African Theatre 15: China, India & the Eastern World 1847011470, 9781847011473

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15

an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US) www.boydellandbrewer.com www.jamescurrey.com

ISBN 978-1-84701-146-6

9 781847 011466

African Theatre

Cover: Dralla Aierken (Sidi) and Sebastian Li (Baroka) in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, at Black Box Theatre of the Affiliated High School of Peking University, 3 November 2012, directed by Joseph Graves, Artistic Director of PKU’s Institute of World Theatre and Film. (Photograph © and reproduced by kind permission of Zhengwei Liu)

China, India & the Eastern World

In the context of anxiety about expanding Chinese influence in Africa, this volume examines the neglected longer historical, cultural inter-relationship between China and Africa. Articles look at material aspects of China’s influence through its participation in theatre festivals in Cape Verde and South Africa, and through the hosting of Lusophone theatre festivals in Macao. China’s involvement in the construction of theatres, opera houses and cultural facilities as part of its foreign aid programmes, provides the background to the playscript for this volume, Blickakte – a play originally written in German about Chinese involvement with the theatre in Somalia. Although China is the main focus there are contributions on exchanges between other Asian countries and Africa. These include the examination of the production of African plays in Bangladesh, and of the syncretic theatre traditions that have evolved wherever African and Asian populations have been in close and extended contact such as in Mauritius, India and parts of South Africa.

Editors • Banham Gibbs • Hutchison Osofisan • Plastow

African Theatre provides a focus for research, critical discussion, information and creativity in the vigorous field of African theatre and performance. Each annual issue concentrates on a major topic and through its resolutely pan-African coverage and accessible style, broadens the debates to all interested in drama and the many roles it plays in contemporary African life. The editors and editorial board bring together an impressive range of experience in African theatre.

Volume Editors • James Gibbs & Femi Osofisan

African Theatre

China, India & the Eastern World

African Theatre 15 China, India & the Eastern World Volume Editors James Gibbs & Femi Osofisan Reviews Editor Martin Banham

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Published titles in the series: African Theatre in Development African Theatre: Playwrights & Politics African Theatre: Women African Theatre: Southern Africa African Theatre: Soyinka: Blackout, Blowout & Beyond African Theatre: Youth African Theatre 7: Companies African Theatre 8: Diasporas African Theatre 9: Histories 1850–1950 African Theatre 10: Media & Performance African Theatre 11: Festivals African Theatre 12: Shakespeare in & out of Africa African Theatre 13: Ngug˜ ˜ ı wa Thiong’o & Wole Soyinka African Theatre 14: Contemporary Women African Theatre 15: China, India & the Eastern World Forthcoming:

African Theatre 16: Eight Plays from East & West Africa Articles not exceeding 5,000 words should be submitted preferably as an email attachment. Style: Preferably use UK rather than US spellings. Italicize titles of books or plays. Use single inverted commas and double for quotes within quotes. Type notes at the end of the text on a separate sheet. Do not justify the right-hand margins. References should follow the style of this volume (Surname date: page number) in text. All references should then be listed at the end of article in full: Surname, name, date, title of work (place of publication: name of publisher) Surname, name, date, ‘title of article’ in surname, initial (ed./eds) title of work (place of publication: publisher). or Surname, name, date, ‘title of article’, Journal, vol., no: page numbers. Reviewers should provide full bibliographic details, including extent, ISBN and price. Copyright: Please ensure, where appropriate, that clearance has been obtained from copyright holders of material used. Illustrations may also be submitted if appropriate and if accompanied by full captions and with reproduction rights clearly indicated. It is the responsibility of the contributors to clear all permissions. All submissions should be accompanied by a brief biographical profile. The editors cannot undertake to return material submitted and contributors are advised to keep a copy of all material sent in case of loss in transit. Editorial address African Theatre, c/o Jane Plastow, Workshop Theatre, School of English, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK • [email protected] Books for review & review material to: Professor Martin Banham, Reviews Editor, African Theatre [email protected]

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African Theatre 15 China, India & the Eastern World Series Editors Martin Banham, James Gibbs, Yvette Hutchison, Femi Osofisan & Jane Plastow

Reviews Editor Martin Banham Associate Editors Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka

Dept of Theatre, 1530 Naismith Dr, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045–3140, USA

Awo Mana Asiedu

School of Performing Arts, PO Box 201, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

David Kerr

Dept of Media Studies, Private Bag 00703, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana

Amandina Lihamba

Dept of Fine & Performing Arts, PO Box 3505, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Patrick Mangeni

Head of Dept of Music, Dance & Drama, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Christine Matzke

Dept of English, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

Olu Obafemi

Dept of English, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

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James Currey is an imprint of Boydell and Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731 (US) www.boydellandbrewer.com www.jamescurrey.com © Contributors 2016 Playscript Blickakte – ‘Acts of Viewing’ © Daniel Schauf All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library ISBN 978-1-84701-147-3 ( James Currey Africa-only paperback edition) ISBN 978-1-84701-146-6 ( James Currey cloth edition) This publication is printed on acid free paper

Typeset in 12.5/13.5 pt MBembo by Kate Kirkwood, Cumbria, UK

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Contents

Notes on Contributorsix Obituaries xv Hamadnallah Abdulgadir KHALID AL MUBARAK F. Nii-Yartey JAMES GIBBS Christopher F. Kamlongera JAMES GIBBS Introductionxxiii

JAMES GIBBS

1  Africa’s Discovery of China’s Theatre China in Ghana An interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah about the National Theatre, built in Accra by the Chinese government

AWO MANA ASIEDU (interviewer); Introduced & annotated by JAMES GIBBS

The Orphan of Chao A Chinese play at a Nigerian university, 1979

28

TONY HUMPHRIES

Introducing Blickakte – ‘Acts of Viewing’  ‘Do I See What I See, Do I Know What I Know, Do I Hear What I Hear …’

1 3

31

CHRISTINE MATZKE v

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Playscript  41 Blickakte – ‘Acts of Viewing’. Based on an idea by AHMED JAMA ADEN scripted & developed by DANIEL SCHAUF, PHILIPP SCHOLTYSIK & JONAS ALSLEBEN (video) 2 China’s Discovery of Africa: Texts, festivals & buildings 

61

Theatre in China in 1965, with a focus on  War Drums Along the Equator 

63



An Interview with ROBERT BOLT with an introduction by JAMES GIBBS

The Post-Colonial Imaginary & Politics of  Representation in the Macao SAR The Teatrau & the (re)emergence of ‘lusofonia’ under Chinese stars

ISABEL MARIA DA COSTA MORAIS

China-Africa Relations at the Mindelact Theatre  Festival, São Vicente, Cabo Verde

107

YING CHENG

A Checklist of African Playscripts Translated  into Chinese

91

RITA M. RUFINO VALENTE

China Meets South Africa in the Theatre Some recent South African work about China & in China & the Year of China in South Africa, 2015

72

126

SHANG WANG

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Contents  vii

3 Indian Theatre Exchanges with East &  South Africa: Historical dimensions

135

Indians of African Descent Sidis, Bava Gor & spiritual practices

137



BEHEROZE F. SHROFF

Jay Pather, South African Artist of Indian Ancestry Transforming society in post-apartheid South Africa through his theatre-dance works

152

KETU H. KATRAK

4 Contested Spaces

171

Asian & African Theatre in Mauritius A report from the front line

173



MICHAEL WALLING

Hidden under a Black Veil in Terra Incognita  181 Representations of Africa in Bangladesh theatre with a checklist of African playscripts performed in Bangladesh SYED JAMIL AHMED

Book Reviews

199

Jumai Ewu on  Wole Soyinka, ALAPATA APATA: A play for Yorubafonia, class for xenophiles Colin Chambers on  Bernth Lindfors, Ira Aldridge: The Last Years, 1855-1867 James Gibbs on Paul Schauert, Staging Ghana: Artistry & nationalism in state dance ensembles Ralph Yarrow on Maëline Le Lay, ‘La parole construit le pays’:

199

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viii  Contents

Théâtre, langues et didactisme au Katanga (République Démocratique du Congo) Akin Adesokan on  Benita Brown, Dannabang Kuwabong & Christopher Olsen, Myth Performance in the African Diasporas: Ritual, theater, and dance Olu Obafemi on  S. A. Kafewo, T. J. Iorapuu & E. S. Dandaura (eds), Theatre Unbound: Reflections on Theatre for Development and Social Change – A festschrift in honour of Oga Steve Abah Sola Adeyemi on  Hakeem Bello, The Interpreters: Ritual, Violence and Social Regeneration in the Writing of Wole Soyinka Sola Adeyemi on Five plays: Ekpe Inyang, The Swamps;  Augustine Brempong, The King’s Wages; Denja Abdullahi, Death and the King’s Grey Hair and Other Plays Books received and noted

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216

219

224

227

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Notes on Contributors

Jamil Ahmed is a theatre director and Professor in the Depart­ment of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Dhaka. He has directed plays in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and the USA, and has published extensively at home and abroad. His book-length publications in English are Acinpakhi Infinity: Indigenous Theatre of Bangladesh; In Praise of Niranjan: Islam, Theatre and Bangladesh; Reading Against the Orientalist Grain; and Applied Theatricks: Essays in Refusal. Jonas Alsleben is a filmmaker and video artist. He teaches directing and media studies at the University for Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK), Frankfurt am Main, and has worked as a video artist for various productions at, among others, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Kampnagel Hamburg, Theater Heidelberg, Staatstheater Hannover, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Staatstheater Mainz, Theater Bremen, Künstler­ haus Mousonturm Frankfurt and at Schauspielhaus Graz. Awo Mana Asiedu is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana. She completed BA and MA degrees at Legon, and in 1994 began teaching in the Theatre Arts Department there. Between 1999 and 2003, she completed a PhD at Birmingham (UK) on West African Theatre Audiences. Soon after her return to Legon, she was appointed Head of Theatre Arts and later served as ix

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x  Notes on Contributors

Acting Director of the School of Performing Arts. Among her many publications is an article on ‘Youth Theatre Festi­ vals in Ghana’ that appeared in an earlier volume of African Theatre; she is an Associate Editor of this series. Mohammed Ben Abdallah is a graduate of the School of Music and Drama, University of Ghana, and has degrees from American Universities, including a PhD in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. His interest in public service has drawn him into teaching roles in various Ghana­ ian universities and into Government: he was Chair of the Commission on Culture. Ben Abdallah was interviewed by Awo Mana Asiedu, for African Theatre: Playwrights and Politics (2001). His more recent plays include Song of a Pharaoh. Robert Bolt (1924-1995), British playwright and screenwriter, is best known for A Man for all Seasons (radio play 1955, stage play 1960, film 1966) that reflects interests in history, politics, conscience and morality. Bolt’s own political activities included membership of the Committee of 100, an anti-war group established in 1960. Bee Chang was born in Taipeh, Taiwan. She studied classical singing at the University of Taiwan before completing a musical theatre training and a Masters in Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg, Germany. During her time in Germany she was involved in various productions as actor, singer and performance artist. Now back in Taiwan, she works successfully as a singer for various music projects. Ying Cheng has an MA degree from the Department of Asian and African Languages and Literatures, Peking, and is a PhD candidate in the Department of African Languages and Cultures, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her current research is on urban youth performance culture in Lagos.

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Notes on Contributors  xi

Tony Humphries holds a BA in English and Drama from Exeter University. In 1973, having been awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, he conducted postgraduate research into African theatre at Ibadan University, Nigeria. In 1975, he moved to Ahmadu Bello University to lecture in its Drama Department. On his return to the UK in 1979, he worked as a programme organiser at London’s Africa Centre before joining the British civil service in 1986. Ketu H. Katrak was born in Bombay/Mumbai, and prepared her doctorate at Bryn Mawr College (PA), presenting a thesis that was later published as Wole Soyinka and Modern Tragedy: A Study of Dramatic Theory and Practice. She has maintained her interest in both theory and practice while teaching at, for example, Yale and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and while holding a series of important posts, including Professor of Drama and Chair of the Department of Asian American Studies at University of California, Irvine. She has made ground-breaking contributions in several distinct fields, including the politics of the female body, post-colonial writing, Indian choreography and the ‘Ethno-Global Imagination’. Her interest in practice is illustrated by her contribution as a dramaturge on productions of The Clay Cart for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), 2007, and of Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, also for OSF (2008). Christine Matzke has taught African literature and theatre at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, HumboldtUniversität zu Berlin, and at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. She is currently teaching English and African literature at the University of Bayreuth. Her research interests include theatre and cultural production in Eritrea, and post-colonial crime fiction. She co-edited African Theatre 8: Diasporas (2009, with Osita Okagbue), contributed to African Theatre: Histories (2010), and co-edited African Theatre

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xii  Notes on Contributors

14: Contemporary Women (2015, with Yvette Hutchison and Jane Plastow). She is an Associate Editor of African Theatre. Isabel Maria da Costa Morais has a doctorate in Compara­ tive Literature from the University of Hong Kong and is an Associate Professor at the University of Saint Joseph, Macao. She is interested in transcultural studies, and her current research is on post-colonial theatrical discourse in patuá theatre (Macao) and tiatr (Goa, India). When in Hong Kong, she collaborated on Macau 123 (1998), a cross-cultural production by the Asian People’s Theatre Festival Society.  Daniel Schauf studied literature, history and philosophy at the Free University, Berlin, and directing at the University for Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK), Frankfurt am Main. During that time he already developed productions at the Theater Heidelberg, Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin. His works have been requested at festivals in Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and Mülheim an der Ruhr. Since 2014 has been on the board of artistic directors of studioNAXOS, Frankfurt am Main, a performance space for young artists in the State of Hesse. For further information on his work see www.drittmittelproduktionen.de. Philipp Scholtysik completed a degree in political economy in Regensburg and Berlin before studying dramaturgy at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. He has been on the board of artistic directors of studioNAXOS, Frankfurt am Main, since 2014. Productions (as dramaturge and performer) include Strategien begrenzter Beunruhigung für ein weiterhin beruhigtes Leben (2015), I Very Much Understand the Idea (2014), and Die Maßnahme (2012). Wang Shang is undertaking research on South African litera­ture. She has an MA in Asian and African Languages and Literatures from Peking University (PKU) where both

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Notes on Contributors  xiii

her undergraduate and master’s theses were on Athol Fugard. She took part in PKU’s 2012 production of The Lion and the Jewel, and was dramaturge for the 2015 Chinese productions of My Children! My Africa!, The Island, and The Train Driver. Beheroze F. Shroff is a documentary filmmaker and teaches in the Department of Asian American Studies at Irvine, California, where her courses have included South Asian Literature and Asian American film. Her documentaries include Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yaba City (1985) and We’re Indian and African: Voices of the Sidis (2003). Part of her background emerges in her contribution to this volume, as does her interest in diaspora and migration. (A fuller list of her work in the public domain can be found in the bibliography that follows her article.) Rita M. Rufino Valente received her MA from the Department of Performance Studies (Tisch School of the Arts, New York University), and is a doctoral student on the programme in Culture and Performance in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA. Her research topic concerns theatre festivals located in three Portuguesespeaking countries: Brazil and Cape Verde (two former Portuguese colonies), and Portugal (the former imperial centre). Michael Walling is Artistic Director of Border Crossings (bordercrossings.org.uk), whose productions include This Flesh is Mine, The Dilemma of a Ghost and Toufann. Other directing credits include Macbeth (Mauritius), The Tempest (India), The Ring at The London Coliseum and the Barbican (ENO), London. He won awards for Two Gentlemen of Verona (USA) and Paul & Virginie (Mauritius). Michael has published extensively on theatre and interculturalism, and has edited Border Crossings’ books Theatre and Slavery: Ghosts at the Crossroads and The Orientations Trilogy: Theatre and Gender –

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Asia and Europe. He is a Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College, London, and director of Origins – Festival of First Nations.

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Obituaries The Editors and publishers are saddened by the death of our colleague Alain Ricard; there will be an obituary in African Theatre 16

Hamadnallah Abdulgadir (1927 – 9 October 2015) The most accomplished, successful and prolific Sudanese play­wright of his generation, Hamadnallah Abdulgadir died in Khartoum on 9 October 2015. He represented a significant new voice in Sudanese drama, and his achievements were recognised in the Sudan and he was honoured. Even more attention should have been paid to both his achievements and his transition. The major playwrights who preceded him, Khalid Abdul­ rahman (Aburrous), Ibrahim Al Abbadi and Al Khalifa Yousif Al Hassan, emerged from traditional Quranic schools, wrote in refined Sudanese-dialect verse and chose themes from Sudanese history or legend. Abdulgadir made a very distinc­tive contribution to evolving Sudanese theatre and culture partly because of his different background and his varied experiences. He was born and brought up in the town of Al-Hassahiesa in the Gezira State, the melting pot of the Sudan, and he graduated from Gordon Memorial College – the institution that formed the basis of the University of Khartoum. There he was exposed to the plays of Shakespeare, and from there he went into a civil service post that involved travelling widely through the country. Both his work and his experience of different parts of the country provided experiences that fed into his writing. xv

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Abdulgadir’s horizons were also broadened by the time he spent training in the United Kingdom, where he was exposed to nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and European theatre. He responded to the works of both Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen. On his return to the Sudan, Abdulgadir wrote for radio, and became a national figure as a result. He wrote in prose (not verse like earlier dramatists) and, where his predecessors had drawn on legend, he handled themes about family life, bureaucracy and traditions. During the 1960s, he teamed up very successfully with the Sudan’s most talented director, Makki Sinada, on productions that attracted capacity audiences to the open-air National Theatre in Omdurman. His plays included Kushk Nasiya (Corner Shop), Hikayat Nadia (Nadia’s Story), Alimma Almayla (The Tilted Turban), Khutubat Suhair (Suhair’s Engagement), and Almundara (The Mirror). One of the shortcomings of Sudanese national cultural life is the lack of a ‘repertoire’ of what can be called ‘classics’ that offer new directors the chance to try out their own inter­pretations of established texts. There are now several generations that know next to nothing about our leading play­wrights and their work. I hope Hamadnallah’s major works – that are undoubtedly classics – will be honoured by being given new productions and new interpretations. In 2015, we celebrated the plays put on in schools and noted the existence of several drama festivals. I hope the National Dialogue will recognise that the arts, particularly the theatre, can provide one of the most effective instruments of reconciliation and understanding. There are signs that this is happening through the festival of Nuba mountain culture and it could be continued through productions of Hamad­nallah’s work. His plays make a contribution to the National Dialogue through their recognition of our shared Sudanese identity. Hamadnallah is not as well known as he should be in other Arabic-speaking countries. This is because he favoured Sudanese Arabic, because our publishing industry faces many challenges and because Sudanese companies rarely participate

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Obituaries  xvii

in international theatre festivals. It is to be hoped that his death will have the effect of drawing international attention to his achievements. Khalid Al Mubarak

F. Nii-Yartey (26 January 1946 – 21 November 2015) Dance in Ghana became firmly united with drama under the direction of F. Nii-Yartey who died in India at the age of sixty-nine while leading the Ghana Dance Ensemble to per­ form at the India-Africa Summit. An accomplished choreog­ rapher, Yartey had worked in different contexts and different countries, teaching, promoting change and extending the range of contemporary African dance. Though his passing was very untimely, it was appropriate that he should die ‘flying the flag’ for Ghanaian culture. That he should die in Asia was particularly poignant in the light of this publication: the summit was held in Asia; Africa was partly represented by a performance tradition. As a student at the University of Ghana, Nii-Yartey, then known as ‘Francis Nii Yartey’, came under the influence of diverse researchers and practitioners including Ephraim Amu, Odette Blum, Peggy Harper, Albert Mawere Opoku, Kwabena Nketia, Efua Sutherland and Drid Williams. In what was then the School of Music and Drama, he earned a certificate and a diploma in Dance (1968 and 1971), and was recognised as having the ability to take Ghanaian dance forward. He completed a Master of Arts degree at the University of Illinois (1975) with a thesis on a Ga-Mashie (Accra) puberty rite – that is to say on one of the performance conventions that formed part of his creative hinterland. Just a year after earning his MA, Nii-Yartey took over from Opoku – whom he referred to as ‘The Master’ – as Artistic Director of the Ghana Dance Ensemble at Legon. He held that challenging position for twenty years until,

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xviii  Obituaries

following a rearrangement that remains controversial, he moved to the National Theatre – a gift from the Chinese Government to the people of Ghana – as Artistic Director of the National Dance Company of Ghana. He was with the Company for thirteen years before embarking on a tricky journey that took him back to the Ensemble and, on his last earthly journey, to India with that group. Nii-Yartey’s many admired productions included Musu – Saga of the Slaves, Asipim, Solma, Legend of Okoryoo, Sochenda, Bukom, The Journey, and Fire of Koom. In Ghana, he operated in an artistic environment in which versatility and flexibility were vital for survival so it was not surprising to find that he turned his hand to directing the opening and closing ceremonies of major sporting tournaments. Though his service was primarily to Ghana and in Ghana, Nii-Yartey travelled extensively conducting workshops, lecturing and choreographing. Engagements abroad, some­ times in the company of creative Ghanaian intellectuals such as Kofi Anyidoho and Mohammed Ben Abdallah (see this volume), included time spent at Northwestern, University (Chicago), Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania), and Keene State College (New Hampshire). He also worked in the Carib­ bean, continental Europe and the UK where he explored, often in collaborative ventures, the contribution of African dance in a variety of social and performance contexts. While sitting on numerous committees and contributing to the work of a variety of organisations, Nii-Yartey main­ tained an academic profile, and wrote scholarly articles on, for example, the work of Alvin Ailey, the presentation of traditional African dances, and the development of con­tem­ porary choreographic expression in Ghana. That is to say, his academic and reflective writing complemented his praxis. For some years and with support from international bodies, Nii-Yartey conducted training sessions in a teaching space beside his house in Madina and, after 1998, he expanded that work at the Noyam African Dance Institute he established in Dodowa, Greater Accra. Away from the congested streets of

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Obituaries  xix

the city centre, Noyam enabled him to continue his explora­ tion of ways that dance both reflects society and con­tri­butes to positive change.  Nii-Yartey’s contributions as Artistic Director, his groundbreaking choreography and his role in developing dance in Ghana were recognised by the award of the Grand Medal (Civil Division) by the Head of State of Ghana (2000), and his national stature was indicated by the fact that his body was given a state funeral. However, a truer measure of his achievements was provided by the excellence of the productions he staged, and the accomplishments of those he inspired. While a state funeral marked the transition of a national figure, his real homecoming was at the Thanksgiving Service held later in Bukom Square. James Gibbs

Christopher F. Kamlongera (20 January 1949–20 May 2016) An actor, playwright, director, researcher, teacher and influen­ tial thinker on participatory methods of communication, Kamlongera made contributions on national (Malawian), regional (Southern African) and world-wide levels. A list of the positions he held indicates the range of the contexts in which he made an impact: he was, for example, the first Professor of Drama in the University of Malawi, the Founding Executive Director of the Malawi College of Journalism, the Director of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Centre of Communication for Development, and Principal of Chancellor College (in Malawi). His versatility has already been hinted at above, and this versatility was accom­panied by intense commitment. He was supportive and reliable, a conscientious scholar, a generous colleague and a valued family friend. Kamlongera attended Zomba Catholic Secondary School, and became an undergraduate at Chancellor College in the late

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1960s. There he began to find a voice through verse and short fiction as a member of the Writers’ Group and he was among those who published in the journal Odi. At the same time, he developed his interest in drama and the media through, for example, being part of the Chancellor College Travelling Theatre and by taking a role in the film Mbalame (directed by David Kerr, 1971). Kamlongera graduated in English in 1972, and taught at Balaka Secondary School, where his play Tongues, later retitled Grave­yards, was conceived. He then moved to the Polytechnic from where, benefitting from the staff development programme, he was sent to the University of Leeds to do a postgraduate diploma in Education. After completing the diploma, Kamlongera stayed on in Leeds to do the MA Drama course led by Martin Banham. His wrote a thesis on The Development of Contemporary Theatre in Malawi, and acted in productions of Gas (by Georg Kaiser) and Sizwe Bansi is Dead. His play Graveyards was staged (directed by John Linstrum). Back in Malawi, in 1978, Kamlongera moved from the Polytechnic to the English Department at Chancellor Col­ lege, Zomba, part of the University of Malawi, to take over responsi­bility for theatre work within the College. His experience of drama took a new direction during July 1981 when he and David Kerr led a Theatre for Development work­ shop at the Mbalachanda Rural Growth Centre in the Northern Region. The project provided an encounter with a kind of theatre that was to absorb huge amounts of Kamlongera’s time and energy for the rest of his life. In 1981, he returned to Leeds to begin work on a doctoral thesis entitled ‘Problems in the Growth of a Popular Art Form: the relationship between drama and society in Malawi and Zambia’. In researching that, he spread his net wide, covering not only school and university theatre, but also radio drama, film, puppetry and Theatre for Development. The reading, thinking and writing he undertook in order to com­plete the thesis equipped him to move with authority into an evolving

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Obituaries  xxi

area – conveniently referred to as ‘Theatre for Development’, but encompassing several approaches. It also provided a foundation for his contributions to participatory theatre. The second period in Leeds offered further opportunities that Kamlongera embraced to broaden his experience of drama. For example, he went to Sierra Leone with a Leeds Work­shop Theatre ‘team’ led by Martin Banham to engage with students and local theatre groups on a series of workshops and productions. He also directed a Hull group in a production, the UK premiere, of Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. After being awarded his doctorate in 1984, Kamlongera returned to the newly established Department of Fine and Performing Arts in Zomba where pioneering work had been undertaken by Mike Nambote and Mupa Shumba. In the years that followed, he published articles based on his research, delivered academic papers and undertook practical projects involving both conventional theatre and Theatre for Development. In 1986, he was appointed Senior Lecturer and Head of Department; in 1988, his PhD thesis was published in Malawi as Theatre for Development in Africa with Case Studies from Malawi and Zambia, and he was promoted to Associate Professor. He was made a full Professor in 1992. After five years in that post, during which major produc­ tions were put on and high standards achieved, Kam­longera moved to Harare as Regional Director of the SADC’s Centre of Communication for Development. When that organisation became ‘The African Centre of Communication for Development’ he became Director and had continentwide responsibilities. The Centre provided ‘communication advice, training, linkages and services for stakeholders at all levels, on demand-driven and sustainable basis to involve people in the decision making process’ (from the Centre’s brochure). An indication of how the organisation worked in practical terms can be seen from the handbook he wrote with Paolo Mefalopulos entitled Participatory Communication Strategy Design: A handbook (2004). That volume is des­

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xxii  Obituaries

cribed as having been ‘prepared as a training and field guide for designing, implementing and managing effective com­ munication strategies for field projects in a participatory manner, building on the results of the Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal (PRCA)’. It put ideas developed at the Centre, and based on wide experience, into the hands of practitioners. Kamlongera provided leadership in Harare for ten years during which time he was engaged with projects in several countries and collaborated with a number of UN agencies. He was involved, for example, with WHO, UNICEF, OXFAM, USAID, FAO, the British Council, GTZ and UNFPA. In 2009, Kamlongera returned to Malawi and began a five-year stint as Principal of Chancellor College. As might be expected, he retained an international profile during this period. For example, in 2010, he travelled to Queen’s Univer­ sity, Belfast to attend a Conference on Research Capacity Building. However, during part of Kamlongera’s term as Principal, Chancellor College was a divided and unhappy place. This was partly the result of the suspicions of the Government that elements in the College represented a threat to national security, and the determination of the teaching staff to withstand government interference. For some eight months, Chancellor was actually closed. From 2014 until his death, Kamlongera remained on contract as a teacher at Chancellor College but the cancer that was to cause his death had taken hold and he suffered considerably. He died on 20 May 2016. Christopher Kam­ longera – a man with wide interests who made contributions in many contexts, and whose work is often cited. His influence with regard to participatory drama continues to be felt. James Gibbs

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Introduction

JAMES GIBBS

The Contents page provides a way in to the material gathered here under a challenging title –African Theatre 15: China, India & the Eastern World – that should only be said while making gestures embracing vast territories. The first contribution, Awo Asiedu’s interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah, draws attention to a major plank in China’s intervention in African theatre: its theatre-building programme. Thanks to Asiedu’s direct questions and Ben Abdallah’s honest answers, the exchange gives a rare insight into manoeuvrings that went on ‘behind the scenes’ in the negotiations around the building of the National Theatre in Accra. These negotiations involved politicians, national leaders, architects, builders and clients, and from his answers we can get a sense of how Ben Abdallah, a man with clear ideas about African drama, a major playwright and a director, interacted with representatives of a super power. I will never visit the National Theatre again and never watch another rehearsal in the Efua Sutherland Drama Studio without thinking of how Ben Abdallah’s interventions in the planning and construction processes ensured those spaces exist. China’s gift of the National Theatre to the people of Ghana is partly explained, I think, by gratitude for Ghana’s diplomatic support at international fora over an extended period. However, there must also have been other motives and these surface in contemporary discussions about the number xxiii

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xxiv  James Gibbs

of Chinese people working in Ghana. In the course of the continuing debate there have been several references to the National Theatre – as evidence of Chinese generosity. The building, like other major infrastructure projects in Africa, certainly makes a bold statement, but just what it means must be constantly interrogated. The notes attached to the Ben Abdallah interview draw attention to the way in which two giants of local theatre, Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, responded to the Chinese-built theatre, and question the values it embodies. The interview with Ben Abdallah is followed by an account by Tony Humphries that shows how a British academic teaching in Ahmadu Bello University during the late 1970s contributed to his Nigerian students’ experience of Chinese theatre by staging The Orphan of Zhao. Ji Junxiang’s revenge drama is often described as the first Chinese play to be translated into any European language and was an appropriate place to start in dismantling barriers constructed by the colonial education system between Africa and Asia. Humphries’ record of reactions to ephemeral performances is followed by another document with an historical dimension: one that suggests ways in which Chinese theatre was changing as the forces that led to the Cultural Revolution began to flex their muscles during the 1960s. The interview that playwright Robert Bolt gave after his visit to China in 1965 draws attention to attitudes he encountered and performances he saw. For example, he noted an ambivalent approach to existing theatrical conventions (‘Peking Opera’) and a willingness to appropriate naturalism for the Revolutionary Theatre. Bolt refers to a sometimes forgotten production about the Congo Crisis, Drums Along the Equator. This exposed neo-colonial interventionists and stood shoulder to shoulder with African nationalists. It involved Chinese actors in ‘blacking up’. While the construction of theatre buildings is the most obvious evidence of current Chinese interest in African perform­ ance traditions, there have been other striking initiatives. One of these is support for theatre festivals in

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Introduction  xxv

countries that were formerly part of the Portuguese Empire. Using Macao, which became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China in 1999, as a venue for a theatre festival, China has been establishing, strengthening or creating links with lusophone countries. At theatre festivals, such as Teatrau in Macao and Mindelact in Cape Verde, a Macao-based company, Point View Art Association, has represented China. Examination of these events prompts consideration of whether they should be regarded as primarily cultural or essentially political. It may be that – as became the norm during the Cultural Cold Wars – art and politics have become inextricably entwined. Chinese Government support for festivals has been complemented by the promotion of tours in Africa by Chinese performing groups. These are seen in terms of sharing ‘Intangible Culture’ and the policy was pushed forward with particular intensity during 2015, when South Africa was the focus of ‘A Year of China’. The developments regarding festivals and tours are described in a clutch of articles that provide coverage from a variety of angles. Isabel Morais writes on the Teatrau Festival in Macao and Rita M. Rufino Valente on the Mindelact Festival in Cape Verde. Their different perspectives provide insights into China’s theatre festival agenda, and their articles prompt thoughts about the performance convention developed by Point View Art Association in which several art forms are combined in an attempt to move beyond any particular spoken language. Offerings shared during the Year of China in South Africa are examined by Ying Cheng with documentation by Wang Shang on the African texts that have been translated into Chinese. The inclusion of contributions by Chinese academics is one of the results of the continuous support provided by my joint editor, Femi Osofisan, sometime lecturer in African drama at Peking University and a playwright open to influence from the Chinese theatre (watch this space). The fact that African theatre is being studied in China, and by Chinese students in

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xxvi  James Gibbs

the UK, opens up the possibility of more varied perspectives on the interaction of African and Asian theatre. Collaborative ventures, a feature of the Year of China in South Africa, repay critical appraisal and it is helpful to compare them with the history of China’s interest in preparing their own version of the War Horse. The engagement with theatre people in London over a major theatrical success has been long term and well funded. It provides a striking contrast with joint ventures undertaken during the Year of China in South Africa, covered by Ying Cheng, that have sometimes been shallow, short-term and underfunded. The playscript included in this volume, with a valuable introduction by Christine Matzke, finds a starting point in the Chinese-built theatre in Mogadishu, but reaches out to comment on a very wide range of issues. The drama, or ‘postdrama’ – see Matzke’s Introduction – provides a challeng­ing commentary on many of the topics touched on in this volume and, in its origin, brings to the fore an important point about the position of this volume. The backgrounds of those involved in creating Blickakte are varied and the text has been translated from German. In very obvious ways, ‘Europe’ is present in the text of Blickakte, just as it is in every aspect of this volume, published in Britain. The expression ‘oceans apart’ misleads if it is taken to suggest that seas simply separate. The Indian Ocean has been crossed and re-crossed, and brings into contact those who inhabit its Rim. A volume of this scope can only provide a glimpse of the many and various encounters that have taken place along the Asia-facing coast of East Africa. The publication is fortunate to have attracted a tightly focused, strongly personal account of one group of ‘Indians of African descent’, the Sidis, by Beheroze Shroff, and an article on Jay Pather, one of the major Indian-heritage choreographers in South Africa, by Ketu Katrak. These are reminders of historic migrations – some forced – that have led to, for example, the ‘retention’ of African performance traditions in India, and of Indian conventions in the Rainbow Nation.

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Introduction  xxvii

The final section is headed ‘contested spaces’. This is a description that could be applied to many places – so long as one recognises that they are also collaborative spaces, and this section contains papers that reflect a determination to include the islands of the Indian Ocean and the countries on the Rim of the Indian Ocean. Michael Walling’s article on Mauritius has to stand in as representative of the many papers that could have been written about the way Africa and Asia have met on islands in the Indian Ocean. The final paper, by Jamil Ahmed, provides an account of the plays by African authors that have been put on in Bangladesh. As with Northern Nigeria’s receptivity to Hindi films, Islamic influences – along with more-secular considerations such as ‘which publisher distributes whose books where?’ and ‘which author has won a particular prize?’ – have affected what ‘travels’. Having arranged the contributions in the order indicated above, I am acutely aware of a variety of routes readers could take through them. They could, for example, pick up on the reference to a Confucius Institute in a foot-note to the Ben Abdallah interview, and follow the various bodies – sometimes named after eminent figures – through which Asian nations are channelling ‘soft power’. Governmentfunded Confucius Institutes have been established in many places where China seeks to exercise ‘cultural influence’. Other names, such as Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore, sometimes linked to ‘foundations’, also have ‘an institutional significance’, and there are other bodies, such as the Japan Foundation and the Korea Foundation, that can be tracked on the internet by readers seeking to identify the protagonists in the cultural cold war being waged in Africa. Another possible route would involve following the names and ideas of those who have outlined theoretical systems through which influence and cultural interaction can be studied, and a starting point for that might be the bibliography of Ahmed’s article where we encounter the names of Jean Darbelnet, Jacques Derrida, Roman Jakobson, Patrice Pavis, and Jean-Paul Vinay. I will pause a little longer on three writers and men of the theatre

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xxviii  James Gibbs

who offer particularly helpful ways into and through the volume. They are Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Athol Fugard and Wole Soyinka. Ben Abdallah, as mentioned above, is a playwright who has held public office – Chair of the Ghana Commission on Culture. It is fascinating – and reassuring – to note that he is present in the volume not only in relation to Ghana’s National Theatre, but also as an author whose Trial of Mallam Ilya has been successfully produced in Bangladesh. A season of Athol Fugard’s plays has been presented in Beijing. Fugard was gratified by the exposure and the possibility that they might ‘join in the exchange of ideas’, and sent ‘A message to my Chinese friends’, reproduced in the article by Ying Cheng below. It will be revealing to follow the fortunes of any of those in Beijing who seek to comment, like Fugard, on the state of the nation. Finally, Wole Soyinka. The cover photograph of this volume is of a scene from a production of The Lion and the Jewel directed by Joseph Graves and Femi Osofisan and presented at Peking National University during 2012. It picks up on one of the impulses behind the desire to produce this volume: the urge to explore the interaction between African and Asian theatre over the last sixty years. Wole Soyinka was in China at the time of the production. That he should be in the audience in Beijing for a play he had written in Leeds during the 1950s draws attention to the changes that have taken place. At roughly the mid-point in the sixty-year period (1956-2016), Soyinka gave vent to his anger about the way the imperial education system cut students off from relevant sources of inspiration. At a theatre workshop in Zimbabwe (1981), he described how the colonial policy of educational ‘Divide and Rule’ operated. [T]here has been a deliberate excision of another part of the world by our colonial education. I speak, for instance, of Asian culture. It wasn’t until I went to study in, of all places, England that I was even aware of the immense wealth of Japanese theatre, Chinese poetry and drama, Indian poetry and drama. I remember my enormous resentment that any

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Introduction  xxix system of education should have been devised by a colonial power which deprived the people it ruled over of material which was accessible to that particular colonising society.

Soyinka followed this indictment with a very precise recol­lection of an experience that led him to ponder what he called the ‘diabolical thinking’ that had created the syllabus he had followed as a student in Nigeria and that erected barriers that he only broke down in the UK. I remember going to Leeds Public Library, browsing through the Noh drama, going through Chinese plays, encoun­ tering Shakuntala for the first time, and wondering: ‘What is wrong with this kind of literature?’ Wasn’t this closer in many instances to the culture, the literature, the creativity of my own society? I wonder what sort of diabolical thinking should have consigned us to a fare of Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare to the exclusion of these vast areas. (The reference to Shakuntala is to the Sanskrit play by Kalidasa. The whole quotation is from a Question and Answer session transcribed in Conversations with Wole Soyinka, edited by Biodun Jeyifo 2001: 83.)

