Nkyin-Kyin : Essays on the Ghanaian Theatre

Nkyin-Kyin ross Readings in the Post / Colonial C ultures Literatures in English 98 Series Editors Gordon Collier †Hena Maes–Jelinek Geoffrey Davis (Giessen) (Liège) (Aachen) Nkyin-Kyin Essays on the Ghanaian Theatre James Gibbs Amsterdam - New York, NY 2009 The meaning of the Nkyinkyin Adinkra symbol on the cover is ‘changing one’s self and playing many roles’. The icon represents fertility, growth and development as well as the promotion of a sense of health, safety and security. Cover design: Gordon Collier & Pier Post The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-2517-2 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2009 Printed in The Netherlands Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements xi Introduction: Theatre in Ghana xiii OUTSIDERS AND ACTIVISTS 1 Alec Dickson: Propaganda and Mass Communication 3 2 Ken Pickering: Who Is Kofe Basake? ‘Village Drama’ in Ghana 17 3 Félix Morisseau–Leroy: “Where people are free they will remember me” 25 INTERCULTURAL ENCOUNTERS 4 Antigone and Her African Sisters: West African Versions of a Greek Original 33 5 The Fifth Landing-Stage: Reading and Re-Reading Across Cultures 55 PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 6 Efua Sutherland: The ‘Mother’ of the National Theatre Movement 91 7 What is Married in The Marriage of Anansewa and Who Performed the Wedding Ceremony? 127 8 The Call to the Priesthood and Other Stories in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa 143 9 Joe de Graft: A Theatrical Prophet with Strange Honours 155 PLAYERS AND PLAYMAKING 10 The Legon 7: The Story of a Campus Drama Group (October 1968–June 1970) 173 11 Victim of the Third World War: Filmmaking in Ghana: The Dying of the Light (1994) 203 General Bibliography 219 Efua Theodora Sutherland: A Bibliography of Primary Materials, with a Checklist of Secondary Sources 229 Preface HIS COLLECTION brings together essays written over a thirty- five-year period. They reflect my position vis-à-vis the Ghanaian T theatre as sometimes a remote onlooker, sometimes a participant observer. The writing repeatedly tries to come to terms with issues of per- ception and influence in a society moving through colonialism to national- ism, independence and beyond. Since the essays were composed for different publications, the registers vary from the academic to the popular. The first item, entitled “Theatre in Ghana: An Introduction,” was written for A History of Africa Theatre, edited by Martin Banham. It covers a wide range of concerns in a short space, and, in its original context, picked up on ideas and employed terms that had already been examined in the volume. Here it stands at the beginning of a book, and beyond it are ranged essays that work up some of the issues it touches on; some, but not by any means all. For example, readers will look in vain here for detailed treatment of the important tradi- tion of popular Ghanaian theatre, Concert Party, and for consideration of work by the pioneering playwright Mabel Dove. The main body of the book is divided into four parts. In the first, “Out- siders and Activists,” I look at the work of Alec Dickson, who made a dis- tinctive impact through his use of drama for community development during the late 1940s. He introduced ideas from many other parts of the world into a mass–communications project that fell foul of a jittery colonial administration. This is followed by an essay on Ken Pickering, who also worked during the colonial period, and who had experience of drama’s sister art, film or, more generally, the moving picture. The third essay in this section was written to mark the passing of a remarkable Haitian poet and playwright, Félix Morisseau–Leroy, who was brought to Ghana by a variety of postcolonial political developments and who worked with the Workers Brigade Concert Party. Leroy sought to create a socialist viii Nkyin–Kyin theatre that embodied Nkrumah’s ideas of African Personality. He also directed an English translation of his adaptation of Antigone, and, because of this, he forms a link to Part Two, “Intercultural Encounters.” This con- sists of two essays, the first of which looks at ways in which the classic drama by Sophocles has been used by producers and writers in Ghana. Several of these men, such as Charles Kingsley Williams and Edward (now Kamau) Brathwaite, were, like Leroy, outsiders. But, more recently, the Ghanaian writers Evans Oma Hunter and Victor Yankah have adapted a play that continues to have relevance, and provide an area of exploration for intercultural encounter. However, having no access to their scripts, I have concluded the essay with an analysis of a published text, Tegonni, by the Nigerian Femi Osofisan. That play continues my examination of input, influence, and adaptation by showing how effectively a radical West Afri- can writer can engage with an ancient text. My essay, which was originally presented at a conference on the classics in the postcolonial world, still car- ries marks of its oral origins, and includes comment on the work of Kobina Sekyi, Ghana’s first published playwright. Sekyi was a member of the same pioneering generation as F.K. Fiawoo, whose Fifth Landing-Stage provides the focus for the second essay in the second section. But whereas The Blinkards by the precocious Sekyi was put on in 1917, The Fifth Landing-Stage was not published until 1937. Fiawoo was a well-educated man of the cloth as well as a leader of his community, and in his play he engaged with the task of presenting Anlo–Ewe ideas, family relations, social control mechanisms, aesthetic ideas and so on in a dialogue drama. By following through the action of the play, and drawing on the research of the anthropologist and linguist Diedrich Westermann, I have tried to point out issues of interpretation and ‘reading’ across cultures while engaging with a somewhat neglected major play. Part Three, “Plays and Playwrights,” looks at a more recent group of authors. It begins with a profile of Efua Sutherland, and moves on to an examination of the influences at work on The Marriage of Anansewa. In these essays, I draw attention to the way in which Sutherland operates with oral traditions and the creative community that surrounded her. My attempt to reconstruct the process by which her best-known play was brought together, my examination of conventions borrowed at a remove or two from the Chinese theatre, and my documentation of the extensive process of collaboration which preceded the publication of the final text – all this may fuel controversy. It should be recognized that my intention is Preface ix to establish the precise nature of Sutherland’s genius. In the process, as throughout the collection, I uncover issues of documentation and achieve- ment that draw attention to the need for investment in organizing re- sources for writing Ghana’s theatre history. The third essay in this section uses Brigid Sackey’s research on the vocation to the priesthood in parts of Southern Ghana to unravel themes present in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa. Like many of the other essays in this collection, it raises issues of intercultural understanding, and shows how particular information may affect a reading of a play. The final essay in the section looks at the work of Joe de Graft, taking issue with the way he was presented by a fellow Ghanaian, Kofi Agovi, in an influential refer- ence book. My approach ensures that issues of perspective and interpretation, analysis, and appreciation are placed in the foreground. I am aware that this essay, originally delivered at the University of Ghana (1994), represents an intervention by an outsider in a discussion that some may con- sider is essentially a matter between Ghanaians. If I didn’t think I was restoring a balance to a very public, international discussion, I would not have ventured into the area, or would not have ventured so boldly. The volume draws to a close with two essays that reflect my position as a participant observer. The first looks at productions mounted and tours undertaken in a twenty-one-month period during the late 1960s when I was an instructor in the English Department of the University of Ghana, Legon. Since there are hostages to fortune here, I offer the account with some trepidation. I am bolstered by the approval given by West African scholar– activists to my decision to emphasize the work of Bertolt Brecht in my play selection with the Legon 7. The second essay picks up serious issues raised by participation, when a Visiting Scholar at Legon in 1994, in a British-financed and -directed film. I am convinced there are points of general interest, particularly given the growth of the video industry – more moving pictures – which has drawn heavily on skills developed in Ghana’s live theatre. From this last account, written in a more personal and sometimes more popular style than the other essays, the conditions under which the performing arts in Ghana are asserting themselves becomes apparent. While this volume makes no attempt to provide a comprehensive history of the Ghanaian theatre, I trust it will convey some of my enthusiasm for the subject. JAMES GIBBS Bristol, January 2008 Acknowledgements The names of some of those to whom I wish to express my gratitude have already appeared; others crop up in the text. Some of those who have helped me have already passed on. As I write out the following, I am fully aware that there were also others who helped ‘back stage’ or ‘front of house’, who gave time, an- swered questions, or took part in productions.

Load more