogun festivals

• Magician events

• Egungun festivals

Answer explanation

"The Egungun (ancestor worship) festivals seemed to continue all year round since there were always different types of Egungun to enliven the people of the town. A particular egungun caught my fancy. It was usually dressed in a headgear that was bedecked with beautiful feathers, arranged prettily on its woven mask. It had a beard of woven cloth also decorated with smaller feathers but of the same colourfulness. It spoke in a deep guttural voice supposed to be that of the ancestors. It danced. It sang with a chorus of singers and drummers following. It played verbal games with the audience – the one that followed it faithfully and the audience it attracted as it stopped at every house of a notable of the town" (Omotoso 2)

Questions to think about: How does animism come up here?

Islamic institutions in Nigeria disappeared with the arrival of Christianity.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

"Islamic institutions did not bow out of the cultural scene with the arrival of the Christian proselytizers. Fulani jihadists had invaded the northern part of Yorubaland at the end of the eighteenth century and forced the Yoruba to move their capital, Oyo, further south into the forest area of their country....The same streets on which both Christian and Muslim rituals and festivals took place also constituted the playing spaces of the collective rituals and festivals of the Yoruba of Akure." (Omotoso 2)

This means that Islamic rituals took place right next to Christian rituals

Questions to think about: Seeing as the playing space for performances was in public places like the street, do you think there might have been tension and a sense of competition between the religious groups?

What was the name of the festival that was divided into men's and women's? It was also divided by professions.

• Oba

• Ogun

• Parade

• A pilgramage

Answer explanation

"There were festivals devoted to the various Yoruba gods. The Ogun festivals divided into the women’s Ogun festival and the men’s Ogun festival. There were Ogun festivals for the various professions, such as motor mechanics and long-distance drivers, in which the use of iron and iron implements was prominent. Ogun is the god of war, of hunters and blacksmiths." (Omotoso 2)

Question to think about: What does this say about the values in the community? How might these have impacted the theatre?

How does Omotoso define ritual?

• He doesn't - not plainly anyway

• They are linked to pivotal life moments. Baptism or a wedding for example

• They are religious.

• The beginning of the link between language and performance.

Answer explanation

The link between language and performance begins with the daily and seasonal rituals of life. While these continue in the indigenous languages as well as the European languages brought to the continent through Christianity and western education, a language such as Arabic has totally replaced the indigenous languages in north Africa. Various rituals in Africa linked to birth, the coming of age, marriage and death are carried out through traditional cultural practices as well as through Christian practices. It is not unusual to have a child among the Yoruba baptized in a church and then given another ceremony of traditional Yoruba naming. This also happens with marriages, which include a third ritual, the legal one in front of a magistrate! The dramas and performances linked to these rituals have become aspects of the cultures of many African countries and peoples." (Omotoso 5)

Omotoso doesn't clearly state the definition of 'ritual' in this article; however, we can gather from his usage what he considers it to mean. A question for you to think about, how do you think Omotoso would define ritual? How would he put it in conversation with performance?