Much happened during the years between Soyinka taking down books from the shelves of the Leeds Public Library and taking his seat to watch the PKU production of The Lion and the Jewel (2012). It would be possible, and illuminating, to begin to trace his personal self-education about Asian religion and culture during those years, to note the points at which he was involved with, for example, organisations promoting Afro-Asian / Asian-African solidarity, and to catalogue his comments on, for example, Indian and Japanese films. An examination of his writing in various genres would allow the reader to catalogue his references to Indian religions, and an online search of his name and the name of an Asian country would begin to provide information about his travels in Asia. From bibliographies and collections of essays, it would be possible to make a list of Asian scholars interested in his work. To get a taste of encounters on Soyinka’s ‘passage to Asia’ that bear on issues raised in this volume, it is instructive to read his review of an International Film Festival in Nigeria, carried by Nigeria Magazine (1962). There we find his recognition of the achievements of Satyajit Ray’s Pather

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xxx  James Gibbs

Panchali, and his brusque dismissal of the general run of Indian directors. He swept them aside with a paragraph that includes the following. It is well for the reputation of the Indian Film Industry in Nigeria that films like this find their way into the country – however briefly. Our estimate of Indian directors would other­wise be confined wholly to apprentices of Hollywood mass production factories.

The article from which that quotation was taken also includes a dismissal of a Japanese contrition to the Film Festival that is classic Soyinka. He waved Tatsu away with a sneer saying: ‘For cheap sentiments and unrelieved tedium of action, it is doubtful if even Hollywood has ever produced anything to beat this.’ This volume provides a little help with a neglected but pertinent area for research: the history of Soyinka plays in production in Asia. The Lion and the Jewel with its concern for ‘virgin plots of land’ and its recognition of the vigour of tradition was of obvious relevance to China, as was the scene, perhaps too close for comfort, showing the construction of a railway line! Jamil Ahmed’s article includes an account of the productions of Soyinka work in Bangladesh, and records that The Strong Breed was followed on to the stage by an adaptation of The Trials of Brother Jero by Tahmina Ahmed – Sahaj Saral Path – in which Victoria Beach was replaced by an appropriate location in Bangladesh, and Islamic points of reference replaced Jero’s Christian vocabulary. Sahaj Saral Path went down well in Chittagong where it was put on eighty-eight times! That run testifies to a vigorous theatre culture and large play-going community, and to the fact that Jero travels well. A follow-up to this volume, chasing some of the hares started in the pages that follow, might consider trying to track the trickster prophet around the Rim of the Indian Ocean. Such a sequel might also try to build on the evidence of Humphries’ article and begin to come to terms with points Ahmed makes. He writes: ‘This paper draws to a conclusion with two questions that have begged to be

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Introduction  xxxi

asked throughout: how many Bangladeshi plays have been performed in Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso, or any other country in Africa? How has Bangladesh, South Asia, or even Asia been represented in these productions?’ Those questions draw attention to worthwhile, alternative approaches that might have been followed in a volume that stretches its arms wide, embraces continents and offers a variety of ways in to a complex topic. James Gibbs, Bristol 2016 As always in such circumstances, the editors are deeply indebted to contributors and would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the far-flung group of scholars who responded to the Call for Papers for this volume. We would also like to thank all those whose invaluable help has seen this through the press. James Gibbs & Femi Osofisan

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1

Africa’s Discovery of China’s Theatre

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China in Ghana An Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah about the National Theatre built in Accra by the Chinese government Interview conducted by AWO MANA ASIEDU Introduced & annotated by JAMES GIBBS

What follows is a lightly edited transcription of a telephone interview conducted in March 2016 by Dr Awo Mana Asiedu (AMA) of the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana, with Dr Mohammed Ben Abdallah (MBA), play­wright, director and university teacher who was deeply involved with the construction of the National Theatre in Accra. This involvement came about because MBA was Chair­man of the National Commission on Culture – the body that was the client for the theatre built by the Chinese Government. This is the second interview that AMA has conducted with MBA for African Theatre. The first appeared in the volume African Theatre: Playwrights and Politics (Banham et al. 2001) among a cluster of articles on MBA that provide a context for the focused enquiry that follows. Readers are encouraged to consult the earlier volume and to read about MBA’s work in the pages of Jesse Weaver Shipley’s Trickster Theatre and in Paul Schauert’s Staging Ghana (2015 – see Book Review section). Briefly, MBA is a passionate man of the theatre who was involved in drama productions as a school boy, established the Legon Road Theatre while a student, earned a PhD in Playwriting from the University of Texas, and taught various drama courses in Ghana’s universities. In the heady days following J. J. Rawlings’ intervention in politics on 31 December 1981 and the installation of the Provisional National 3

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4  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

Defence Council (PNDC), he directed his politically alert and timely Trial of Mallam Ilyia. That was, he told AMA in 1999, ‘one of the most successful and exciting productions’. It stimu­lated debate and his ‘house became a hub of discussions’. Shortly afterwards, he was invited ‘to assist in government’ and was eventually ‘drawn into politics’. More specifically, he ‘was asked to be deputy PNDC Secretary for Culture and Tourism’ and two months later he learned – by radio – that he had been appointed ‘substantive minister’. He was subsequently trans­ ferred to the much hotter seat of Education, later Culture and Education and, from there – following a heart attack – he went to the Ministry of Information. (‘They thought I needed to take a break and cool down’). Culture had always been his prime interest and in 1989 he became the first Chairman of the National Commission on Culture, a post he held until 1993. In that position, MBA had an opportunity to make an impact. In his words, ‘we did a lot, especially passing laws, and drawing up policy documents.’ And, he added: ‘This was very important for me because I realize this was a way of making it difficult for anyone to dismantle things. From 1989 to ’93, we set up all the centres of the Commission. There was a law establishing the National Theatre.’ In the inter­view given in December 1999, he ended at that point – with the law establishing the National Theatre. That Act can be seen as the starting point for the March 2016 interview with AMA that follows. However, some background about China’s encounters with Ghana and about theatrical inter­ action between the two countries is helpful.

China’s encounters with Ghana The National Theatre was famously and notoriously funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and it is necessary at this juncture to suggest something of the background to Ghana’s contact with the Chinese. This

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  5

is a vast topic and the following notes, made on the basis of sources listed in the References and from online postings, will have to suffice: • 1897, British colonialists introduce (25) Chinese labourers into the gold mines of the Gold Coast (a short-lived scheme). • 1940s, immigrants from Hong Kong arrive in the Gold Coast and establish a Chinese–Ghanaian community. This is subsequently augmented by immigrants from mainland China. • April 1955, the Gold Coast and China attend the AsianAfrican or Afro-Asian Conference in Indonesia, also known as the ‘Bandung Conference’, that was important for fostering political and cultural collaboration between ‘Non-Aligned’ nations negotiating their way during the Cold War years. • 1956, publication of Mao Tse Tung’s On the Ten Major Relation­ships, an influential foreign policy document. • 1957, Ghana’s independence. Kwame Nkrumah supports ‘One China’ policy and pursues a ‘Non-Aligned Policy’. • 1960, Ghana recognises the People’s Republic of China (PRC). • 1960s, Chinese instructors in Ghana train insurgents for action in outposts of Portugal’s African empire, and Togo. • 1964, January, Chou En-Lai visits Ghana. • 1965, Congress of the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) meets in Winneba, Ghana. • 1966, following the overthrow of Nkrumah, China with­ draws personnel from Ghana. Allegations circulate that Ghanaian dissidents are receiving military training in China. Short interruption in fraternal relations. • 1971, Ghana supports PRC in UN vote on resolution about the representation of China. • 1990, Chinese State Farms Agribusiness Corporation invests in Ghana. • 2007, discovery of the extent of Ghana’s oil-reserves quickens China’s interest in the country.

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6  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

• 2007 onwards, China’s exports to Ghana continue to increase; the numbers of Chinese in Ghana and of Ghana­ ians in China also increase. Areas of tension are reflected in articles by academics and journalists. The Ghanaian press reflects concern about the large-scale importation of Chinese goods and, for example, the way Chinesemade textiles undercut locally produced items. Chinese activities in markets, shopping malls and mining areas prompt increasing anxiety.

Ghanaian theatre and China During his student days, MBA had some contact, albeit distant and mediated, with Chinese theatre. Two texts allow me to sketch in encounters that are important because they are replicated in the links made between other theatre people in Africa and Chinese theatre. The texts are S. I. Hsiung’s Lady Precious Stream and Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan.1 Hsiung was an academic with an interest in drama who moved on from translating Shaw into Chinese to preparing Chinese plays for Western stages. His first and most successful venture, Lady Precious Stream, was published in 1934, and a production of the play was well received in London that year. The play’s strap-line was ‘An old Chinese play done into English according to its traditional style’. Inevitably ‘doing a play into English’, or translating it, involved transformation and, equally inevitably, the words ‘according to’ invited questions. A variety of factors meant that the ‘traditional style’ was significantly altered by the time it reached the London stage, and British audiences brought their own preconceived ideas to interpreting, or ‘receiving’, it. Although Hsiung and those he worked with were involved in compromises of various sorts, the play remained a powerful piece of alternative theatre. It managed to embody a bold, highly stylised, confident, anti-naturalistic convention.

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  7

As far as my present purposes are concerned, Lady Precious Stream is important for the impact it made on Theodora O. Morgue, a young woman from Cape Coast who attended Homerton College, Cambridge, during the 1940s and went from there to London. Back in what was then the Gold Coast and using her Ghanaian day-name (Efua) and her married surname (Sutherland), she emerged as a notable writer, academic, and cultural activist. I do not know under what circumstances Efua Sutherland encountered Lady Precious Stream, but I can say it made an impact. She directed it twice: once in Ashanti-Mampong and once, during the early 1960s, at what became the University of Ghana at Legon. To cut a long discussion short, I think that the play affected the dramaturgy that evolved as Sutherland sought, with others, to create a local theatre form out of the non-Naturalistic convention observed in local performances. I think the only explanation for ‘the Property Man’ in her The Marriage of Anansewa is provided by the existence of a character, or theatre personage, with the same name and largely similar functions in Lady Precious Stream. Sutherland was inspired by the example of the Chinese theatre as mediated by Hsiung; she learned from it or found helpful cultural coincidences in it. The Marriage of Anansewa was partly created through improvisation and ‘in rehearsal’, and MBA worked on it and with it before anything like ‘a final text’ emerged. In 1984, he told Jane Wilkinson: ‘I was one of the original performers in [The Marriage of Anansewa]’. Whether he knew it or not, he was involved in a collaboration that was affected by Sutherland’s experience of Hsiung. MBA also had at least one other contact – similarly circuitous – with Chinese theatre: this was through Bertolt Brecht. Considerable attention has been given to Brecht’s encounters with Chinese theatre, some of which were through Mei Lan-Feng and concerned approaches to acting. Others, related to staging, the enjoyment of the mechanics of theatre and the assault on Naturalism, can be glimpsed in

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8  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

works such as The Good Woman of Setzuan. As a student of drama at Legon, MBA encountered Brecht’s work, and, in 1969, he and I explored some of it together when I directed him in productions of The Trial of Lucullus and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Some twenty years later, when asked to provide thought-provoking entertainment for delegates to an Accra conference of Non-Aligned Countries (August 1991), MBA returned to Brecht. For that occasion, The Good Woman of Setzuan provided initial ideas and the result was his radical adaptation of that text into The Land of a Million Magicians. The connection between Million Magicians and Good Woman is remote yet palpable, and may be said to be of the same order as the link between Brecht’s play and Chinese theatre.2 The work of Hsiung and Brecht provides some awareness of how Chinese theatre had been presented to and appropriated by Europe during the twentieth century and how it had then been communicated to ‘children of the British Empire’. It was part of the background to MBA’s entry into politics, and, more specifically, part of the awareness he carried with him as he became engaged with international relations and involved in a project in which ideas about theatre took concrete form, quite literally concrete form.

The interview The trans-Atlantic interview transcribed below focuses on MBA’s encounter with China and with the building of the National Theatre. It was conducted when MBA was in the United States recovering from a serious illness, and it is presented here with notes and interventions that draw attention to areas that readers may want to explore in greater detail. His answers constitute a major contribution to telling a complicated and continuing ‘story’, one that involves a huge amount of history and geography, and very substantial amounts of money. He tells from his point of view a story that can, like all stories, be told from many different angles. At

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  9

the outset, he is keen to establish that the idea of a National Theatre in Ghana had a history. As he points out, debates about this pre-dated him – and he returns to the issue later when alluding to the interaction of ideology with the very idea of a National Theatre. What MBA says about the actual construction should be read with an awareness that the National Theatre building has become a major land-mark in Accra. It is a striking, much photographed, piece of architecture and has become the symbol of one aspect of Ghana’s links with China. MBA has an important, individual perspective: in some respects the building was ‘deposited’ in Accra by a Great Power and was the product of decisions made in a distant city. However, the National Theatre Project as a whole also reflects the impact of MBA, of the playwright turned politician. MBA’s intervention found expression in the creation of the Folksplace and in the reconstruction of the Drama Studio. (That original Drama Studio was razed to create a site for the National Theatre near the Ambassador Hotel; a replica, the Efua Sutherland Drama Studio, was built on the Legon campus.) Doing business with the Chinese is often ‘a steep learning curve’ and it is rare that outsiders get any kind of a sense about how deals are done and plans are shaped. In this focused interview, best read as I have suggested as a sequel to the one AMA recorded in December 1999, we are privileged to have a seat in the stalls for at least some of the time as the drama unfolds. By following up links in the Notes and the References, the reader can gather more information, peep into the wings, glance into the prompter’s corner and glimpse what is going on in the rehearsal-rooms. It should be said that the National Theatre has had a life since MBA’s direct involvement with it ended. For example, in 2004, it was found to require extensive refurbishment and this was undertaken by the PRC at considerable cost during 2005–06. ‘Lessons’ to be drawn from that, together with a brief description of the visit of Chinese performers to Ghana,

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10  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

conclude this contribution, one that draws attention to some of the factors affecting China’s involvement with theatre in Africa, and that records the impact a well-placed, determined individual can make on a major international project.[ JG] AMA: Hello Sir, I just wanted to make sure it is alright to record this conversation. MBA: That’s okay. AMA: First of all, I am interested in hearing about the negotiations with the Chinese about the National Theatre. I remember you telling me that the Chinese gave Ghana options. Is that correct? MBA: First of all let me say, I am not too good with the dates, and that, in the US, I cannot refer to my notes and records because they are all at home in Ghana. However, relevant dates should not be difficult to find. If you check with people at the National Theatre you should be able to get the information you require. I am going to tell you about events, about things that happened, and I hope you will be able to work out the dates. MBA: First of all it is important to be aware that the idea of building a National Theatre in Ghana started a long time ago, during the days of the Arts Council of Ghana.3 I remember a time when a special Fund was to be established in order to collect resources to build a National Theatre. Those plans went as far back as the Nkrumah days. However, some of these schemes got lost in all kinds of politics; they were never followed through. When I was at the National Commission on Culture, I found a big file. No, actually it was before that … even before I went to the National Commission on Culture, I discovered this big file with all kinds of plans for a National Theatre.4 There was, for example, a time when the Okuapehene, Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III, was the chairman of the project.5 Well, when we (in the PNDC) picked up the issue, we discussed all that had gone before; we reviewed the process and found

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  11

that it wasn’t going anywhere. You know the difficulty with getting funding … with raising funds in Ghana. As a result, and to cut a long story short, there was a discussion about the Head of State at that time, the Chairman of the PNDC, visiting China. In those days our relationship with China was warming up so the visit was part of a very interesting development.6 Well, at one point the Chinese Ambassador in Ghana came to my office so we could have a chat and he told me that the Chinese Government was interested in helping some countries by building facilities. For example, the Chinese had built a mosque in Dakar because that was what the Head of State there wanted. In Burkina Faso, they had built a stadium and they were building different things in different places.7 The Ambassador advised me to get involved in the process and to approach the Chairman of the PNDC. He informed me that whatever the Chairman requested when he went to China would be granted. I made enquiries and I found out that Chairman Rawlings was indeed travelling to China and that among those who were accompanying him were Dr Kwasi Botchway and Kwamena Ahwoi.8 Well, I sought out Kwamena Ahwoi and he told me that I would have to work fast because Justice Annan had approached the Chairman of the PNDC about an Olympic-sized stadium.9 You should know that at that time an area in Lapaz (in Accra) had been earmarked for developments like that. Well, I got involved, and it became a competition. One day the Chairman of the PNDC called me and said: ‘Can you forward to me all the information about the National Theatre plans’. I was very happy because it showed that he was probably leaning towards that option. Incidentally, I had pointed out that we already had a few stadia in Ghana and the Accra Sports Stadium was quite big and could be refurbished.10 Lo and behold, when [Chairman Rawlings] went to China he asked for a National Theatre and they offered to build it for us. Those were the circumstances

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12  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

that led to building the National Theatre. To implement the decision, it was agreed that there would be two teams of experts, the Ghanaian team and the Chinese team. AMA: Oh, is that right? MBA: That became like a standing committee that met to discuss the details of how the decision would be imple­ mented. Our team included Sandy Arkhurst, architects, someone from the Ministry for Works and Housing and the Director of Estates Development from the University of Ghana.11 The Chinese appointed their team and they met alternately in Ghana and in China; one meeting would be in China and the next would be in Accra. There were discussions, for example, about the location of the building and that went on for quite some time. There were also discussions about, for example, the loan and the construction itself. AMA: So they gave us a loan? ABD: It was a loan that turned out to be a grant. Initially, it was a loan but you know the Chinese were really more interested in making a grant. You know, as a Government you have to make sure you have the support of the people. And you are aware that Ghanaians are very sceptical; we are willing to criticise everything. The notion that the Chinese were going to build a National Theatre for us was a mini-circus. People asked: ‘Who are the Chinese to come and build a Chinese structure’ you know.12 AMA: So people saw it more as a Chinese structure? Is the architecture Chinese? MBA: They criticised it even before they saw it. That’s what I’m saying. You know Ghanaians, we love the trappings, the benefits of socialism, but we are too Britishorientated or Western-orientated and so are suspicious of socialism – of, for example, a regimented society and a planned economy. There was a lot of talk even before anyone had seen any structure. Everything was being negotiated; nothing had been decided on. Even so, people had made up their minds and were highly critical.

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  13

Eventually, however, everything was ironed out in one way or the other. You appreciate that I am skipping a lot of things.13 AMA: I see. Now let me ask about the Folks’ Place.14 Was that part of the original design? MBA: If you have been inside the theatre through what is called the ‘VIP Entrance’, you will know that there is a kind of garden in there. The Chinese designed it as a Chinese garden. The Folk’s Place – or the Folk’s Place Theatre, is near another entrance where they had planned that we should have a tropical, a Ghanaian, garden. As we were discussing things one day, looking at the drawings with the construction directors, I recommended that instead of making that entrance a garden we could make it into an experimental theatre space, an amphitheatre. That was how the Folk’s Place was created. But that came long after the design phase. That happened when construction was in progress. You see, my office at the Commission on Culture, overlooked the construction site. The Chinese gave me a hard-hat so that when I had a break I could walk over to see the work in progress and talk to the people in charge. I used to boast that I knew more about the theatre than anyone; for example, I knew what was inside and what was underneath. AMA: Were the actual labourers who built the theatre Chinese? I mean the construction workers. MBA: It was a combination. That was the agreement. They said that they would bring construction workers from China and Ghana would also provide a certain complement to be hired. The management and administration of that whole process had to be a joint team. AMA: What about the architectural design? Was that also worked on together – in partnership? MBA: Yes. They would bring a suggestion, we would discuss it and it would go all the way up to the top. Then people would discuss it some more and a final decision would be taken.15

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14  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

The architects/planners credited with the prize-winning design were Cheng Taining and Xianghan Ye. In con­ nection with the commission, architectural historian Charlie Q. L. Xue wrote: ‘Cheng and his colleagues were given an opportunity to design projects in Africa and to experience and interpret an exotic culture characterised by exuberant forms of social and artistic expression, tribal rituals and fierce primitive energies – a world that was utterly different from the formalities of Chinese society’.16 [Emphasis added – JG]. MBA: Take, for example, the site, we never chose that site; it was never under consideration. My personal preference was for a site near Kwame Nkrumah Circle, in Kwame Nkrumah Gardens, opposite which there was another space. The idea was to build the theatre in one space, construct an overhead bridge and have an underground car park on the other side. That was another idea, but then they said we should provide more than one possible site. So the other suggestion that came from the Chinese was to build the theatre close to the stadium. That would have involved knocking down some buildings that had a lot of space around them. AMA: How was the final decision made about where to build the theatre? Why did they decide on the location? MBA: There were all kinds of rumours at the time. We were called to a meeting and I went with Esi Sutherland to defend our suggestions. According to rumours, which were never confirmed or denied, Chairman Rawlings and his wife, who lived not far from the Ambassador Hotel area, were driving past and saw that the Drama Studio was overgrown with weeds and that there were things piled up there. It seemed that nothing was going on, and as a result they felt that it should be the site. Esi and I made our presentations at the meeting and were then asked to leave. When we were out of the room, somebody convinced the meeting to demolish

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  15

the Drama Studio and build the National Theatre in its place. Esi and I were later informed by the PNDC about this decision. It was a very traumatic experience – especially for Esi, because her mother had been so involved in the birth and life of the Drama Studio.17 At that point I once again got together with the Chinese Ambassador. I called him and I said: ‘Look, I have been to China many times and I have seen many old monuments and, if you have to put something brand new in their place, you make sure you keep them, even if it means you have to reconstruct them.’ They don’t demolish the old structure; they remove it, brick by brick, stone by stone, and put that same structure somewhere else. The upshot was that he agreed with me and undertook to move the old Drama Studio to wherever we wanted it to go. The Drama Studio was moved and the National Theatre built in its original place.18 AMA: So that is how you got it onto the University Campus at Legon. MBA: Regarding the campus – again I conspired. This time with Akilagpa Sawyerr, who was then the ViceChancellor. People said that the space chosen belonged to the Institute of African Studies, so again, we had to negotiate and eventually they agreed to build the Studio on the site selected.19 AMA: Okay let me move on to discussing the possible motivations of the Chinese in giving this gift to Ghana. Why do you think that the Chinese wanted a connection with Ghana? You mentioned they were already doing a lot of things in African countries – was that their way of getting into Ghana? ABD: They did a lot of things all over Africa, for example the Tanzanian railway line. That was a big project. Almost an imitation of, or an attempt to imitate, the expressway in Europe which traverses many countries. They were trying to link Tanzania all the way down to South Africa.20 AMA: Do you think they were just being generous to Africans – or did they have a hidden agenda?

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16  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

ABD: They were being very generous, but that part about a hidden agenda may also be true. You know now they have been very successful at that. They were competing with other world powers, and they themselves were caught between the West and Russia, because they didn’t want to go along with the Soviet Union. They were doing Communism with the human/Chinese face, and now, as you know, they have proved successful. You can see where they are now in their relationship with Westerners. AMA: Do you think that somehow this would have contri­ buted to our lenient attitude towards the Chinese, in terms of, you know the ‘galamsey’ issues? Have the Chinese given us so much so we cannot complain or turn against them? 21 MBA: The ‘galamsey’ issue – I don’t think that is the main point. You know I have serious questions. Before I got sick and came here, I was raising those questions very angrily and sometimes even ringing up TV stations. You just ask yourself, when people are getting angry, who makes over the lands for mining in the traditional areas? Don’t the traditional councils have to approve them? People should be confronting the chiefs and saying how can you give our land to the Chinese? The situation has arisen because Ghanaians have been fronting for the Chinese. It’s not for the Government to ask the Chinese, ‘What are you doing here? Get out of here’. Take Nigerians – in a lot of places their banks are competing with our Commercial Banks. Nigerians have opened all kinds of banks using Ghanaians. These are some of the problems. You can call it leniency, yes, depending on what you think. But when the Government is in charge, it has to try and be fair with the Chinese. AMA: Going back to the National Theatre, you have said that the Chinese gave us the choice about what we wanted them to do for us. Do you think that if we had asked them to build a factory or say 100 open-air theatres instead of one big one, would they have done that?

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MBA: They probably would have, but because we wanted this prestigious thing, we chose one big structure.22 AMA: So we wanted that, it wasn’t forced on us? MBA: You know I had to intervene. Some of our Ghanaian leaders were asking, even the old documents I mentioned, were asking for a 3,000-seater theatre. You can imagine what they had in mind was going to be used for musical things and so on. AMA: You are saying that originally the plan was for 3,000 seats? MBA: Ghanaians wanted a 3,000-seater theatre. AMA: When you say ‘Ghanaians’ what do you mean? Do you mean the documents that you saw? MBA: The documents, yes. When the Chinese looked at them, they said: ‘Well, do you still want something like this? Because the structure doesn’t have to be much bigger in terms of the space occupied. The interior could be arranged so that there could be more seats. You could go up and you could have more rows of seats. You have seen them in international theatres in the West.’ The thing is that the notion of a national theatre is essentially a socialist idea. The idea that a theatre should be national, looks as if it has been ‘nationalised’. The United States does not have a national theatre – even though they have theatres that can come together and that can function as centres for the performing arts. Such theatres would not be allowed to go bankrupt because they have something they call the National Endowment for the Arts. AMA: Are you saying that they have national theatres but don’t call them that? ABD: They don’t call them national theatres because that is a socialist idea. AMA: Would that have been a better model for us? ABD: When you look at the law under which the National Theatre was established, you can see that we borrowed some ideas from the Americans and from the West. We said the National Theatre in Accra would be in charge

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18  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

and it has the responsibility to build regional branches and eventually district branches.23 So whatever they do in the capital can be replicated, or adapted; the idea is to encourage the production of national arts. AMA: Couldn’t we get the Chinese to support the rest of the centres? ABD: Well, some of the things that were set in hand were not followed through. For instance, you can see how when people leave office the projects they have worked on grind to a halt. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. You have one person who is very passionate about something and others do not really understand it; projects become personalised. There were issues even with this project which became a tug-of-war between the University of Ghana and the National Commission on Culture. Some people thought, for example, that the idea that the National Dance Ensemble and the National Theatre players should move to the National Theatre was a personal issue.24 AMA: I remember that whole saga. Do you think the construction of the National Theatre helped to build the theatre industry in Ghana or has it affected the theatre industry adversely?25 MBA: I think … well I think in a way it helped. I am not sure, because the building in itself does not do the job. It is people who do the job and when you have a theatre, even if it is not exactly what you want, it should rather motivate serious people to get up and say: ‘Let’s do what we can with it.’ In Ghana, we suffer from what I call the Theory of the Mediocre. This is part of what I see as the problem. I don’t think it has much to do with the building itself. Even this interview that you are doing with me, for me I consider it sad. It is sad because in all this time the National Theatre has not recorded or written its own history. You see what I mean? Your first point of call in doing research on the National Theatre should be the Theatre itself. They should have their history on paper, on video, and so on. They don’t have that. The Commission on Culture is like a ministry …

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  19

all ministries had to store their files for a certain length of time and then transfer them to the National Archives.26 I think that by now the National Theatre should have been able to publish some ‘coffee table’, hard-cover, illustrated, books that give an account of their productions from the very beginning till present. The history of the National Theatre should be available in various forms, in, for example, books and in pamphlets. They should have videos and DVDs that are for sale. The idea was that performances should be recorded and made available on video and DVD. AMA: All of that is there? MBA: While the audiences are moving through the foyer, they should be able to buy copies. AMA: Are the facilities there for that to happen? MBA: The facilities are supposed to be there, but they were never finished. It was all part of the original plan. That is why I am lamenting. You see when one person leaves a job to be completed by another the whole plan is rowed back. But these are not new things. What happens in America and Europe? When you go and see a performance or even go for a conference or seminar, by the time the conference is over people are outside selling DVDs of what has happened. Our National Theatre has three lobbies – on the ground floor, the middle and the top floor – where you could do coffee shops and even a restaurant. AMA: I guess it just takes people who are thinking and … MBA: I know there are a lot of Ghanaians … people who have bigger brains and better ideas than me … it is commit­ ment … and in Ghana, we are too willing to play politics with everything … and the people who take the decisions seem to do so with some hidden agendas. AMA: Thank you very much. I am sorry you have been ill and am glad you are doing better. ­

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20  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

Some Useful Dates for the National Theatre [ JG] 18 September 1985 J. J. Rawlings, who had taken power on 31 December 1981, and was ruling through the PNDC, visited the People’s Republic of China (China, PRC) where he had an audience with Deng Xiaoping at which it was agreed or confirmed that China should build a National Theatre in Ghana. Planning and preparation undertaken regarding the National Theatre; decisions were made as to design and location of a complex of three structures comprising a theatre, an exhibition hall, and a rehearsal hall. An ‘amphi­ theatre’ was later included. The architects/planners were Chinese: Taining Cheng and Xianghan Ye; MBA had some input. 19 June 1990 Laying of the foundation stone of the National Theatre. [Note: 23 March 2016, the Estate Manager at the National Theatre reported he could not find the stone, and this event has proved hard to confirm – JG.] January 1993 The National Theatre opened, with a production of The Leopard’s Choice by Yaw Asare. (PNDC was replaced by a civilian government on 7 January!) November 2004. National Theatre closed for refurbish­ ment. 2005/06. Refurbishment undertaken by China. 30 March 2007. Ceremony held to mark completion of the refurbishment of the National Theatre. 4-8 May 2009. The Arts Performance Troupe from Gan­su Province of China visited Ghana, under the frame­work of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and performed at the National Theatre.

Afterword on the National Theatre building In 2000, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by John Kufuor was voted into power and was returned again in 2004. By that

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time, the National Theatre was in need of repair and rehab­ ilita­tion. The valuable AidData website carried the following information about what was needed – the list prompts ques­ tions about why such extensive work was required only about twelve years after the theatre had been completed. The theater closed on November 30th, 2004 for the rehabilitation to begin. Construction began on March 22nd, 2005 at the groundbreaking ceremony. The project was expected to take 11 months, but was ultimately completed in March of 2007. The theater has a capacity of 1,500, it has been given a new floor and a supply of new fireproof stage cur­tains, the auditorium seats have been changed, a new fire-fighting system has been installed, and a ramp was constructed as part of the rehabi­lita­tion of the theater. The project was undertaken by the Chinese Export and Import Plant Group (COMPLANT) with the support of local technicians.27

In 2007, the China Embassy site covered the formal handover: The recommissioning ceremony of the refurbished National Theatre of Ghana took place in Accra on March 30th, 2007. H.E. Mr. Zhang Keyuan, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Ghana, Hon. Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Diasporian Relations and Ms. Joyce R. Aryee, Chairman of the National Theatre Board, attended the ceremony. In his address … H.E. Mr. Zhang … expressed the willingness of promoting China-Ghana cooperation after the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which was held last November [2006]: The Chinese government and people will continue to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in all fields and promote Chinese investment in Ghana.28

Writing on China’s relations with Ghana, Isaac IdunArkhurst argues that the Chinese material support to Ghana was a quid pro quo for diplomatic backing given by Ghana over the decades. He suggests that the PRC was particularly well-disposed towards President Kufuor – because he had cast Ghana’s vote for the recognition of (mainland) China in 1971, and added that the grant of $2.4 million to renovate the National Theatre was an example of Kufuor reaping where Rawlings had sown because it was ‘to reward Ghana for the unflinching diplomatic support offered by the Rawlings-led government to Beijing during the controversial repression

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22  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs

of the Tiananmen Square prodemocracy protestors in 1989’ (Idun-Arkhurst 2008: 5). Seeking to place China’s financial involvement in Ghana in a wider context, Idun-Arkhurst observed: Compared to investments from traditional sources like the US and UK, Chinese investments in Ghana are quite small in value and tend to concentrate in the non-extractive sectors. Spread across a wide variety of sectors, they are helping to inject noticeable dynamism into the local economy, including assisting in the diversification of the economy. (25)

The construction has gone along with performances and cultural exchanges. In tracing this, it is valuable to turn to Felix Akom Nyarku’s paper, ‘Ghana – China Bi-lateral Relations’: A Cultural Agreement with China was signed in December 1981, under which Chinese Cultural Troupes visited Ghana in 1981, 1985 and 1990, for song and dance events as well as acrobatic displays. Ghana, in turn, successfully mounted a two-week cultural arts and crafts exhibition in 1985 at the Beijing Gallery … Under the framework of Forum on China Africa Cooperation, the Arts Performance Troupe from Gansu Province of China visited Ghana from 4th-8th May 2009. During the visit, the Troupe staged three performances at the National Theatre in Accra and put up displays including acrobatics, music, magic and martial arts. (Nyarku 2012)

Cultural visits and exchanges con­tinued in 2013 – as was reported on the PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: Cultural and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation flourished. A Confucius Institute was opened at the University of Ghana. The City of Nanjing and Ghana carried out a series of cultural cooperation activities within the framework of ministerial-provincial cooperation on Africarelated cultural work of China’s Ministry of Culture. Nanjing Cultural and Art Troupe performed in Ghana and held the first ‘Happy Spring Festival and the Night of China’ in Ghana.29

For pictures showing the soft power China seeks to exercise and message – about ‘Friends Partners Brothers’, see ‘Chinese Embassy in Ghana Held National Day Reception and Chinese Acrobatic Show’.30 For this event held on 15 September 2015, the National Theatre was decked out for the occasion that marked ‘the sixty-sixth anniversary of the

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  23

founding of the People’s Republic of China and the fiftyfifth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Ghana.’ The embassy reported the response to the marvellously accomplished performers of the Fujian Acrobatic Troupe from Fuzhou. Ghanaian elements integrated into the show included a sequence by the ‘Ghana National Dance Company, and Ghanaian songs sung by a Chinese singer living in Ghana.’ The very appreciative audience was estimated at 1,200.31 NOTES 1 All websites accessed between 19 and 31 March 2016 unless otherwise specified. I retain the name as used on the published playscript, and note that online sources offer alternatives: Hsiung Shih-I (熊式一, also Xiong Shiyi). 2 For Abdallah and The Land of a Million Magicians, see Gibbs in Banham et al. 2001. For productions of Brecht with Abdallah as actor see ‘The Legon7: the Story of a Campus Drama Group’ in Gibbs 2009. The latter volume also contains ‘What is Married in The Marriage of Anansewa and Who Performed the Wedding Ceremony?’ – about influences on Sutherland’s writing. 3 The Arts Council was established in 1955. See Hammond 1965: 8-9, and note the role played in the Arts Council by Nana Kwabena Nketsia IV. A contribution to the discussion about the National Theatre in Ghana can be found in the leading article by Thomas Lawrenson (1954: 3-4). He undertook extensive research into French theatre, and wrote in the same publication on the creation of a National Theatre (6-10), drawing attention, for example, to the wealth of local performance traditions and to the example of Japanese Noh Theatre. At the opening of the Institute of African Studies on 25 October 1963, Kwame Nkrumah delivered a speech in which he referred to the National Theatre Movement. See The Spark, 8 November 1963. 4 MBA held a succession of portfolios in the PNDC regime: Deputy Secretary (the word ‘Minister’ was avoided in some circumstances) for Culture and Tourism, Secretary for Education, Secretary for Information, and Chair of the National Commission on Culture (established in 1990). See Asiedu 2011 and Yankah 1993. Readers will note here and elsewhere MBA’s tendency to refer to Rawlings as ‘Chairman’ rather than by name. 5 Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III assumed the title of paramount chief in 1977 at the age of 44. He died in 2016. Readers interested in further information on those mentioned are encouraged to use online resources. 6 Regarding ‘warming up’, see the history of diplomatic relations between the PRC and Ghana. In this context, it included continuing support for ‘Peking against Taipei’. In 1971, Ghana’s representative at the UN was President-to-be, John Kufuor. He cast the country’s vote on Resolution 1498 in favour of recognising the PRC and may have enjoyed Chinese support during his presidency because of this. The Chinese Embassy in Accra posts regularly about high level visits

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24  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs between governments and about the many projects China has supported in Ghana; it is a valuable source of information about developments. See http:// gh.china-embassy.org/eng. For a non-governmental source of information on China’s intervention in Africa, see http://china.aiddata.org/projects/1739. 7 I could not find confirmation that China had constructed a mosque. 8 Botchway was Ghana’s Secretary of Finance from 1982 to 1995; Ahwoi served as Secretary for Local Government and Rural Development from 1990 to 2001 and was effectively minister or acting minister for Foreign Affairs during the 1990s. In the interview, MBA does not name any of the Chinese involved in the negotiations but it is important to note that Rawlings met Deng Xiaoping who was a very powerful figure in the PRC (in succession to Mao Tse-Tung and Zhou Enlai) from the late 1970s to 1997. 9 Justice Daniel Francis Annan was, in effect, a deputy to Rawlings during the PNDC period. A lover of sports, particularly boxing, he was Chairman of the National Olympic Committee from 1983 to 1985. 10 Later, in 2006, in preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations (soccer competition) that was hosted by Ghana, China built new stadia in Tamale and Takoradi, and refurbished the stadium in Accra. See http://china.aiddata.org/projects/1739. 11 Sandy Arkhurst was a seasoned man of the theatre with extensive experience of the realities of drama in Ghana. However, it is not clear what input he, or other Ghanaian theatre people, had in preparing the brief for the theatre. MBA is silent on this. The only architects whose names I have seen linked with the building are Chinese. 12 It is possible that at this point MBA was thinking of articles such as that by Ajoa Yeboah-Afari (1990: 2062-4). 13 Yeboah-Afari (1990) reported that there was a controversy over the seating capacity of the theatre (she understood it to be 2,500), about the (Chinese) architectural style, and about the language used on the construction site. In her article for West Africa, the cost of the building is given as USD $15 million, and that sum was understood at that time to be a loan (repayable between 1996 and 2006). The foundation stone of the building was laid by MBA on 19 June 1990, and the completion date was given as the end of 1991. An email from the Marketing Manager of the National Theatre in March 2016 informed me that the Estate Manager did not know where the foundation stone was. 14 The Folk’s Place, or Folksplace, is an open-air theatre that uses a wall of the Theatre as a back-drop. It is sometimes referred as an ‘open-air amphitheatre’. See comments on ‘partnership’ below. 15 http://archnet.org/sites/1413/media_contents/19150 indicates that the client was ‘Ghana National Commission of Culture’. 16 Xue 2006: 109. For architects’ drawings, see http://archnet.org/sites/1413/ media_contents/15315. 17 This account raises major questions about the decision-making process. Although MBA was involved in the negotiations about the theatre, and was the Chair of the client body, his role seems to have varied from the crucial to the peripheral. His phrasing here may be taken to suggest that Rawlings and his wife, Nana Agyeman Rawlings, acted as ‘drive-by planners’ as far as location was concerned. Esi Sutherland-Addy is an academic who has contributed to African Theatre. During the 1980s and 1990s, she served in the PNDC government: she was Deputy Minister for Culture and Tourism (1986), and Deputy Minister for Higher

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  25 Education (1986-93). http://ias.ug.edu.gh/index.php/staff?id=95. To appreciate MBA’s comments here, we need to be aware of the role played by SutherlandAddy’s mother, Efua Sutherland, in the theatre in Ghana. Efua Sutherland was, for example, the main mover behind the National Theatre Movement and the construction of the Drama Studio. She was in her mid-sixties when the plans for the National Theatre were being prepared and was profoundly distressed by the destruction of the Drama Studio. She never visited the replica built on the Legon campus and named after her. 18 Despite the language used here, the process was one of razing and of building a replica. 19 Sawyerr was a Professor of Law at Legon and then, from 1985 to 1992, ViceChancellor. Readers should be prepared to read closely and to wonder, for example, how much weight should be given to the choice of the word ‘conspire’ in this context. In reflecting on what moves might have been made in these negotiations, it should be remembered that, though the PNDC appealed to some idealists and some academics, it had taken power through a coup d’etat. 20 The Tazara or Uhuru Railway was constructed by China between 1970 and 1975 at a cost of US$500 million. It links Dar es Salaam with the Copper Belt and made it possible for Zambian copper to reach the coast without passing through white-dominated nations. (Compare with MBA’s brief account.) 21 ‘Galamsey’ refers to artisanal gold-mining activities in Ghana. In recent years there has been extensive Chinese involvement in this sector and the government is sometimes regarded as having turned a blind eye to these activities. Newspaper reports of tension sometimes mention the construction of the National Theatre in the context of discussions about the situation. See, for example, Masahudu Kunateh, ‘Ghana, China address rampant illegal mining’, http://cajnewsafrica. com/2015/12/03/exclusive-ghana-china-address-rampant-illegal-mining. 22 Lists of the range of projects supported by China can be found on the Embassy sites, such as http://gh.china-embassy.org/eng, and on http://china.aiddata.org. 23 The theatre is governed by the National Theatre Law 1991, PNDC Law 259. See http://laws.ghanalegal.com/acts/id/517/ghana-national-theatre-act. 24 For an account of the way in which the bifurcation of the dance and drama companies attached to the University of Ghana was effected, see, for example, Shipley 2015 and Schauert 2015. Feelings among those affected still run high, and, for many MBA – and to some extent Nii-Yartey, are defined for ever by their handling of this division. There is background to this in Nii-Yartey’s obituary and in the review of Schauert’s book. 25 This issue was raised by Kwesi Yankah in his somewhat sensationally titled: ‘Mohammed Ben Abdallah: Is he killing the arts?’ (1993). Among other topics, Professor Yankah, an eminent public intellectual enjoying a distinguished and productive career at Legon, drew attention to the cost of hiring the National Theatre. (He gives the cost at 1.5 million Cedis.) There is little information about the finances of the National Theatre in the public domain, but the level of fees charged inevitably affects the use to which the building is put. In her collection, An Angry Letter in January, Ama Ata Aidoo has a poem entitled ‘In Memoriam: The Drama Studio’ and addressed to ‘Robert’. In it she succinctly expresses her view, writing: ‘But the Drama Studio is gone, Robert/ razed to the ground/ to make way for someone’s notion of/ the kind of theatre, I/ should/want’ (1992: 18-19).

