Staging Agency and Influence in Burkinabè Theatrical
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DEVELOPING THEATRICALLY: STAGING AGENCY AND INFLUENCE IN BURKINABÈ THEATRICAL PRODUCTION By Aralene D. Callahan II A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Theatre and Drama) Date of final oral examination: 3/22/2012 The dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee: Manon van de Water, Professor, Theatre and Drama Michael Peterson, Associate Professor, Theatre and Drama David Furumoto, Associate Professor, Theatre and Drama Harold Scheub, Professor, African Languages and Literature Judith Graves Miller, Professor, French © Copyright by Aralene D. Callahan II 2012 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to the memory of Jean-Pierre Guingané and to the artistic community that he inspired. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following individuals for their support during this process: To my advisor, Manon van de Water and my committee Judith Miller, Harold Scheub, Michael Peterson and David Furumoto: This has been a daunting process. Thank you for the encouragement to pursue my multiple interests: a practical and academic career in theatre, an appreciation of the French language, and a curiosity and deep respect for a small country in West Africa. Thank you for the example that you have set, for your kindness and critiques, and above all your guidance. To my family: Thank you for loving me enough to tell me that you would rather not have me on the other side of the world but encouraging me none the less. I know the strength and love that really takes. I hope that one day you will get the chance to visit Burkina Faso so that you might understand why I think of it as a second home. I am so happy that you are proud of me. To Frances Novack: Thank you for believing in me. You found a way that I might travel to Africa to study theatre when I thought all of those doors had closed. It’s rare to be encouraged to take such an adventure. Thank you for understanding my adventurous spirit to a greater extent than I ever could have without your influence. To Kristin Hunt: You set an example that any of us would be proud to follow and your perspective and dedication to your friends, students and TAs makes a bigger difference probably than you know. Thank you for your encouragement and all of your assistance. To Aparna Dharwadker: Thank you for beginning this process with me and for all of your guidance. To my fellow UW colleagues and friends: You have taught me that though writing a dissertation is a solitary process, you need a large and supportive community. Brian Williams, Jessica Brown-Velez, Bethany Wood, Andy Wiginton, Mary McAvoy, Pete Rydberg, JS Fauquet, Megan McGlone, Erin Hood, Annie Giannini, Liz Foster-Shaner, Michelle Soldberg Ford, Megwyn Sanders-Andrews, Matt Brown, Jeff Casey, Alli Metz, Julie Vogt, and Vicky Lantz: Thank you for those moments when you saw me through the woods. To the folks at the Great Dane: Thank you for the chance to earn my keep. To François Bouda: Tu as bien dit. Na zem sa min! Ma’am nonga fo. Above all, the greatest thanks goes to the artistic community of Burkina Faso. Their voices speak through this dissertation and I hope that this work will help garner greater acknowledgement for the incredible work that they produce. If only every artist could be as inspired and dedicated as those artists working in Ouagadougou. Thank you first and foremost to Jean-Pierre Guingané for the legacy that you have left and for taking a risk on a petite, twenty-three year old American. Thank you to everyone at Espace Culturel Gambidi for your friendship and your assistance. There are too many people to thank, but notably Hamadou Mandé, Jean Zida, Ildevert Meda, Etienne Minoungou, Martin Zongo, Prosper Kompaoré, Nongodo Ouédraogo, Jacob Sanwidi, Mohamadi Gouem, Harouna Gouem, Boukary Tarnagda, Aristide Tarnagda, Modeste Compaoré, Abidine Dioari, Sidiki Yougbaré, Edoxi Gnoula, Jaki Kini, Paul Zoungrana, Mohamadou Tindano, Gaetan Felix Somé, Oumar Ouattara, Karim Tebi and most certainly my dear friend Awa Kaba. Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….....i Introduction…..……………………………………………………………………….…1 Chapter 1. An Introduction to Theatre for Development: Terminology, Theory and Practice in the Production of Burkinabè Theatre for Development………………….….9 Chapter 2. A Catch-22: The Relationship Between Theatre Education, Sponsorship, and Theatrical Production………………………………………………………………..…46 Chapter 3. Politically Correct: Staging a Mission for Democracy and Women’s Rights………………………………………………………………………..92 Chapter 4. Who Performs? The Roles of Women in Burkinabè Theatre……………..134 Chapter 5. Staging the Norms: The Characterization of Women in Burkinabè Theatre for Development…………………………………………………………………………..165 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….204 Appendices Appendix A: Smockey Lyrics “ONG”………………………………………..219 Appendix B: Smockey Lyrics “50 ans 2 dépendance”………………………. 