MHRD UGC Epg Pathshala Subject: English Principal

1 MHRD UGC ePG Pathshala Subject: English Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Paper 06: African and Caribbean Writing in English Paper Coordinator: Prof. T. Vijay Kumar, Osmania University Module No. 33: Efua Sutherland: The Marriage of Anansewa Content Writer: Dr. Parimala Kulkarni, Osmania University Content Reviewer: Prof. Ipshita Chanda, Jadavpur University Language Editor: Prof. T. Vijay Kumar, Osmania University Module 33 Efua Sutherland, The Marriage of Anansewa 1. Objectives 2. Introduction 3. About the author 4. Works 5. Themes and concerns 6. The Marriage of Anansewa 7. Critical acclaim 8. Summary 1. Objectives This module is about . Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian playwright . Her works, plays, major themes, influence . Her play The Marriage of Anansewa . Critical acclaim and her contribution to Ghanaian drama and culture 2 2. Introduction Efua Sutherland (1924 -1996) was a pioneer of African theatre, prominent Ghanaian playwright, poet, producer, children's author, teacher, research scholar, and social worker. She is best known as a dramatist but her work is informed by a vision of a better society which she believed could be established through imparting suitable cultural education. She is recognised as one of Ghana’s dynamic voices in employing traditional theatre for promoting social change. As a creative thinker and activist she used her talents and skills in educating the future generation. 3. About the Author Born in Akan, Ghana, Sutherland was exposed to two dichotomous cultures, that of Europe and her Akan roots. Educated first at Ghana, and later in England, she returned to Ghana in 1950. After Ghana’s independence in 1952, Sutherland actively participated in the rebuilding of the nation. One of the foremost Ghanaian intellectual/activist/artists she contributed significantly to the educational and cultural life of Ghana. Sutherland co-founded the Ghana Society of Writers (1957) and the literary magazine Okyeame (1961). In 1958 Sutherland established the Ghana Experimental Theatre in Accra. In 1960 she received funding from the U.S.-based Rockefeller Foundation and the Arts Council of Ghana and the Experimental Theatre became the Ghana Drama Studio. Initially she established the Drama Studio as a workshop for children’s writers. But it soon became a training ground for Ghanaian playwrights, providing an outlet for creative new theatre. When Ama Ata Aidoo another prominent Ghanaian playwright, studied drama at the University of Ghana in the early 1960s, Sutherland was her mentor. Sutherland held a number of academic and government administrative positions in Ghana. She was the foundation member and later chairperson of the Ghana National Commission on Children. In the 1990s, she initiated the Mmofra Foundation (Mmofra means “children” in Akan), dedicated to enriching the cultural and intellectual lives of all children in Ghana. Sutherland mooted the idea of the Panafest Movement, an original proposal for the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival. This was her artistic vision for enriching and reuniting African peoples which shows her commitment to forging links between Africa and the Diaspora. She was instrumental in establishing the W.E. B. DuBois Memorial Centre for Pan African Culture. 4. Works 3 A leading Ghanaian writer, Sutherland is also one of Africa’s best known literary voices. She wrote in both the Akan language and in English. Besides a number of essays, articles, short stories and poems, she also wrote a short biography and books and plays for children. It is her plays that brought her literary acclaim at home and abroad. 4.1. Plays Sutherland began her career writing short stories, but she discovered that theatre/drama would have a wider reach in the newly independent Ghana, where most citizens were illiterate. She pioneered an indigenous movement in writing, publishing and development through drama. Her best-known plays are Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1967). Foriwa, Sutherland's first major play, is based on a folktale in which African mothers caution their daughters from unknown handsome men with a message that young women who break the community rules face disaster. Sutherland transforms the story to convey a positive message. Foriwa was considered a metaphor for the newly independent Ghana. Foriwa also emphasizes the role of women in the process of decolonization and the revitalization of communities through traditional customs and values and by adopting modernity judiciously. Edufa is based on Euripedes' Greek play Alcestis. Alcestis sacrifices her life in order to bring her husband back from the dead. In Edufa, Sutherland locates this myth in an African setting. Unlike in Euripedes’ play where the wife is restored to life, Sutherland's play is a tragedy, where giving up traditional values in favour of contemporary materialism brings about the downfall of Edufa. The play contrasts Edufa's individualistic self-centredness with other characters who favour the traditional communal ways. 5. Themes and concerns Sutherland played a key role in modern Ghanaian theatre and through her research into the African way of life, discovered the need for reviving the rich African traditions. This awareness influenced her thematic concerns in her plays. 