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26  Awo Mana Asiedu & James Gibbs 26 All the branches of The National Archives are under-resourced and there does not seem to be an archivist attached to the National Theatre. However, some documents of interest to theatre historians have been posted on the National Theatre website and there is a Facebook profile from which it is possible to get an idea of the current programme. www.facebook.com/alfred4danso/timeline. 27 http://china.aiddata.org/projects/1498. It may be that the full name is ‘China National Complete Plant Import Export Corporation’. 28 http://gh.china-embassy.org/eng/xwdt/t308537.htm. 29 www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/zzjg_663340/fzs_663828/ gjlb_663832/2999_664014. 30 http://gh.chineseembassy.org/eng/sgxw/t1298600.htm. 31 http://gh.chineseembassy.org/eng/sgxw/t1298600.htm. Examples of their hand-balancing and lasso and tumbling acts can be found at www.circopedia. org/Fang_Yuan_and_He_Ying_Video_1990 and www.circopedia.org/Fujian_ Troupe_Lasso_Video(2014).

REFERENCES (All websites accessed between 19 and 31 March 2016 unless otherwise specified.) Aidoo, Ama Ata (1992), An Angry Letter in January (Aarhus: Dangaroo). Aidoo, Richard (2011), China-Ghana Engagement: An alternative economic liberalization in Subsaharan Africa (Miami University, PhD Thesis), https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ rws_etd/document/get/miami1279069734/inline. Alden, C. (2007), China in Africa: African arguments (London: Zed Books). Asiedu, Awo Mana (2011), ‘Abibigoro, Mohamed Ben Abdallah’s Search for an African Aesthetic in the Theatre’, in Igweonu, K. (ed.), Trends in Twenty-first Century African Theatre and Performance (Amsterdam: Rodopi).

Banham, Martin, Gibbs, James and Osofisan, Femi (eds) (2001), African Theatre: Playwrights and politics (Oxford: James Currey).

Chau, Donovan (2014), Exploiting Africa: The influence of Maoist China in Algeria, Ghana, and Tanzania (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press). Gibbs, James (2009), Nkyin-Kyin: Essays on the Ghanaian theatre (Amsterdam: Rodopi). Hammond, Albert (1965), ‘A Spotlight on the Ministry of Art and Culture’, Ghana Cultural Review, vol. 1, no. 1. Idun-Arkhurst, Isaac (2008), ‘Ghana’s Relations with China’ (Johannesburg: South African Institute of International Affairs), www.saiia.org.za/doc_view/268china-africa-policy-report-no-3-2008. Klutse, Felix Dela (2009), ‘Africa-China Relationship: Gains so far’, Modern Ghana, 17 November, www.modernghana.com/news/249720/1/africa-chinarelationship-gains-so-far.html. Klutse, Felix Dela (2014), ‘Who’s Collapsing the Textile Industry?’ Business Day, 25 February; see www.myjoyonline.com/business/2014/february-25th/whoscollapsing-textile-industry.php. Lawrenson, Thomas Edward (1954), ‘The Idea of a National Theatre’, Universitas (Legon), vol. 1, no. 3. Nyarku, Felix Akom (2012), ‘Ghana – China Bi-lateral Relations: A treasured fifty years of diplomatic, cultural, economic and trade relations,’ GhanaWeb, www.ghanaweb.

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China in Ghana: Interview with Mohammed Ben Abdallah  27 com/GhanaHomePage/blogs/blog.article.php?blog=70375&ID=1000145821. Obi, Ajumeze Henry (aka Ajumeze, H. O.) (2011), ‘The Semiotics of Revolu­ tion: Investigating Ben Abdallah’s The Trial of Mallam Ilya’, https://legon performancereview.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/the-semiotics-of-revolutioninvestigating-ben-abdallahs-the-trial-of-mallam-ilya (accessed 23 March 2016). Schauert, Paul (2015), Staging Ghana: Artistry and nationalism in state dance ensembles (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). Shinn, David H. and Eisenman, Joshua (2012), China and Africa: A century of engagement (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press) [Chapter 10 has valuable footnotes]. Shipley, Jesse Weaver (2015), Trickster Theatre: The poetics of freedom in urban Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). Thompson, Reagan (2012), Assessing the Chinese Influence in Ghana, Angola, and Zim­ babwe: The impact of politics, partners, and petro (Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University), http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/785/ CISAC_Thesis_Thompson.pdf. Xue, Charlie Q. L. (2006), Building a Revolution: Chinese architecture since 1980 (Hong Kong University Press). Yankah, Kwesi (1993), ‘Mohammed Ben Abdallah: Is he killing the arts?’ Uhuru (Accra), no. 6: 21-5. Yeboah-Afari, Ajoa (1990), ‘The Pagoda Touch’, West Africa, no. 3802.

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The Orphan of Chao A Chinese play at a Nigerian university, 1979

TONY HUMPHRIES

A production of the Chinese play The Orphan of Chao was staged on 20-22 May 1979 by Drama students of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria in its Studio Theatre. The production used the text written by Chi Chun-hsiang in the thirteenth century, translated into English by Liu Jung-en and published in Six Yuan Plays, Penguin Classics 1972. The programme note, drawing on Liu’s Introduction, informed the audience that ‘Yuan Drama, considered by scholars as a Golden Age in Chinese Theatre, developed in Peking in the late 13th century, following the invasion of the Mongols. Many of the plays were written in the form of parables to protest at the erosion of Chinese values, particularly those of Confucius, under Mongol rule. The Orphan of Chao can be considered as an example of this type of play and the text has been taken as a basis of an experiment in stylised acting and Total Theatre.’ The Drama Section at Ahmadu Bello University had developed a theatre syllabus that sought to engage students critically, exploring the role of theatre in society, focused particularly within the Nigerian and wider African context. It had been established in 1975 by Michael Etherton, who had created the Chikwakwa theatre in Zambia between 1968 and 1972. He, together with Dr Brian Crow, formerly of Bristol University, had devised several productions transposing mainly Western texts and, working through improvisation 28

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with the students, creating plays that re-defined these texts within a contemporary Nigerian or African context. The Orphan of Chao was the first Asian text performed by the Section. It was directed by Tony Humphries, who also taught the Section’s Design course. (A 1973 graduate of Exeter University’s Drama Department, Humphries’ interest in non-Western forms of theatre began in 1972 when, as part of his course work, he performed in three Noh plays and studied other Asian theatre forms.) His production at ABU provided first-year students with their initial experience of taking a scripted play through to production, with rehearsals exploring how text, stylised movement, design and particularly music could combine to deliver a ‘total theatre’ experience in the spirit of the Yuan plays as performed, demonstrating that theatre was far more than just the text. This production was not an attempt at historical reconstruction but rather tried to capture the essence of the performance style. An introductory lecture related the Yuan plays to other types of non-Western forms of theatre, including the early seventeenth-century Yoruba Alarinjo court performances. Rehearsals over a three-week period sought to discover appropriate stylised movements as well as an individual musical theme or rhythm for each main character. Instruments used included a gong, cymbals, brass cups and a variety of drums and wood, with key dramatic moments being ‘framed’ in a tableau, capturing visually the core relationship and meaning revealed in the scene. Movements specific to Nigerian body conventions, and so immediately understood by the audience, were incorporated into the actors’ performance. Design was a major element of this production, with a specially created tee-shaped playing area, with white screens at the top of the tee that provided a deliberately neutral backdrop for most of the action. The leg of the tee ran through the audience area, providing an additional entry point to the main stage, most notably used for the highly stylised arrival of Tu’An Gu and his soldiers that was signalled by a cacophony of martial drumming. (On the opening night, this generated

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a round of applause, that was, as Tony Humphries recorded in his diary, ‘very unusual at the Studio Theatre’.) While many costumes were white and influenced by Chinese styles, key characters were differentiated by the tie-dyed colour of their robes’ inner, flowing sleeves, e.g. purple for Zhao Dun. In Act Four, as the seated Cheng Ying revealed to the orphan Cheng Bo his real identity and family history, he unfurled a scroll with bands of colour before him. As each character’s role was recounted, Cheng Ying indicated their colour on the scroll and they entered, accompanied by their individual musical theme, to hear their part in the tale. These ‘ghosts’ then remained on stage to observe the finale, as Cheng Bo removed his robe with his adopted father’s colours of red and black, revealing his biological father’s purple robe beneath – the same actor played both parts and took revenge on behalf of his family and those who had saved him from the brutalities of feudal tyranny exacted by Tu’An Gu. Michael Etherton’s diary records that for the 21 May performance, the ‘audience was, on the whole appreciative’. Tony Humphries’ own diary notes that a run through of The Orphan of Zhao on 17 May demonstrated ‘a sense of it being a good and worthwhile project for all involved’, and he felt ‘pleased by the ideas explored by the rehearsal process’. Performances ‘gained in pace and energy’ and ‘responses were genuinely enthusiastic’ to what was for many in the cast and audience their first experience of a very different form of theatre, one that had taken its inspiration from the Chinese Yuan plays.

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Introducing Blickakte: ‘Acts of Viewing’ ‘Do I See What I See, Do I Know What I Know, Do I Hear What I Hear…’ CHRISTINE MATZKE

Blickakte – ‘Acts of Viewing’ – is a postdramatic,1 ‘experi­ mental’ performance text, and its publication is an experiment for African Theatre in that does not fit into the series’ timehonoured pattern of publishing African plays. Blickakte is not an ‘African’ ‘play’ in the sense of being a dramatic text written by an African or African-diasporic playwright, preferably dealing with anything African, whatever that may be (cf. Ngugi 1986: 6). Rather, it is a collaborative, polynational and multilingual performance piece by three white theatremakers from Germany in conjunction with members of the Somali diaspora, the National Theatre of Somalia, and a performance artist from Taiwan. As such, Blickakte focuses very intimately on the theme of the present volume, but from a decidedly European perspective, particularly the viewpoint of theatre arts. While the pluridirectional links between Africa, Asia, and Europe form a major thematic strand of the performance, the roles of arts and artists constitute another, as do ‘acts of viewing’, and the destabilisation of identities and seemingly established ‘truths’. Two questions run throughout the performance: ‘What do we see?’, and ‘Why do we see it the way we see it?’ To quote Bee, one of the characters: ‘Do I See What I See, Do I Know What I Know, Do I Hear What I Hear ...’

Blickakte hinges on the history of the National Theatre of Somalia in Mogadishu – a gift of Mao Zedong to the young ‘socialist brother state’ during the Chinese Cultural 31

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Revolution – from its inception in 1967 to its reopening in 2012. The theatre building serves as both the starting point of the performance (Mannheimer Morgen 2013) and the point of intersection for the multiple, criss-crossing narratives and images encountered in the play. While spectators and readers are initially invited to explore its architecture with the help of video projections – the auditorium they sit in is simulating another theatrical space – it is merely the first of a number of imaginary relocations from where the performance questions Euro- and other ethno-centric views of, for example, national stereotypes, representations of violence and the role of theatre arts, sometimes through their reproduction. The opening scene thus firmly establishes the Somali National Theatre as the nodal point of the performance. ‘You could almost say that the disintegration of the state of Somalia was triggered when the National Theatre was destroyed,’ Philipp, the second character, argues. While later, in a metatheatrical comment on the show, he declares: ‘If we make a play at the National Theatre in Mogadishu, it must be perfect and so good that people will be so excited about it that suddenly in one fell swoop there will be peace across the country.’ Such is the imagined power of theatre. The production was developed2 by Daniel Schauf and Phillip Scholtysik (with Jonas Alsleben creating the video art) in response to a travel experience of friends in BerlinNeukölln: Ahmed Jama Aden, an entrepreneur with a plan to sell myrrh from Somalia, and Christoph Grabitz, a journalist. Ahmed, born in Bonn as the son of a former Somali diplomat, had been contacted by a Nairobi-based Chinese business man, Liu Xenfangh, who was interested in buying wholesale. To check the quality of the merchandise, Liu and Ahmed set off to Somalia (Puntland and Somaliland, to be precise), accompanied by Grabitz who sensed a good story.3 This ‘explorative’ journey from Europe and Kenya to the ‘failed state’ of Somalia is what I would like to call the first of the two main ‘movements’ or narratives of mobility in the play. It conjures up earlier accounts of Western trade and travel

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into the ‘dangerous African unknown’, above all Conrad’s colonial classic Heart of Darkness, but also the contemporary neo-imperial iteration of ‘Hollywood military mythmaking’ (Dawson 2011: 180), Ridley Scott’s film Black Hawk Down. (Interestingly, there is no reference to an ‘Asian’ version of this narrative in the performance.) In addition, Ahmed’s mission intersects with recent African-European travelogues – Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland comes to mind – in that his journey is also a voyage into uncharted family history, with a number of unexpected encounters. Ahmed’s and Liu’s trip is counterbalanced by the travels and travails of Taiwanese singer-performer Bee (played by Bee Chang) who came to Germany to pursue further studies in opera only to end up performing in a Disneyfied musical version of ‘Africa’. In a national theatre system that still racialises the ‘non-white’ performer as ‘Other’ (Sharifi 2015: 244), Bee discovers she ‘was looking exotic enough to dance in The Lion King’, the franchised ‘megamusical’ based on the epony­mous animated film (cf. Rebellato 2009: 39-46). Bee’s story puts an entirely different light on possible interactions between Europe, Asia and Africa; it also upsets the common contemporary African-Asian encounter narrative of ‘China’s Scramble for Africa’. These and other narratives of mobility are introduced by the character Philipp (played by the dramaturge Philipp Scholtysik) who functions as narrator, translator, MC, and theatre artist, but also as the journalist accompanying Ahmed and Liu on tour. Philipp is established as the ‘expert’ in this production which poses as an authoritative, monolingual lecture-performance (cf. Schönhütl 2013), before it is dis­rupted by the entrance of Bee. Information is provided with the help of stories, images and somatic experiences. The audience learns about the qualities of myrrh, its smell, its feel, its uses and how it is processed, but also about the fascinating and troubled history of the National Theatre of Somalia, and Bee’s difficulties in trying to make a career in Germany. A lot of information is verifiable – in fact, it is astonishing how much research and personal experience

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has gone into this piece – yet one should not be seduced by Philipp’s presentation into thinking that his account is entirely ‘true’. He is an unreliable narrator at times, opinionated and even racist. Blickakte toys with stereotypical narratives and images of Africa prevalent in the West – the ‘heart of darkness’ being one such example – and to do so the performance resorts to slippages and inconsistencies, thus developing a life of its own. New realities are established through imaginary projections; fact is created through fiction. Liu becomes one of the workers who built the National Theatre, while Kevin Carter’s controversial 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of a vulture and starving toddler in what was then Southern Sudan is invoked to represent ‘the famine’ in present-day Somalia. As American essayist and cultural com­men­tator Susan Sontag notes in Regarding the Pain of Others, ‘all photographs wait to be explained or falsified by their captions’ (2004: 9); and: ‘Eventually one reads into the photograph what it should be saying … Memory has altered the image, according to memory’s needs’ (26-7). ‘Do I See What I See, Do I Know What I Know, Do I Hear What I Hear ...’

Important, too, is how iconic images of violence and violation are represented in the production. They are not directly shown, but often re-enacted by the performers: the vulture-famine picture, for example, in which the character Philipp imitates both scavenger and starving child; Bee blackening her face and arms to represent a Taiwanese freedom fighter who has fatally burned himself in his campaign for freedom of speech. This form of representation – a sort of corporal ekphrasis – challenges the audience’s usual ways of viewing and apprehending images, and raises a number of questions. Are these re-enactments a result of ethical policies which prevent the realistic reproduction of gruesome images in public (cf. Sontag 2004: 61), particularly of contexts already loaded by an exploitative past? Or are such modes of representations meant to provoke critical reflection rather than the simple consumption of horror and pain? (Bee’s blackening up certainly taps into recent

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discussions around the controversial use of blackface in contemporary German theatre,4 thus introducing another, rather unexpected line of consideration.) Do these reenactments make the images more bearable to view – or harder because we have to recreate them with our inner eye? Applying the concept of performativity to the act of looking at images, the eminent German theatre scholar Erika Fischer-Lichte emphasises the active, performative element of Blickakte (2013: 149)/acts of viewing which require an institutional frame – here, the theatre – to bring pictures to life through the bodily co-presence of a viewer or spectator (149-51). I undoubtedly became aware of certain voyeuristic tendencies when searching for the vulture picture on the net after watching a video of the show. To return to Sontag once again: ‘[T]here is shame as well as shock in looking at the close-up of a real horror. Perhaps the only people with the right to look at images of suffering of this extreme order are those who could do something to alleviate it … The rest of us are voyeurs, whether or not we mean to be’ (2004: 37-8). Blickakte does not provide easy answers to such questions: the production unsettles our perception of familiar images and narratives – be they of ‘Africa’, ‘Asia’ or ‘Europe’ – and their reproduction. When Philipp recounts his travel preparations for going to Somalia he realises that ‘none of the people I had spoken to had been there in recent years and that they were just repeating hearsay, and the narrative that has formed around this country’. Significantly, gruesome images are not solely related to the African continent; splattered brains are encountered in the context of Kosovo, in front of Mogadishu’s National Theatre, and on an advertisement screen on the underground railway in Berlin. We encounter a constant mirroring and exchange of images, motifs and locations. This leads to a heightened, if somewhat eccentric, sense of connectivity and thus upsets any possibility of evoking the hackneyed binaries of East and West, North and South, ‘them’ and ‘us’. To give some random examples: Hamburg is the city where the distillery processing Ahmed’s resin is based; it is also

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the city that has been dubbed ‘Broadway on the Elbe’ (Healy 2012) because a theatre was built at the waterfront solely for the performance of The Lion King. Lions in mammalian and anthropomorphic form are encountered by both Ahmed and Bee. Screams are related to German reunification, arguing Somalis and a bone fracture. While Philipp trains to bear extreme heat with the help of stage spotlights – similar to the test Richard Roundtree’s character, private eye John Shaft, undergoes in the blaxploitation film Shaft in Africa – Bee works on a performance that allows her ‘to feel the Tsunami of 2005 in my body’. (The 2005 Tsunami also affected Somalia, though the Horn of Africa rarely features in the coverage of this natural disaster.) In his ancestral home, Somalia, Ahmed is ‘just a German’ (we can assume that he is often ‘just a Somali’ in Germany); Bee’s aspiration to become German, on the other hand, is thwarted. Last not least, Abdi Ali Bacalwaan – ‘the most famous actor of the National Theatre of Somalia’ – was trained in China and now lives in a home for asylum seekers in Landshut, Lower Bavaria (cf. Neshitov 2012).5 As Barbara Burckhardt put it in her review for the prominent German theatre magazine Theater heute: Blickakte ‘brings together Taiwanese singing skills with myrrh and theatre in Somalia, Rossini in Chinese and dozens of world receivers until all fixed perspectives gracefully collapse in a globalized madness’ (2013: 67, my translation). ‘Do I See What I See, Do I Know What I Know, Do I Hear What I Hear ...’ In the context of this introduction I suggest we read the reviewer’s ‘globalized madness’ not as conceptual chaos but as an expression for the countless links of cultural and economic dynamics across countries and continents. These links affect business ventures and theatre practice, and they influence individuals and communities. Blickakte has the potential to speak to anybody willing to open up to the performance; yet the insights generated will depend on personal ‘acts of viewing’. The production culminates in Bee performing the aria Bel raggio lusinghier, ‘the beautiful ray of joy and hope’, from Rossini’s opera Semiramide, accompanied

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by an Italian recording blasting from numerous radios distributed on stage. While the aria is being sung, the email correspondence between the production team and Somali theatre artists and social networks is projected on the video screen. The exchange draws attention to the unusual artistic collaboration manifested by this production and so suggests ‘the ray of hope’ that is shone into, or emerges from, the context of theatre practice. The sequence ends with Jabril Ibrahim Abdulle – director of the Centre for Research and Dialogue, Somalia and the person responsible for the revival of the National Theatre of Somalia – agreeing to work in partnership with the group and to attend the world première performance of Blickakte at the Theater Drachengasse, Vienna, on 21 January 2013. Daniel Schauf recalls: When Jabril decided to attend the show, we started to call ourselves ‘The National Theatre of Somalia in Exile’ … Naturally, it was a fantastic opening night because of his coming. He arrived five minutes before eight, and all of a sudden there were also some 10-15 Somalis in the audience … Then the press got hold of it. A Somali journalist covered it for the Somali service of the Voice of America;6 we were also called by BBC Somalia. At the end of the show, we had a post-performance discussion with Jabril. For me, this was the greatest moment because for one split second we all believed that art can connect everything. Obviously, we constantly toy with this idea: art as a healing force … For us, it is still an important credo. Even if you look at it critically, it is essential not to give up on it, to keep proclaiming it. This is also mirrored in the text, though sometimes ironically. (Interview 13 March 2015; my translation.)

Blickakte had a run at the Theater Drachengasse, Vienna, in 2013; it was also performed in Germany at the Thalia Theater (Gaußstr.), Hamburg; Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt/ Main, zeitraumexit, Mannheim; Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Frankfurt LAB until the end of 2014. Importantly, the production led to further collaborations with artists in Somalia and diaspora communities in Germany. In 2013 Bee Chang participated in Somali Idol (the internationally known format of national singing contests) reaching the second round. In an email to Schauf and Scholtysik, Jabril Abdulle

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reports on the closing ceremony and relates how ‘participants watched a video of Bee Chang singing Shibrayahoow Heesa. They were indeed moved by Bee’s deep voice; she received standing ovations from all participants, including the mayor [of Mogadishu]’ (February 2014). Out of this experience, a second collaborative performance piece with the National Theatre of Somalia was developed, I Very Much Understand the Idea (2014). Finally, it seems that work on the partly destroyed theatre building has resumed.7 In early 2014, Jabril Abdulle wrote that a ‘Chinese delegation has come to Somalia to survey the state of the theatre; they have promised to do total rehabilitation’ (February 2014). In early 2016, continuing repair works on the building were confirmed (Schauf 2016). Blickakte does not naïvely celebrate intercultural perform­ ance or the power of theatre. On the contrary, it takes artists and audience to task in relation to the production and consumption of representations, and in relation to what might be perceived as ‘Other’. It is unsettling and occasionally perplexing; it challenges our linguistic competency and our experience as theatre-goers. And yet, it makes us aware of the affirmative potential of creative expression. To close here is the character Philipp quoting the then Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed at the reopening of the National Theatre of Somalia in 2012: Artists have the power to express and convey the feelings of their people in words, in pictures and in performances, as we have witnessed today.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Ian Copestake for the translation of the play; and to Martin Orwin (SOAS), Ibrahim Elsayed (University of Bayreuth) and Bee Chang for various linguistic clari­ fications.

NOTES 1 In the widest sense, postdramatic theatre has moved away from using textual culture – dramatic literature – as the basis for theatre productions. It focuses on

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2 3

4

5

6 7

the relation between performers and audience, and often has no recognizable plot. It is less concerned with realist-psychological representation, but instead emphasizes corporeality, space, ‘“mediatized” image and sound culture’ (JürsMunby 2006: 1). In his authoritative introduction to postdramatic theatre HansThies Lehmann writes: ‘It is not surprising that fans of other arts (visual arts, dance, music) are often more at home with this kind of theatre than theatregoers who subscribe to literary narrative’ (2006: 31). For the publication of Blickakte, the editors have chosen to ‘re-dramatise’ the text by adding ‘stage directions’ based on a video of the show in order to give readers a sense of the original production. The full video can be watched at www.drittmittelproduktionen.de/blickakte, password: blickakte; more pictures of the performance can be found at www.drittmittelproduktionen.de/arbeiten/ blickakte-bilder (both accessed 31 May 2016). I am hesitant to use ‘devised’ here because of its frequent association with educational contexts. Grabitz published an award-winning article on the journey, available at www. medienpreis-mittelstand.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Siegerbeitraege/Christoph_ Grabitz_Koenig_der_Myrrhe_Nachwuchs.pdf (accessed 13 March 2016). Some of his Somalia coverage was later criticised in Somali Studies circles for being too one-sided (interview with Daniel Schauf). Please note that I am following the naming used in the play: ‘Liu’ – Chinese surnames usually come first – and ‘Ahmed’ because he and the artists are friends, not because Somalis are commonly addressed with their first name, the second and third name being the father’s and grandfather’s given name, rather than a family name in European usage. In Germany, Aden is used as Ahmed’s surname. The use of blackfacing in German theatre – a remarkably ignored practice until recently – became the focus of public protest in 2012, thus initiating a long-overdue debate about the politics of representation and race (Sieg 2015; Sharifi 2015; ‘“I am a political Person” – An Interview with Hari Kondabolu’, BLACKFACEPALM, 30 December 2015, http://buehnenwatch.com, accessed 20 April 2016). Readers familiar with 1970s German history will immediately recall the hijacking of Lufthansa flight 181, an aircraft named ‘Landshut’, in October 1977 by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was later freed by a German counter terrorism group in Modagishu (https://de.wikipedia. org/wiki/Entführung_des_Flugzeugs_„Landshut“, accessed 24 March 2016). www.voasomali.com/audio/2217689.html, 22 January 2013 (accessed 14 March 2016). The building was neglected after the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, and partly destroyed by a US airstrike during the US intervention which lasted until 1994. The theatre suffered further damage when a young suicide bomber blew herself up during an event in 2012, shortly after its reopening (Chonghaile: 2012).

REFERENCES Bühnenwatch (2015), http://buehnenwatch.com (accessed 20 April 2016). Burckhardt, Barbara (2013), ‘Stehpult und Samtvorhang’, Theater heute, June: 67. Chonghaile, Clar Ni, with Abdalle Ahmed (2012), ‘Somalia Theatre Suicide

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40  Christine Matzke Bombing Kills Top Sports Officials’, The Guardian, 4 April, www.theguardian. com/world/2012/apr/04/somalia-theatre-suicide-bombing-shabaab (accessed 13 April 2016). Dawson, Ashley (2011), ‘New World Disorder: Black Hawk Down and the Eclipse of U.S. Military Humanitarianism in Africa’, African Studies Review, vol. 54, no. 2: 177-94. Fischer-Lichte, Erika (2013), Performativität: Eine Einführung (Bielefeld: Transcript). Grabitz, Christoph, 2012, ‘König der Myrrhe’, NEON, June: 89-98, www. medienpreis-mittelstand.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Siegerbeitraege/Christoph_ Grabitz_Koenig_der_Myrrhe_Nachwuchs.pdf (accessed 13 March 2016). Healy, Patrick (2012), ‘Broadway on the Elbe’, The New York Times, 9 December, www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/theater/tarzan-and-lion-king-make-hamburg-atheater-city.html (accessed 21 April 2016). Jabril Ibrahim Abdulle (2014), unpublished email to Daniel Schauf and Philipp Scholtysik: ‘On the Somalia idol summary outcome’, February. Jürs-Munby, Karen (2006), ‘Introduction’, Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, trans. Jürs-Munby, K. (London: Routledge): 1-15. Lehmann, Hans-Thies (2006), Postdramatic Theatre, trans. Jürs-Munby, K. (London: Routledge). Mannheimer Morgen (2013), ‘Geschichten und Schicksale: Performance – Zeitraumexit zeigt “Frisch eingetroffen”’, Mannheimer Morgen, 8 July: 27. Matzke, Christine (2015), unpublished interview with Daniel Schauf, Frankfurt/Main (13 March). Neshitov, Tim (2012), ‘Stille Tage in Fiore’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 3-4 November: 13. Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1986), Decolonising the Mind (London: James Currey; Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya). Patzer, Georg (2013), ‘Eine allzu knappe Tafelrunde und Rossini auf Chinesich: Euro­ päisches Theaterfestival “Premières” in Karlsruhe mit “Merlin”’, Badisches Tageblatt, 8 June. PR Compact (2013), ‘Blickakte: Wie dem Fremden begegnen ohne es zu vereinahmen’, pr compact, 14 January, www.oempa.at/de/pressemeldungen/894 (accessed 9 March 2016). Rebellato, Dan (2009), Theatre and Globalization, foreword by Mark Ravenhill (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). Schauf, Daniel (2016), unpublished email, 11 March. Schönhütl, Britta (2013), ‘Daniel Schauf nimmt uns bei „Blickakte“ mit ins Theater nach Somalia’, cult:online, 10 May, www.cult-zeitung.de/2013/05/10/kritikdaniel-schauf-nimmt-uns-bei-blickakte-mit-ins-theater-nach-somalia (accessed 6 March 2016). Senger, Artur (2013), ‘Vorbericht: “Blickakte” von Daniel Schauf aus Frankfurt – Spieltrieb in Mogadischu’, jungeregie.de, 7 May, www.jungeregie.de/vorberichtblickakte-von-daniel-schauf-aus-frankfurt (accessed 5 February 2015). Sharifi, Azadeh (2015), ‘Moments of Significance: Artists of Colour in European Theatre’, in Moslund, S.P., Petersen, A.R. and Schramm, M. (eds), The Culture of Migration: Politics, Aesthetics and Histories (London: I.B. Tauris): 243-56. Sieg, Katrin (2015), ‘Race, Guilt and Innocence: Facing Blackfacing in Contemporary German Theater’, German Studies Review, vol. 38, no. 1: 117-34. Sontag, Susan (2004), Regarding the Pain of Others (London: Penguin Books).

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Blickakte – ‘Acts of Viewing’ A production in cooperation with the Theatre Drachengasse (Vienna) and the National Theatre of Somalia (Mogadishu) Based on an idea by AHMED JAMA ADEN scripted and developed by DANIEL SCHAUF (directing) PHILIPP SCHOLTYSIK (dramaturgy) JONAS ALSLEBEN (video)

CHARACTERS Philipp (Philipp Scholtysik) Bee (Bee Chang) NOTE ON LANGUAGE Blickakte was originally performed in three languages indi­ cated here as follows: German (Times New Roman) English (Arial Narrow) Mandarin (Courier New) There is no interval. 3D video animation of the ground plot of the National Theatre of Somalia in Mogadishu. It flies towards the audience and gradually increases in size until it is congruent with the stage and the auditorium. It looks like a space ship. Enter Philipp. He sings a song in Mandarin and gestures with his arms. Philipp Hello, good evening, you may be wondering where you are? I can answer you clearly. This (Picture 1: ground plot of the National Theatre of Somalia) is a general plan of the building, in which we find ourselves here. He describes the way inside the actual space where the current show takes place, by naming recognizable points on the plan. 41

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Fig 1. (Also ‘Picture 1’ in the playscript) Video animation of the National Theatre of Somalia (© Jonas Alsleben 2013)

Fig 2. Bee Chang as Bee (© Kerstin Schomburg 2013)

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That means I am now here (Picture 2: National Theatre from above. Military image with destroyed roof; the layout of the theatre is visible) on the stage, you over there, and you see me by the auditorium. If you look with me from the inside of the building more closely, you see that the stage and the auditorium are mirrors of each other, both are simple rectangles, almost the same size. Only that the stage is empty and you’re sitting in rows on seats. If you look to your left or right towards your counterpart, you will see an audience, and as such you look at me on the stage and see the National Theatre of Somalia. (Picture 3: postcard, National Theatre from the front) This building is in Mogadishu, it was built in the 1960s by the Chinese. It was a gift from Mao to the young, socialist brother state of Somalia. Because of this, at the opening ceremony in 1967 a small gift for all visitors of a Mao-Bible was found under the seats. It was bookmarked with a ribbon and when you opened it you came to a highlighted quote: ‘An army without culture is an ignorant army and an ignorant army can be defeated.’ At the opening ceremony in ‘67, Mao entered the building together with the audience through the main entrance (Picture 4: inscription over the main entrance). And he could see the inscription given in Italian, Arabic and English: Il Teatro Nazionale; al mashra al watani; The National Theatre. Somali, the original language of Somalia, didn’t have an alphabet because for hundreds of years Somali had been an oral culture, and today you will still find traces of this. For example, when you turn on the radio in Somalia 99% of the time you will hear people talking and only 1% is music. (Picture 5: reopening of the National Theatre of Somalia) This is a picture of the opening ceremony. The photographer took the picture on 19th March 2012, and chose to shoot it from a steep angle in order to show the height of the stage tower. From where I am standing, when I look up to the roof top it is about 16 meters, the same height as the famous opera

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house in Bayreuth on the Grüne Hügel. One difference is that this theatre is in the centre of the city and the opera house in Bayreuth is so far out you have to drive there by car. What you can also see very well from the perspective chosen by the photographer is the canvas that hangs in the middle of the stage. This picture shows four people who are representative of the four big clans that make up Somalia, namely the Darod, Dir, Hawiye, and one other that I don’t remember. Here they hug each other and show that they have become one, just as it should be in every ensemble, in every theatre. At the top of the picture in the blue sky is the white five-pointed star from the flag of Somalia. This flag echoes the look and colours of the United Nations symbol, and this is not by chance as the designer chose to do it this way to show gratitude to Western countries for their help in rebuilding the country in the 1950s. Everything that you can see here was used in the stage design of the opening play, which was written specifically for the occasion. It is called Dardaaran Waalid which means advice from parents and is a play about love. He gets a big cloth and shows it to the audience. His face is initially hidden. Then he looks over the cloth and lays it on the floor. He puts myrrh on the cloth. Somalia is located at the far east end of Africa. Today it is often referred to as a ‘failed state’. Indeed, many journalists call it the modern ‘heart of darkness’ because as a result of over twenty years of civil war the country is divided into different regions, with different clans running these regions, while parts of the country seek to be independent states. You could almost say that the disintegration of the state of Somalia was triggered when the National Theatre was destroyed. I guess, most of you know the film Black Hawk Down by Ridley Scott. There is a scene in which US army helicopter pilots fly above the city of Mogadishu intent on destroying the arsenal where all the weapons are held in the National Theatre.

