Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:40:44.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Folkism’: Towards a National Aesthetic Principle for Nigerian Dramaturgy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Sam Ukala
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nigerian playwrights face the problem not only of finding ways of communicating with their audiences which address popular concerns in an assimilable manner, but of deciding the appropriate language in which to do so, in a notion which embraces many language groups and cultures. The solution of employing English as a lingua franca poses problems hung over from the colonialist past – and a tendency for plays written in English also to employ an inappropriate western dramaturgy. In the following article, Sam Ukala considers the various objections raised to English-language Nigerian plays, conceding some points and answering others, and proposing the concept of ‘folkism’ as a national aesthetic principle – a way of reconciling the use of a common language with the distinctive and often disparate needs of the Nigerian people.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 47 , August 1996 , pp. 279 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adedeji, J. A., ‘Oral Literature and the Contemporary Theatre in Nigeria’, Research in African Literatures, II, No. 2 (Fall 1971).Google Scholar
Adelugba, Dapo, ‘Wale Ogunyemi, Zulu Sofola, and Ola Rotimi: Three Dramatists in Search of a Language’, Theatre in Africa, ed. Ogunba, Oyin and Irele, Abiola (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1978).Google Scholar
Adetugbo, A., ‘Form and Style’, Introduction to Nigerian Literature, ed. King, Bruce (Lagos; Ibadan: University of Lagos, Evans, 1971).Google Scholar
Agetua, J., ed., Interview with Six Nigerian Writers (Benin City: Bendel Newspapers, n.d.).Google Scholar
Asagba, A. O., ‘Towards a Positive Ideology in African Theatre’, Nigerian Theatre Journal, I, No. 1 (1983).Google Scholar
Clark, J. P., ‘Aspects of Nigerian Drama’, Drama and Theatre in Nigeria: a Critical Source Book, ed. Ogunbiyi, Yemi (Lagos: Nigeria Magazine, 1981).Google Scholar
Clark, J. P., Ozidi (Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1966).Google Scholar
Clark, J. P., The Ozidi Saga (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, Oxford University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
Euba, Femi, ‘The Nigerian Theatre and the Playwright’, Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, op. cit.Google Scholar
Fido, E., ‘The Road and Theatre of the Absurd’, Caribbean Journal of African Studies, I, No. 1 (1978).Google Scholar
Finnegan, Ruth, Oral Literature in Africa (Oxford: University Press, 1970).Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. H., The Languages of Arfrica (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963).Google Scholar
Izebaye, Dan, ‘The poetry and Drama of John Pepper Clark’, Introduction to Nigerian Literature, op. cit.Google Scholar
Jeyifo, B., ‘Literary Drama and the Search for a Popular Theatre in Nigeria’, Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, op. cit.Google Scholar
Jones, Eldred, The Writing of Wole Soyinka (London: Heinemann, 1973).Google Scholar
Nwankwo, N., ‘Review of Song of a Goat’, Nisgeria Magazine, 03 1962.Google Scholar
Nwoko, D., ‘Search for a New African Theatre’, Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, op.cit.Google Scholar
Ogunba, O., and Irele, A., eds. Theatre in Africa (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1978).Google Scholar
Ogunbiyi, Yemi, ‘The Popular Theatre: a Tribute to Duro Ladipo’, Drama and Theatre in Africa, op. cit.Google Scholar
Okpewho, I., Myth in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Osanyin, B., ‘Committed Theatre: a Cornerstone of Nation-Building’, Nigeria Theatre Journal, I, No. 1 (1983).Google Scholar
Osofisan, Femi, Morountodun and Other Plays (Ibadan: Longman, 1982).Google Scholar
Osofisan, Femi, Once Upon Four Robbers (Ibadan: Heinemann, 1991).Google Scholar
Osofisan, Femi, ‘Tiger on Stage: Wole Soyinka and Nigerian Theatre’, Theatre in Africa, op. cit.Google Scholar
Postma, M., Tales from the Basotho, trans. McDermid, Susie (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974).Google Scholar
Rotimi, Ola, Hopes of the Living Dead (Ibadan: Spectrum, 1988).Google Scholar
Rotimi, Ola, Kurunmi (Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
Rotimi, Ola, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again (Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
Rotimi, Ola, Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (Benin City; Ibadan: Ethiope, 1974).Google Scholar
Rotimi, Ola, The Gods Are Not to Blame (Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
Soyinka, Wole, ‘Introduction’, Sign of the Rainbow by Wale Ogunyemi, African Theatre, ed. Henderson, G. (London: Heinemann, 1973).Google Scholar
Soyinka, Wole, Madmen and Specialists (Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
Sutherland, E. T., ‘Foreword’, The Marriage of Anansewa (London: Longman, 1975).Google Scholar
Upton, Carole-Anne, ‘Ananse's Wealth: Response and Responsibility in African Popular Theatre’, paper presented at the Conference on Popular Theatre, University of Liverpool, U.K., 09 1994.Google Scholar