5.1. Tradition and modernity Her plays focus on the alliance of old traditions and new ways in rebuilding a progressive contemporary Ghana. Foriwa’s central theme is to bring about a spirit of openness to new ideas and inter-ethnic cooperation while reinforcing the affirmative traditional values. Edufa portrays the tragedy of a westernised man who trades traditional values in favour of contemporary capitalist greed and vanity. In The Marriage of Anansewa, Sutherland combines the traditional folk tale conventions with modern dramatic techniques. 4 5.2. Role of women Sutherland examines the position and role of women in contemporary Ghanaian society. Foriwa places women in the forefront as agents of cultural transformation, development and modernity, while continuing to uphold traditional values. In Sutherland's Edufa and The Marriage of Anansewa, woman’s objectification is a matter of key concern. Sutherland’s plays support a meaningful change in relationships between men and women. 6. The Marriage of Anansewa The Marriage of Anansewa: A Storytelling Drama (1975) is considered Sutherland's most valuable contribution to Ghanaian drama and theatre. A comic play, it was published after its productions in Akan and English by three companies in Ghana. The Marriage of Anansewa made a strong impact on contemporary African theatre after its premiere in Ghana in 1971 and later at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977. 6.1. Background In her search for an Afro-centric medium of artistic expression, Sutherland started to explore the traditional theatrical forms and conventions and discovered that pre-colonial Ghana enjoyed a rich culture of pageantry. In the diverse traditions of all the ethnic groups in Ghana, drama, drumming and dancing were integral to their cultures. She used the rich oral tradition of storytelling, rendition of songs, ritual dances and several traditional ceremonies and festivals in her plays. The traditional theatre she developed is known as Anansegoro. 6.1.1. Anansegoro In Marriage of Anansewa, Sutherland develops the Akan art of story-telling called Anansesem which includes elements such as musical interludes and community participation. The Anansesem, literally ‘Ananse stories’, is a term used both for the body of stories told and for the story-telling performance itself. Ananse is the spider-trickster in Akan oral narratives. Sutherland develops the traditional Akan spider tales into a new dramatic structure which she calls Anansegoro. In the foreword to the play she writes about the origin of Anansegoro, and the significance of Ananse a kind of “Everyman, artistically exaggerated and distorted to serve society as a medium for self-examination”(3). In Anansesem which is a community art, the Storyteller tells the whole story himself and musical performances called Mboguo are part of the stories and are performed in context led by the Storyteller. It is a convention for Mboguo to be contributed by other people present. Sutherland in the foreword says that “Mboguo in its traditional concept has been inherited wholesale by Anansegoro”(4) The play recreates the communal storytelling atmosphere with audience involvement, songs, 5 dance and a storyteller who interacts with both players and audience. Anansegoro is Sutherland’s new theatrical form with emphasis on rhythm, music, and dance. 6.2. Summary of the play The four act play centres around George Kweku Ananse, the famous spider-trickster figure of African oral narratives. In the play he is a crafty modern individual who uses every opportunity to acquire wealth by cunning and fraudulent means. Act one sets out Ananse’s problem-poverty and his plan to solve it. Ananse, devises a scheme to use his daughter’s physical beauty to secure not one but four suitors. He selects four rich chiefs and shows them a photograph of his marriageable daughter. He invites them to formally ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage while not informing them that each of them is competing against three others. He leads each of the four chiefs to believe that he is best suited for his beautiful daughter Anansewa. Anansewa unwittingly types the letters that her father dictates. However, when she realises that the letters are for securing a husband for her, she protests. She accuses her father of selling her like “some parcel to a customer” (20). Her cunning father calls her ungrateful and reminds her of all the suffering that he underwent for her sake and finally convinces her of the necessity of such a plan and demands her cooperation in ensuring the material well- being of the family. Simultaneously he also arouses her interest in one of the chiefs, Chief- Who-is-Chief, whom he describes as “finely built, glowing black, large eyed, handsome as anything, courageous and famous” (21).

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