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(Picture 6: reopening of the National Theatre of Somalia II, with the open roof visible) Since then the theatre has no roof. The only thing that remains are these iron supports; and the people in this theatre today sit under an open sky, just as it was when watching plays in ancient Greece. He speaks into a microphone centre stage left. Artists have the power to express and convey the feelings of their people in words, in pictures and in performances, as we have witnessed today. He switches the microphone off. (Picture 7: Liu) Behind me is Liu Xenfangh from China. Liu is about 56 years old, and when Liu was a young man he worked on the construction of the National Theatre of Mogadishu. He helped build this place. Always when I look at this picture I have the feeling: Please, please, please give this person the Nobel Peace Prize. I have asked him this: Liu, the Nobel Peace Prize? Naturally, he laughed and said: ‘When a Chinese person wins the Nobel Peace Prize it will always be as a provocation by the West.’ Then I said: But Liu, now let’s be honest: ‘What is the situation with human rights in China?’ ‘You know, China is okay, much more stable than other countries.’ But Liu, stability and human rights, one has nothing to do with the other. ‘You know, I think it has.’ Liu, China is the country with the highest number of executions. ‘Well, you know, on some occasions politics must kill the people. China is such a big country. It is hard to establish discipline, but you need it.’

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(Picture 8: Liu’s shop) And then when the theatre building was finished in Mogadishu, Liu decided to stay in Africa, and today he runs a shop in Nairobi in Kenya, where he sells a lot of different stuff, like plastic bags, shoes, sandals, and glasses, and louder things that can make day to day life for Africans a bit easier. The thing that sells best is a world receiver. He goes to the radio, plays a random radio station on it for some seconds. (Picture 9: snapshot of Ahmed) This is Ahmed. He is a friend of mine from Somalia, though he was born in Bonn, so maybe he is not really a Somali. We studied together in Berlin where he studied business and I studied economics and sinology. When he finished his studies he asked himself ‘ok, what should I do?’ He came to the idea to import myrrh from Somalia to Germany. Myrrh is a natural resin that comes from the myrrh tree and which grows very well in Somalia due to the extremely good climatic conditions. So it is the only commodity for which the world still needs Somalia. He distributes myrrh. Please pass it backwards. It is used in many shampoos, in perfumes, and in medications because it has an antiseptic effect, toothpaste, etc. Keep passing it back, so you make the back row happy! The address www.mercatus-harze.de takes you to Ahmed’s com­ pany Mercatus GmbH (Picture 10: kitchen in shared apartment) in Hobrechtstr. 28 in Berlin. This company is based in the kitchen of his shared flat. The most interesting thing about this photo is actually the photo that Ahmed has hung on the wall in the bottom left (points to one of the photos in picture 10). The man with the hat is Abdi Ali Bacalwaan, the most famous actor of the National Theatre

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of Somalia. Today he lives in in Landshut in a home for people seeking asylum, but in this picture he is in China, where he was invited by Mao to come to China to be trained there. There he learned a Chinese song that became his trademark and which he always sang when he first appeared on stage (repeats the gestures from the song at the beginning). Legend has it that he sang so well so that some in the audience nearly always fainted. And now comes the main highlight of the evening: Mr. Liu Xenfang, the Chinese man who built the National Theatre of Somalia in Mogadishu, and who today sells world receivers in Nairobi, found Ahmed`s company on the internet through a sort of Ebay for wholesalers. He has the idea to buy myrrh from Ahmed and sell it in Asia and thus make his fortune. But Liu had heard that the myrrh from Somalia is often of bad quality. It is often diluted with something or has goat shit inside or shrapnels or some other type of crap. He did not want that. He wanted to go to Somalia and ensure the quality of the local product with Ahmed’s farmers. Therefore, both of them planned a trip. In 2011, Ahmed and Liu rode together to the Horn of Africa, to Somalia, to meet the farmers there on the spot. Ahmed invited me on this journey. (Picture 11: Ahmed and Liu in the car) I would go there to research and from it develop a theatrical event. In Germany I then searched for people to participate in this project. Enter Bee. In Mandarin she tells the story how Mao’s son died in the war. There is no translation. She mimes and gesticulates wildly to make the audience understand. In what follows Bee continues to speak Mandarin. Philipp translates her narrative into German. Bee (followed by Philipp’s translation) Hello! My name is Bee Chang, I’m from Taiwan. In Taiwan, I studied classical singing.

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The goal of our education in Taiwan was to train our voice for the European opera, for this way of singing, and thus according to European aesthetics. When I finished my studies in Taiwan, I wanted to come to Europe, to the source of this art, and so learn it even better. That’s why I went to Berlin, where I made an entrance examination. Bee sings. Philipp takes up the rhythm of the song to introduce an aside. Philipp Somalia is not really a country around which one can travel freely from one day to the next. Before my trip with Ahmed and Liu I had concerns about safety and wanted to plan the journey well so one knew in advance the dangerous places to avoid, and thereby take a route that is acceptable. Bee (in Mandarin, Philipp translates) In Taiwan, it is normal that if you want to make a plan well, you ask an authority. I asked my teachers when I knew I wanted to go to Europe: ‘There are so many countries. Where do I go?’ They told me: ‘Do not go to Italy. The Italians are just as mendacious as the Chinese. Either they like you, then all is good. But if they do not like you they will not care how good you are, and you will have no chance.’ (She dances.) France is all about Paris. Everyone wants to go there.’ It’s a great city. ‘If you’re not a genius, then you will never enter the music circle.’ But then the teacher had a good tip: ‘Germany is good. Please do not go to Austria, Adolf Hitler came from there. Germany is the best. In Germany you can extremely easily make a career in the theatre, because in every city

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there is a theatre, even in the smallest one. Therefore, if you have a bit of passion, perseverance and talent, two years here, two years there, then work yourself up higher, from Hildesheim, Hoyerswerda and in the end you are on the big stage in Bayreuth and can decide for yourself what you sing. You may even sing Rossini there.’ And the teacher said: ‘In Germany the south is much less free than the north.’ So I wanted to go to Berlin. Bee and Philipp look at each other. They go together to Berlin. They imitate horses. Philipp Entrance exam in Berlin. Next, Bee Chang with an aria from Rossini. (Bee sings an aria in Manda­rin.) That sounds very nice, but I do not know if one can sing Rossini like that. (Bee complains very aggres­sively in Mandarin.) Bee failed the entrance exam. For Bee this European voice has become legendary. After the entrance exam she sang at a concert in a church in Germany and made a new experience both with the architecture and her voice. Bee (in German) My voice did sound exactly like the CDs of European opera singers that I had listened to in Taiwan. Unfortunately in Taiwan we do not have such churches. Philipp And then Bee went to Hamburg, for a musical. Bee Hello Hamburg! Hello, I love you! Philipp Before traveling to Somalia I did not ask my singing teacher for advice but contacted people who have something to do with Somalia: the UN Department of State, Médecins Sans Frontières, Red Cross, Red Crescent, journalists in Africa. They all said this is the most dangerous country in the world and not to travel there. But then it turned out that none of the people I had spoken to had been there in recent years and that they were just repeating hearsay, and the narrative that has formed around this country.

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Two weeks before departing Somalia was constantly in the media because there was a famine and I saw a photo in the newspaper which subsequently I kept seeing on television and as a work of art in a museum. On the floor a small child sits in a curved posture, it is naked and about 4 years old. (He takes on the position of the child.) A few metres away sits a vulture waiting obviously for the child to die. (He takes on the position of the vulture.) The photographer waited 20 minutes for the vulture to spread its wings. Philipp begins to dance. He is joined by Bee. Philipp If we make a play at the National Theatre in Mogadishu, it must be perfect and so good that people will be so excited about it that suddenly in one fell swoop there will be peace across the country. Blackout. Spotlights on. I then made one more experiment: In the rehearsal stage I pointed all the spotlights in one spot. I wanted to try to see how long it would take for me to become very thirsty and how long I could hold out. (He lies down in the spotlight.) Bee (circling Philipp) I’ve also made a performance. I wanted to feel the Tsunami of 2005 in my body. I threw myself on the ground and slid everywhere on stage with tap shoes and hit everything with an iron pan. That sounded quite ugly. Do I See What I See, Do I Know What I Know, Do I Hear what I Hear … And then came quite a long text. Bee goes off. Philipp (gets up) Bee is still in Hamburg making musicals, so I took a sip of water and turned the radio on. Radio reportage about the National Theatre in Mogadishu. Sounds from a bomb blast in the theatre. Bee enters. She performs a choreography from a musical. Philipp In the National Theatre of Somalia, which had been closed for 20 years because of the civil war, a suicide bomber blew herself up at an anniversary celebration. Bee Mogadishu needs no beautiful art, Mogadishu needs the hard life.

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Philipp Ladies and gentlemen, Bee Chang from Taiwan! Bee (enters singing) Deep down I’m a star! Then Philipp and Bee sing together. (Together) Then I took off my costume. Bee And I was looking exotic enough to dance in The Lion King. Philipp Whenever Ahmed returns from Somalia, he would tell the following story: ‘I’m not going out there anymore, it’s too exhausting, it’s so hot there, dry, dusty, as soon as you come to the road, you immediately want to go back to take a shower, I no longer want to do this.’ But Ahmed also says every time: ‘If in 10 years Somalia needs a president, I am ready to stand.’ When he traveled to Somalia for the first time, he visited all his relatives, whom he has never seen before. And when he introduced himself to an uncle: ‘I am Ahmed, son of Jama, son of Aden, son of Abdullahi, son of Abdiharim, son of Abdimahmud, son of Abdi…’ – ‘Stop!’, the uncle said, ‘that does not interest me at all, you’re just a German.’ Bee (excited) Me, a German, yeah sure, unlimited residence permit! Philipp Hold on, it does not work so fast. Ahmed needs to be in the desert, ‘Ahmed come with me, he must stay in the desert to grow up, if you can sleep here, maybe you belong with us.’ But Ahmed cannot sleep because, stones, cold, thorns, and insects that are everywhere, crawl in – But wow, it is so beautiful here in the desert, as you can see the stars so well. Bee The stars are beautiful, just like in The Lion King. When his late Father appeared to his son as a ghost, he said, we live in you, we, all the ancestors protect you and you shall be my only heir, that must be. (Sings) They live in you! Philipp And then Ahmed heard a lion. He wakes his uncle, and the uncle immediately takes the Kalashnikov in hand, ready to

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shoot the lion, but the lion roars again. ‘Hey,’ the uncle says to Ahmed, ‘do not wake me for a lion that is 20km away.’ Bee So Ahmed has grown up (Philipp throws the cloth into the air.) Bee beats her chest. Philipp burps, imitating a lion. On all fours, Philipp burps again. Bee The choreographer for The Lion King does not want us to imitate the movements of the animals (Philipp burps, imitating the movements of a lion), but we should dance to the souls of the animals. Philipp This is a peacock. Bee No! Philipp A giraffe … Bee No. Philipp A fish… Bee No. Philipp Zebra … Bee Yes. Philipp The Yellow Peril! Bee What? Philipp This is a lion. Bee No. Philipp Leo. Bee No. Philipp Leo. Bee No! Philipp: I’m sorry, I don’t want to say that. It is stupid, it’s racist, but it’s also the truth: the Somalis always shout, so everything is a big drama. Bee screams. Bee This was a German cry of reunification between East and West. Bee screams again.

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Bee This was the scream from a fractured bone. Philipp screams. Philipp When I was eleven years old, the teacher in biology class described what an open fracture looked like. Here the bone sticks out, here is the point that if you touch is incredibly painful because all the nerve endings are exposed. I’ve imagined it. Everything in my eyes became black. I fell to the ground. It is still like this. Whenever I see such pictures I begin to blackout, and I have to lie down. Now in the meantime I’ve made it into a kind of hobby. Sometimes I take a gruesome picture with me to the city and test the solidarity of the people. I look at the picture until I black out and fall to the ground and see if other people come to help me. The last time a blackout happened was in Berlin, in the subway. There were screens used by a company called Berliner Fenster that showed messages. One was an advertisement by the Deutsche Oper in Berlin for Rossini. (Bee faints on hearing Rossini.) But then it showed a photo of the National Theatre of Somalia, which won the Pulitzer Prize. It shows a man lying on the ground (points to Bee) wearing light linen clothes and with a smile of his face as if he relaxes in the sun. But then one sees a piece of his brain, his skull is open. When I saw that, it made me dizzy and I fainted. Oh God! (Philipp faints.) Both lie on the floor; fog from a fog machine. Music: ‘This is the End’ by the Doors, taken from the film Black Hawk Down. Projection of a video recording of a telephone conversation: Philipp talking to Ayaan Mahamoud, director of the Somali Week Festival in London. Philipp Hello, this is Philipp, calling from Germany, can I talk to Ayaan Mahamoud? – Ah, you’re speaking. Nice to hear you! Happy New Year! – Excuse me, I cannot really hear you. – Ah, now it’s

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better, ok. Great to hear you. – Yes. – Yes. – Nice, it’s very nice, that you’re ready to help us! Ok, I will tell you the story. We are working on this project for like half a year now, and it’s a theatre project about, not only, but in parts about the history of the National Theatre in Mogadishu, and we had the idea that we would like to show it there. So, of course, this is a little bit, like, ambitious. Because it’s not that clear how the situation in Mogadishu in the theatre is. So we tried to contact the director, but we did not succeed in finding his e-mail, or telephone or whatever, and now it seems that it’s not that clear, if this theatre really works now, or if it exists, or if it’s just the building or whatever. So we are – we thought, ok, now we are going to reopen this theatre in exile in Vienna. This is what we’re going to do end of January. So basically now we are trying to make contact with anybody who knows something about it, who worked there, or who has seen performances there or who has pictures of how it was in the 90s or 80s in the … or whatever. – Ok, he does not speak English. Ok, this is – this is really exciting! Ok, yes I see, yes. But how – how do you know, how is the situation now in Mogadishu? In what sense is he the director? Or – Because we did not really find – Ah, ok, so it’s like public things are going on there, if there’s some kind of get-together. – Ok, ok, ok, yeah. – Ah, I see, yes, yes. Yes. So it’s really just, you say that it’s really just that he takes the dangerous job, to do it there. And this is the main reason, why he is the director now. – All the playwrights left the country, ok. – Yes? – Yes, I, if I got you right, you said that the security situation means, that only certain people can come and see the shows, which is against the idea, yes. I’m still here. (Laughs.) Blackout. Bee gets up. Philipp is still lying on the floor; fog machine off. Bee (slaps Philipp) Fuck you! I’ve also worked with gruesome images. A Serbian colleague invited me to participate in her perform­ance. She experienced the Kosovo war when she was 15 years old.

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She described to me an image that was shown on a TV live broadcast. A prisoner was bound to a pillar. His head was cut open alive, and his skull was opened, and the fluids in the brain were spooned out. I should dance the dance of the dervishes, a dance of Turkish monks. On my left arm I had an old-fashioned tape recorder, in which Jimmy Hendrix played his electric guitar against the Vietnam War. I should also make vocal improvisations. The director wanted me to see all the images of war before my eyes and through my singing I should apologize for all mankind. It went on like this: Bee stands still. She does not move. She watches the audience; she looks left and right. She sings. Her voice is shrill and piercing. I also had a gong in my left hand, so I could beat it. (She sings and beats the imaginary gong.) At the end a long, red curtain rolled down. Philipp (gets up) When Ahmed and Liu brought the myrrh to Germany, it would go like this. These chunks here, you cannot work with. What one ideally aims for is the essential oil. In the port of Hamburg there is a distillery. We can imitate this distillation process very easily, because we do not have to make a perfect industrial standard product. (He fetches an indoor fountain.) I throw some myrrh into this indoor fountain, turn it on and then the essential oils surface. (He plugs the fountain in, adds myrrh. Water begins to flow.) Bee (looking at the fountain) Made in Taiwan. A product from Taiwan. And indeed, it reminds me of Taiwan. Because our landscape in Taiwan looked just as green. And the sound of the water, when it’s summer, fruitfully hot, horribly humid and sticky. You really want to escape to the mountains to cool yourself in the water. Most of all I liked the east coast of Taiwan, because from there you can see the whole Pacific Ocean. Philipp (interrupting) The myrrh is attributed with the power to bring body and mind into harmony.

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Philipp takes water from the fountain. He sprinkles it on Bee and the audience. Bee In 2011 I developed a performance with Kimho, a com­ poser friend of mine from Hong Kong, about the things that only we understand. On stage I danced to a pop hit by a rock singer from Taiwan. This song became a national dance. Really everyone in the country danced to it. Primary school teachers, caretakers, insurance salesmen. Even the gods with their big eyes and head masks, with very colourful and exaggerated costumes danced to it. Bee sings. Philipp and Bee translate together. Bee/Philipp ‘Wow, wow, wow, you are my flower.’ Bee sings. Bee and Philipp translate together. Bee/Philipp ‘I want to pick you and place you in my heart.’ Bee Kimho masterfully played a melody on a traditional Chinese instrument from the period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Mao in the 1960s. Behind us is a propaganda picture on a big screen. It shows three young people: a pilot, a soldier and a girl with a red cap. On the picture in three languages is the following text: Wir müssen Taiwan befreien. We must free Taiwan. 我們要解放台灣 During this time I concerned myself with my home Taiwan a lot. On YouTube I watched a lot of videos. One video shocked me greatly because I had only learned about it after thirty years. I was ashamed that I only came across it now. (She begins to blacken her face and arms with paint.) It was about a resistance fighter from Taiwan, who campaigned for absolute freedom of speech in Taiwan. (Philipp starts distributing 20 world receivers on the stage.) The government said we’ll get you.

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He said: ‘You will get nothing but my dead body.’ For 70 days he locked himself in his office. Then the police came and wanted to blow his door open. But he was faster. He burned himself. Shortly afterwards the police came in and saw a black charred body lying on the ground. His skin had been completely shed. He was as thin as bone. And his arms were raised to the heavens with clenched fists. (She raises her arms with clenched fists.) At his public funeral, his daughter was there. She was nine years old. She looked into his coffin and could not recognize him. She cried and cried and did not know why she had to look at this. For 20 years she did not speak about her Daddy to anyone, not even her mother. Her facial muscles were frozen. Everyone treated her and her mother very well, because her father had sacrificed himself. But she says: ‘I am not him.’ The world receivers play Giaochino Rossini’s aria Bel raggio lusinghier from the opera Semiramide. Philipp And now Bee Chang sings an aria from Rossini: Bel raggio lusinghier, the beautiful ray of hope and joy. Bee sings the aria, accompanied by the world receivers. The aria is supertitled with a video projection of the following emails: Dear Jabril Abdulle, I am from Germany and planning a theater play about the history of the National Theater of Somalia in Mogadishu. I read on the internet that you played a central role in the reopening of the theater in spring. Sincerely Philipp Scholtysik —— Dear Philipp, We will be more than happy to help. Our research unit will get back to you with feedback.

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58  Ahmed Jama Aden

Do you want to speak with direct general of national theater? Jabril —— Dear Jabril Abdulle, I am very excited about the possibility to contact the director of the National Theater. —— Dear Philipp, Thanks, I will facilitate to link up with the director of National Theater. Saw the festival link of your video, great work... keep up the good work… —— Dear Jabril Abdulle, I am dealing with the topic of our play from the perspective of European theater aesthetics. I would like to start some kind of collaboration with the theater of Somalia which could use our play as a starting point. —— Dear Aar Maanta, I have found your statements on the internet about the reopening of the theater (http://www.voanews.com/content/somalias-national-theater -reopens-after-20-years-of-silence-143486066/179709.html). I would like to include a reconstruction by you of the last play that you have seen in the National Theater in Mogadishu into our play in Vienna. Can you imagine to do a performance for the National Theater? —— Dear Professor Joe Palmer, We read your text on nthposition (http://www.nthposition.com/thenationaltheater.php) and would be very grateful if you are ready to answer some

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Blickakte  59

questions about the opening in 1967. —— Dear Hamsa Omar, Searching the web, we found your article about the bombing on the 4th of April. —— Dear Mohamed Ibrahim Fanah, As you will know, today an article was published in a German newspaper about the theater - apparently the journalist has talked to you, he cites you in the article. —— Dear somalimotion, I am searching for a theater director from Somali with whom we could work together. Kind regards from Europe —— Unfortunately there is no director within my reach since I no longer live within my community. I’m currently studying and busying in northern Canada unable to get hold of theatrical director Regards, Somalimotion —— Dear Philipp! After reading your email this morning, I came up with the following idea; I could talk about the significance role that performing arts I saw in my one and only visit to Mogadishu theatre. This artist Halim Khalif Magood was called the queen of the voice —— Dear Philipp, Happy New Year, I want to come to Vienna on the 21st of January.

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60  Ahmed Jama Aden

I also spoke with the director of national theater he wants to come as well. Can you please help his visa? On the proposed project, it is fantastic, there are number of donors who are interested in such ventures and it will have profound impact on Somali culture and arts. We are more than happy to partner with you. —— Dear Jabril, We will do all we can to help with Abdidhuh’s Visa. (Picture 10: architectural drawing of the National Theatre of Somalia)

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2



China’s Discovery of Africa Texts, festivals & buildings

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Theatre in China in 1965

with a focus on War Drums Along the Equator An interview with ROBERT BOLT with an introduction by JAMES GIBBS

During the Summer of 1965, Robert Bolt visited China as a guest of the Chinese Foreign Cultural Association, and on his return to London he was questioned about his experiences. His answers included comments on theatre in China and from them it is clear that he arrived in Peking – to retain his rendition – with certain assumptions. For example, Bolt told his interviewer: ‘Naturally the first thing I asked’ [of his hosts in China] was: ‘Is it true that you have obliterated the Peking opera?’1 Bolt devotes some time to describing a production that attracted considerable attention in 1965 and that is of par­ ticular interest for the theme of this volume. It was entitled War Drums Along the Equator, and Bolt described it as a ‘straight play’ by which he meant, I think, that it was natural­istic rather than stylised. Briefly, it was a simplistic treatment of the Congo Crisis. Bolt referred to ‘heavyhanded propaganda’ and summarised it as ‘an attack against the United Nations and the United States in particular’.2 Although not widely known, the production has been written up in some detail by Alexander C. Cook, and an abstract of a paper by him provides a final note to this contribution. By way of context, it should be noted that in 1965 Bolt was enjoying the success earned by his play A Man for all Seasons that had opened in London in 1960. It was a work 63

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64  Robert Bolt

that had marked him out in the popular imagination as a ‘political’, ‘Brechtian’ and ‘anti-naturalistic writer’. The China he visited had seen an attack on the brand of MarxistLeninism favoured in Moscow, and an early version of Mao’s Little Red Book was beginning to circulate. In China, Bolt was struck by the insularity of the nation he found (‘the ordinary theatre-going public doesn’t see anything which isn’t Chinese’), by the deportment of audiences (‘the children run about between the seats while the parents talk to one another’) and by the sincere interest in adapting the traditional theatre tradition – ‘they are truly searching for a way to use it for modern themes’. The interview appeared in SACU News, published in November 1965 by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Under­ standing (www.sacu.org) whose cooperation in allowing the reproduction of the material below is gratefully acknowledged. The interview began with questions about Bolt’s itinerary to which he replied that he had been ‘mainly in Peking’, but also in Sian and Loyang ‘down near the Yellow River’.3 He had, it seems, asked to be taken there ‘because they [were] both big new industrial centres and very ancient capitals’. The questioner then moved on to ask about his reaction to the theatre in China. Question: Did you find a significant difference in local styles of drama? Mr Bolt: Slightly different. Of course there are several hundred different styles of opera, but with this very refined and elaborate technique one would need to be an expert to note the differences. Although all Chinese opera is so strange to our eyes that it looks to be one convention, even I could see differences between Peking opera and those, I suppose, more rustic operas we saw in the south. Question: Did you see plays as well as opera? Mr Bolt: Opera seems to be the great form, but I did see one straight play, a very successful play running there at the moment called War Drums Along the Equator, about the

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Belgian Congo. As far as I know they are not doing any plays at all from the outside – or films. Perhaps a few people read works from the outside, but the ordinary theatregoing public doesn’t see anything which isn’t Chinese. Question: What sort of audiences did you encounter? And what kind of theatres? Mr Bolt: The halls that I was in were not particularly huge, good big halls alright, miners’ halls, workers’ clubs, and of course in Peking actual theatres with a capacity of – guessing – 2,000. Full, quite full, and on the whole very proletarian audiences. There is no question of this, genuine workers’ audiences. Price of the tickets, say ninepence. Whole families there, young families with children, including babies at the breast. The children run about between the seats while the parents talk to one another. There is no politeness; they come to be entertained and if they are not, they go on talking. The curtain goes up on a terrific babble, then the actors come on and have to get a hold of their audience. These potentially enthusiastic but quite implacable audiences would give an English actor a nervous breakdown. Question: Then would you say that this predominantly youthful and proletarian audience determines the tone of the productions? Mr Bolt: Unquestionably. In fact I’m sure that this is at the back of the very controversial move in the classical opera. To begin with, it simply is not true that the classical opera is being stamped out. I myself accept completely as being sincere the claim of the regime that what they want to do is to adapt that particular form to modern themes, and this seems to be a very worthwhile thing to do. On the other hand, they are a bit shifty about what they’ve done exactly with the Peking opera. Naturally the first thing I asked was, ‘Is it true that you have obliterated the Peking opera?’ They laughed and said, ‘Rubbish, we perform them quite a lot.’ Yet as far as I could make out they are performed only twice a year, once at the October celebrations and

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66  Robert Bolt

again at May Day, and then only for about a week. Of course those two times are when Peking is full of foreign visitors. My guess – and it is only a guess – is that they perform those mainly as some kind of a shop window. But the question is really rather superficial, because from the modern operas which I saw there is no doubt at all that they are genuinely struggling with this problem of retaining the very tight, very hard, highly artificial convention of movement, music, dance and singing, and putting it at the disposal of modern themes. And it is an enormous problem, a very interesting aesthetic problem. They are all highly propagandist, these plays – workers struggling against the Japanese, the Kuomintang, the landlords. Here is a case in point where I felt the problem had been tackled in the wrong way, speaking aesthetically of course. The brave worker is being cross-examined by the cruel and inept Japanese commander, who stands behind the worker’s chair attempting to corrupt him. He is alternately singing and chanting, moving in a very stylised way with his hands outstretched, his eyes staring, pacing and leaping about. Meanwhile the worker, the hero of the play, in order to demonstrate his bravery and indifference to all these blandishments, has been given an enormous briar pipe with a pouch of tobacco and matches. He is doing a lot of funny business with his pipe in a completely naturalistic way which, of course, absolutely destroys what the Japanese commander is doing. Now this does have the effect of putting the worker in command of the situation and of making the Japanese commander look an idiot, but it also has the effect of making the whole Peking opera convention look an idiot. Because if you juxtapose on the stage highly naturalistic business with a highly formalised convention, there is no doubt, ever, which wins. And if they try to make a subtle mixture of naturalism and convention, I don’t think there can be any doubt that eventually the naturalism will drive out the convention.

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On other occasions it seemed to me the thing had been absorbed. For instance, in an opera which I saw in Sian, there was a terrifying scene in a prison cell, the most brutal thing I’ve ever seen on the stage, which culminates with a twelve-year old child being hung up by its heels and beaten to death. This is almost unmanageable stuff, except that the convention was made very, very, tight. It became a dreadful ritual, with the result that it carried. Nonetheless, for the moment what is happening is that these modern plays dip in and out of convention, and this is the aesthetic problem they are battling with. I think they are correct in doing so. Remember, they are dealing with a largely non-intellectual audience, and this is cropping up all over the world – the unwillingness of the modern audience to discipline itself sufficiently to understand a hard, elaborated convention. Question: How are the actors trained? Mr Bolt: Here is another area where they are attempting to preserve discipline. Children are recruited at the age of nine and have an eleven year training. Competition is keen, for acting is regarded as a worthwhile, even glamourous trade, though it is not particularly highly paid. They are chosen for natural abilities which must include agility of body, as they’ve got to be acrobats, a voice capable of becoming a singing voice, plus a fair amount of intelligence. They are put through a gruelling training, the whole emphasis of which is on retaining the purity of the old convention. The teachers are former actors. Their sole concern is that the children should get the movements exactly right, that their little fingers should be in precisely the correct position when they come out of their hair-raising aerial somer­saults. In dancing and miming classes they were making completely arbitrary and stylised movements, the very opposite of, say, the Method school of acting. But in China they are not merely paying lip-service to the ancient convention and fundamentally undermining it – they are truly searching for a way to use it for modern themes.

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68  Robert Bolt

Question: How do they compensate for the lack of gorgeous costumes in modern opera? Mr Bolt: They don’t. That is one thing which I very much wanted to discuss with them, but I was not able to meet them. In the old opera a poor man, a beggar, is dressed as a heavenly apotheosis of a beggar. The costume is brilliant – if rags, then carefully, beautifully constructed rags. It is not romanticising a beggar, but rather part of the convention that these people on stage are not real, a theatrical statement. However in the new operas they obviously feel that if they gorgeously costume poor people this would be sugaring what is in fact a very bitter pill, inviting them to accept a glamourized version of poverty. Thus costumes are completely naturalistic, making a big clash with the actions. You, the audience, are faced with an improper choice: am I to take the costume seriously or the movement seriously? This is one thing they speak about – finding new stylised movements drawn from the movements people actually make in life. I don’t think it can be done consciously, rather they have to be arrived at by evolutionary process, over generations. Question: What about the content of the modern plays? Mr Bolt: The propaganda content is overwhelming and crude. Fortuitously the old convention lends itself, being itself so exaggerated, but in the long run I think it will confuse the aesthetic issue. At some point they are not going to want such heavy-handed propaganda and by that time these conventions will simply have become accepted as a kind of overacting, which they are not. For example, in War Drums Along the Equator – an attack against the United Nations and the United States in particular – an analysis of the Congo situation is presented with which I am fundamentally in sympathy, but in extraordinarily crude terms. The US and the UN are absolutely indistinguishable, the UN is a sort of a branch of the CIA, the Americans carry whips with which they incessantly beat the Africans, shoot them like dogs, and

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so forth. Yet in some ways, as well as lending itself to propagandist plays, this convention takes the worst vice out of them; events on stage are presented in such black and white terms, so pickled and crystallised that they move you in the Brechtian sense as a satisfying pattern and shape which you can grasp. Don’t, I think, move you to indignation and the desire to rush out on the spot and shoot somebody. To me, the effect was oddly to diminish immediate passion, not to whip it up. It is going to be very interesting to see if they can hold on to their conventions when they’ve stopped making these totally black and white plays, wherein the good triumph and the wicked, after seeming to triumph, are cast into outer darkness. When they begin to attack the more subtle and difficult modern problems then they will have a theatre which will be adaptable all over the world – certainly a kind of theatre which I myself would like to see. Question: Did you meet any playwrights? Mr Bolt: No, I was unable to. On the whole these plays were in fact committee pieces, rather like American films with three or four scriptwriters. Sometimes operas or plays are rewritten from successful films, then adapted again as dance. Actors are encouraged to speak their minds. There is also, I gather, a watching brief held by the Party as the play is written, to make sure that nothing untoward is said, but that everything which should be said is said and well said. It is difficult to say anything about the quality of the writing, as I don’t speak Chinese, but the plays I saw I read in translation and the lyric bits, the songs, struck me as distinctly poetic. This committee producing has great strengths. The actor can say what he wants to do and of course does that better than what he doesn’t want to do. There is certainly a tremendous feeling of team spirit on the stage. You never see an actor slacking, however tiny his part, with the result that the play is one long explosion of energy.

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70  Robert Bolt

Question: Did you have the opportunity to discuss your approach to the theatre with anyone? Mr Bolt: No. They don’t want to know your approach. In the entire visit no one asked me a question about England. Which is predictable – we are all brands to be plucked from the burning, we don’t understand and they’ve got it tied up. It’s simply a matter of the rest of the world coming round to seeing that they are right. Yet despite this violent propaganda, I did not see that they are militaristic or aggressive in mood. Immaculately self-righteous, yes, but not aggressive. Their interest in the rest of the world is slight – the Albanians have nearly got it right, the US is the uttermost pole of wickedness, the rest is more or less wrong and the particular refinements of our wrongness are not of much concern. They are, naturally enough, bedazzled and enchanted by what they have done already, done more or less with their fingernails – and it really is a miracle. Question: Did you particularly find China sufficiently stimulating that, if you lived there, you would continue to write? Mr Bolt: Who can answer such a question? I felt extremely torn in my mind. Very enthusiastic about construction work, particularly in the countryside. If I lived in Red China I think what I would like to be more than anything else is an irrigation engineer. Bringing water to this largely barren land, producing food for people who are starving – this must be an almost god-like activity. But to write under this regime would be, for me personally, very depressing. Because I have the individualistic attitude to my work which Western writers tend to have. To have somebody sitting at my shoulder who was not necessarily a writer, dictating to me how the values of my story should be shaped, would, I think, inhibit me from writing altogether. But I don’t know.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

For additional information on the production about the Congo, it is useful to see the paper by Alexander C. Cook, of University of California Berkley, entitled ‘Chinese Uhuru: Maoist Internationalism on the Eve of the Cultural Revolution’. Cook provides fascinating information about the performance and interprets the play in terms of ‘China’s own precarious Cold War situation’ and of an ‘emerging Maoist vision of internationalism’.4 The abstract reads: The Chinese stage play War Drums on the Equator debuted in Beijing in 1965, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Set in the contemporary Republic of Congo (Leopoldville), the play dramatizes the Congo Crisis of 1960-1965 from the perspective of an unemployed worker and his family. The play begins with joyous cries of ‘Freedom, Independence!’ to celebrate the departure of the Belgian colonialism, but ends with furious calls of ‘Uhuru, Uhuru!’ to repel US imperialism. Along the way, the Congolese people discover the treachery of the UN’s phony philanthropists and learn the bitter necessity of protracted guerrilla war: ‘Independence is not to be had for the asking, / Men who want freedom / Must take up arms and fight! / Your own black hands / Must free the black continent.’

He moved towards a conclusion with: Though set in the Congo, the play dramatized China’s own precarious Cold War situation: Chinese actors on the stage – some in blackface and tribal clothes, others in whiteface and Western suits – were playing out the struggle for a new world order. War Drums articulated an emerging Maoist vision of internationalism, wherein Third World struggles for national liberation meant cooperative resistance against the dual imperialist forces of Soviet revisionism and American capitalism.

[ JG] NOTES 1 www.sacu.org/magazine/SACUNewsV1N2.pdf (accessed 9 June 2016). 2 In some sources the title is rendered War Drums on the Equator, on occasions Battle Drum at the Equator or in Zaire or in the Congo. 3 These are now known as Xi’an and Luoyang. 4 See https://ahorbinski.dreamwidth.org/13749.html (accessed 9 June 2016).

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The Post-Colonial Imaginary & Politics of Representation in the Macao SAR The Teatrau and the (re)emergence of ‘lusofonia’ under Chinese stars ISABEL MARIA DA COSTA MORAIS

Staging ‘lusofonia’ in the Macao SAR Macao, a territory composed of a peninsula and two islands in southern China was a Portuguese colony from 1557 to 1999. Since the liberalisation of the gambling industry in 2002, the city has been marketed as an exciting tourist centre in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with a distinctive Portuguese quality. Its potential is unequivocally asserted on the official government website of Macao SAR where we read: ‘[Macao] is the only Chinese city capable of developing special relationships with the Portuguese-speaking countries on four continents.’1 Reasons for Macao’s uniqueness are worth itemising. First, the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration ensured a smooth transfer of Macao’s sovereignty to the PRC in 1999. This guaranteed that all the powers, the way of life and the Portuguese language in place during the colonial period would remain unchanged for the next fifty years (until 2049). In addition, the city’s historic centre was given UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2004 on the grounds of the importance of its Sino-Portuguese legacy. Since then, the role of Macao SAR as a ‘meeting point, bridge or platform’ between China and lusophony has become increasingly visible through a welter of initiatives (Yang 2013; Mendes 2014). The Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for 72

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Post-Colonial Imaginary & Politics of Representation: Macao  73

Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries, or the ‘Macao Forum’, is the most representative institution in Macao concerned with strengthening the economic and cultural cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking world.2 Established under the tutelage of the Ministry of Economy of the PRC in Macao during 2003, it is inspired by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). What makes the case of Macao particularly interesting is the fact that the concept of ‘lusofonia’ is very controversial among Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs). This is partly because it has been associated with the uncritical celebration of notions of Portuguese racial democracy and of what the controversial Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre termed ‘lusotropicalism’ (1933). It is argued that such discourse of exceptionalism entitles Portugal, even after decolonisation, to play an influential role in her former colonies. This position is embodied in the official line propagated by the intergovernmental political alliance known as Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, or the Community of PortugueseSpeaking Countries, CPLC or CPSC), established in Lisbon during 1996. In the realm of theatre festivals in the PSCs the insistence on the use of ‘lusophone’ designators has been controversial except in Brazil. In her study of theatre festivals, Christina McMahon notes that the organisers of the Mindelact International Theatre Festival (2007, Cape Verde) omitted all references to lusophone countries from its statutes, while Mozambique’s now extinct Festival d’Agosto also rejected lusofonia (McMahon 2014: 78). In his essay on theatre and social mobility in Mozambique, Luís Madureira refers to complaints from two local professional groups, Mumtumbela Googo and M’beu, that Mozambiquan artists were never consulted by Cena Lusófona (the Lusophone Scene) based in Portugal in the organisation of a theatre festival in Mozambique in 1995 (Madureira 2013: 57-8).

