The first truly continentally representative collection of modern African drama in any language, this Norton Critical Edition includes plays from Egypt, Algeria, the Republic of South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya.

"Backgrounds and Criticism" presents documents on modern African drama generally and on the assembled texts and authors specifically, including little-known materials. Featured are essays on Tawfik al-Hakim, Kateb Yacine, Athol Fugard, Wole Soyinka, Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, and Femi Osofisan.

Preface

The Texts of the Plays

Tawfik al-Hakim·Fate of a Cockroach

Kateb Yacine·Intelligence Powder

Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona·Sizwe Bansi Is Dead

Wole Soyinka·Death and the King's Horseman

Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin·Collision of Altars

Area Ata Aidoo·The Dilemma of a Ghost

Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii·I Will Marry When I Want

Femi Osofisan·Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels

Backgrounds and Criticism

AFRICAN DRAMA AND THEATRE

Frantz Fanon·On National Culture

Wole Soyinka·Theatre in African Traditional Cultures: Survival Patterns

Ngugi wa Thiong'o·Enactments of Power:

The Politics of Performance Space

Biodun Jeyifo·The Reinvention of Theatrical Tradition

Don Rubin·African Theatre in a Global Context

Joachim Fiebach·Dimensions of Theatricality in Africa

David Kerr·Art as Tool, Weapon or Shield?:Arts for Development Seminar, Harare

TAWFIK AL-HAKIM

Paul Starkey·[Trends in the Drama of Tawfik al-Hakim]

Denys Johnson-Davies·Introduction to "Fate of a Cockroach" and Other Plays

Richard Long·[Philosophical and Psychological Themes in Fate of a Cochroach]

KATEB YACINE

Bernard Aresu·[The Theatrical Carnivalesque in Intelligence Powder]

Jacqueline Kaye and Abdelhamid Zoubir·[Populist Aesthetics and Idioms in Kateb Yacine's Theatre]

Kamal Salhi·The Pragmatics and Aesthetics of Kateb Yacine's Theatre Practice

ATHOL FUGARD， JOHN KANI AND WINSTON NTSHONA

Athol Fugard·Introduction to Statements

Russell Vandenbroucke·"Robert Zwelinzima Is Alive"

Hilary Seymour·[Artistic Ambivalence in Sizwe Bansi Is Dead]

Dennis Walder·The Statements Plays

WOLE SOY1NKA

Wole Soyinka·Author's Note to Death and the King's Horseman

Wole Soyinka·Towards a True Theatre

Annemarie Heywood · The Fox's Dance: The Staging of Soyinka's Plays

Adebayo Williams·[Cultural Death and the King's Horseman]

Michael Etherton·Tribute to Wole Soyinka

TSEGAYE GABRE-MEDHIN

Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin·Author's Note to Collision of Ahars

Richard Pankhurst·Collision of Altars: Notes on History

Biodun Jeyifo·Art and Ideology in the Plays of Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin

Jane Plastow·[Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin and Ethiopian Reformist Theatre]

AMA ATA AIDOO

Lloyd W. Brown·[Oral Tradition in Dilemma of a Ghost]

C. L. Innes·[Motherhood in Ama Ata Aidoo's Plays]

Vincent O. Odamtten·A Bird of the Wayside Sings

NGUG1 WA TH1ONG'O

Ngugi wa Thiong'o Women in Cultural Work: The Fate of the Kamurntu People's Theatre in Kenya

Oliver Lovesey·I Will Marry When I Want

FEMI OSOF1SAN

Femi Osofisan·[Formal Strategies and Social Commentary in His Plays]

Sandra Richards·Hegemony Rests with the Audience

Abiola Irele·[Form, Content, and Context in Femi Osofisan's Drama]

Chris Dunton·[The Theatre of Femi Osofisan]

African Drama: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography