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Syncretic Arenas
Essays on Postcolonial African Drama and Theatre for Esiaba Irobi
Series: - Cross/Cultures, Volume: 177
Author:
This collection in part examines the legacy of the consummate Nigerian stage artist and scholar, Esiaba Irobi (1960â2010). Poems, tributes, and studies celebrate Irobiâs significance as actor, playwright, director, poet, and theatre theorist. Irobiâs life, temper, times, and career are inextricably linked to the history, development, concerns, and uses of drama and theatre in Africa. The contributions highlight the evolution of autochthonous theatrical practices: the interaction between Western and indigenous African performance traditions; colonial/postcolonial government policies and the mutations of drama and theatre (and critical commentary); the tensions inherent in postcolonial conceptions of history, identity, nationhood, and articulations of alternative aesthetics, pedagogies, and epistemologies for postcolonial African theatre; staging African plays in the West; and the constituencies of the contemporary African playwright and director. The strength of these studies derives primarily from nuanced examinations of the concerns and careers of particular African playwrights; the history, offerings, and fortunes of particular theatrical arenas, and close explorations of specific performances and texts. The foregrounding of correspondences in the dramaturgies and intellectual ferment of the continent critically accentuates equally privileged regional, historical, and other crucial specificities. Situated in time and place while underscoring the political and intellectual intersections of a shared history of colonialism, the contributions to Syncretic Arenas, individually and collectively, reveal the transformations and growing strengths of postcolonialism as an analytical strategy.
Isidore Diala is Professor of African literature in the Department of English and Literary Studies at Abia State University, Uturu, and author of Esiaba Irobiâs Drama and the Postcolony: Theory and Practice of Postcolonial Performance (2013).
List of Figures Acknowledgements âForewordâ, Helen Gilbert âIntroductionâ, Isidore Diala Part One âEsiaba Irobi: The Tragedy of Exileâ, Olu Oguibe âEsiaba Irobi: A Personal Noteâ, Martin Banham âEsiaba Irobi and His Museâ, Georgina AlaukwuâEhuriah âRemembering Esiaba Irobi at the International Research Centre âInterweaving Performance Culturesâ in Berlin, 2009â2010â, Erika FischerâLichte âEsiaba Irobi: Death Does Not Kill a Songâ, Femi Osofisan âOn My Birthdayâ, Tanure Ojaide âOmonla: Your Like Will Never Be There Again â 7 Prose Poems/Haikusâ, Biodun Jeyifo âHalf a Century Deathâ, Benedictus Nwachukwu âMadding Crowdâ, Obiwu âSeven Stations of the Crossâ, Olu Oguibe âEsiaba Irobiâs Legacy: Theory and Practice of Postcolonial Performanceâ, Isidore Diala âBetween Soyinka and Clark: The Dynamics of Influence on Esiaba Irobiâs Nwokediâ, Henry Obi Ajumeze âEclipsed Visions: Esiaba Irobi Interviewedâ, Leon Osu Part Two. Esiaba Alone and in Company: A Photo Gallery âTheatre and Modernization in the First Age of Globalization: The Cairo Opera Houseâ, Christopher Balme âAutobiography as Counter-Memory in The Orange Earth of Adam Smallâ, Hein Willemse âDirecting Politics: Soyinkan Parallels in the Works of Ugandaâs Robert Serumagaâ, Don Rubin âAfrika Cultural Centre: Phoenix Under Apartheid and Burnt Ember Under Democracy?â, Bhekizizwe Peterson âThe Anxiety of Class in Kenyan Drama: A Reading of Boyâs Benta and Sibi-Okumuâs Role Playâ, Christopher Odhiambo Joseph âA Heritage of Violence: Paradoxes of Freedom and Memory in Recent South African Play-Textsâ, Anton Krueger âAfrican Drama and the Construction of an Indigenous Cultural Identity: An Examination of Four Major Nigerian Playsâ, Kene Igweonu âThe Creative Development, Importance, and Dramaturgy of Duro Ladipoâs Ÿba Kò Soâ, Oluseyi Ogunjobi âCritical Responses: The Evolution of the Theatre Critic in South Africaâ, Temple Hauptfleisch ââI want to dialogueâ: Chief Muraina Oyelami Talking Oâ¹ogbo and Beyondâ, Christine Matzke Notes on Contributors Index