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74  Isabel Maria da Costa Morais

It is within this context of divergence regarding the notion of lusofonia that Macao’s theatre festival, Teatrau, appears as the most paradigmatic shift. I see it as part of a much wider process through which China’s soft power strategy is leading to a ‘festivalisation’ of lusofonia in Macao (Hu Jintao, 2007). According to the academic literature a festivalisation process involves the transformation of a city into a specific symbolic space using a common image or theme in order to reposition the city as a cultural product (Harvey 1989). On the basis of this, I suggest that Macao has been transformed as a whole into the symbolic stage for a continual and thematic-dominant stream of events organised as part of the reaffirmation of the city’s lusophone image. In fact, lusofonia has increasingly become the catchword to ‘brand’ recent cultural events aimed at generating a new and positive perception of Macao as a unique urban space in China. An example of this process of festivalisation has been the Lusofonia Festival itself that is held annually in Macao on 10 June, that is on Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades Portuguesas (Day of Portugal, Camões, and the Portuguese Communities, or Portugal’s National Day). This is celebrated world-wide by the Portuguese diaspora and recognises the role played by settlers from Portugal and its former colonies. Since the Chinese took over in 1999, a small-scale outdoor celebration with food stalls and performances by the PSCs has grown and it is now one of the major annual festivals in Macao, attracting about 25,000 people in 2014. The organisation of the festival under the Chinese administration was initially by the Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais (IACM – the Bureau of Civic and Municipal Affairs), and then, after 2005, was in the hands of the Instituto Cultural de Macau (ICM – the Cultural Affairs Bureau) and Direcção dos Serviços de Turismo de Macau (DST – the Macao Government Tourism Office). From 2008 onwards, the Lusofonia Festival has been celebrated at the same time as the Cultural Week of China and the PSCs. The Macao Forum is also a sponsor of the event.

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It is argued that periods of great change – such as the transfer of Macao’s sovereignty – are followed by periods of ‘invented tradition’ that are often expressed through culture and the arts and that these ‘seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past’ (Hobsbawm 1983: 1). At the same time, the Lusofonia Festival has become emblematic of a common rhetorical trope and the construction of a ‘lusophone’ atmosphere. This is consolidated because of its setting that is associated with ‘sites of memory’ that perpetuate the Portuguese legacy in Macao (Nora 1989). The festival, that includes major events, has links to music, food, handicraft/ arts fairs, exhibitions, dance shows and music concerts, and has always been held in an old village, a heritage-listed site, on Taipa Island. The cobblestone precinct includes an old church, a public square, five Portuguese-style colonial houses converted into a museum, a lakefront promenade and an open-air amphitheatre in which live entertainment from China, Macao and other PSCs is showcased. Each of Macao’s ten accredited Portuguese-speaking associations, including those with links to Goa, Daman and Diu (India), set up food and handicrafts stalls every evening.3 The signs, sights and sounds of the cultural offerings enliven the streets and, with billboard advertisements, banners, and street enter­tainers, contribute to presenting Macao as a city of luso­fonia in China. On its trilingual website, the Macao Forum states: ‘The aim is to showcase Chinese and Luso­ phone culture to Macao residents and tourists to the city, thus strengthening the role of the territory as a platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.’4 Over the years, the Lusofonia Festival and the Sino-Portuguese Cultural Week have expanded to include venues on the peninsula and it now culminates in a parade of performers along the streets of Macao’s Historic Centre. In relation to our thesis regarding the ‘festivalisation of lusofonia’, it can be seen that the lusophone festival framework has expanded under China’s influence. From the original

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76  Isabel Maria da Costa Morais

‘one’ festival formula, the Lusofonia Festival has undergone significant organisational changes. In 2008, in collaboration with the Macao Forum, the Lusofonia Festival became ‘twoin-one’ – with the additional attraction of the Cultural Week involving PSCs. Since 2014, it has become a ‘three-in-one’ event with the inclusion of the theatre showcase from the PSCs, Teatrau. This is run by the Portuguese director of the Instituto Português no Oriente (IPOR – Portuguese Institute of the Orient) and sponsored by the Macao Forum. This festivalisation in post-colonial Macao has required ‘rebranding’ for the regional and global tourist market, and this has involved the creation of new ‘stories’ to replace existing, local narratives. The Teatrau event described below fits into the larger project of turning Macao into a cultural destination with ‘lusofonia’ as its signature attraction.

A brief overview of Macao’s local theatre scene Macao has long boasted a vigorous tradition of local theatre. Under the patronage of the Jesuits, religious dramas have been staged in churches since the sixteenth century, and these have existed alongside non-Western theatrical forms such as the traditional Chinese opera. During the nineteenth century, the Macanese (local Eurasians) introduced the Patuá (local Creole) theatre, and contributed to the opening of the Dom Pedro V Theatre (the first Western theatre built in China, 1858). At the same time, Chinese Yue opera continued to be popular together with puppet shows and this culminated in the construction of the Theatre Ch’eng P’eng (Qinping Xiuuan) in 1875.5 During the 1930s and on into World War II, when mainland China and Hong Kong were occupied by the Japanese, Macao became a haven for Chinese refugee artists, and the theatre flourished.6 After the War, Portugal’s vaudeville musical troupes visited during what was ‘the off-season’ in Lisbon, and local amateur drama groups from cultural associations and Catholic circles staged plays.

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Between 1992 and 1999, a Portuguese-speaking amateur theatre group, Min Kói (Mask), under Fernando Sales Lopes, staged three plays, notably Igor Stravinsky and C. F. Ramuz’s musical play The Soldier’s Tale, in three languages (French, Portuguese and Chinese).7 Today, there are a number of theatre troupes and drama practitioners in Macao, partly subsidised by the government. These include the Hiu Kok Drama Association (created in 1975), The Theatre Farmers (created in 2000) that regularly performs at local Chinese secondary schools), and the Point View Art Association (created in 2008), that it is undoubtedly the most internationally oriented company.8 The founders and members of this group come from various countries, including Macao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China and South Korea, with guest artists invited from China and, indeed, around the world. Their experimental productions present non-text-based multimedia performances that rely heavily on visual and musical effects, and integrate painting (Chinese ink art) and dance with poetry. The troupe has been well received in Asia, in Europe – for the European Capital of Culture programming stream (2012), the Edinburgh Festival (2014) and in Portugal – and in Africa (the 19th Mindelact Festival in Cape Verde). In the UK, it was considered the best Chinese theatre company and their Made in Macao series of three performances (Playing Landscape, Puzzle the Puzzle and Picnic in the Cemetery) was ranked the sixteenth best from among some four thousand shows performed at the Edinburgh Festival.9 Picnic in the Cemetery was awarded five stars – the maximum possible – by the British Theatre Guide. At Mindelact 2013, Playing Landscape was awarded the International Theatre Homage Award by the President of Cape Verde.10 Moreover, since 2013, the Point View Art Association has also been involved in the organisation of the annual BOK Festival that brings together all the local theatre groups.11 Founded in 1993, Doce Papiaçam di Macao (Macao’s Sweet Talk) has been revitalising the Patuá theatre tradition

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78  Isabel Maria da Costa Morais

and, in 2002, this performance convention was listed as part of Macao’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.12 The troupe presents new plays at the Macao Arts Festival, performs regularly for the Macanese diasporic communities at one or other of the eleven Houses of Macao scattered world-wide, and has staged productions at the International Theatre Festival of Iberian Expression (FITEI) in Portugal (1996). Reasons for its success include its original combination of comic plots about contemporary social issues with performances by a cast of amateur and professional actors who are representative of almost every community – including Macanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Filipinos and Indians. Performances are sur-titled in three languages: Portuguese, Chinese and English. More recently, in 2009, Artfusion created by Laura Nyogeri aims to develop projects in theatre, dance, music and circus in Portuguese, Chinese and English, in collaboration with Fernando Sales Lopes and Hiu Kok Drama Association.13 Despite the fact that the local theatre scene has shown resilience and is subsidised by the government, Macao has no school of dramatic art and – because of increased property rental values – no affordable rehearsal space. Plays are put on in various venues including the lofts of what used to be industrial buildings, in schools, university auditoria, and – during the annual Macao Arts Festival – the city’s cultural centre.14 Unfortunately, performances have only rarely been sur-titled. As a result – with the exception of Macao’s Sweet Talk and the Point View Art Association productions – the performing medium of local Chinese theatre programmes is Cantonese (a provincial dialect spoken by the overwhelming majority of Macao’s population), and this discourages speakers of other languages (including Putonghua or Modern Stan­dard Mandarin, the national language of PRC) from attending. The development of these separate performing arts reflects the complexity of the cultural dynamics of Macao’s communities and the impact of linguistic barriers.

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Macao’s Teatrau, 2014 and 2015 The first Teatrau was held in the 378-seater auditorium of the Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) in October 2014, and the second was held the following year in the nineteenthcentury Dom Pedro V Theatre that has a seating capacity of 276. By using Macao’s emblematic theatre on that occasion, Teatrau established a subtle dialogue between the festival space of the performance and the architectural vernacular of the city. Both years, access to performances was free, and pro­ grammes included mainstage shows from the PSCs. In 2014, four countries were represented: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, and in 2015 there were five: East Timor, Macao, Mozambique, Portugal and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. The productions attracted audiences totalling 400 in 2014 and 588 in 2015 – representing a significant 47 per cent increase.15 At each festival there were two performances by each theatre group, making a total of eight and ten public shows respectively; each performance lasted approximately one hour. In addition to performing, the visiting artists led drama workshops with local associations and these were attended by a total of fifty participants.16 Visitors also had meetings with pupils and students at schools and universities and these were attended by more than 800 young people and twenty teachers. Most of the companies that participated in Teatrau (2014, 2015) had already taken plays to other theatrical events in the so-called ‘lusophone’ circuit. However, for Os Criativos (São Tomé and Príncipe), and the UNLT theatre group (East Timor), Teatrau provided an introduction to the international theatre scene. In 2014, the Grupo Teatral Henrique Artes from Luanda staged The King’s Orphan (Orfã do Rei, 1996) a compelling monologue written by Angolan dramatist José Mena Abrantes (b. 1945) and awarded several international prizes. Set in the sixteenth century, it reflects a time when the Portuguese

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Crown would send the so-called ‘King’s Orphans’ from the royal orphanages in Portugal to marry strangers who, in return for a dowry, colonised Angola. The passionate monologue, delivered in Macao by Mel Gamboa, includes a powerful letter addressed to the King in which she expresses her anxiety about leaving for unknown lands. This can be seen as breaking the silence often associated with women in the Portuguese Empire.17 The Brazilian troupe EmCarta and Júlio Adrião Produções staged Dario Fo’s satirical monologue A Descoberta das Américas (The Discovery of the Americas) that centres on a story inspired by Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the New World. This tragic-comic drama portrays a downtrodden Spanish renegade’s reversal of fortune, as he survives, first, the Inquisition and then a shipwreck. In the course of his many adventures, he befriends Native Americans in order to drive the Spanish conquerors from their lands. In staging this, the versatile Brazilian actor Júlio Adrião played a cast of varied characters, animals and inanimate objects that made demands on all his corporeal and histrionic resources. The play surpassed the expectations of many of those who attended performances and a local reviewer described it as one of the highlights of Teatrau 2014.18 The production Adão e Eva (Adam and Eve), staged by the Cape Verdean theatre group Skinada (‘Impulse’ in local Creole), is a successful free adaptation of a biblical text by the multi-talented Mário Lúcio, who was formerly Minister of Culture in Cape Verde.19 The poetic drama focuses on Adam and Eve’s remorse after being expelled from the Garden of Eden and ends with the birth of the couple’s first child, at which point the script moves from despair to a stronger message of hope for all humankind. Both the reviews in the local media and the reactions of the audience suggest that this play was regarded as one of most creative and innovative at the festival. Its poetic, dramatic atmosphere and the appealing choreography that incorporated cultural markers (Creole music and dance) were much appreciated.

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The Group Theatre of the Oppressed (GTO), from Guinea-Bissau, uses Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre that incorporates audience intervention to prompt debate about choices, possibilities and circumstances. In 2014, an ensemble of four employed an energetic approach to stage Sintadu (Neigh­bourhood Harmony), a Forum Theatre presentation about land-ownership, disrespect for friendship and violation of ancestral traditions among the peasant communities in Guinea-Bissau’s tambancas (villages). At the conclusion of the drama, the actors and actresses looked out into the audience and invited interventions. Members of the audience were responsive and, first, interventions and then discussions were forthcoming. The issue of land-ownership has repercussions elsewhere on the African continent, and is also relevant in times of rapid urbanisation – such as in contemporary China. The novelty of the actor-audience interaction that is a hallmark of Forum Theatre was enthusiastically embraced by the festival crowd, and GTO’s contribution provided a chance to create momentum for cross-cultural exchange within the event.20 Teatrau 2015 opened with the well-established Portuguese company Seiva Trupe staging Eurydice’s Hands (As Mãos de Eurídice) by Brazilian playwright Pedro Bloch. This play centres on a man who leaves his wife and family to follow a femme fatale and pursue a dissolute life that involves gambling in major casinos – including in Macao! When his mistress leaves him, he tries unsuccessfully to regain the love and respect of his family. In the leading role, Rui Spranger took advantage of the performance venue to establish very close rapport with his audience and, at least on the opening night, they showed their appreciation by demanding several curtain calls. The play attracted the Teatrau’s biggest crowd (147 spectators).21 The programme for 2015 also included a bilingual production of A Cegueira I (Blindness). The 45-minute play has a complicated history. Its source texts are the play in English titled A Line by Antony Chan, the playwright and

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Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (the oldest and largest theatre company in Hong Kong) and a Portuguese novel – Ensaio sobre a cegueira (1995, Essay on Blindness) by José Saramago. The novel is evoked twice: the play starts with a quote from the novel projected onto the screen as the sound system plays ‘O Pastorinho’ (Little Shepherd) sung by Amélia Mugeand, and the play ends with a long extract from the novel.22 Both texts reinforced the theme of the play, ‘blindness’ that might lead to the distortion of reality and ultimately to the absurd. Following that, Fernando Sales Lopes (from former Mink Kói), the experienced Billy Hui from the local Hiu Hok Theatre group, and Portuguese Laura Nyogeri (Macau Artfusion) produced a Chinese / Portuguese text with lines spoken in both Portuguese and Cantonese for performance in Macao.23 In accordance with Sales Lopes, the need to keep the running time of the play did not affect the performance time and the main changes were due to the fact that the play had to be bilingual, the actors had to exhibit either Portuguese or Chinese behaviour (also visible in their costumes) and the emphasis on how misunderstandings might turn friendship into tragedy.24 The production was notable for dealing with localised representations of language through an innovative production strategy: Grace Kong, playing Maria, spoke Portuguese while her fellow performer, Endy Leong, spoke Cantonese; Portuguese and Chinese sur-titles were projected. The plot involved two friends, farmers who lived in harmony until they decided to play a game by marking the line between their two parcels of land thus separating all of their personal property. Initially, both characters agreed that the winner would be the one who could successfully invade the other’s territory, and they engaged in battles of lies, uttered threats and employed stratagems. Eventually, however, uncontrolled ambition and avarice led to their complete annihilation. This was a parable about greed and loss, carrying a serious warning about territorial, political and ideological disputes; it was also a cross-cultural collaboration

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that proved successful: it attracted 138 spectators.25 The Mozambican theatre company Companhia de Teatro Lareira Artes presented Sergio Mabombo’s acclaimed A Cavaqueira do Poste (Conversation by the Lamp Post) performed by the playwright and Diaz Santana. The play tackles the global financial crisis and the wealth gap, through two homeless men, Calvino and Tendeu, one visually impaired and the other a double arm amputee) who have been brought together by fate so they can help one another other to survive. Throughout the play, the two men wait by a street lamp for the arrival of a billionaire named Drumond Galaska who has allegedly promised to lift them out of poverty. Galaska never arrives. While waiting, the men talk about social revolutions, global financial crises and other contemporary problems. The set for the play, its circular structure and the tramp characters bear certain similarities to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1949) and the Theatre of the Absurd and, as in Godot, the characters search for a meaning in life while hoping for some kind of salvation. This play succeeded because it was open to a variety of interpretations, some social or political, some particular to Mozambique, with others, including homelessness caused by civil war and the World-Cup-related evictions of poor people, registering on a wider or universal scale. The company Os Criativos (Creatives) from São Tomé and Príncipe presented O Médico (The Doctor), Luce Hinter’s puppet theatre adaptation of Molière’s Médicin malgré lui. (Transcript translated into Portuguese by Brazilian Maria Clara Machado, 1988.) It was presented with colourful scenery, props and characters drawn from contemporary Africa.26 The troupe freely Africanised Hinter’s adaptation of the Molière text portraying the astute revenge of a woman subjected to domestic violence. The actors presented a balanced adaptation that enabled a contemporary audience to appreciate the play’s sophistication and biting sarcasm; it was received with loud laughter and generous applause. The Tomato-Leste from East Timor staged Babalú (Babel),

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a play by Spanish theatre practitioner Mireia Clemente showing that, despite the recent independence of the country, Timorese women are still torn between the pressure of the village patriarchal tradition, which imposes domesticity on all them, and their desire for emancipation through education.27 This theatre group was created under the aegis of the Universidade Nacional de Timor Leste (National University of East Timor, UNTL) and has been performing in schools in collaboration with East Timor’s Commission for the Rights of the Children and UNICEF. Despite its decidedly familybased plot, the play is never tedious. Both female performers are part of a university project that is bringing to light upand-coming young talent.

Conclusion The organisation of the 2015 Teatrau festival was much better than that of 2014, and the audience experience was much improved. Audiences were of various ages and a mix­ture of local Portuguese-speaking residents and nationals. They included members of the local PSC associations, people involved in the arts, students, teachers and lecturers; the actors participating in the festivals supported the work of other groups. One of the criticisms of the first Teatrau was that it did not attract a local Chinese audience, and this was at least partly remedied in the 2015 Festival. Attendance was better, and audiences included diplomatic representatives from Mozambique and East Timor. Cantonese and Putonghua speakers – the latter mostly local students of Portuguese from IPOR and mainland Chinese exchange students from the University of Macau (UMAC), were also present. These audiences expressed their enthusiasm for the programme, particularly for the successful adaptation of Molière’s play.28 Furthermore, the number of participants at the theatre workshops and school meetings increased substantially, and publicity and media coverage were more effectively handled in 2015.

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Regarding the low turnout at the 2014 festival perform­ ances, visiting actors and directors from other theatre groups noted that similar situations existed in their home countries. For example, according to local reports, Mel Gamboa, the Angolan actress, suggested that the low audience turnout in Macao replicated the situation in Luanda where, she indicated, the situation was exacerbated by the lack of theatres and by the high price of tickets (Queiroz, 2014). Actor Júlio Adrião, on the other hand, spoke of very different experiences in Brazil, where, he said, there was a lot of theatrical activity and the performing arts are a major art form – even in the interior. During the 2015 Festival, Mozambican actors emphasised the importance of the possibility of studying drama at university level – this had been introduced in 2008. Support for this development was echoed by the Timorese group.29 There was recognition of elements that are shared by the theatre festivals in PSCs, including the use of the Portuguese language and issues of identity, gender, exploitation, violence and material greed. However, there are also points of divergence and these include narratives and interpretations of the colonial past. It was felt that the impact of the circulation of the theatrical performances in the context of the expanding Portuguesespeaking festival circuit was significant. In fact, the festivals are becoming essential destinations for theatre companies from the PSCs: they are places where groups can stage recent productions, target diasporic lusophone communities and reach broader audiences. By featuring plays by new playwrights or stage adaptations of universal works, the festivals can provide an inspiration for the emergence of new theatre practitioners and for stimulating theatrical trends. Teatrau, both in 2014 and 2015, showed that the festival has potential to reshape Macao’s theatre scene and the socalled ‘lusophone’ space. Its effectiveness will depend on the continuation of adequate funding. All the theatre practitioners interviewed confirmed that they see great future relevance in the theatre festivals from

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PSCs, as troupes can gain increased visibility and make vital contacts by participating in those festivals.30 At the opening of the festival, the Teatrau curator also emphasised the role of the festival in showing that ‘Macau pode ser, que é essa plataforma de encontros, de diálogos, dessas competências interculturais que queremos desenvolver para todos dentro da mesma língua, reconhecendo as nossas diferenças e sobretudo valorizandoas.’ (‘Macao can be (and is) that platform of encounters, dia­ logues, intercultural competences that we want to develop for all inside the same language, (by) recognising our differences and, above all, valuing them’) (Queiroz 2014).31 NOTES 1 Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government, www.gov.mo. www.gcs.gov.mo/files/factsheet/External_EN.pdf (accessed 30 September 2015). 2 Between 2011 and 2014, the Training Centre of the Macao Forum organised a total of eight workshops targeting 712 civil servants and technical staff from the Portuguese Speaking Communities (PSCs), Macao and mainland China. Fórum de Macau, Boletim Trimestral, No. 28,11 November 2014. See www.forumchinaplp.org. mo/training-human-resources (accessed 10 October 2015). 3 The MSAR government supports local associations of friendship with all PSCs – including the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The local associations of the local PSCs (with the exception of the Association of Mozambique) were created after 1999. In addition to their participation in the Lusofonia Festival, these associations celebrate the national days of their respective countries. 4 Permanent Secretariat of Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao), www.forumchinaplp.org. mo/6th-cultural-week-of-china-and-portuguese-speaking-countries-3 (accessed 10 August 2015). 5 Forms of Chinese opera include Peking or Beijing Opera, Sichuan Opera, Huangmei, Ping, Henan, Qinqiang and Kunqu. Yue is sometimes called Cantonese Opera. The theatre building is currently being restored. 6 Zhidong Hao, 2011: 152. 7 Personal interview, conducted by the author, with F. Sales Lopes, 22 April 2016. 8 On Hiu Kok see Yuki Leong, ‘Revitalising Local Theatre Arts: Hiu Kok Drama Association’, www.c2magazine.mo/en/topics/reports-en/brands-en, and for Teatro dos Lavradores, see ‘Espaço criativo em Macau’, www.c2magazine.mo/ pt/uncategorized-pt/2778/2 and www.facebook.com/theatrefarmers.mo (both accessed 19 April 2015). 9 Personal interview conducted by the author with Erik Kuong, Executive Director of The Point View Art Association, 15 October 2015. 10 See British Theatre Guide, www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/picnic-in-the-

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Post-Colonial Imaginary & Politics of Representation: Macao  87 c-c-nova-10547 (accessed 19 April 2015). [For Playing Landscape and this award, see article by Rita M. Rufino Valente that follows this – JG.] 11 Significantly the BOK Festival has explored links between installation art and drama; see ‘Bok Festival’, MCCI, www.macaucci.com/en/content/?id=7959&c atid=141&subcatid=141 (accessed 9 June 2016). 12 See ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’, Museu de Macau, 2012, www.macaumuseum. gov.mo/w3ENG/w3MMsource/HeritageListC.aspx; for background see www. youtube.com/watch?v=JmPYVbKWF70 (both accessed 19 April 2015). 13 See Cláudia Aranda, ‘Workshops multilingues em teatro, dança e circo’, ponto final, https://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/workshops-multilinguesem-teatro-danca-e-circo (accessed 19 April 2015). 14 More recently, the MSAR government released the site of the Old Court Building in the city centre for all kinds of performances and exhibitions; see Jason Leong and Allison Chan, ‘Creative Space in Macao’, www.c2magazine.mo/en/ uncategorized-en/2543 (accessed 10 April 2015). 15 Personal interview conducted by the author with J. L. Neves, director of IPOR, 6 November 2016. 16 Drama workshops dynamised by Júlio Cardoso (Portugal), Diaz Santana and Sérgio Mabombo (Mozambique) integrated 22 young people from the Macau Artfusion project. Personal interviews with the actors, 17 October 2015. 17 For a 1991 production, see A orfã do Rei, www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9I8e AZ2wOQ, (accessed 16 February 2015). For an interview with Mel Gamboa about her experiences in Macao etc., see ‘O teatro serviu desde sempre para influenciar a opinião’, ponto final, 26 October 2014, https://pontofinalmacau. wordpress.com/2014/10/26/o-teatro-serviu-desde-sempre-para-influenciar-aopiniao (accessed 16 February 2015). 18 Queiroz 2014: 41. See ‘A Descoberta das Américas’, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Vfuo55nOZIM, (accessed 12 April 2015). [The fact that both the plays mentioned so far are monologues is fascinating, and may be an indication of one way – towards minimal cast numbers – that international festivals are affecting performances. See two-handers below! JG] 19 The production had been presented at the 2013 Mindelact. See ‘Mindelact Aplaude de pé “Adão e Eva” de Mário Lúcio Sousa’, ASemana, 9 September 2013, www.asemana.publ.cv/spip.php?article91699; ‘Festival Mindelact 2013: “Adão e Eva” é a encenação do texto homónimo de Mário Lúcio Sousa’, http:// videos.sapo.pt/Mm5GoQ9RDFvP2gB7m2Rv; ‘Mindelact: Peças “Adão e Eva” com grupo Skinada’, http://videos.sapo.pt/rzMcBA9AOF8zoZiLoL7j; ‘Teatrau – Sintadu & Adão e Eva’, https://soundcloud.com/jorge-vale-2/teatrau-sintaduadao-e-eva (all accesssed 18 April 2015). 20 The impact of Boal and of Forum Theatre in Africa and Asia is a major topic for research. The fact that Boal worked in Hong Kong (in a theatre workshop and at the International Symposium on the Comparative Development of Contemporary Theatre in Latin America, South Africa, Indonesia, and Britain, held as part of the 1996 Hong Kong Arts Festival) and that Guinea Bissau, as this account shows, took a Forum Theatre piece to China in 2014 – where it was regarded as offering a novel approach – has to be taken into account by those assessing Boal’s influence, South–South collaboration and the pay-offs from lusophone theatre festivals [JG]. For Boal’s presence in Hong Kong see also Lee 1999.

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88  Isabel Maria da Costa Morais 21 Personal interview, conducted by the author, with J. L. Neves, 6 November 2015. 22 See more about Artistic Director Anthony Chan, www.hkrep.com/en/actors/ anthony-chan-2 and The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, www.hkrep.com/en (both accessed 20 April 2015). A Line was also performed by Chinese American Four Seas Players in New York in 1998; see Four Seas Players repertoire at www.4seas.org/repertoires (accessed 10 November 2015). 23 For Art Fusion’s production see ‘Cegueira – Teatro’, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tYyg_ErzXnM (accessed 21 April 2015); for more on ArtFusion and for a glimpse into the Studio City entertainment centre in Macao see Macau Artfusion, Youth Performance Art, www.littlestepsasia.com/macau/articles/ play/macau-artfusion (accessed 11 June 2016). 24 Personal interview with Fernando Sales Lopes, 23 April 2015. 25 Personal interview conducted by the author with J.L. Neves, 6 November 2015. 26 Luce Hinter’s two-act adaptation of Moliére’s play for puppet theatres is titled Un singulier guérisseur (Luce Hinter 1950). Brazilian Maria Clara Machado (19212001), trained in puppet theatre in Paris in the 1950s and, after her return to Brazil, she used Hinter’s transcript, translated into Brazilian Portuguese, for her productions with children at Theatre Tabaldo and in schools (Machado 1980: 2730). Brazilian Portuguese text available at http://juarezfrmno2008sp.blogspot. co.uk/2010/05/texto-para-teatro-escolar.html (accessed 19 April 2015). 27 Mireia Clemente currently works in Dili (Timor) where she has prepared another Timorese theatre group, Arte Moris, for their performance in the International Theatre of PSCs in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has also developed Theatre for Development projects (including Theatre of the Oppressed) with the Theatre Group of UNTL. Mireia Clemente, personal communication, 24 April 2015; see http://dilifestival.com/mireia-clemente (accessed 22 April 2015). 28 Personal interviews, conducted by the author, with IPOR and UMAC students, 17 and 19 October 2015. 29 Personal interviews, conducted by the author, with Diaz Santana e Sérgio Mabombo (Moçambique) 18 October 2015. [Interest in practical theatre at the University of Macau is illustrated by the teaching methods employed by Katrine K. Wong https://fah.umac.mo/news/news-english/performing-shakespeareteaching-literature-through-theatre-practice (accessed 9 June 2016). See also programme directed by Wong and Matthew Gibson, that led to conference on ‘“Theatre of Macao” Eastern and Western Synergies and Imaginations’, November 2015 – JG] 30 Following exposure in Macao, Companhia de Teatro Lareira Artes (Mozambique) was invited to perform in Barcelona. Interview, conducted by the author, with J. L. Neves, 14 April 2015. 31 Translation to English by this author.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Online Sources For Teatrau Programmes, 2014 and 2015

(all sites accessed 27 June 2016) http://ipor.mo/eventos/mostra-de-teatro-dos-paises-de-lingua-portuguesa http://ipor.mo/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/cartaz_outlines-01.png Newspaper coverage can be found in ponto final, for example: https://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/o-teatro-serviu-desdesempre-para-influenciar-a-opiniao https://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/um-palco-do-tamanho-domundo https://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/teatro-que-quer-porportugueses-e-chineses-a-falar-uns-com-os-outros

Newspaper Coverage

See, for example: Fórum de Macau, Boletim Trimestral, No. 28, 11 November 2014, www.forum­ chinaplp.org.mo/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/28-nov-ForumBoletim-LR. pdf (accessed 11 June 2015). Info Diário (Mozambique), ‘Grupo Lareira Artesa caminho de Macau’, 14 October 2015, http://infodiario.co.mz/articles/detail_article/18593 (accessed 27 June 2016). Jornal de Notícias (Mozambique), ‘Macau acolhe mostra de teatro lusófono’, 19 October 2015, www.jornalnoticias.co.mz/index.php/recreio-e-divulgacao/44937-macauacolhe-mostra-de-teatro-lusofono (accessed 27 June 2016). MSN Notícias (Portugal), ‘Mostra de Teatro lusófono em Macau arrancou hoje com Seiva Trupe’, 16 October 2015, www.msn.com/pt-pt/noticias/video/ mostra-de-teatro-lus%C3%B3fono-em-macau-arrancou-hoje-com-seiva-trupeeditado/vp-AAfvMba (accessed 27 June 2016). Notícias ao Minuto (Portugal), ‘Mostra de Teatro lusófono em Macau arrancou hoje’, 16 October 2015, www.noticiasaominuto.com/cultura/469349/mostra-deteatro-lusofono-em-macau-arrancou-hoje (accessed 27 June 2016). O País (Mozambique), ‘Grupo Lareira Artesa caminho de Macau’, 14 October, 2015, http://opais.sapo.mz/index.php/cultura/82-cultura/38066-grupo-lareiraartesa-caminho-de-macau.html (accessed 27 June 2016 ). Sapo (Portugal), ‘Mostra de Teatro lusófono em Macau arrancou com Seiva Trupe’, 16 October 2015, http://videos.sapo.pt/YnQ0MsqjK5OqkEn80Du2 (accessed 27 June 2016). Xinhua, ‘Hu Jintao Calls for Enhancing “Soft Power” of Chinese Culture’, October 15, 2007, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/15/content_6883748. htm (accessed 20 August 2015).

Books, Journals

Freyre, Gilberto (1956 [1933]), The Masters and the Slaves: A study in the development of Brazilian civilization [Casa-grande & senzala] 2nd edn, trans. Putnam, S. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press). Harvey, David (1989), ‘From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The trans­forma­

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90  Isabel Maria da Costa Morais tion in urban governance in late capitalism’, Geografiska Annaler, vol. 71, no. 1): 3-17. Hinter, Luce (1950), Pan! Pan! Pan! Trois pièces pour marionnettes (Paris: Collection Feu et Flamme, Éditions Fleuries). Hobsbawm, Eric (1983), ‘Introduction: Inventing tradition’, in Hobsbawm, E. and Ranger, T. (eds), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Lee, Robert (ed.) (1999), ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds: Incorporating the edited papers from the Hong Kong Arts Festival International Symposium 1996’, Performing Arts International, vol. 1, part 3. Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Government, www. gov.mo, www. gcs.gov.mo/files/factsheet/External_EN.pdf (accessed 30 September 2015). Machado, Maria Clara (1980), Biblioteca Educação e Cultura, vol. 7, ​Rio de Janeiro: Bloch: FENAME, 27-30. Madureira, Luís (2013), ‘Where “God is Like a Longing”: Theater and social vulnerability in Mozambique’, in Becker, F., Hernández, P. and Werth, B. (eds), Imagining Human Rights in Twenty-First Century Theater: Global perspectives (New York: Palgrave Macmillan). McMahon, Christina (2014), Recasting Transnationalism through Performance: Theatre Festivals in Cape Verde, Mozambique and Brazil (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). Mendes, Carmen Daniel C. (2011), ‘O Papel de Macao nas relações da China com o mundo lusófono’ [Macao in China’s relations with the lusophone world], Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_ serial&pid=0034-7329&lng=en&nrm=isol, www.xiconlab.eventos.dype.com. br/resources/anais/3/1307040274_ARQUIVO_Artigo_CONLAB_CAM_ Daniel.pdf (both accessed 10 August 2015). —— (2014), ‘Macau in China’s relations with the lusophone world’ (‘Macao nas relações da China com o mundo lusófono’), Revista Brasileira de Política InternacionaHYPERLINK http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid= 0034-7329&lng=en&nrm=isol, vol. 57, no. spe Brasília. Nora, Pierre (1989), ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’, Representations no. 26: 7-24. Nye, Joseph S. (2004), Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs). Queiroz, Filipa (2014), ‘Estamos A viver um bom momento de teatro lusófono’, Revista Macau, 10 Dezembro: 41, www.revistamacau.com/2014/12/10/culturaestamos-a-viver-um-bom-momento-do-teatro-lusofono (accessed 28 May 2015). Wang Yang (2013), ‘Wang Yang announces eight new measures to support the development of Portuguese-speaking Countries’, Portal of the Government of the Special Administrative Region of Macao, http://portal.gov.mo/web/guest/ info_detail?infoid=277631 (accessed 28 November 2013). Zhidong Hao (2011), Macau: History and Society (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press).

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China–Africa Relations at the Mindelact Theatre Festival, São Vicente, Cabo Verde RITA M. RUFINO VALENTE

An unexpected encounter Since 1995, Mindelo, a port city in the northern part of the island of São Vicente in Cabo Verde (the Cape Verde islands), has been the setting for an annual theatre festival, Mindelact. The Festival started as a local project, but since 1997 it has had an international dimension and is now appropriately known as the ‘Festival Internacional de Teatro do Mindelo’ (International Theatre Festival of Mindelo). In 2013, the Festival broke new ground by giving prominence to an Asian theatre company, the Point View Art Association from Macao. To celebrate their presence at the Festival, Point View Art was asked to perform on the closing night, and it is this closing night that I wish to subject to close scrutiny. The company presented Playing Landscape, an inter­ disciplinary piece built up from the layering of dance, theatre, music, paper, ink, and multimedia art. The 60-minute perform­ ance enveloped the spectators in a dream-like environ­ment through which the company explored rural / urban landscapes and tradition/ modernity. As part of a reflection about the notion of modernity vis-à-vis the passage of time, the piece also referred to the arrival of Europeans in China, and used the power of imagination to bring the past into the present. At one point, two performers, a man and a woman, positioned downstage right, shaped a large piece 91

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of grease-proof paper into what I took to be a bird looking over a landscape from the top of a hill. The performers then turned their backs to the audience to gaze at the large screen that was also made from grease-proof paper and had been placed upstage. The looming shadow of a performer who seemed to be manipulating some sort of material between hands and knees appeared on the screen and the soothing voice of a woman could be heard saying: Sailors and conquerors from long… long time ago/ bring things from distant shores / Things that had never been seen, or heard of. / The world … le Monde … o mundo, del mondo … begins to grow, / and grow / larger and larger / And now, in this century … those things from the past can break like fragile/bones. / Crumble, /crumble with the merest touch, / but we can re-enchant them, / bring them / into life / a single thought /a breath. (Point View Art 2015)

Because of the lack of ‘characters’ and of dialogue some spectators questioned whether Playing Landscape could be considered theatre. However, the audience was impressed and, on the closing night of the festival, gave the performers a standing ovation. After the performance, in the presence of members of the Cabo Verdean government and representatives of the government of Macao, the President of Cabo Verde, Dr Jorge Carlos Fonseca, presented the visiting company with the Mindelact Merit Prize.2 By way of a reciprocal gesture, the company gave Dr Fonseca a painting. The ceremony continued with a speech of thanks – delivered in Portuguese by the Toronto-based composer Njo Kong Kie – that emphasised the relevance of cultural exchanges between Macao and Cabo Verde as an opportunity for ‘enriching a common history’. This was followed by a speech from Dr Fonseca who praised the hard work of the festival organisers, commended the artists for the high quality of their performances, and drew attention to the presence of the Macanese theatre company as proof of Mindelact’s importance (Presidência da República de Cabo Verde 2013). João Branco, the Artistic Director of Mindelact, responded.

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I knew that Mindelact’s closing night entailed presenting prizes to artists and spectators, and speeches, and that it was sometimes attended by members of the national or local government. However, I was not prepared for the way the programme unfolded on that night. This was because it seemed to me to resemble a diplomatic, rather than an artistic, occasion. Intrigued, I searched online for relevant background, particularly for evidence of recent political and economic negotiations between Macao and Cabo Verde. In the event, I found various news articles documenting the signing of cooperation agreements in the period after 2010 (Ponto Final 2010, Revista Macau 2012, Cabral 2013, Helder 2013, Ponto Final 2013, 2014). The diplomatic exchanges at the Festival sparked my interest in investigating the political and economic implications of the presence of Point View Art at Mindelact. Beyond that I became fascinated by ways in which small, not-for-profit theatre festivals in African Portuguese-speaking countries mobilised – and are mobilised by – narratives of nationhood, post-colonialism and transnationalism. The participation of Point View Art at Mindelact allows us to examine how festival organisers, artists, and sponsoring institutions use theatre festivals such as Mindelact to position themselves within imagined transnational cultural, economic and geopolitical realms.3 By their positioning, they produce new narratives that, especially in the case of African and Asian Portuguese-speaking countries, replace memories of the colonial past. Despite experiencing distinct decolonisation processes, the African Portuguese-speaking countries and Macao share the fact that their independence from Portugal took place only in the last third of the twentieth century.4 In this paper, I hope to show that festivals such as Mindelact, which take place in and gather together artists from lusophone countries, produce webs of reciprocity.5 Furthermore, I argue that the festivals sustain a new narrative about the colonial past shared by former Portuguese colonies, and suggest that this supports transnational alliances between Portugal’s former colonies.

