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Period: to
Traditional African Theatre
The traditional African theatre was never big on using "languages" or words. They normally use symbolism, mask, costumes, visual imagery, drumming, dancing, and so much more. Words in traditional African theatre means nothing but all the components listed means so much. These components helped shows spiritual arrangements, anti-colonization, storytelling of the African culture. -
Period: to
European Ways
Around this time period, Europeans disregarded the African performances. They took control of most of Africa and they ended up brining their own theatre and they tried to establish their theatre in Africa. Then Africa ended up being divided among European countries which caused a wide spectrum of new forms and theatre and because the European countries ways was demand more important there is not much on the African traditional performances. -
Yoruba Opera
Yoruba opera (1916-1990) is considered the most popular up to date dramaturgical or theatre form that is mostly used in Nigeria. Hubert Ogunde was the primarily contribute to this form of theatre in Nigeria. This form of art consisted of an "opening glee, followed by a topical and satirical story with dialogue, songs, and dances, ending with another glee" (Brockett pg. 319). -
International Criticism
The government started to draw a lot of international criticism during this time. They established a doctrine of apartness, which is a law that requires separate white and nonwhite residential areas and as a result of this South Africa became a police state for blacks, where much of the black population moved into townships. So, simply putting this doctrine it made it where they can work in the city but could not live in the city (Brockett pg. 322). This made original African plays rare. -
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is one of the most famous South African dramatist. He started writing about the issues of South Africa around 1959. He won a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre (2011), and he wrote multiple plays like Master Harold and the Boys, Blood Knot, Sizwe Bansi is Dead, The Road to Mecca, My Children! My Africa!, and Tsotsi which was turned into a movie and helped him win an award for Best Foreign Film in 2006. -
English-language Plays
The English plays became popular around 1900 and drama started to be introduced into the schools that was founded by the English colonial government and the religious organizations. In 1960, Nigeria was granted independence but there playwriters like Wole Soyinka was punished for speaking out in plays and other art forms about the government policies. (Brockett pg. 319). -
The Lion and Jewel
The Lion and The Jewel is a famous play in Africa that was made by Wole Soyinka. This play follows the story of how Baroka who is the lion fights with a modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi who is the jewel. -
Yoruba Companies
Ogunde had created around 38 opera houses and his company has gained big-time popularity and has been imitated a lot. In 1981 he had created 120 companies and has turned mostly towards television, film, and videos. Since, his companies changing directions in production, live performances in Nigeria has tremendously decreased but the Nigerian film industry now ranks seconded in the numbers of film productions and third in revenue generated. -
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is a dominant playwriter. He was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and even though he was awarded such a big award, he was still punished by the government and was imprisoned and threaten to death for all of his oppositions to some of the government policies. (Brockett pg. 319-320). He wrote multiple plays before he gave up playwriting in 1994. He wrote King Baabu, Ubu Roi, The Lion and the Jewel, A Dance and the King's Horseman, and The Strong Breed. -
Dismantling Apartheid
It took the government from 1950 to 1990 to finally get rid of the apartheid law. Even though this was a huge step forward for South Africa, it left them with many challenges. One of the main challenges that they faced in the form of art is "the role of the arts in a culture that had long been split along racial lines" (Brockett pg. 323). The apartheid had already established a duality of culture and it was hard for funding, experience, and political to implementing the policies. -
Minister of Arts and Culture
The Minister of Arts and Culture canceled the National Arts Council (NAC), which was the head agency that oversees the transformation process. The NAC had claimed nine provinces failed to establish funding mechanisms envisioned in the national arts policy. One of the provinces was South Africa. South African governments already built centers for the arts in cities but some claim that the state-funded theatres supported a conservative approach to the art and fail to support innovative work.
