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Publication Date
5-17-2024
Description
Bringing together in English translation eleven Francophone African plays dating from 1970 to 2021, this essential collection includes satirical portraits of colonizers and their collaborators (Bernard Dadié’s Béatrice du Congo; Sony Labou Tansi’s I, Undersigned, Cardiac Case; Sénouvo Agbota Zinsou’s We’re Just Playing) alongside contemporary works questioning diasporic identity and cultural connections (Koffi Kwahulé’s SAMO: A Tribute to Basquiat and Penda Diouf’s Tracks, Trails, and Traces…). The anthology memorializes the Rwandan genocide (Yolande Mukagasana’s testimony from Rwanda 94), questions the status of women in entrenched patriarchy (Werewere Liking’s Singuè Mura: Given That a Woman…), and follows the life of Elizabeth Nietzsche, who perverted her brother’s thought to colonize Paraguay (José Pliya’s The Sister of Zarathustra). Gustave Akakpo’s The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood and Kossi Efoui’s The Conference of the Dogs offer parables about what makes life livable, while Kangni Alem’s The Landing shows the dangers of believing in a better life, through migration, outside of Africa.
Keywords
Bernard Dadié, Sony Labou Tansi, Yolande Mukagasana, Sénouvo Agbota Zinsou, Werewere Liking, José Pliya, Kangni Alem, Kossi Éfoui, Gustave Akakpo, Koffi Kwahulé, Penda Diouf, African theater, African plays, Francophone African theater, Contemporary African theater, Political theater, Experimental Black theater, Decolonization, theatre, plays, mise en scene
Rights
© 2024 by Bucknell University Press For copyrights to individual plays please see the Permissions section. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Bucknell University Press, Hildreth-Mirza Hall, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837–2005. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
ISBN
9781684485130