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Festivals, reciprocity and transnationalism Scholars in the social sciences, in theatre and dance studies have shown how festivals produce a ‘sense of location’ both with governments and with private sponsors through the artists selected and the partnerships established. Other signi­ ficant factors include the social position of their audience, and the spaces where, and times when, festivals take place (Chalcraft and Magaudda 2011, O’Shea 2011, Waterman 1998). Attention has been focused on the ways in which the identity of a place is established and how it is positioned in the global sphere. I suggest that festivals not only make ‘places’ into significant ‘locations’, but they can constitute temporary locations themselves – locations in which professional relationships materialise. It is important that, at festivals, relationships that would otherwise only exist in the virtual world of email and social media networks, become face to face encounters. In this connection, I will suggest that, in 2013, Mindelact became a location of lusophony and of Sino-African relationships. Mindelact confirms a trend established at the turn of the twenty-first century in which festivals came to nurture complex webs of reciprocity among organisers, artists, governments and private institutions, and to operate across borders (see Cremona 2007, Hauptfleisch 2007, Jackson 2011). These webs of reciprocity depend on the circulation of symbolic capital and validation which are produced by the sense of belonging, and by the recognition of belonging to imagined communities (see English 2011). Festivals such as Mindelact allow for the establishment of contacts and the exchange of symbolic capital between participants; they thereby create shared values and experiences. All this promotes a sense of proximity, connection, and belonging that reduces the significance of geographical distance. In order to establish these webs and turn festivals into ‘locations’, festival organisers have to establish institutional partnerships in their countries. They have to tap into and make

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themselves contributors to existing – or new – geopolitical and economic alliances. While festival organisers share with artists the need for these webs of reciprocity to maintain their activity, governments and institutions also need festivals. They need them as gathering places where they can nurture imagined political communities. The participation of Point View Art in Mindelact illustrated the workings of – and the points of contact between – webs of reciprocity and the production of festivals as locations.

Alliances between festival organisers and artists In growing from a regional to an international festival, Minde­lact has reached out to foreign artists and has sought funding from foreign grant-makers. It is currently supported by the volunteer work of the organisers, staff and artists, and by partnerships with, for example, the Cabo Verdean Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Mindelo.6 National and local businesses, media houses and venues are all supportive, as are the European Union, some EU member states (Portugal and France), embassies, cultural centres, foundations and private companies. The governments of Brazil and Angola cover some of the expenses incurred by their nationals participating in Mindelact. Mindelact organisers can mobilise a voluntary workforce of staff and artists and can attract sponsorship from a number of institutions because they have established an international programme. The diverse origins of the artists who perform at the Festival, together with their record as participants in other international festivals, enable Mindelact’s organisers to position their Festival within a transnational performing arts circuit. The international reputations of those they attract means they accrue symbolic capital that makes the project attractive to collaborators and sponsors. The emphasis that Minde­ lact’s organisers put on the participation of Point View Art in the festival illustrated their understanding of this process.

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Point View Art Association Founded in 2008, Point View Art Association is an inter­ disciplinary collective whose performances, as implied by the account above, entail complex technical requirements and involve numerous crew members. The Association has performed in Asia and Europe, and the company arrived in Cabo Verde with the kudos of having been selected to appear on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. By featuring a company with this kind of international record, the organisers of Mindelact laid claim to significant symbolic, cultural and social capital. In press releases disseminated online and in print, the press office highlighted the presence of Point View Art as a sign of the Festival’s quality, and as an indication that it had established itself on the circuit of festivals in Europe, Asia and South America. (See, for instance África21/ Panapress 2013, CenAberta 2013, Dias V. 2013, Jornal Tribuna de Macau 2013). During the closing ceremony (described above and reported in the media) the organisers pointed out how remarkable the festival was in terms of, for example, the commitment of its staff and the extent of its international programme. Mindelact also constituted an example of how artists need small festivals to make the contacts that help them reduce their dependence on government funding – such funding is uncertain and inevitably comes with political, economic and diplomatic ‘strings’. According to Erik Kuong, Point View Art’s producer, Mindelact gave his company the chance to open up their map of contacts and move away from dependence on the Chinese or Macanese governments. Kuong said that Mindelact also enabled him to attend performances by, and have conversations with, artists from various Cabo Verdean islands and from different Portuguese-speaking countries. The festival gave him insight into the differences within Cabo Verdean society and into the cultural diversity of Portuguese-speaking countries. Being in Mindelo at festival time allowed him to establish contact with key individuals, including producers and curators,

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from a variety of lusophone countries. During my interview with him, he said that he hoped to make friends in Cabo Verde, and to learn more about local cultural practices. In other words, he saw participation in the Festival as the first step towards establishing long-term artistic collaborations. (Martins Rufino Valente 2013). Kuong’s observations provided an insight into the relevance of festivals to those working in the performing arts and into the balance that artists have to maintain between their own artistic interests and the political – economic priorities of their sponsors. In addition, his comments directed attention to the way relationships established in the context of a festival demonstrate how festivals create and nurture relationships between the citizens and governments of African and Asian countries. In the next section, I consider how, through reciprocity and the localisation of transnationalism, festivals can become the platform for the production and dissemination of new narratives about the colonial past (what I call the resignification of colonialism). I also suggest that artists, festival organisers, and politicians are using these narratives to justify current collaborations between Africa and Asia in artistic and economic realms.

Resignification of colonialism By promoting the participation of Point View Art at Mindelact in 2013, all involved became accomplices, even if unintentionally, in the process of the ‘resignification’ of the history of Portuguese colonisation in Cabo Verde and Macao. The Festival organisers and artists, together with local and foreign governments cooperated to turn the exploitative and violent colonial past into a positive element of national and regional identity, an identity that validates the post-colonial relationship between the African country and Asia. In addition, the performance was an opportunity

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for China and for African Portuguese-speaking countries to further reinvent the geopolitical alliance created in the 1950s and 1960s under the influence of socialism, non-alignment, and the struggle against Western imperialism.7 The participation of Point View Art at Mindelact allowed the governments of Cabo Verde, Macao and China to disseminate a new narrative about the relationship between Cabo Verde and China through the reframing of the role of Macao. In the coverage of the Festival by the local television show Revista, Point View Art was described as a ‘bridge’ between Cabo Verde and China (Dias M. 2013). In this account, Point View Art became a metonym for Macao, which was itself often referred to as a ‘bridge’ because of its historical role in the relations between China and Portuguesespeaking countries (see, for instance, África Hoje, 1999.) Following the return of Macao to Chinese administration in 1999, the region’s very recent past as a Portuguese colony has been used as a leverage point to validate and promote political and economic relations between lusophone countries. This is illustrated by the cooperation treaties signed between Cabo Verde and Macao during 2013 and 2014. In Recasting Transnationalism through Performance, Christina McMahon has shown how Mindelact and the government of Cabo Verde use transnational relations to align the Festival and the country with the European Union, with West African and Latin American countries – particularly Brazil, and to create a new identity narrative for Cabo Verde. (McMahon 2014: 46-9.) This narrative emphasises the position of Cabo Verde as a mediator between Europe, Africa and America. I suggest that by featuring Point View Art, Mindelact consolidated its position as a platform for the display of Cabo Verde’s cosmopolitanism. Promoting the Macanese company strengthened Mindelact’s position as a partner of the Cabo Verdean government, a development that was confirmed by President Fonseca’s speech at the closing event described above. He maintained that, by bringing Point View Art to Mindelo, the Festival organisers had helped to consolidate his

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country’s position in a modern, global world characterised by ‘pluriculturalism’, a world that Mindelact exemplifies (Presidência da República de Cabo Verde 2013). While the presence of Point View Art at Mindelact served political narratives that attempted to privilege affinities between former Portuguese-speaking colonies, colonialism was barely mentioned. The media, the government of Cabo Verde and the Macanese artists themselves preferred to emphasise the cultural affinities between the two countries, the most visible of which seemed to be the Creole culture that resulted from their contact with Portugal. In the ‘Revista’ programme already referred to, journalist Matilde Dias said that both Cabo Verde and Macao had Creole cultures which are the product of Portuguese colonisation, and she went on to assert that ‘Macaense … é considerado criolo de Ásia’ [the Macanese are considered the Creoles of Asia] (Dias M. 2013). In an item about the closing night of Mindelact transmitted in the evening news for 15 September 2013, it was suggested that colonialism as an historical fact did not have any implications in the present for either Cabo Verde or Macao – apart from the cultural coincidence of creolisation (Oliveira 2013). This seemed to shrink the geographical and cultural distance between Macao and Cabo Verde, but involved disconcerting simplifications and silences. As I mentioned, Kuong indicated that he was curious about the Creole culture of Cabo Verde and excited by his encounter with it. He told me that he became aware of Cabo Verde’s Creole culture while watching the production of The Tempest that premiered at the Festival in which Shakespeare’s play had been transplanted to Santo Antão and adapted to reflect local geography and folklore.8 Kuong observed that the performance made him think about the Macanese Patuá (Patois or Creole), and to reflect that Cabo Verde and Macao had similar historical experiences that had led to different (yet related) cultures (Martins Rufino Valente 2013). Hosts and visitors chose to ignore the very different contexts for Portuguese colonisation in West Africa and the Far East,

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in Cabo Verde and Macao. The Portuguese reached Cabo Verde in 1456 and subsequently found it a useful base for the extensive trading networks they were developing along the coast. In the centuries that followed, the islands played a variety of roles in the ruthless exploitation of the continent, and, during the twentieth century, in the dictatorship of Antonio d’Oliveira Salazar (Prime Minister, 1932-68) they provided administrative personnel to mediate the relationship between Portugal and what had by then become her African colonies. In Macao, by contrast, the Portuguese, who arrived in 1573, established a commercial and then political settlement that had to work with mainland Chinese authorities throughout the centuries. From 1573 until 1862, the Portuguese Crown paid the Chinese Empire a rent tax for land to remain in Macao. The situation was complicated by the fact that the Chinese Empire tried to limit Portuguese domination over Macao by imposing obstacles to the full implementation of Portuguese jurisdiction in the region. The relationship was more clearly regulated from 1862, through the Tratado de Amizade e Comércio entre Portugal e a China (Friendship and Commerce Treaty between Portugal and China) or Tratado de Tianjin (Treaty of Tianjin). Twenty-six years later, in 1888, this agreement was renegotiated and outstanding issues were settled in a treaty signed in Peking that provided the basis for co-existence until 1999. Despite the turmoil of the Republican and Communist Revolutions, Chinese Governments did not contest the Portuguese administration of Macao during that period (Pereira 2010). In addition to smoothing over the very different historical experiences of the two territories, Cabo Verdeans and Maca­ nese at Mindelact chose to ignore the very marked differ­ences regarding the history and current status of Creole as a language in each place. Cabo Verdean Creole (or ‘Kabuverdianu’) resulted from the Portuguese colonial domi­na­tion and the slave trade, and the language consists of sixteenth-century Portuguese mixed with West African languages spoken by the captives and African merchants. In the course of time, words

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and expressions from English and French were introduced into the language, and today, Kabuverdianu is the language spoken in Cabo Verde. How­ever, there is no uniformity: indeed, there are major differences in the grammar and orthography of the language as it is used on different islands – and in the Cabo Verdean diaspora. The differences are so marked and feelings run so high that selecting one variety to be systematised as the national language would have major political implications (see McMahon 2014, Duarte 2003, Meintel 1984). Patuá, spoken in Macao, is considered by some an endangered language because it has fewer and fewer speakers. It consists of a blend of Portuguese with Cantonese and Malayan, and incorporates influences from Hindi, Japanese, and other South and East Asian languages. Its roots are to be found in the sixteenth century and in the relationships between Portuguese men (many of them soldiers or sailors) and local women. The language started declining in the nineteenth century with the enforcement of Portuguese education, at which point Patuá became a language for domestic use, and was spoken mainly by women. Today, only a few people, mainly women over seventy years, speak Patuá (Endangered Languages Project 2014, Ethnologue 2015, Mail & Guardian 2011). At Mindelact, creolisation was taken out of the context in which it had been produced, and was reframed as if the process of creation on both sides of the world had been similar. Both Cabo Verdeans and Macanese, hosts and visitors, chose to emphasise the similarities between their cultures. They used these similarities to prove their proximity to each other and to justify artistic, political and economic alliances. I suggest that this approach to colonisation and lusophony can be considered ‘pragmatic’ and ‘costly’. I think the cost has implications beyond artistic collaboration between African and Asian artists from Portuguese-speaking countries. The ‘resignification’ of the colonial past constitutes an empowering tool for states and for citizens from former Portuguese colonies because it allows for the development of new, post-colonial identity narratives. However, it can

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also produce the opposite effect since it enables systemic oppression. In the case of Portuguese-speaking countries, I suggest that the celebration of Creole culture as a product of the contact between local populations and the Portuguese conceals the fact that creolisation was a violent, colonial strategy. I think the celebration of creolisation serves to bolster lusotropicalism – the discredited theory, initially advanced by Gilberto de Mello Freyre in Casa-Grande and Senzala (The Masters and the Slaves, 1933), that Portuguese colonialism was based on a fraternal understanding of other cultures and was milder than other forms of imperialist oppression (see Arenas 2011, Cahen 2010). The celebration of creolisation silences a much needed discussion among citizens of lusophone countries about Portuguese colonialism. In this context, lusotropicalism is a distraction that impedes understanding of how lusophony has been constructed, and how it contributes, day by day, to the perpetuation of racism and social inequality.

Conclusion In my analysis of Point View Art’s participation in Mindelact, I have attempted to show how the collaboration between African and Asian theatre practitioners and their institutional partners can be approached as a South-South alliance that decentralises political, economic, and cultural circuits from the global North. However, I believe it is vitally important to interrogate these strategies because they contain in themselves the seeds for the perpetuation of systemic oppression originating in colonialism. Collaborations such as that apparent at Mindelact must be constantly scrutinised and assessed. While I believe that artists, festival organisers, and scholars in the fields of performing arts can contribute to establishing new modes of collaboration, they must also examine those new modes critically. I hope that this analysis will encourage further consideration of the politics

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of collaboration between African and Asian performing arts practitioners in the Portuguese-speaking sphere and beyond it. NOTES 1 This article stems from research conducted during my doctoral studies which were sponsored by the Moss Award, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Luso-American Foundation for Development, the International Institute at UCLA, and the UCLA Department of World Arts & Cultures. The fieldwork trip to Cabo Verde in 2013, on which the case study for this article is based, was made possible by the International Institute’s Short-Term Fieldwork Fellowship. I would like to thank the editors of African Theatre for their help in preparing and sharing this article, and the organisers and staff of Mindelact for welcoming me to the Festival. Special thanks to Erik Kuong, the Point View Art Association and others who gave me time in Cabo Verde and who shared materials related to the performance of Playing Landscape. Finally, my deepest gratitude to Brian Quinn and Sharna Fabiano for their unconditional support in all things, and particularly in helping me develop and edit this article. 2 Here I use the translation provided by Christina McMahon. (See McMahon 2014) See also the previous article in this collection and reference to ‘International Theatre Homage Award’. 3 In using the term ‘imagined’ here, I am following Arjun Appadurai who built on Benedict Anderson’s notion of ‘imagined communities’. Appadurai argues that electronic mass media generate ‘communities of sentiment’ that extend the power of collective imagination from the nation state to the transnational and post-national scales (1996: 7). 4 African Portuguese-speaking countries became independent from Portugal between 1974 and 1975, after a thirteen-year war and an extremely disruptive transition process (Lourenço 2014). Macao returned to Chinese administration in December 1999 without open conflict. 5 The adjective ‘lusophone’ derives from the noun ‘lusophony’, which is used to designate Portuguese-speaking countries. The (contested) notion of lusophony implies that the countries that speak Portuguese maintain a fraternal relationship based on a shared historical background and cultural heritage (see Arenas 2011, Cahen 2010). 6 According to the organisers, all the people involved at Mindelact, from the organisers themselves to production assistants and artists, are volunteers. However, the Festival has to pay for the services of a light and sound company from Praia. Artists from abroad often have to apply for funding to travel to the Festival or pay travel expenses themselves. The Festival offers meals, local transport, and hotel accommodation for participants from other countries and islands. Meals are provided for the local volunteer staff. 7 This alliance had found early expression at the Bandung Conference of 1955, referred to elsewhere in this volume. Participants in that Conference included the People’s Republic of China, but only six African countries, viz: Egypt, the Ethiopian Empire, the Gold Coast, Liberia, the Kingdom of Libya, and Sudan [JG].

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104  Rita M. Rufino Valente 8 The production was by the Grupo de Teatro do Cultural Português do Mindelo (GTCCPM) (Theatre Group of the Portuguese Cultural Centre of Mindelo).

BIBLIOGRAPHY África Hoje (1999), ‘Suplemento Macau’, África Hoje: Política, Economia e Cultura, vol. XV, no. 128, iv-xxxiv. África 21/Panapress (2013), ‘Festival internacional de teatro traz a Cabo Verde grupos de quatro continentes’, 4 September, www.africa21digital.com/culturas/ ver/20033989-festival-internacional-de-teatro-traz-a-cabo-verde-grupos-dequatro-continentes (accessed 25 August 15). Appadurai, Arjun (1996), Modernity at Large: Cultural dimensions of globalization (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press), www.faculty.fairfield. edu/dcrawford/appadurai.pdf (accessed 10 June 2016). Arenas, Fernando (2011), Lusophone Africa: Beyond independence (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press). Cabral, Adelina (2013), ‘Cimeira Macau: China disponibiliza cerca de 200 mil contos a Cabo Verde para financiamento projectos na área de económico-empresarial’, http://rtc.sapo.cv/index.php?paginas=13&id_cod=28792 (accessed 25 April 2015). Cahen, Michel (2010), ‘Lusitanidade e Lusofonia: considerações conceituais sobre realidades sociais e políticas’, Plural Pluriel: Revue des cultures de langue portugaise, no. 7, www.pluralpluriel.org. CenAberta (2013), ‘Mindelact 2013: De 5 a 14 de Setembro’, 26 July, www. cenalusofona.pt/cenaberta/detalhe.asp?idcanal=1&id=1200 (accessed 25 August 2015). Chalcraft, Jasper and Magaudda, Paulo (2011), ‘“Space is the Place”: The global localities of the Sónar and WOMAD music festivals’, in Giorgi, L., Sassatelli, M. and Delanty, G. (eds), Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere (London and New York: Routledge). Cremona, Vicki Ann (2007), ‘The Festivalising Process’, in Lev-Aladgem, S., Hauptfleisch, T. and Sauter, W. (eds), Festivalising! Theatrical events, politics and culture (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi). Dias, Matilde (2013), ‘Mindelact: Peças “Playing Landscape” e “Magic Dust”’, Revista part 4, 20 September, www.rtc.cv/index.php?paginas=47&id_cod=27837 (accessed 1 August 2015). Dias, Vanina (2013), ‘Mindelact 2013 traz primeiro Encontro Internacional de Programadores de artes cénicas’, A Semana, 5 September, www.asemana.publ. cv/spip.php?article91546&ak=1 (accessed 25 August 2015). Duarte, Dulce Almada (2003), Bilinguismo ou diglossia? As relações de força entre o Crioulo e o Português na sociedade Cabo-verdiana (Praia: Spleen Edições). Endangered Languages Project (2014), ‘Patuá: Language metadata’, www. endangeredlanguages.com/lang/4744 (accessed 13 January 2016). English, James F. (2011), ‘Festivals and the Geography of Culture: African cinema in the “world space” of its public’, in Giorgi, L., Sassatelli, M. and Delanty, G. (eds), Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere (London and New York: Routledge). Ethnologue (2015), ‘Macanese’, www.ethnologue.com/language/mzs (accessed 13 January 2016).

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China–Africa Relations at the Mindelact Theatre Festival  105 Fernando, Helder (2013), ‘Mário Lúcio Sousa, Ministro da Cultura de Cabo Verde: O desenvolvimento e a cultura’, hojemacau. Gazeta dos Artistas (2015), ‘Performance “Playing Landscape” by Point View Art, Macau’, www.gazetadosartistas.pt/?p=7697 (accessed 4 July 2015). Hauptfleisch, Temple (2007), ‘Festivals as Eventifying Systems’, in Lev-Aladgem, S., Hauptfleisch, T. and Sauter, W. (eds), Festivalising! Theatrical events, politics and culture (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi). Ilhéu, Fernanda (2010), The Role of China in the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries: The Case of Mozambique (Lisbon: Centre of African and Development Studies, Technical University of Lisbon). Jackson, Shannon (2011), Social Works: Performing art, supporting publics (New York and London: Routledge). Jornal Tribuna de Macau/Lusa (2013), ‘“Point View Art”: Homenageada em Cabo Verde’, 4 September, http://jtm.com.mo/local/point-view-art-homenageadaem-cabo-verde (accessed 25 August 2015). Kong Kie, Nje (2015), ‘Music Picnic’, www.musicpicnic.com/kongkie.html (accessed 5 January 2016). Lourenço, Eduardo (2014), Do Colonialismo como Nosso Império, preface Ribeiro, M. and Vecchi, R. (Lisboa: Gradiva). Lusa (2013), Lusa, ‘Festival de Teatro do Mindelo, em Cabo Verde, homenageia Companhia de Macau’, SapoNotícias, 3 September 2013, http://noticias.sapo.cv/ info/artigo/1336035.html (accessed 21 August 2015). Mail & Guardian (2011), ‘Macau’s “Sweet Language” on Verge of Disappearing’, 2 November, http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-02-macaus-sweet-language-onverge-of-disappearing (accessed 13 January 2016). Martins Rufino Valente, Rita (2013), Interview with Erik Kuong. McMahon, Christina S. (2014), Recasting Transnationalism Through Performance: Theatre festivals in Cape Verde, Mozambique and Brazil (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan). Meintel, Deidre (1984), Race, Culture, and Portuguese Colonialism in Cabo Verde (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University). Oliveira, Augusto (2013), ‘Grupo Macau “Point View Art” e Presidente da República encerram 19ª Festival Mindelact’, 15 September 2013, http://rtc.cv/ index.php?paginas=13&id_cod=27693 (accessed 4 July 2015). O’Shea, Janet (2011), ‘Marketing the Local: The Festival of India and Dance Umbrella’, in Hardt, Y. and Stern, M. (eds), Choreographie und Institution: Zeitgenössischer tanz zwischen ästhetik, produktion und vermittlung (Bielefeld: Transcript). Pereira, Francisco Gonçalves (2010), Portugal a China e a Questão de Macau, 2nd edn (Macau: Instituto Português do Oriente). Point View Art (2013), Video of the performance Playing Landscape presented in Praia (Macao: Point View Art Association). Point View Art (2015), Script of the performance Playing Landscape (Macao: Point View Art Association). Ponto Final (2010), ‘Macau e Cabo Verde Assinam Acordo Durante o Fórum’, ponto final, 11 November, http://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/ macau-e-cabo-verde-assinam-acordo-durante-o-forum (accessed 29 September 2013). —— (2013), ‘“Podemos Fornecer Pessoal na Área de Enfermagem”’, ponto final,

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106  Rita M. Rufino Valente 22 August, http://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/podemosfornecer-pessoal-na-area-de-enfermagem (accessed 29 September 2013). —— (2014), ‘Macau Sonda Investimento em Cabo Verde’, ponto final, 29 January, https://pontofinalmacau.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/macau-sondainvestimento-em-cabo-verde (accessed 25 April 2015). Presidência da República de Cabo Verde (2013), ‘Discurso de Sua Excelência o Senhor Presidente da República, Dr. Jorge Carlos Fonseca, por ocasião do Encerramento da 19a edição do Festival Internacional de Teatro do Mindelo Praia, 14 de Setembro de 2013’, http://presidenciadarepublicadecaboverde. blogspot.com/2013/09/discurso-de-sua-excelencia-o-senhor.html (accessed 07 August 2015). Revista Macau (2012), ‘Cabo Verde quer mais de Macau’, 28 September 2012, www. revistamacau.com/2012/09/28/cabo-verde-quer-mais-de-macau (accessed 29 September 2013). Waterman, Stanley (1998), ‘Carnivals for Elites? The cultural politics of arts festivals’, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 22, No. 1: 54-74.

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China Meets South Africa in the Theatre Some recent South African work about China & in China & the Year of China in South Africa, 2015

YING CHENG

Introduction The intensification of China’s involvement in Africa over the last ten to fifteen years has been the subject of close atten­ tion. Major discussions about China-Africa relations have focused on questions of trade, investment, aid and the exploitation of natural resources. In this discussion, the perception that China’s interest is a ‘curse’ has been countered by the suggestion that China is a friend, a cure, a partner, even a saviour. While the economic impact of China has often been bemoaned, the country has sometimes been seen as providing a healthy counter­balance to European and American influences. This position has been articulated by Robert Mugabe, the recipient of the Confucius Peace Prize, who greeted Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on a state visit to Harare at the end of 2015, as ‘true and dear friends of the people of Zimbabwe’. On the same visit, Mugabe said: ‘I am glad that Zimbabwe and China speak the same language on many issues’, and added: ‘We share the same conviction that only a fair, just and non-prescriptive world order, based on the principles of the charter of the United Nations, can deliver the development we all need’ (Agence France-Presse 2015). The debate about China’s economic impact on Africa has tended to drown out consideration of the ways in which 107

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ties are being developed through cultural exchanges; some of these are bland, engineered and barren, others carry hope for cross-fertilisation and growth. Below I look at examples of interactions through theatre between China and South Africa some of which show that a more nuanced discussion about China-Africa relations is taking place. This discussion involves productions and collaborations in the visual and the performing arts. It finds expression in exhibitions and it reflects the mobilisation of powerful cultural agencies, minis­ tries and institutions. Despite a government-heavy presence, it includes roles for individuals, choreographers, directors and writers. In looking at the cultural exchanges and the results – expected and unexpected – that may come from them, it is helpful to keep in mind one of the proverbs Chinua Achebe used to good effect: ‘A man who brings home ant-infested faggots should not complain if he is visited by lizards’. 2015 was the ‘Year of China in South Africa’. In this article, I look at the immediate context for that ‘country year celebration’ and provide an indication of relevant performances in South Africa and China during the last six years, the background to them and the responses to them. In covering relevant ground, I will have occasion to refer to work by Namela Nyamza, Ruth Simbao, Laura Foot, and Brett Bailey in South Africa and to plays by Yael Farber and Athol Fugard performed in China. In Fugard’s (perhaps optimistic) words the productions enabled him to ‘join the exchange of ideas and values between’ China and Africa. Regarding the Year of China in South Africa, I respond to the rhetoric about ‘partnership’ that accompanied the cultural events, and the export of performance traditions. I seek evidence of South African responses to presentations of ‘intangible culture’ and describe collaborations by dancers and puppeteers. The final note is struck by looking at the example of the excerpt from a Chinese/ South African production of War Horse that was part of the closing ceremony of the ‘country year celebration’. That venture brought Chinese puppeteers together with the South African Handspring

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Puppet Company in a partnership that contained promise of fruitful cooperation. I also draw attention to the way the ‘example of War Horse’ has been discussed in the University of Peking where courses in African Theatre are being taught.

Amafongkong and Making Way: Part of the background During the 2011 National Arts Festival held at Grahams­ town, South African choreographer Namela Nyamza pre­ sented Amafongkong with the Adugna Dance Company. Invaluable background to the title is provided by Yoon Jung Park’s paper ‘“Fong Kong” in Southern Africa: Interrogating African Views of China-Made Goods’ (2013). The abstract for that paper provides an explanation of fong kong that sketches in the situation that Nyamza addressed: Goods made in China and sold in Africa in many ‘China shops’ have acquired local names in southern Africa; in South Africa and Lesotho, they are referred to as ‘fong kong’; … ‘Fong Kong’ means ‘made in China’, but it also connotes cheap, low-quality, and counterfeit. [The term] has become so widely accepted that local rap songs, journalists and marketing firms often use it. Even as China continues to be criticized for ‘dumping’ these outmoded, cheap, and copy goods on African markets, Africans are increasingly involved in their importation. In South Africa, large retail chains are the biggest importers of consumer goods from China. (Park 2013)

The title of Nyamza’s choreographed piece responded to China as a manufacturing power that is seeking markets and incor­porating Africa into its economic expansion. Amafongkong was a collaborative production that showcased the skills of Adunga, a company of mixed ability performers from Ethiopia. It explored the possibilities and limits of collabora­ tion, played with stereotypes, spiced comment with humour, and made a statement about China’s conduct that resonated throughout the continent. Indeed, reviewer Hannah Loewenthal suggested that it ‘might just as well be called “China in Africa”’ (2011). Johan Myburg went into some detail about the production, drawing attention to the

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way it commented ‘on the growing expansion of Chinese influence on the African continent’, and describing the performance in such a way as to foreground the sinister sugges­tion that the dancers were marionettes controlled by a master puppeteer. Dressed in silky Chinese robes the Ethiopian dancers mimic the movement of elderly Chinese women shuffling along on incredibly tiny feet. In an overtly coy manner they flirt with the audience, exaggerating customs traditionally connected to the Chinese until they seem to become puppets reacting to strings being pulled by an invisible hand. And the spotlight offers one, right at the back of the stage, a brief glance of a dancer wearing some knock-off sneakers. (Myburg 2011)

He then recorded the final action of the theatre experience that added a last-minute twist: ‘As the audience leaves the theatre, aided by ushers with torches, they pass the cast eating pap and chicken with chopsticks.’ Myburg felt that ‘Nyamza’s light-hearted approach (served) to draw attention to an issue of great concern to some Africans’, and judged the performance ‘gripping and chal­leng­ ing’. Amafong­kong clearly played off widely held perceptions of the way China is interacting with Africa, and the choreographer’s apparently casual approach should not blind one to the sinister dimensions of the material staged or to the disconcerting final image of the cast eating. Further background to the context for the Year of China in South Africa is provided by cultural analyst and exhibition curator Ruth Simbao. In a contribution to the ‘China as curse or cure debate’ in African Arts, she drew attention to the Sinophobic way China was perceived by some and to the Sinophilism of others (Simbao 2012). This perception fed into the exhibition entitled Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China that she curated in June 2012, and that addressed experiences of migration in a world that was being ‘rearranged’. For the first ‘edition’ of the exhibition, Simbao took over several spaces in Grahamstown – the Alumni Gallery, the Provost Prison, Fort Selwyn and the Observatory Museum –

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and involved artists in street performances, interactions and interventions . A second version of the exhibition opened at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg six months later where the performance pieces ‘on video’ included work by Doung Anwar Jahangeer, Hua Jiming, Qin Ga, AthiPatra Ruga, Randolph Hartzenberg and Brent Meistre. The exhibition prompted a reviewer to reflect on the position of China in relation to Africa and on ‘new conversations about cultural diversity’. Once again China’s manufacturing muscle was referred to, as was the current level of debate. A critical example of contemporary social rearrangement is the rise of China on the economic landscape. Rapid change is underway as the ‘old China’ makes way for swift construction, large-scale global reach and multiple variations of hybrid traditions. While revived China-Africa relations have piqued the interest of economists, little cultural under­ standing exists, and Sinophobia is hot on the heels of Afro­phobia. This exhibition seeks ways of opening up new conversations about cultural diversity, social tolerance and human understanding at a time of intense movement and change in the Global South. (Making Way 2012)

Reflecting on the material presented, a critic writing on a Rhodes University site felt able to say that some of the performance projects embedded ‘the action of “making way” in personally, culturally and locally intimate ways’ (media update 2012).1 Issues of Sinophobia were picked up and staged in Lara Foot’s Fishers of Hope (2014) in which the involvement of China in Africa could be linked to that of an ‘inedible alien fish’. That play, set (perhaps) on a lake-shore in Kenya, but embodying a wider dimension, opens with a welcome from a tour guide who complains about the species of ‘inedible alien fish’ which has obliterated the local species and threatens the livelihood of fishermen. Commenting on the Baxter Theatre production, David Fick cut through layers of subtle storytelling to write that the production ‘takes us into a land that has freed itself from the shackles of socio-political colonialism by the British, only to face socio-economic colonialism by the Chinese fifty years later’ (2014). The expression ‘socio-

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economic colonialism’ could have been used in relation to Amafongkong and reminds the audience that this is both a fact of life and a persistent concern. Another production that commented on China in Africa is Brett Bailey’s Macbeth: the opera (2014). Strikingly designed, the production is based on Verdi’s opera and presented by Third World Bunfight. It reflects briefly but tellingly on the role played by super powers and Chinese imports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.2 The complex, provoca­tive production has been seen at several festivals and has already been taken to Asia – to the Gwangju Asian Arts Festival, South Korea (2015). It will be performed in Macao during 2016 in what could potentially be an important encounter for China-South Africa theatre. Some South African plays have already been seen in China. These included a touring production of Yael Farber’s sensational and award-winning Mies Julie that was presented at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts during February 20143. The ‘post-apartheid’ reworking of the drama showed how Farber was writing back to Europe, and continuing the tradition of engaged theatre that was one of the legacies of the decades of struggle against apartheid. The sexualised poster suggested why some regarded the version as sensationalist. Mies Julie was followed during September/October of the same year by a season of plays by the doyen of the South African theatre: Athol Fugard. The Island (1973), My Children, My Africa (1990), and The Train Driver (2010) were put on at the Peng Hao Theatre, Beijing. The composition of the texts spanned more than thirty-five years and represented Fugard’s responses to startlingly different phases in South Africa’s history. Fugard was delighted that his plays were being staged in China, and recorded the following: A message to my Chinese friends Dear friends, let me first of all say how honoured and humbled I am that I have been given the opportunity to share my work with you. I have

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China Meets South Africa in the Theatre  113 always believed that theatre, like all art, is a celebration of the common humanity that links all people and cultures in the world. China is now a hugely significant presence in Africa and the fact that my plays can join the exchange of ideas and values between us gives me, in my 83rd year, immense satisfaction.

Fugard does not spell out the ‘ideas and values’ in this message but they are embodied in his work and life, and prompt thought about the ants imported with the faggots and of the lizards that may, by the law of (un)intended consequences, accompany them. Much of the credit for putting on the Fugard Season must go to Chen Wencong, a ‘director, producer, artist, photog­ rapher, filmmaker and counsellor for at-risk youth’ who is still in his twenties. He is described on the website of his alma mater as having ‘spent two years backpacking around Europe and Asia, and studying glass-making, pottery and painting in Norway’ before undertaking graduate work at Emory University (Atlanta, GA). From this it can be seen that he brought diverse experiences to directing Fugard, to his thinking about the relationship between China and Africa, and to his awareness of the direction in which China is heading. The Island has a capacity to generate discussion about the nature of theatre and, even in a theatre culture that is rooted in non- and anti-naturalistic traditions, this may prove fruitful. It also represents the protest tradition – to use a convenient term – that has contributed a vital strand to the South African theatre. It remains to be seen whether such engaged theatre will be a fruitful source of ideas – or create a space for dialogue – in China. A dramatist of uncompromising artistic integrity, Fugard has persistently contributed to national debates through the powerful medium of theatre. Like The Island, The Train Driver is a two-hander and had its roots in fact: it was prompted by the report that a black woman clutching her three children had thrown herself under a train. It is clearly part of Fugard’s continuing desire to comment on national issues. In this

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instance, he explores the reaction, particularly the sense of guilt, of the Afrikaner train driver. Fugard’s plays have been variously interpreted, speaking to directors and audiences in different countries, and it is intriguing to try to anticipate what they mean to audiences in China. Chen’s interpretation, perhaps his reduction, is worth pausing to ponder, particularly in the light of the teacher/ student interaction in My Children, My Africa, and of the central image of Train Driver. In taking on board Chen’s regret that ‘there are not many free intellectual discussions or dialogues’ in China, it is easy to feel Fugard’s, perhaps unrealistic, hope that his play ‘can join the exchange of ideas and values between us’. In talking about Fugard, Chen reflected on the direction China is moving in and the way the country is being ‘driven’. He said: We chose the safe development, which brings us a thriving economy, but what did we forget? People aren’t passionate about ideas; people believe in money. And Train Driver, what a metaphor – a train running so fast it can’t stop. Who are the nameless people hit on the way? Is anyone trying to find out?

In reflecting on his own country, Chen is quite precise about one of the lessons he thinks South Africa can teach: The magnificent thing South Africa has done for humanity is their ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ movement. People confessed their atrocities and traumas on both sides, and the state recorded this as national history. This is unprecedented. China has had so many different wounds, but we never talk about them, not even in families. Look at it psychologically – those experiences, unexamined, will affect how people raise their kids, how they deal with each other. It’s poison in the blood that never gets filtered. To be an artist in China, [you have to] understand the history, and I think [even] the nation itself will be haunted by these experiences for a long time. (Pellegrini 2015)

Chen has a tiny audience and had difficulties in staging Fugard in Beijing. His resources are puny in comparison with those rolled out by China in Pretoria, Durban and Grahams­­town, but he has contributed to starting a discussion about theatre, and about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He has found a response among students of

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African theatre and it is relevant to note that the literary consultant on his team is a student writing about Fugard for an MA thesis at Peking University. When the plays were performed, the Department of Asian and African Languages and Literatures of Peking University organised a seminar at which scholars, students, and interested members of the public talked through the implications of them. A space for discussion was created. An example of the difficulties Chen experienced is pro­ vided by the fact that one of the three actors in My Children, My Africa was refused a visa and could not take part in the Peng Hao Theatre performance. In this situation – and in the absence of understudy arrangements – Chen himself stepped into the role. For those familiar with the way theatre operated in the ‘bad old days’ in South Africa and the way (politicised) bureaucrats hobbled artists, this anecdote has a sadly familiar ring.

