Lecture Notes on THA 101 (African traditional Theatre)

Culled from the MA Thesis Drama as Prophecy: Nigeria’s 2007 Elections in

Soyinka’s Beatification of the Area Boy and Femi Osofisan’s Aringindin and
the Night Watchmen By Uzoji, Emmanuel (Oct. 2008)

Overview of Early Dramatic Traditions in Africa

No date can be given to the very beginning of drama in Africa but recent

studies have revealed that dramatic traditions across Africa are traceable to pre-

colonial times. Yemi Ogunbiyi in his critical profile of African theatre and

drama says the primitive root of African robust theatrical tradition must be

sought in the numerous religious rituals and festivals that exist in many African

communities. African theatre and drama originated with the African,

embodying his first struggles, his first preoccupations, his first successes,

setbacks and all.7

These further explained that with time, man’s acquired knowledge of his

environment sharpened his awareness about nature. In his desire to ensure the

steady flow of food as a permanent victory over his numerous adversaries, he

soon learnt that he could achieve his desires by dancing and acting them out in

the form of rites. These rites were subsequently idealized by the myths, stories,

tales, songs and proverbs, which further expressed the wish for a bountiful

production and the experience of man’s mastery over nature. With the regularity

of performance dictated by need, these rites became ritualized. And with greater

awareness, these rites (now rituals), were modified and altered, such that it
became possible with time to isolate the myths, which have developed around

the rituals and to act them out as traditional drama of some sort.

This forms the metamorphosis of the African dramatic traditions with its

ritual origin forming the bedrock of what is now called the modern African

drama. African drama hence, can be defined as the “totality of all performances

or re-enactments before an audience or spectators that are based on African

traditions, customs, religion and other social events.”8 Oyin Ogunba sees the

African theatre and drama as an art nurtured in the African soil over centuries of

time and which has since then developed distinctive features.9 What this implies

is that the African theatre and drama takes a different nomenclature in both

content and form. It is an art of Africa, by Africans and about Africans – it is

about our lived and shared experiences. It is about who we are, where we are

coming from, what we believe and where we are going. Soyinka calls it “Ritual

theatre” which;

…establishes the Spatial medium not merely as a

physical area for simulated events but as a
manageable contraction of the cosmic envelope
within which man –no matter how deeply buried
such a consciousness has latterly become –
fearfully exists.10

The true African drama depicts the African cosmology and the African

worldview. Such is the early tradition of African drama – a representation of

man in combat with seemingly ‘dark’ forces which Soyinka also calls,

“chthonic realms.”
 The drama would be non-existent except within
and against this symbolic representation of earth
and cosmos, except within this communal
compact whose choric essence supplies the
collective energy for the challenger of chthonic
realms.11

The Yoruba traditional theatre emerged from three developmental phases,

ritual, festival and theatre. Adedeji argues that this process shows the treatment

and use of the masquerade for both ritual and secular occasions.12 This

particular theatrical tradition has developed into what is now called the Alarinjo

– the first professional travelling theatre among the Yorubas. Ogunbiyi

categorized Nigerian traditional drama into three broad categories – Dramatic

ritual, the popular tradition and Yoruba Travelling theatre. Dramatic ritual he

said will include traditional festivals, whether they are held in celebration of

cult or ancestral heroes, ritual ceremonies (where drama is patiently

discernable), serious masquerade plays, etc.13 The popular tradition refers to art

intended to be popular, art that is commonly approved and widely enjoyed by

the “common” people in an ever-growing urban culture. In this kind of art, all

that a performer needs is not necessarily a text but a place, a time, an audience

and himself. The spontaneity of this performance clearly distinguishes it from

European forms of drama, its major trait being the expression of physical

pleasure and joy. Examples of this kind of drama include the Annang drama of

the Ibibio, Yoruba Alarinjo theatre, kwagh-hir, Borno Puppet shows, and the

Hausa comical art of Yankamanci.

 One of the basic attributes of early dramatic traditions in Africa is no

doubt the extensive, meticulous and elaborate preparations before a

performance is staged. J.C. Messenger’s study of Ibibio drama reveals a detailed

preparation spanning a six-year cycle.

Rehearsals take place in the square for several hours

during the afternoon on a specific day of each eight-
day week for forty-six weeks of every year or six
years, and performances are given publicly during
the dry season of the seventh… During the six-years
of rehearsals a complete seven-hour routine was
worked out and mastered to perfection by the Ikot-
Obong players.14

Such elaborate preparations are also quite reminiscent of other theatrical

traditions cutting across the various ethnic groups in Nigeria. Examples include

the Bornu Puppet play and the Bori.