222 Work Cited…………………………………………………………………………….224 i ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the agency of Theatre for Development (hereafter TfD) in promoting social change in Burkina Faso, focusing on how economics and culture work towards and also inhibit social change. Burkina Faso has a thriving artistic scene that contradicts its economic realities as one of the three poorest countries in the world, but the same conditions also create a day-to-day struggle for financial survival for many theatre companies, giving significant influence to funding by Western NGOs. I argue that this influence has political consequences and funneling effects on theatrical production, affected by the ways in which grantors assess these projects. Cultural and social conditions contingent on Western monetary support generate sometimes complimentary, sometimes conflicting reactions from the African artists courting funding and the Western agencies with particular motivations and outcomes in mind. I examine how Western ideals might be conflated with “development” during project assessment and how theatre might also serve to protect African agency in social change. In my first chapter, “An Introduction to Theatre for Development: Terminology, Theory and Practice in the Production of Burkinabè Theatre for Development,” introduces the history and definitions of TfD both internationally and nationally through a literature review. Although practiced throughout the world, TfD has a particular performance history in Burkina Faso that shapes how people perform TfD today and how theatre is produced more generally. In the second chapter “A Catch-22: The Relationship Between Theatre Education, Sponsorship, and Theatrical Production,” I analyze the relationship between TfD and theatre education, theatre professionalization, and the financial support for theatre in Burkina Faso. The advancement of theatre is hindered by a “catch-22”: to garner more audience appreciation, there must be an increase in arts education to raise the overall quality of theatrical production in the country, but in order to increase access to this education, the appreciation of ii theatre must first increase. This quandary places a great deal of pressure on artists and poses numerous problems without offering any clear solutions. In Chapter Three, “Politically Correct: Staging a Mission for Democracy and Women’s Rights,” I give a case study of the relationship between the theatrical development of a particular theme, democracy and women in politics, and the missions of the granting organizations. Although Guingané developed the same theme in his three TfD play cycle of Femmes, prenons notre place, the grantors had very different agendas in why they chose to sponsor the project. The last two chapters, “Who Performs? The Roles of Women in Burkinabè Theatre” and “Staging the Norms: The Characterization of Women in Burkinabè Theatre for Development” give a close analysis of a popular theme in TfD, women’s rights. This theme serves as a dual lens, positioning the role of women in Burkina Faso by also investigating the role of female artists in theatre. This theme is particularly complicated because of the culturally specific understandings of female subjugation and feminism. The chapters work to show how women are limited in their roles due to their gender and how TfD promotes and restricts the advancement of these roles in portrayals of specific gender norms. Through these five chapters, I hope to show the complicated relationships between TfD and practitioners, audiences, and grantors. Lacking any sustainable resources, the under-researched country of Burkina Faso provides a thriving artistic community and currently peaceful political climate in which art has great potential for social action. I posit, like other theatre scholars, that theatre does have agency, but that the assessment of theatre utilized as a mechanism for social change possibly negates some of this power. My research explores TfD as an investigation of cultural self-affirmation in a postcolonial world, and how the influence of the West shapes development. As a specific and localized topic, TfD in Burkina Faso addresses broader questions surrounding the terms iii development and agency, as well as the social and economic interactions and ramifications of the postcolonial moment in which we live. 1 Developing Theatrically: Staging Agency and Influence in Burkinabè Theatrical Production An Introduction A new visitor to Burkina Faso inevitably makes their first observations on the heat, the dust floating in the air making