The Year of China in South Africa, 2015 In launching the diplomatic and cultural engagement repre­ sented by the Year of China in South Africa, President Xi Jinping spoke of starting ‘a new chapter in China-Africa cultural and people-to-people exchanges’, and initiated a programme that sought to characterise this ‘new chapter’ by promoting the image of China as South Africa’s ‘partner’ (Xi Jinping 2015).4 Scheduled events included a concert at the State Theatre in Pretoria, the screening of Chinese films, performances of Peking Operas and participation in the 41st National Arts Festival, held in Grahamstown (2015). The first film screened in the Chinese Film Showcase event was appropriately entitled ‘Chinese Partners’, and the organisers of the event repeatedly emphasised that ‘China and African countries [were] good friends, good partners and good brothers facing the same development tasks’ (Chinese Ambassador in

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South Africa Tian Xuejun 2014). The official analysis and rhetoric was insistent in Durban where Chinese officials distributed speeches by the Minister of the Chinese Embassy, Li Song, and by the Chinese Consul General in Durban, Wang Jianzhou. These speeches included the assertion that ‘holding country year celebrations respectively symbolizes the high level of China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership and provides an important platform for the two peoples to enhance mutual understanding, deepen friendship and promote cooperation.’ (Chinese Embassy 2015). The ‘understanding’ and ‘cooperation’ were illustrated by Cultural and Arts Festivals, including Beautiful Tianjin, an exhibition of China’s ’Intangible Cultural Heritage’. The event was heavy with official rituals. It was hosted by the Ministry of Arts and Culture of South Africa, and involved the Ministry of Culture of China, the Chinese Embassy in South Africa, the Chinese Consulate General in Durban, the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Cultural Broadcasting and Television and the Confucius Institute at Durban’s Univer­ sity of Technology (DUT). The rituals involved with cultural engagement are recorded by photographers and key moments that are caught on camera and posted online can be accessed and analysed. The items displayed in the Intangible Culture Heritage exhibition were diverse and included the nine folk arts typical of Tianjin, namely, Yangliuqing woodblock New Year paintings, Yangliuqing paper-cuts, Yi Decheng medicinal snuff, Xu’s Chinese opera helmets, calabash containers, dough figurines, maohou (literally ‘hairy monkey’, tiny humanoid figures made from furry magnolia buds and sloughed off cicada shells), leaf paintings, and the straw weavings and willow weavings of Jingwu Town. (Confucius Institute 2015)

Chinese performing arts were represented by Peking Operas characterised by stylisation, elegance, precision, discipline, panache, and the welding together of several arts. Havoc in Heaven was performed with its classic gongfu athletic dance in which Sun Wukong (Monkey) confronts

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Nezha 哪吒 (a protection deity). The selection policy of the Chinese Government seems to have been against exporting the productions using ‘revolutionary’ opera conventions that emerged during the Cultural Revolution, reflected Mao Zedong’s ideas about political theatre, and were in some cases the work of his wife, Jiang Qing. The presentation and reception of ‘Peking Opera’ were described in an official document that included: In a medley show, the quintessence of Peking Opera was fully shown through magnificent costumes (such as changkao – a helmet, heavybottomed boots and long-handled weapons for a fighting role), diverse facial masks, impressive dances (such as Chinese ribbon dance and flag dance), and fighting performance by wusheng (a male fighting role) and wudan (a female fighting role). In the performance of Where Three Roads Meet: Fighting in the Dark, one actor in black and the other in white fought each other in a very humorous way, which drew rounds of laughter from the audience. The Deep Night by a Peking erhu (a twostringed bowed musical instrument) player accompanied by an orchestra offered the audience a chance to be enchanted by the music of Banqiangstyle Peking Opera (performed in metrical couplets) with its harmonious rhythm and beautiful melodies. In the performance of Autumn River, the performers gave a vivid and appealing portrayal of different characters by simulating the reality through movement-based performance. In the grand finale Havoc in Heaven, the rendering of the Monkey King, the protagonist of wisdom, courage, humor and cuteness brought the whole house down. (Confucius Institute 2015)

Continuing to focus on the performing arts while moving on from Durban, the ‘country year celebrations’ promoted the participation of the Guangdong Provincial Puppet Art Theatre Group in the 41st Grahamstown Festival. In an illustrated article in Cue under the heading ‘Ribbons in Silks and Warriors on Sticks’, Darsha Indrajith, Sarah-Rose de Villiers and Heather Cameron enthused about the show and the interaction between puppets and people. The production included a tale of a fisherman and a sneaky crane, a fire-breathing devil, two sad lovers and a drunken emperor: It was as magnificent to watch the puppeteers perform as it was to watch the puppets themselves. The skill of the performers at conveying emotion

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118  Ying Cheng was nothing short of magical. Towards the end of this captivating show, audience members were invited to play with the puppets and get a feel for what it takes to be a world-class puppeteer manipulating ribbons of silk and warriors on sticks. (Indrajith et al. 2015)

The inclusion of interaction between people and puppets may have been intended to dramatise the aspirations to partnership and cooperation that featured in the diplomatic rhetoric. But it is a situation that is capable of various inter­ preta­tions.5 A number of productions in the Year of China in South Africa included collaborations between Chinese and South African performance companies. Most of these were ‘collages’ that lacked genuine dialogue or genuine interaction: the national strands remained separate. The production of Swan Lake was a case in point. The venture brought twenty-one dancers from the Liaoning Ballet of China to Johannesburg in April 2015, where they joined forces with Joburg Ballet and a cast that included Brazilians, Cubans and Americans. Commenting somewhat heavy-handedly on the symbolism of the partnership, Dirk Badenhorst, CEO of Joburg Ballet, said the group of dancers from China were ‘symbolic of the 21 years of democracy being celebrated … in South Africa’. He added: We are honoured to be partnering with the contingent of dancers from the Liaoning Ballet to mark the Year of China in South Africa. Our ties with the international ballet community, and in this case with the Liaoning Ballet, help us to achieve ever higher standards in our vision of presenting Joburg Ballet as a world class African ballet company. (Joburg Ballet 2015)6

Critical reception of the production included acknow­ ledgement of Badenhorst’s role in maintaining the position of ballet in a post-1994 dispensation climate in which the privileged position previously enjoyed by Europe-derived arts was being challenged. However, criticism of leading dancers suggested that there were shortcomings in the performances. Pinto Ferreira’s review carried by Independent Online (South Africa) included the following: ‘Yu Chuanya as

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Odette-Odile and Ma Ming as Prince Siegfried impress with commendable technical prowess, but certainly disappoint with lacklustre performances’ (Ferreira 2015). It may be that these somewhat ‘rigid’ collaborations will facilitate fruitful follow-up dialogues between those involved. When I asked Zheng Wen, culture counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in South Africa, about the joint project he said he considered it one of the most important elements in the Year of China in South Africa. It was certainly striking that two very different operations, one state owned, the other a private company, were able to work together. To ensure better exposure, the Liaoning Ballet added extra shows to their scheduled performances so that, in addition to Swan Lake, they also put on Jasmine Flower from their classical Chinese repertoire. The future holds considerable promise since Joburg Ballet and the Liaoning Ballet have drawn up a Memorandum of Understanding about long-term cooperation. This document was signed by Iain MacDonald (Artistic Director, Joburg Ballet), Qu Zijao (Director, Liaoning Ballet), Dirk Badenhorst (CEO, Joburg Ballet), John Mogashoa (Director of International Relations, SA, Department of Arts and Culture), Xu Hong Ying (Deputy Minister of Culture in Liaoning Province, China) and Zheng Wen (Counsellor, Cultural Affairs, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in South Africa). Cape Town was also a venue for a collaborative dance venture, a thirty-minute performance entitled Echo. This was choreographed by Johannesburg-born, Brussels-based Moya Michael who worked with dancers from Jin Xing Dance Theatre, Shanghai. Michael spoke about working in China and about challenging expectations. She said: I wanted to work with women because of all the stereotypes of Chinese women who are seen as being subservient. I wanted to show the strength of women. The seven women dancers (in Echo) all look very beautiful and elegant. But when they move it’s just raw power. (SmartShanghai 2014)

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The focal point of this piece is a group of women, occupying space. Each of the performers has an individual story that is intertwined with the group, yet all these women have their own voice. This is not a form of isolation. Recognition is placed on the female gaze and specifically on how change can be experienced through each of their lives (Kamaldien 2015). Michael’s work and this production make an illuminating comparison with Nyamza’s experience and Amafongkong in several respects. These include the operation of strongminded South African choreographers whose training includes expertise in European dance in collaboration with performers from other traditions.

The complexity of collaboration: The case of War Horse The closing ceremony of the Year of China in South Africa was held in December 2015. It was part of a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) event and involved the presidents of China and South Africa as well as several other African heads of state. As might have been expected in view of the programmes described above, groups presenting ‘traditional’ genres took part. There were, for example, martial arts (performed by both Chinese nationals and South Africans), acrobatics and classical dancing. There was also a more nuanced offering: an excerpt from War Horse performed by actors from the National Theatre of China and from the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. This performance drew attention to a major and sustained interaction between artists in the two countries that had its origin outside the sometimes questionable ‘partnership’ dialogue that characterised the Year of China in South Africa. War Horse, it might be remembered, was first staged in 2007 at the Olivier Theatre in London and then moved to the West End (2009) where it won a raft of awards. Many of these awards reflected the power of the remarkable puppets,

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the War Horses, at the centre of the production. These had been created by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. In August 2011, Li Dong, a producer with China’s National Theatre, was greatly impressed by the London pro­ duc­tion and determined to take it to China, or to put it another way to create a ‘Chinese version’ with a Chinese cast and crew. In 2013, he returned to London to discuss a major collaboration between the two national theatres and firmed up a proposal to create a Mandarin War Horse. Preparations were very thorough. For example, co-directors Wang Tingting and Liu Dan, puppetry director Liu Xiaoyi, and a team of technicians travelled to London in January 2014 for training. Chinese puppeteers were selected and each was given a handbook entitled How to Think Like a Horse. In addition each had to live on a farm for two weeks observing how horses moved and breathed (Chen Jie 2015). The translation of the text into Chinese involved established specialists, and the rehearsal period, under director by Alex Sims, was protracted. When, in September 2015, the Chinese version of War Horse opened at Beijing’s National Theatre, it provided a model for theatrical collaboration. While it shared some elements with the joint ventures described above in South Africa, it was notable for the wealth of resources put at its disposal. The respect shown on both sides to conventions with which they were unfamiliar was palpable, and the result – the Chinese War Horse – was both a profound learning experience and a commercial success. The production was widely regarded by audiences in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as a local version of a West End stage play, and part of an engagement with the franchised production of a ‘world hit’. Some in the audiences, notably a group of Chinese theatre and literature students, had a more complex response to the productions. They were, for example, interested in the way the production reflected the ‘revolutionary transformation’ of the art of puppetry

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in post-1994 South Africa. In discussing the production, these students made constant reference to the history of the Handspring Puppet Company, and attributed the success of the war horse puppet itself to, in the words of Mao Shian, ‘the modern transformation of traditional African puppet art’ (Literature Newspaper 2016). In the same discussion, the group used the example of Handspring, as they apprehend it, to urge Chinese theatre practitioners to reflect on the ‘outlet’ for traditional Chinese performance genres. They reflected on ways in which the ‘intangible cultural heritage’ of their nation, including the regional operas and traditions of puppetry, could inspire Chinese ‘contributions to global theatre’ (Zhu Guang 2016).7

Conclusion The inclusion of an extract from War Horse in the closing ceremony of The Year of Africa in China along with genre performances showed the complexity of the interaction between China and South Africa. During the cultural onslaught of 2015, China showed off all kinds of tangible and intangible performance conventions, and it also included – in War Horse – an example of far more nuanced cross-cultural collaboration. Like Chen in his interaction with Fugard, the puppeteers trained to operate the Handspring horse had looked to South Africa and South African theatre, prepared to learn. Like Handspring Puppets, Fugard, Ntshona and Kani have lessons for China both as regards exploring the most pressing issues confronting a nation and as regards operating in the global theatrical market-place. It will be fascinating to follow the impact of the Year of China on South Africa, and to observe whether Chinese theatre people respond to the kind of profound exchange Fugard might have hinted at in a message that, in the light of the persecution of artists in China and with its assumption of exchange, deserves a second or third reading:

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China Meets South Africa in the Theatre  123 Dear friends, let me first of all say how honoured and humbled I am that I have been given the opportunity to share my work with you. I have always believed that theatre, like all art, is a celebration of the common humanity that links all people and cultures in the world. China is now a hugely significant presence in Africa and the fact that my plays can join the exchange of ideas and values between us gives me, in my 83rd year, immense satisfaction.

NOTES 1 For pictures of performances see www.youtube.com/watch?v= EvP9FAV6L_8 (accessed 3 February 2016). For the aspirations of the exhibition see www. ru.ac.za/fineart/latestnews/standard­bankgallerytohostmakingwaycontemporar yartfromsouthafricaand.html. For background to this debate see, for example, Andrew Malone (2008), ‘How China’s taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried’, 18 July, Daily Mail, www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-1036105/How-Chinas-taking-Africa-West-VERY-worried. html#ixzz3zCBABBmd (accessed 3 February 2016). 2 www.ukarts.com/Shows/macbEth-the-opera (accessed 23 June 2016). 3 For reviews, poster and clips, see, for example www.timeout.com.hk/stage/ features/64548/review-mies-julie.html and www.youtube.com/watch?v= W3l fS4fvIj4 (both accessed 23 June 2016). 4 See also Chinese Ambassador in South Africa Tian Xuejun 2014. 5 During the Cape Town International Dance Festival, Vuyani Dance Theatre and Jin Xing Dance Company put on a double-bill of full-length works. Vuyani presented work that had recently been presented at the National Arts Festival, SIVA (Seven) and Jin Xing brought Echo, choreographed by South African Moya Michael. 6 See also videos made during the rehearsal process http://bodymindballet.com/ going-behind-the-scenes-for-joburg-ballets-swan-lake (accessed 23 June 2016). 7 For a closer examination of the evolution of Handspring and its distinctive expertise in puppetry see the article by Basil Jones in African Theatre: Companies.

REFERENCES Agence France-Presse (2015), ‘Robert Mugabe greets China’s Xi Jinping as “true and dear friend” of Zimbabwe’, in The Guardian, 2 December, www.theguardian. com/world/2015/dec/02/robert-mugabe-greets-chinas-xi-jinping-as-true-anddear-friend-of-zimbabwe (accessed 23 June 2016). Chen Jie (2015), ‘War Horse Leaps Onto the Beijing stage’, The Telegraph, 21 October, www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/china-watch/culture/11939024/ war-horse-leaps-onto-beijing-stage.html (accessed 23 June 2016). Chinese Ambassador in South Africa Tian Xuejun (2014), ‘Chinese Film Showcase launched in Pretoria’, Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, www.focac.org/eng/ zxxx/t1220081.htm (accessed on 2 April 2015).

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124  Ying Cheng Chinese Embassy (2015), ‘Beijing Opera and Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Set Off a New Upsurge of the Year of China in South Africa: “Beautiful Tianjin” Cultural and Arts Festival kicked off in Durban’, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of South Africa, 26 June, www.chineseembassy.org.za/eng/sgxw/t1276118.htm (accessed 23 June 2016). Confucius Institute (2015), quoted in ‘Peking Opera resounds in South Africa – Confucius Institute at Durban University of Technology cheers for Peking Opera and intangible cultural heritage’, Hanban News, 1 July, http://english.hanban. org/article/2015-07/01/content_607973.htm (accessed 3 February 2016). Ferreira, Pinto (2015), ‘Chinese leads ruffle feathers of this “Swan”’, Independent Online, 21 April, www.iol.co.za/tonight/what-s-on/gauteng/chinese-leadsruffle-feathers-of-this-swan-1.1848134 (accessed 23 June 2016). Fick, David (2014), ‘BWW Reviews: Resonant FISHERS OF HOPE (TAWARET) a Step in the Right Direction for the Baxter’, 17 July, www.broadwayworld. com/south-africa/article/BWW-Reviews-Resonant-FISHERS-OF-HOPETAWARET-a-Step-in-the-Right-Direction-for-the-Baxter-20140717 (accessed 23 June 2016). Indrajith, Darsha, de Villiers, Sarah-Rose and Cameron, Heather (2015) ‘Ribbons of Silk and Warriors on Sticks’, Cue, 12 July, http://cue.ru.ac.za/2015/07/ribbonsof-silk-and-warriors-on-sticks (accessed 23 June 2016). Joburg Ballet (2015), ‘Joburg Ballet Joins Forces with Major Chinese Ballet Company for New Swan Lake’, 27 March, http://joburgballet.com/2015/03/27/joburgballet-joins-forces-with-major-chinese-ballet-company-for-new-swan-lake (accessed 9 February 2016). Kamaldien, Yazeed (2015), ‘Dancing Across Borders on Cape Town stage’, yazkam, 1 December, https://yazkam.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/dancing-acrossborders-on-cape-town-stage (accessed 23 June 2016). Literature Newspaper (2016) ‘A Conversation of War Horse among Five Scholars: Reflections on an imported stage drama’, Literature Newspaper, 11 January. Making Way (2012), ‘Home’, www.makingway.co.za/index.html (accessed 23 June 2016). media update (2012), ‘Standard Bank Gallery to host Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China exhibition’, media update (South Africa), 7 December, www.mediaupdate.co.za/media/50947/standard-bank-gallery-tohost-making-way-contemporary-art-from-south-africa-and-china-exhibition (accessed 23 June 2016). Myburg, Johann (2011), ‘South Africa: Intimate, inward and African’, Cue Online (Grahamstown), 15 July, republished in http://allafrica.com/stories/ 201107151077.html (accessed 23 June 2016). Park, Yoon Jung (2013), ‘“Fong Kong” in Southern Africa: Interrogating African views of China-made goods’, ASA 2013 Annual Meeting Paper, http://ssrn. com/abstract=2237316 (accessed 13 June 2016). Pellegrini, Nancy (2015) ‘The Athol Fugard drama series’, TimeOut, Shanghai, 7 Sep­tember, www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Performing_Arts-Theatre/ 29650/The-Athol-Fugard-drama-series.html (accessed 3 February 2016). Simbao, Ruth (2012) ‘China-Africa Relations, Research Approaches’, African Arts (Los Angeles), vol. 45, no. 2: 1-7, www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/ afar.2012.45.2.1#.VrNBN_3ct9A (accessed 3 February 2016). SmartShanghai (2014), ‘Jin Xing Dance Theatre’s TRINITY’, smartSHANGHAI.

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China Meets South Africa in the Theatre  125 COM, 22 April, www.smartshanghai.com/event/29663 (accessed 23 June 2016). Xi Jinping (2015), ‘A Rainbow of Friendship’, Daily News (South Africa) Opinion, 2 December, www.iol.co.za/dailynews/opinion/rainbow-of-friendship-1953956 (accessed 23 June 2016). Xinhua, ‘Xi and Zuma exchange congratulations on “Year of China”’, China Invests Overseas, 17 March, www.china-invests.net/20150317/36149.aspx (accessed 13 June 2015).

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A Checklist of African Playscripts Translated into Chinese WANG SHANG

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作者国籍 Nationality

几内亚 Guinea

几内亚 Guinea

书名 Title

《深 夜》 Aube africaine

《爱国 者》 Le Patriote

1

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2

法语 French

法语 French

原著语言 Original language

班库拉·坎 福里 Banguora Kanfory

凯塔·福 代巴 Keïta Fodéba

作者 Playwright

入选篇目 Contents

已出版 Published

罗震 Luo Zhen

贾芝 Jia Zhi

译者及其单位 Translator and organisation

丛书信息 Book series

北京：作 亚非文学丛 家出版 书（亚非现 社，1965．8 代文学作 Beijing: The 品） Writers Pub- Asian & Afrilishing House can Modern Literature Series

北京：作 亚非文学丛 家出版 书（亚非现 社，1963. 4 代文学作 Beijing: The 品） Writers Pub- Asian & Afrilishing House can Modern Literature Series

出版社及出 版时间 Publishing house and date

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3 《非洲 戏剧 选》 A Selection of African Plays

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英语和芬 堤语 English and Fanti

英语 English

加纳 Ghana

肯尼亚 Kenya

南非 英语 South Africa English

阿拉伯语 Arabic

埃及 Egypt

阿索尔•富 加德等 Athol ­Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona

库尔迪普• 桑迪 Kuldip Sondhi

柯宾纳•谢 基 Kobina Sekyi

陶菲格• 阿里-哈基 姆Tawfik al-Hakim 金常政 Jin Changzheng

《苏丹的困 境》 The Sultan’s Dilemma

《希兹尉•班 杜飞 Du Fei 西死了》 Sizwe Bansi Is Dead

《遭遇战》 于干 (‘Encounter’) Yu Gan

《戴长柄眼 江虹 Jiang Hong 镜的人》 The Blinkards

江虹 Jiang Hong

《契约》 The Deal

北京：外国 文学出版 社，1983.4 Beijing: Foreign Literature Publishing House

非洲文学 丛书 African ­Literature Series

128  Wang Shang

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English

Swahili

坦桑尼亚 Tanzania

英语 English

乌干达 Uganda

尼日利亚 Nigeria

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法卢科•托 邦 Farouk Topan

米科坦尼• 卢吉英多 Mukotani Rugyendo

沃列•肖英 卡 Wole ­Soyinka

《到过天堂 的人》Aliyeonja Pepo (‘A Taste of Heaven’)

《铁丝网》 The Barbed Wire

《路》 The Road

葛公尚 Ge Gongshang

明今 Ming Jin

李耒、王勋译， 沈国芬校 Li Lei, Wang Xun

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4 《狮子 和宝 石》 The Lion and the Jewel

尼日利亚 Nigeria

英语 English 渥雷•索因 卡 Wole ­Soyinka

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周永启 Zhou Yongqi

邵殿生 Shao Diansheng

《狮子和宝 石》 The Lion and the Jewel 《裘罗教士 的磨难》 The Trials of Brother Jero

邵殿生 Shao Diansheng 邵殿生 Shao Diansheng 邵殿生 Shao Diansheng

《强种》 The Strong Breed 《路》 The Road 《疯子和专 家》 Madmen and Specialists

《森林之 钟国岭、张忠民 舞》 Zhong Guoling, A Dance of the Zhang Zhongmin Forests

邵殿生 Shao Diansheng

《沼泽地居 民》 The Swamp Dwellers

桂林：漓 江出版 社，1990.11 Gui Lin: Lijiang Publ­ ishing Limited

获诺贝尔文 学奖作家 丛书 Nobel ­Literature Prize Laureates Series

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英语 English

英语 English

5 《死亡 尼日利亚 与国王 Nigeria 的侍 从》 Death and the King’s Horseman

6 《艾苏 尼日利亚 和流浪 Nigeria 歌手》 Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels

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费米•奥索 菲桑 Femi ­Osofisan

尼日利亚 Wole ­Soyinka

赵聪 Zhao Cong

蔡宜刚 Cai Yigang

《世界文 学》杂志 2102年第2期 World Literature Journal，2012.3

长沙：湖南 to系列 文艺出版 to Series 社，2004.5 Chang Sha: Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House

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英语 English

吴舒琦 Wu Shuqi

尼日利亚 Nigeria

《欧里庇 得斯之酒 神女祭 司》 The Bacchae of Euripides

9

渥勒•索因卡 Wole Soyinka

阿索尔·富加德 赵聪 Zhao Cong Athol ­Fugard, John Kani, Winston ­Ntshona

英语 English

南非 South Africa

《岛》 The Island

译者 Translator

8

作者 Playwright

贝尔纳•达迪耶 沈玉婵 Shen Dadié B.B. Yuchan

原著语言 Original Language

法语 《托戈-格 科特迪瓦 Côte d’Ivoire French 尼尼先 生》 Monsieur Thôgô-gnini: Comédie

作者国籍 Nationality

7

书名 Title

未出版 Unpublished

北京大学亚 硕士毕业论 非系 文 PKU MA dissertation

北京大学亚 硕士毕业论 非系 文 PKU MA dissertation

北京大学亚 硕士毕业论 非系 文 PKU MA dissertation

译者单位

2014.5

2014.5

2012.6

提交时 间 Submission Time

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《依据非 南非 道德行为 South Africa 法案实施 逮捕后的 陈述》 Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

11

埃及 Egypt

《彷徨的 国王》 The Sultan’s Dilemma

10

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英语 English

阿拉伯语 Arabic

北京大学亚 本科毕业论 非系 文 PKU BA dissertation

北京大学亚 本科毕业论 阿索尔·富加德 王上 Wang Shang 非系 文 Athol Fugard PKU BA dissertation

陶菲格·哈基姆 阎鼓润 Yan Gurun Tawfik alHakim 2013.5

2011.6

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3

Indian Theatre Exchanges  with East & South Africa Historical dimensions

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Indians of African Descent Sidis, Bava Gor & spiritual practices

BEHEROZE F. SHROFF

Bava Gor, his sister Mai Mishra and brother Bava Habash are regarded as the primary ancestral saints of Sidis – Indians of African descent in India. These ancestral saints of the Sidis are venerated also in my Parsi Zoroastrian (Indians of Persian descent in India) family in Mumbai. My family along with about three hundred Parsi Zoroastrians, part of a group of devotees, have run a memorial shrine or chilla constructed in the name of Bava Gor, in a suburb of Mumbai since 1947. There is no contradiction in Parsi Zoroastrians becoming followers of ancestral saints of the Sidis, since Parsis continue to follow their faith and also revere the Sidi saints. In this essay, first I discuss some aspects of the healing arts and spiritual practices of Sidis in the state of Gujarat in Western India, particularly as expressed through their sacred goma dance, along with rituals and ceremonies around the shrine of Bava Gor. Second, I analyse how these sacred practices of the Sidis in India are part of a long tradition of healing practices (with variations) in different parts of Africa. The African presence in India has ancient roots that historians trace back to the first century CE when the Indian Ocean World was an interconnected ‘circuit of trade assisted by favourable trade winds – the monsoons – and the development of a suitable technology’ (Ali 1996: 17; Francis 2002: 104). These burgeoning trade, commerce and travel networks of the Indian Ocean World ‘provided both 137

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a channel for material and cultural influences as well as a powerful magnet for population movements to and fro’ (Ali 1996: 18). Travelling Africans came to India in diverse professions – as policemen, traders, bureaucrats, clerics, bodyguards, concubines, servants, soldiers and sailors from different parts of Africa via diverse trajectories. Some of them inter-married and settled down (Jayasuriya and Pankhurst 2003: 7; Harris 1996: 9). The slave trade from Africa under the Arabs was at its peak during the ninth and eleventh centuries, and ‘in the early 16th century, on account of fighting in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa … many slaves were captured and taken to India, and in particular to Gujarat’ (Jayasuriya and Pankhurst 2003: 9). From the middle of the fifteenth century, Ethiopians ‘known in the Arab world as Habshis’ were in great demand in India as military slaves (Eaton 2006: 115). Africans in India were called by different names including Habshis, Abyssinians, Sidis, Kaffirs, Caffre and Mulattos, in different time periods; however, contemporary Africandescended communities in the Indian states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa refer to themselves as ‘Sidi’ or ‘Siddi’ (Ali 1996 17; Harris 1996: 9; Pankhurst 2003: 7; Chauhan 1995: 1). Some military Sidis attained power and prestige and rose from foot-soldiers to Generals and eventually to rulers. Malik Ambar’s meteoric rise from soldier to ruler of Ahmednagar (1600-26) has received much scholarly attention. Also volumi­nous is the documentation on the dynamic Sidi rulers of Janjira (1616-1760) whose maritime skills and naval might stalled European colonial powers’ progress (Harris 1971; Ali 1996; Chauhan 1995; Chitnis 2005; Eaton 2006; Shroff 2007). Despite the abolition of slavery, European colonials, Arab and Gujarati merchants resisted abolition laws of the 1840s and brought Africans to India. By the 1850s, in British-ruled India, an African Asylum had been set up in Bombay and Nashik (about a hundred miles north-west of Bombay) for

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rescued Africans (Llewellyn-Jones 2011: 65). British patrolboats brought rescued Africans to Bombay and Surat where some of them were recruited by the British into the Police Force, and some worked as domestic servants for the local population (Basu 1993: 292-3). Princely rulers in preindependent India and wealthy merchants also purchased Africans for work such as stable-keepers, bodyguards and domestic servants (Shroff 2005). From the mid-1800s some of the freed Africans and runaways were able to find their way to the shrine of Sidi saint Bava Gor in search of community.

Sidi saint Bava Gor and reinvented identity Sidi saint Bava Gor has been chronicled by sixteenth-century historian Hajji Ad Dabir who recorded the pilgrimage in 1451 of Emperor Mahmud Khilji (1436-69) to Bava Gor’s shrine in South Gujarat. Later, in the 1800s Bava Gor’s tomb drew the attention of British colonial officers who surveyed the Ratanpur area for its rich agate mines, and came across Sidi caretakers, referred to as ‘negroes’ who lived close to the shrine (Basu 2004: 62). Buried in Ratanpur (translated as ‘the place of gems’) in South Gujarat, Bava Gor is claimed as kulpir or ancestral saint by the Sidis of Gujarat. Sidis of Gujarat constructed a vibrant Sidi oral tradition surrounding Bava Gor in order to reinvent an identity that would enable them to erase memories of slavery and link them to a different genealogy. The oral narrative of Bava Gor links the saint to the historical presence of Africans in India via the military, business entrepreneurship and Sufi Islam. As narrated by an elder of the community – Kamar Badshah Sidi, Bava Gor – an Abyssinian military leader – was sent to India on a mission from Africa via Arabia (Mecca) to subdue evil spirits and black magic practitioners in Gujarat. His brother, Bava Habash, and sister, Mai Mishra, arrived later to assist him in his daunting task. The legend also represents Bava Gor as a Sufi mystic and a merchant who developed the akik or agate

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bead industry in this area and gave it a global reach (Shroff 1990; Francis 1982: 26-7). Sidis created this genealogy that, while indirectly referring to the military and royal Sidis of the past, more importantly linked Sidis with Bava Gor as a Sufi mystic. In that role, he was believed to have overcome the powers of evildoers practising black magic. Additionally, Bava Gor’s oral history constructs a sense of belonging for Sidis, providing them an anchor in the new society, within the boundaries of India’s caste and ethnic hierarchies (Shroff 1990, 2004b, 2011; Basu 1993, 2001). Bava Gor’s shrine thus became a space that enabled an inventive social organisation of a community faced with changing social and economic circumstances. Based on their lineage to Bava Gor, runaway slaves and domestic servants recast themselves through ‘fictive kinship ties’ as a jamat (community and caste) that enabled them to constitute a Sidi brotherhood of fakirs (spiritual specialists) devoted to their patron saint Bava Gor. Thus Sidis gained social legitimacy and a source of livelihood that transformed them from displaced slaves to subjects with a history and with a defined sense of purpose. More importantly, as fakirs embodying Bawa Gor’s spiritual legacy, Sidis reinterpreted their racialised bodies positively – curly hair, black skin and other physical characteristics became embodiments of spiritual powers and healing abilities derived from Bava Gor (Basu 1993: 294).

The healing arts of goma dance and spirit possession At Bava Gor’s shrine, Sidis perform elaborate rituals and cere­monies to honour ancestral saints: Bava Gor, Mai Mishra and Bava Habash. The performance of the sacred goma dance, also called dhammal dance, is considered by Sidis to be a form of prayer to Bava Gor (Shroff 1990, 2011). The dance involves fast, rhythmic drumming and singing of zikr or jikkar, that is to say sacred songs to invoke the presence of the saints. The word goma derives from the Swahili word

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Fig 1. Goma at Bava Gor shrine Mumbai (© Beheroze Shroff, 2004) Fig 2. Tall footed drum Mugharman (© Beheroze Shroff, 2004)

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Fig 3. Drums and rattles in Goma dance (© Beheroze Shroff, 2004)

ngoma whose meaning includes song, dance and drum (Basu 1993: 292). The goma dance is always performed by Sidis at the time of the urs, i.e. the annual day to honour the Sidi saints (Figure 1). The ‘footed’ mugharman drum – a drum with open spaces and, in effect, ‘legs’ to stand on – is the primary drum in the goma dance (Figure 2). As a Sidi dhammali (dancer) stated, ‘the mugharman is regarded as the voice of Bava Gor’ (Shroff interviews 18 September 2004). Before the goma dance begins, the head drummer or nangasi offers incense and prayers to consecrate the drum, after which he garlands the sacred instrument. Other, smaller, drums are played to support the main drum. A Sidi goma performer explains that the mugharman is an ‘African style instrument [made] from a coconut tree and the legs are carved – the coconut trunk is cut and hollowed out to make this drum’ (Shroff 2011). Other supporting drums include musindo, damama and tassa.

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A pair of rattles is also played and is called Mishra, after Bava Gor’s sister Mai Mishra (Figure 3). At first, the goma dance begins with slow-paced drumming and singing of zikrs (sacred songs to Bava Gor) that call upon the saints and other ancestors to participate in the ceremony and shower blessings and abundance (barakat) on Sidis and devotees. The drumming, building up to a faster tempo, induces collective spirit possession by which Sidis embody the healing power of their saints. This makes possible their own healing and that of others. From among the Sidis who are possessed, some speak as mediums of the saints and are approached by devotees for advice with various problems (Shroff 2004b, 2005). Primarily, Bava Gor’s legend indicates the saint’s power to combat evil and black magic, which Sidis refer to as maili vasti. Traditionally, people with mental illnesses came to seek assistance at Bava Gor’s shrine since mental problems are believed to be caused by evil spirits. Sidis distinguish between negative spirit possession (hajri) and positive spirit possession (hal). Since the 1980s, middle-class patrons from diverse com­ munities attend the urs ceremonies, outnumbering traditional clients who were adivasi i.e. indigenous people. A young Sidi woman who is a spirit medium for Mai Mishra explains, ‘I’m not aware of things when I’m possessed. My conscious mind is not working at the time. For ten or fifteen minutes my mind is totally quiet. Mind and body are completely quiet. Afterwards, I find out that I was possessed by Mai Mishra’ (Shroff 2005). It is important to note that boundaries of class and caste are renegotiated between Sidis and their clients through the mediation of Bava Gor. As the Sidi spirit medium informs me, ‘Since I am spirit medium of Mai Mishra, many people come to visit me, especially on Thursdays. Some say, “Pray for me so I can get married”. With Mai Mishra’s blessings, I pray and work gets done’ (Shroff 2005). Devotees seeking succour and sustenance from Bava Gor speak to those possessed Sidis who as mediums listen to complaints, problems, ailments – any affliction can be brought before Bava Gor.

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At Bava Gor’s shrine, the healing aspects of the goma dance involve several elements including drumming and the repetition of the names of Bava Gor, Mai Mishra and Bava Habash. High levels of energy emanate from the dancers during spirit possession. Collective spirit possession, when Sidis dance with fervour, is called masti and the subsequent elevated state and ecstasy is called majha. A Sidi performer explained collective possession by Bava Gor during the goma dance as ‘Bava Gor’s masti. Sidis get possessed, with this [singing of zikr] to Bava Gor. When we are possessed we can break coconuts on our head and walk on fire. With his fervour [masti] these things are done’ (Shroff interviews 18 September 2004). A devotee at the goma dance explains how majha is experienced during the goma dance: ‘The rhythm of the drums vibrates in your body and you forget everything but the movement of dancers and energy in front of you. You want to dance and sometimes we join the dance. You feel so much energy in your body that makes you happy’ (Shroff interviews 18 September 2004). As spectators/participants, the devotees partake of the positive energy of majha and this itself is a healing process – the devotee is uplifted with the blessings of abundance (barakat) from Bava Gor. The devotee receives several blessings when a medium puts his or her hand upon the devotee’s head. The healing blessing from Bava Gor is called Bava Gor ni karamat that can be translated from Gujarati as ‘Bava Gor’s miracle healing’. Devotees and observers/spectators ‘participate in special flows of religious power’ (van der Veer 1992: 556). Bava Gor’s shrine provides devotees with a collective space to process their pain and suffering. My parents were lifelong devotees of Bava Gor and were part of a memorial shrine or chilla that was constructed in 1947 and to this day is managed by Parsi Zoroastrians. Every year, after the Bava Gor’s urs (annual day) is celebrated at the original shrine in Ratanpur, Sidis are invited to dance at the urs ceremony organised by Parsi Zoroastrians at Bava Gor’s Mumbai memorial shrine. My mother acknowledged the relationship to Bava Gor when she was possessed by the

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medium as one of complete trust. The devotee became a murid (student or learner). Bava Gor’s medium at the Parsi chilla referred to devotees as nadaan (innocent, child-like) (Shroff 2004b, 2008). Looking at this process it can be seen that Sidis have successfully intertwined Sufi Islam with African elements. For example, Bava Gor’s spirit medium at times recommends that devotees carry khakh (ash) collected from the incense burning at the shrine. The ash has several uses: it is used, for example, for application to the body, to carry on one’s person for health, or for countering fears, panic and depression. Another remedy offered by the medium involves tying a thread on the decorative grill that borders the tomb of the saint. As they tie the thread, devotees submit their appeal for help to the saint. Sometimes the medium also works through dreams – and this was my mother’s experience (Shroff 2008). Bava Gor’s spiritual legacy is indicated by Sidis taking on distinctive roles such as nangasi (drummer/singer), nishandar (flag bearer) and kotval (police officer), who organise the rituals and ceremonies at the shrine. These designated roles are prominently displayed on the day of the urs (annual ceremony) in honour of Bava Gor and Mai Mishra. For example, the nangasi leads the ceremonies and processions with the singing of zikr, and plays the drum during the ceremony and during the goma dance. The nishandar or flag bearer heads the procession to the shrine carrying the flag and sacred cloths that are placed on the tombs of the saints. A day ahead of the urs ceremony, the tombs have to be ritually washed. The ghusul (ceremony for bathing the saints’ tombs) is undertaken as a ritual in which rose water is used, and in which sandalwood paste is then applied to consecrate graves. The rose water and sandalwood paste are presented to devotees as healing artefacts. My mother explained that, like the khakh (ash), other blessed items gave devotees healing comfort and strength to overcome their difficulties. Such items could be used as and when necessary. The climax of the urs celebration is the goma dance and the

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singing of zikrs to Bava Gor, Mai Mishra and Bava Abbas. This is accompanied by drumming and invites the saints to participate and to bless the ceremony. Urs takes place during Rajjub, the seventh month in the Islamic calendar, and attracts thousands of devotees to seek the saints’ blessings (barakat) and miracle healing (karamat).

Healing arts in the collective memory The Sidi community’s role as fakirs (spiritual healers) can be traced to fragmented memories of traditional healing arts that travelled with them from Africa. In his study of ngoma – the indigenous healing institutions of central, eastern and southern Africa – John Janzen examines the variations in rituals and practices. He emphasises that dif­ ferent elements are brought into the rituals according to the region and to the needs of the communities in which they are practised. Janzen notes that drumming, dancing and music form the kernel of the ritual performances of ngoma across different geographical areas and that the word takes on various shades of meaning (Janzen 1992; Basu 2008; Shroff 2007, 2013). Among diverse practices in the healing rituals in different parts of Africa that Janzen examined were divination by casting bones, spirit possession or trance, sometimes accompanied by music and drumming. Janzen points out how a particular practice accommodates itself to the socio-economic needs of communities attempting to ameliorate their situation. He observes that ngoma groups sprang up where dislocated or divided communities needed healing and describes the case of southern Africa as follows. The societies that had newly formed as states were engaged in battle and defeated; their proud citizens were reduced to servants of the Afrikaaners on their own lands. This was followed, late in the nineteenth century, by the discovery of gold and diamonds and the emergence of the major labor migration pattern that engulfed the entire subcontinent. Africans,

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Indians of African Descent: Sidis, Bava Gor & Spiritual Practices  147 deprived of their land, needed to work in the mines and farms of the white man to make a living … the story of ngoma in Southern Africa also needs to be situated in the context of a divided society, of broken homes, of labor camps and mines, and in the twentieth century, of the urban settlements and townships. (Janzen 1992: 109)

It is possible to see how in the context of India, escaped or freed Africans who made their way to the shrine of Bava Gor in Gujarat also felt a need to recreate community and social organisation, similar to Janzen’s analysis of the functions of ngoma. Also, the initiation of Sidis into the brotherhood of fakirs, as analysed by anthropologist Helene Basu resembles Janzen’s study of ngoma communities and initiation practices. Initiation into the Sidi fakir brotherhood, which calls itself after the name of Bava Gor, is embedded in the special relationship between a spiritual seeker in the position of a child (balka) and a spiritual ‘master-fakir’ in the position of parent and teacher (murshid). Initiation provided the means for integrating strangers into the Sidi fold. This occurred, as older Sidi still vividly remembered, when an African – whether formerly enslaved or “freed” from a slaveship – found his or her way to the dargah [shrine] of Bava Gor where he/she met other Sidi. Individual Africans were integrated into local Sidi groups through the creation of ritual kinship bonds between them. The stages of initiation mark the developing bond of mutual protection and support between a person learning the ritual craft of a fakir and his teacher-parent. (Basu 2001: 267-8)

This ‘teacher-parent’ relationship that Basu describes is similar to Janzen’s discussion of an individual’s transformation upon entering the ngoma group as an initiate/sufferer/novice, and eventually becoming part of the community of healers. Janzen regards this transformation as the heart of the practice of ngoma: In both content and structure, [the] ngoma performance reveals that here, in the consciously formulated exchange of song-dance, and in the movement of the individual from sufferer-novice to accomplished, singing, self-projecting healer, lies at the heart of the institution. I believe it is a classic – that is, ancient and formative – institution in Central and Southern African healing. (Janzen 1992: 109)

Many such transformations have taken place in India where from fragmented memories Sidis have reconstituted their healing ceremonies and rituals to assuage the trauma of

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forced migration. From being dispersed Africans, they have come together into a newly formed jamat or community. Elements of Sufi Islam have been adapted into ceremonies that India’s Sidis have designed creatively. For example, to mark the initiation into the ‘brotherhood’ of fakirs, Sidis perform the sacred balka ceremony. In this ceremony, that is for both men and women, the Sufi/Islamic elements are marked by first welcoming Sidis into the order of Sufi saint Ahmed Kabir Rifai, the founder of the Rifai Sufi order. According to Sidi legend, on his journey to India, Bava Gor was initiated into Sufi mysticism under the tutelage of this holy man. As a result, this Sufi genealogy is part of Sidis’ identity as Muslim fakirs in India. The first initiation ceremony is conducted by a Sunni Muslim pir (holy man) who is considered to be a representative of the Sufi Rifai lineage in Gujarat. In the ceremony, the Sidi initiate takes an oath to honour the Sufi Rifai tariqat (path) of Islam. For those initiated into the brotherhood of Sidi fakirs of Bava Gor, the next step begins with a ritual. Women take the ritual bath in the privacy of a home and come to the ceremony fully clothed in a white sheet while men are ritually bathed by a Sidi elder, and brought before the council of Sidi elders with only their lower body covered. Both men and women wear the symbolic white cloth called kaffan or shroud. Explaining the significance of the shroud, van der Veer states: ‘Faqirs identify themselves with the buried saint, since their initiation renders them dead in symbolic terms. In faqir initiation ceremonies, they dress in the shroud in which they will ultimately be buried’ (van der Veer 1992: 556). The Sidi elder, who is called Bava Gor’s gaddi varas (inheritor of the royal seat), is given the authority to initiate the Sidi who approaches him as balka (child). The elder Sidi is regarded as the murshid (spiritual teacher) and ultimate authority who mediates Bava Gor’s presence. The murshid drinks a sweet, sacred potion (sharbat) from a cup and offers the initiate, the balka, the same cup from which the balka then drinks, thereby sealing his bond to the murshid and

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through him to ancestral saint Bava Gor. In each initiation ceremony the initiate drinks from the same side of cup that has been touched by the murshid’s lips. This signifies that the saint’s powers to heal and his spiritual lineage have now been transmitted through the murshid’s saliva to the initiate (van der Veer 1992: 561). After drinking the sharbat, the balka is welcomed into the ‘brotherhood’ of fakirs with drumming and with the declara­ tion of a new name and a new identity as Bava Gor’s fakir embodying the spiritual lineage of the saint. An elder of the community, Sidi Salambhai, told me that in the past the Sidi balka ceremony had been more elaborate. The Sidi initiate was first covered in hot ash that was brought from the sacred fire that burns day and night at Bava Gor’s shrine in Ratanpur. After the application of ash, the balka was covered in the white cloth (kaffan) thus marking the death of his present self soon to be reborn into a new identity as Bava Gor’s fakir (Shroff 2010). In conclusion, the initiation ritual shows that the spiritual legacies of Bava Gor and the Sidi tradition of the fakir con­tinue and constitute a combination of African healing traditions and Sufi Islam. Under the stewardship of Sidi fakirs, not just Sidis, but devotees from other Muslim sects, such as Khoja, and Bohra, take the first step of entering into the Sufi Rifai ‘brotherhood’. However, it should be said that it is mostly Sidi men and women who are initiated into Bava Gor’s brotherhood of fakirs. Bava Gor’s original shrine in Gujarat continues to draw thousands of devotees who journey there to seek blessings and several hundreds of devotees, Muslim and those from other faiths seek out Bava Gor’s shrines established in his memory in different parts of Gujarat. As a final word, it is important to mention that it is increasingly difficult for Sidis to survive only by practising as Sidi fakirs (spiritual specialists). There are some in the younger generation who continue simply as fakirs, but many of them aspire to middle-class status, to educate their children and integrate into the mainstream in India. However, it can be

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said that the spiritual traditions of the Sidis and participation in their ritual practices continue to offer solace to devotees of different faiths. REFERENCES Ali, Shanti Sadiq (1996), The African Dispersal in the Deccan: From medieval to modern times (New Delhi: Orient Longman). Basu, Helene (1993), ‘The Sidi and the Cult of Bava Gor in Gujarat’, Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society, no. 28: 289-300. —— (2001), ‘Africans in India Past and Present’, Internationales Asienforum / International Quarterly for Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 3-4: 253-74. —— (2008), ‘Drumming and Praying: Sidis at the interface between spirit possession and Islam’, in Simpson, E. and Kresse, Kai (eds), Struggling With History: Islam and Cosmopolitanism in the Western Indian Ocean (New York: Columbia University Press): 291-322. Chauhan, R. R. S. (1995), Africans in India: From slavery to royalty (New Delhi: Asian Publication Services). Chitnis, Sharad (2005), History of Janjira (Mumbai: Ithihas Sanshodhan Mandal). Eaton, Richard M. (2006), ‘The Rise and Fall of Military Slavery in the Deccan, 1450-1650’, in Chatterjee, I. and Eaton, R. (eds), Slavery & South Asian History (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press): 115-35. Francis, Peter Jr (1982), Indian Agate Beads (Lake Placid, NY: Lapis Route Books). —— (2002), Asia’s Maritime Bead Trade 300 BC to the present (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press). Harris, Joseph E. (1971), The African Presence in Asia: Consequences of the East African slave trade (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press). —— (1996), ‘The Dynamics of the Global African Diaspora’, in Alusine, J. and Maizlish, S. (eds), The African Diaspora (College Station: University of Texas at Arlington): 7-21. Janzen, John (1992), Ngoma: Discourses of healing in central and southern Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press). Jayasuriya, Shihan de Silva and Richard Pankhurst (2003), The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press). Llewellyn-Jones, Rosie (2011), ‘The Colonial Response to African Slaves in British India – Two contrasting cases’, African and Asian Studies, vol. 10, no. 1: 59-70. Shroff, Beheroze (1990), ‘Sidis of Ratanpur’ (video – 20 minutes). —— (2004a), ‘“We’re Indian and African”: Voices of the Sidis’ (video – 22 minutes) (Irvine: University of California). —— (2004b), ‘Sidis and Parsis: A Filmmaker’s Notes’, in Catlin-Jairazbhoy, A. and Alpers, E. (eds), Sidis and Scholars: Essays on African Indians (New Delhi: Rainbow Publishers): 159-77. —— (2005), ‘Voices of the Sidis: Ancestral Links’ (video – 26 minutes) (Irvine: University of California). —— (2007), ‘Sidis in Mumbai: Negotiating identities between Mumbai and Gujarat’, African and Asian Studies, vol. 6, no. 3: 305-19. —— (2008), ‘Spiritual Journeys: Parsis and Sidi saints’, in Basu, H. (ed.), Journeys

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Indians of African Descent: Sidis, Bava Gor & Spiritual Practices  151 and Dwellings: Indian Ocean themes in South Asia (New Delhi, Orient Longman): 256-75. —— (2010), ‘Voices of the Sidis: The tradition of the fakirs’ (video – 28 minutes). —— (2011), ‘Sidis of Gujarat: Maintaining traditions and building community’ (video – 53 minutes). —— (2013) ‘“Goma is Going On”: Sidis of Gujarat’, African Arts, vol. 46, no. 1: 18-25. van der Veer, Peter (1992), ‘Playing or Praying: A Sufi Saint’s Day in Surat’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 51, no. 3: 545-64.

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Jay Pather, South African Artist of Indian Ancestry Transforming society in post-apartheid South Africa through his theatre-dance works KETU H. KATRAK

The journey began with the Mandela inauguration on 10 May 1994 and ended 110 minutes later with a cross-cultural curtain call dominated by an image of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi embodies the philosophy of ahimsa (the Hindi word for non-violence), which is linked, in this theatrical quest for cultural identity with the African concept of Ubuntu (humanity). Adrienne Sichel, ‘Transposing History and Dance to Inform’1 [A]cclaimed choreographer Jay Pather has taken South Africa’s layered landscapes and mindscapes to create the superbly satisfying and insanely lyrical South African interior dance dialogue we’ve been waiting for. A South African Siddhartha is sensual, evocative and elegiac. It’s epic South African dance theatre. Pather slowly unfolds a distinctly South African narrative with sophistication and zen clarity, an unselfconscious interplay of dance forms from Zulu and Xhosa dance, kathak, bharatha natyam, oddissi, contemporary and classical ballet. It works beautifully. At times it is soft and calm, balanced and harmonious, then petulant and tortured. Suzy Bell ‘The Great South African Dance’

Jay Pather, a South African artist of Indian (Tamil) descent, is a choreographer, curator, academic and cultural activist. He has a BA in English and African Literature from the University of Durban, Westville (now University of KwaZulu-Natal), and an MA in Theatre from New York University where he studied on a Fulbright Fellowship. Pather is recognised today as a visionary figure on the South African arts scene and holds leadership roles on the Boards of several creative arts organisations. He is Chair of the National Arts Festival Committee (previously known as ‘The Grahamstown Arts 152

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Festival’), Curator of ‘Infecting the City’ held across Cape Town, and Director of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts at the University of Cape Town where he is also Associate Professor of Drama.2 Pather, who describes himself as Indian in heritage and black in ideology, is Artistic Director of the Durban-based Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre Company that has an extensive outreach programme and has earned Pather recognition as ‘as a facilitator of black talent’. His work has received rave reviews – as can be seen from the extract quoted above. Pather considers himself a South African first, one of Indian ancestry, hence I argue in this essay that his dance and theatre productions from the outset of his career in the 1980s, even the ones engaging overtly with Indian themes, such as AhimsaUbuntu (1996) and A South African Siddhartha (1999), are rooted in the South African context and are simultaneously global. Pather embraces a multi-ethnic vision as a South African Indian, drawing imaginatively on the diversity of South Africans them­ selves (with eleven ethnic groups now recognised by their Constitution), and then on the diversity of the African conti­ nent and beyond that into a global vision. Pather’s political and creative concerns delve into his country’s history with searing honesty, reminiscent of Wole Soyinka’s mythopoeic-cum-politically progressive vision.3 I recognise Pather as an ethno-global artist similar to artists such as Soyinka, and India’s Arundhati Roy whom I have discussed elsewhere.4 The term ‘ethno-global’ describes artists like Pather, who is rooted deeply in his own South Africanness with Indian ancestry along with being simultaneously African and global in his innovative artistic and progressive political concerns. This essay fills a gap in scholarship on this world-class choreographer and theatre director. I draw upon historian P. Pratap Kumar, who writes eloquently about South African Indians, to contextualise Pather’s Indian, specifically Tamil, ancestry.5 In brief, the Indian community in South Africa is described by Kumar as constituted of four ‘cul­ turally and linguistically homogenous groups (Hindis, Gujaratis,

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Tamils, and Telugus)’ (2004: 389) demarcated by different languages, as well as cultural variations of social customs, food habits and practice of the arts, along with ‘sub-identities based on their caste, and region’ (389) in India. South African Indians are clearly pluralistic according to Kumar, ‘with various competing ethnic and religious values of each sub-group as well as the gender issues.’ (389) Problematically, as Kumar observes, ‘the colonial discourse often conflated a certain region with the religion of the group that originated from there’ (Kumar 1994: 382). Pather grew up in Durban (where large numbers of South African Indians live even today) during the brutal days of apart­ heid when Indians occupied an uncomfortable buffer zone between whites and blacks. Apartheid and its haunting legacies influenced Pather’s politically progressive commitment as an artist. Under apartheid, draconian laws determined nearly every aspect of one’s personal life such as where one could live, attend school, work and love openly. For South African Indians, one of the most devastating laws was the 1950 Group Areas Act that moved families into segregated enclaves from the homes they had bought after years of struggle in diverse neighbourhoods.6 Pather’s vision has remained remarkably consistent from the 1980s to his current work in 2016 – politically progressive and artistically adventurous, committed to using art evocatively in the struggle for justice for South Africans of diverse races, sexualities and economic classes. Although Pather is recognised as ‘a serious proponent of new South African Dance’, his creative work is in line with the African worldview where dance is not separate from drama, where song, story-telling, poetry and music function together. Pather’s creative work in dance-theatre, which includes speech, movement and action, mediated through visual art and multimedia, demonstrates an evocative hybridity. Even as Pather’s staunchly progressive vision remains con­ sistent, his artistic explorations are varied in deploying differ­ ent expressive forms – from works that primarily use dance (Ahimsa-Ubuntu, 1996), to another in dance theatre (A South African Siddhartha, 1999), to works that are increasingly multi­

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disciplinary, layered with multimedia and visual art in sitespecific locations such as The Beautiful Ones Must be Born (2004) and Body of Evidence (2008). In Pather’s site-specific work, he reclaims spaces forbidden to blacks and those classified as ‘Coloured’ during apartheid including art galleries, whites-only shopping malls, and City Halls. He selects places that are resonant with history such as the Constitution Hill Precinct in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, that held political prisoners, or the Slave Museum in Cape Town, as well as outdoor spaces where bodies interact with architecture, public buildings and city centres. Pather’s site-specific creations also travel to global cities such as Copenhagen, New York City and New Delhi. Pather has selected spaces that themselves convey part of the import of his dance theatre for pieces such as Qaphela Caesar (inspired by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and translated as Beware Caesar) set in fourteen rooms in Cape Town’s City Hall, and later performed in the Old Johannesburg Stock Exchange – both spaces that breathe political influence and power. Pather situated Body of Evidence – described as ‘a forensic examination of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)’ – on the eighteenth floor of an old medical building. He hoped to actually perform this work inside an operating theatre but could not get permission to do so. (Note the ‘medico-artistic’ linking in the very phrase ‘surgical theatre’.)

Artistic Director from 1996 to the present In 1996, during the euphoria after the demise of apartheid in 1994, and following the election of Nelson Mandela as the first black president, Pather was appointed Artistic Director of the Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre Company. Siwela sonke trans­lates from isiZulu as ‘crossing over to a new place altogether’, evoking a South African world where the arts, just like the nation, would take new, democratic directions. Pather’s imagination incorporates multiple movement and

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theatre styles available in South Africa’s multi-ethnic society for training Siwela Sonke members. Such synergy of move­ ment and action fosters communication across cultural groups – Indian classical and classical Zulu and Xhosa dance (that Pather recuperates, sensitively recognising the disrespect and stereotyping that they have suffered) with their own idioms and vocabularies. The training also includes the study of ballet, modern and contemporary dance, theatre techniques, and popular South African movement styles. The latter include pantsula (from black townships), kwasa kwasa (originally from the Congo), isicathimaya (Zulu a cappella singing with gentle rhythmic movements used by Ladysmith Black Mambazo), gumboot dances (created by black miners in tune with their mucky work environment), and Zulu ritual practices of sangoma, or traditional healing. (Pather’s interest in sangoma connects with childhood memories of his mother performing Hindu rituals in his Durban home.) Such deployment of diverse performance forms itself evokes a post-apartheid society that aims to transform rigid racial divisions into a multi-ethnic society that democratically respects all groups. Siwela Sonke’s work encourages innova­ tion in dance theatre in an inclusive way, particularly creating space for ‘people whose stories have not been told’. They aim to ‘create works that develop a new South African Dance Language, create intercultural performances that break historical barriers, develop indigenous African dances … create performances in collaboration’ with other artists, as well as with art galleries, teachers unions and the National Ports Authority (siwelasonke.com, accessed 1 November 2012). Siwela Sonke began ‘as a training and development pro­ gramme for Black dancers with no access to training oppor­ tunities … Under the directorship of Ntombi Gasa and Neliswa Rushualang, the company runs an extensive community development programme in rural and urban communities from KwaMashu to KwaMachai’.7 ‘Reachout Training’, a unique aspect of Siwela Sonka educational training, includes Dance Education, and Youth Development Training that develop

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‘dance literacy amongst under privileged children’ (from rural areas, black townships), the ‘development of choreographic literacy and potential amongst new choreographers’ and in general ‘to develop an awareness of the power of the arts’ (siwelasonke.com, accessed 1 November 2012). In his 2006 essay on ‘a performance aesthetic for a develop­ing continent’, Pather questioned the meaning and para­ meters of African Contemporary dance for practitioners and audiences in South Africa. He recognised that ‘funda­mental definitions of contemporary African dance are elusive; inextricably linked … to received notions of contemporary con­ sciousness and dance from the West’. He proposed an innovative methodology, which he termed ‘response aesthetics’, that ‘would interrogate … a relation­ ship with Wes­te­ rn aesthetics and a growing Western audience’. A Wes­ tern inheritance of the arts had come, Pather noted, at a price and ‘in many instances an alienation of African audiences’. He pointed out that ‘contemporary African dance is in danger of remaining uninfluenced by a contem­porary Africa’. He proposed that by ‘owning this “response aesthetic”, the resulting self-consciousness may cause [South Africans] to unpack received notions and develop contem­ porary aesthetics that are informed by a life lived in contemporary Africa.’

Traditional versus contemporary: A troubled binary Although Pather’s choreographic vision includes Indian dance styles and their sensibility, whether in music, mudras (codified hand-gestures), or costumes, his concerns are very different from South African Indian artists who teach and perform in traditional/classical Indian dance. For them, the binary between traditional and contemporary is stark and challenging. In 2000, Smeetha Maharaj and Vasugi Singh, teachers and performers of classical Indian dance, organised an international conference on the state of Indian dance in South Africa. ‘There is a major

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identity crisis with Indian people’ commented Singh, ‘as there is so much debate about whether to remain traditional or to go forward with change. Mindsets are being challenged and as artists we need to change’ (Suzy Bell). In the same article Bell observed that ‘Singh and Maharaj are effectively working towards a South African identity in Indian dance … The conference is essentially about traditionalists sharing ideas with contemporary thinkers … As a result they have invited “trail­ blazers of intercultural work” like the highly respected Jay Pather to discuss “where traditional Indian dance fits in with new contemporary fusion.”’ For Pather, however, there is no strict division between traditional and contemporary that he cannot bridge in his imaginative choreography. Additionally, he rejects the word ‘fusion’. India and Indian classical dance belong – in his choreography – within an interethnic dialogue with African and European forms. In ‘A Dance of National Importance’, Suzy Bell reported, ‘Pather does not like the word fusion because he insists that the process of making cross-cultural contemporary work is far more complex than fusion seems to imply. He prefers to describe the process as “democratic choreography”.’ In the same article, Pather’s describes the process by which he creates multi-ethnic choreography: I’m interested in the meeting-point of a mudhra and a traditional Zulu dance kick, the way the rhythms of say a gumboot dance would flow with kathak [as in Ahimsa-Ubuntu discussed below]. It’s a reflection of movement seen in Warwick Avenue [in Durban], but it’s more complex as I try to debunk this choreography as an advertisement for co-existence … My work loses immensely if not drawn from classical work, but because I’m deconstructing post-modern consciousness, it’s imperative that various frames of dance dialogue with each other where various dancers accentuate various aspects of the body.

In the same article, Pather is said to be ‘adamant that there is a history [in South Africa] which reflects a distinct lack of presence of Indian artists.’ Moreover, he says, I think the complexity of the [Indian dance] art just misses people. People think Indian music is just bhangra and that Indian dance is exotic and it only happens in some mystical, remote temple. There is an invisibility

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Jay Pather: Transforming Society Post-Apartheid  159 of the wide range of art created by Indian artists and sadly this also stems from within the communities.

Pather’s inclusive and multi-ethnic vision, recognising the multiple dance vocabularies and theatre traditions of his country, collaborates with South African dance companies such as Pravika’s Kathak Kendra, Flatfoot Dance Company, The South African Ballet Theatre, as well as with visual artists (co-curating Spier Contemporary Exhibitions), and including visual art in his staged performances. He creates work with a range of dancers from different communities and partners with South African organisations such as FNB (First National Bank) Dance Umbrella, Constitution Hill, The KwaZuluNatal South African Gallery, and the Jomba! Festival and Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZuluNatal. The breadth of this wholly original choreographer and theatre director includes not only creating works on relevant social and national issues, but also developing the work of young choreographers through workshops and skills-training (whether in lighting or movement).

Ahimsa-Ubuntu Ahimsa-Ubuntu is described in the Programme Notes (October 1996), as ‘a special programme of cultural exchange between India and South Africa’. It was commissioned by Jerry Matsiela, the South African High Commissioner to India, in association with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and presented by The Institute for Black Research at the University of Natal, which ‘specializes in recording oral history and the history of this country’s disenfranchised peoples’ (‘Transposing History and Dance to Inform’).8 Sonia Gandhi, the widow of India’s Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was in the audience when it was staged at Durban’s Springfield College, and it was subsequently staged at the Playhouse Theatre in Durban before touring Sri Lanka and cities in India courtesy of ICCR in 1995.

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160  Ketu H. Katrak The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) was founded in 1950 and is an autonomous organisation of the Ministry of External Affairs of India. During 1995/96, in line with its remit to foster and strengthen ‘cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other countries’, the ICCR sponsored performances of Ahimsa-Ubuntu in Mumbai, Madras, Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Chennai. In Africa, the Council is permanently represented in Cairo, Johannesburg and Durban, where Council officers are involved in arranging scholarships, setting up exhibitions and promoting cultural exchanges. In Durban the ICCR offers classes in Hindi, Carnatic Vocal Music and Bharatnatyam Dance. In addition to Gandhi, who is of obvious interest to Durbanites, Indians whose names come up on ICCR programmes include Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabanindranath Tagore and Maulana Azad.9

The title, Ahimsa-Ubuntu, contains the synergistic connec­ tion between India and South Africa – ahimsa (non-violence) is Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s profound legacy, and Ubuntu, as proposed by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, refers to our shared commonality as members of the human race irrespective of colour, race or other divisive factors.10 Gandhi developed his influential concepts of ahimsa and satyagraha (‘truth as one’s weapon in battle’) in South Africa. As a newly qualified lawyer on his way from London to India in 1893, he stopped in Durban to represent an Indian in a lawsuit, and in 1894 he was among the founders of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) as a parallel organisation to the African National Congress, fighting for justice and equality for all South Africans. When he was thrown off the train in Pretoria for refusing to move to the back, the section for brown people, his sense of outrage at the injustice led to his staying on in South Africa until 1914, working for the equality of Indians and testing the principles of nonviolence and truth that he later used in the struggle for Indian independence. As stated in the Programme Notes for Ahimsa-Ubuntu: ‘Gandhi lays the basis for the anti-racist struggle … underpinned by Ahimsa which strikes a kindred chord in the African Ubuntu.’ As a piece of dance theatre, Adrienne Sichel in ‘Transposing History and Dance to Inform’ described Ahimsa-Ubuntu as ‘a new form of oral history’. It covered nearly one hundred and

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fifty years – from middle of the nineteenth century when the British took indentured labourers from India to Natal Province (partly because the indigenous Zulus could not be suppressed), through the historical milestones of South African history. These included the 1911 Revolt of the Zulus led by Chief Bambatha against unjust taxation, the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign (1952), the women’s resistance against carrying the Pass (1956), the rise of Black Consciousness (mid-1960s), the youth revolt of 1976 onwards and, finally, the establishment of a non-racial democracy in 1994. Sichel in ‘Transposing History and Dance to Inform’ claims: ‘As Ahimsa-Ubuntu proves, the new breed of South African story-teller/ history teacher takes dance class and connects with the past and the present through a rainbow of rhythms.’ This dance theatre work covers events in India’s colonial history that have close or approximate parallels in South Africa. These include the 1857 Mutiny, the courageous resistance offered by women fighters such as Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh (when the British shot fleeing protestors in the back, 1919). In the late nineteenth and in the twentieth centuries, both South Africa and India experienced colonial violence. Ahimsa-Ubuntu shows ‘the spirit in which disenfranchised peoples of South Africa struggled against and overcame apartheid [and that] … Racism was a creature of colonialism, nurtured in violence and that violence was as ubiquitous in India as it was in South Africa’ (Programme Notes). In the dance theatre work, with words by Fatima Meer and choreography by Pather, historical events in India and South Africa are conveyed mainly through Indian, African, and European dance traditions.11 Pather remarks in Sichel’s article ‘Transposing History and Dance to Inform’: The confluence of classical Indian dance and traditional African dance, the rhythmic quality of both forms is very complex … The semiotics are so rich in all the traditional performance from indlamu to the reed dance to isicathimiya … My concern is that dance is not foot stomping. I was anxious to keep the forms with their centres. The African dancers

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162  Ketu H. Katrak worked hard at finding the original steps. The same with the classical Indian dancers. The deeper you drill, you deepen those natural forms and things start happening at an intrinsic level.

The interweaving of different movement styles and cultures presented challenges. Sichel adds insightfully in the same article: ‘The Kathak dancers are not used to dancing with people wearing shoes while the gumboot dancers have to wait for the 15 minutes it takes the Kathak dancers to put on their ankle bells. There’s also the constant trauma of opening old wounds.’ Ahimsa-Ubuntu begins with a pre-colonial society that is portrayed through traditional dance as being relatively harmonious. The coming of Europeans is conveyed by a classical ballet sequence; the arrival of indentured Indians in Natal is shown by an Indian folk-dance, and Satyagraha is suggested by means of classical Indian dance, mudras (handgestures). The Programme Notes state that ‘in the Defiance Campaign,12 the coming together of African and Indian finds expression through the shared rhythms of the African gumboot dance and the Indian kathak’. Pather interweaves contemporary dance with traditional movements to com­ municate the continuing struggle of ordinary people against state violence, and suggests that the ‘Finale brings together traditional and modern, classical and folk, African, Indian, and European, to express the dancers’ final plea: “To realize Ahimsa, to live in Ubuntu”’.

A South African Siddhartha In a 2000 review for the South African Independent on Satur­ day, Suzy Bell wrote: If J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, which just won the Booker Prize, is currently the great South African novel, then Jay Pather’s seminal dance piece A South African Siddhartha is the great South African dance. The dance is so entirely South African and contemporary in tone that we have a Siddhartha in the Karoo, travelling by minibus where he meets a taxi driver and then he lands up at a cyber café in the Transkei!

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A collaborative venture on various levels, A South African Siddhartha was commissioned by the Standard Bank to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of its association with the Grahamstown Festival. It was co-sponsored by the Indian Embassy in South Africa and it drew inspiration from the 1922 novella, Siddhartha, by German-born Swiss author Herman Hesse. During 1911-12, Hesse travelled in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo and Burma, feeding a long-held interest in Buddhism and in the search for enlightenment. In building on this encounter between Europe and Asia, Pather added artists carrying a variety of passports – including Indian and American, and served up the whole in a contemporary South Africa setting with his characteristically eclectic choreography. Pather’s South African Siddhartha brought together musicians from far and wide, including Jurgen Brauninger (composer), Ravi Shankar (sitar), Deepak Ram (flute), Philip Glass and Bernd Konrad (‘Soundscapes’). They worked with a company of dancers that included specialists in different styles, including Thulebona Mzizi (contemporary African), Vaibhav Joshi (kathak), Ntombi Gasa (sangoma), and Jayati Bhatia (oddissi ) . When the production reached the Playhouse Theatre in Durban (March 2000), Pather was quoted in the local paper on his intentions: I wanted to get across all the stereotypes of what these people should be and to look at how all these different dance forms come together to tell the same story. Siddhartha is a contemporary African dancer. His father is a kathak dancer, his mother is a sangoma dancer, and the woman he falls in love with is an oddissi dancer. (Berea Mail, 10 March 2000)

The quest at the centre of the piece is, in a sense, intensely personal: Siddhartha is beset by many temptations and indulges in a life of excess that almost destroys him. However, and not surprisingly, political parallels were drawn. A commentator in Natal Witness saw similarities with the excesses ‘that come with a newly liberated third world country’ (17 March 2000). The production is described as

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‘potent in story-telling as essentially it’s about the power of myth’ – the search of one voyager who chooses to be an outsider, alienated from family, wealth and his princely heritage as he seeks truth and enlightenment. When his son, conceived during his wild days, rejects him, Siddhartha finally understands what it is to give up everything he loves. However, ‘he eventually achieves enlightenment’, remarks Pather, and the final mood is ‘incredibly positive’ (Berea Mail, 10 March 2000). The Programme for A South African Siddhartha includes an extract from Herman Hesse’s last, full-length novel Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game (1943) that analyses the parameters of passion, ambition, and spiritual goals: What you call passion is not spiritual force, but friction between the soul and the outside world. Where passion dominates, that does not signify the presence of greater desire and ambition, but rather the misdirection of these qualities, towards an isolated and false goal, with a consequent tension and sultriness in the atmosphere. Those who direct the maximum force of their desires toward the centre, towards true being, toward perfection, seem quieter than the passionate souls because the flame of their fervour cannot always be seen. In argument, for example, they will not shout and wave their arms. … But I assure you, they are nevertheless burning with subdued fires … Truth is lived, not taught.

In my interview with Ntombi Gasa and Neliswa Rushua, founding members of Siwela Sonke and choreographers in their own right, I asked about Pather’s choreography for Siddhartha, and learned that Indian dance mudras were used for segments in the story when Siddhartha leaves home, when he is told to kiss his mother and tell her where he is going, and when he is told to return to his family and pass on his spiritual discoveries.13 In a 2000 review ‘Siddhartha: An Uncontested Triumph’, the reviewer recognised Pather’s talent in drawing upon ‘the multicultural creativity of South Africa’ and went on to suggest that unlike many of his contemporaries, Pather is able to skilfully draw on the resource without lapsing into superficial or naïve connections. Instead, his work is at point [sic] able to render a profound sense of the inter­

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Jay Pather: Transforming Society Post-Apartheid  165 connectedness of all South Africans in our great wisdom and stupidity, ugliness and beauty, humanity and brutality. It is a seamless production that parallels one man’s search for truth with a nation’s.

Echoing this sentiment, a reporter for the Natal Witness writing under the heading ‘Modern Parable of one man’s search for enlightenment’, described A South African Siddhartha as ‘a modern parable in which one’s search becomes emblematic for the transformation of a nation’ (17 March 2000). Although Pather’s Indian ancestry continues to breathe through his many creations since 2000, it is not dominant, often entering overtly (as in bharatanatyam mudras or kathak foot work) or imperceptibly within the arc of his choreography and the overall impact of a post-modern work where move­ ment interacts with visual art (as in Body of Evidence), or where bodies interact with architecture (as in CityScapes and NightScapes). Pather’s multi-layered artistic form evolves organically to reflect contemporary socio-political conflicts, greed, and the struggle for social justice in South Africa. He is as concerned, artistically, with the fate of South Africa as he is with the African continent.

The Beautiful Ones Must be Born Pather’s profound political concern was expressed masterfully, marking the tenth anniversary of South Africa’s democracy in his site-specific work that examined how ‘personal and political freedom’, hopes and disillusionments had shaped the lives of ordinary South Africans from 1994 to 2004. The sites selected were six historically resonant spaces on Johannes­­burg’s Constitution Hill, and the title of the piece (The Beautiful Ones Must be Born) reworked that of Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born, providing a link between South Africa’s nascent democracy and Ghana as a post-colonial nation, independent since 1957. In Pather’s Final Report to the National Arts Council on ‘New South African choreography’, he noted that ‘the

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core’ of The Beautiful Ones Must Be Born ‘lies at the centre of three great epics: Professor Mazizi Kunene’s Emperor Shaka the Great, the Indian epic, the Mahabharata, and the Greek tragedy, the Oresteia.’14 The fact that the Indian work provided part of the core inspiration for Pather’s 2005 product­ion demonstrates his imaginative acumen in drawing on that epic’s major conflict between individual will, the call to dharma (duty), and karma (destiny). In the Final Report, Pather notes that the ‘meanings contained in the grand scale epics were developed through the combination of the expressive power of contemporary dance and physical theatre with the enduring and epic qualities of traditional and classical vocabulary such as traditional Zulu ritual, Shembe Dance, Classical Ballet, Bharatha Natyam and the movements of the San and the Khoi.’ The Beautiful Ones Must Be Born successfully portrays the situation in South Africa during 2004 (and since) during which time the black majority of the population has faced many problems including high unemployment, poor housing, poverty and violence. These realities emerge as audiences watch sequences based on African, European and Indian conventions juxtaposed to video clips of sink townships. The stark images on screen are contrasted with those of a President in silk pyjamas running on a treadmill – an image that suggests the Head of State ‘running on the spot’ rather than taking his nation forward. He is seen living in luxury while the majority – as seen in another video clip – are lining up for food and the basic necessities for a dignified life. In this production the audience was moved physically, emotionally and psychically as they traversed considerable distances on Constitution Hill. For example, spectators stood in front of Prison 4, the notorious holding place for political prisoners, and watched as performers take them from past to present, and back to the past, while encouraging them to imagine a future when the beautiful ones must be born.

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Conclusion In conclusion, Pather connects his Indian ancestry to different South African and global aesthetic traditions and diverse audiences via his intercultural approach that is uniquely openended, progressive and hopeful. His aesthetic-cum-political vision inspires spectators to reflect on the continuing struggle that is the lot of ordinary South Africans. With imagination and passion, and an honest look at reality, Pather lifts the human spirit that survives in the face of racial, gender, and class adversities in South Africa. NOTES 1 In Programme Notes of Ahimsa Ubuntu. 2 In April 2016, The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) was renamed the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) with a major grant from the Mellon Foundation. Jay Pather continues as Director of the ICA. 3 I have written extensively on Wole Soyinka, see, for example, Katrak 1986. Soyinka writes about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Soyinka 1999. 4 For my coinage of the term ‘ethno-global’ to describe the creative vision of world-class writers see Katrak 2009. 5 The early history of Indians in Natal goes back to 1860 when the majority came from Madras in South India; they were followed in the 1870s by migrants from Calcutta. P. Pratap Kumar notes that the classification that distinguished between ‘indentured and passenger Indians’ was ‘aimed at safeguarding the economic con­ cerns of the European community’. It was part of the larger colonial system of distinctions based on race and colour (2004: 376). The distinction, between indentured and ‘passenger’ was ‘based on economic consideration but gradually acquired political ramifications’ (376), and lasted until 1911 when the Government of India stopped its citizens from migrating to South Africa. Kumar comments that even when they were indentured, the Indians’ ‘enterprising spirit could not be curbed’ and as a result many became small traders, carpenters, etc. (378). See also Dangor 2004. 6 South African novelist and dramatist, Ronnie Govender recalls with bitterness this forced relocation of his own family when he was eleven. A.J. Christopher (1994) remarks that the Group Areas Act mandated forced removals – this was ‘to effect the total urban spatial segregation of various South African races’ (105). The British had passed the Native Land Act in 1913 that disenfranchised blacks of their own land in the place of their birth: ‘8.9 million hectares were defined as Native Reserves’ denied to blacks (Christopher, 105). Sarahleigh Castelyn notes that ‘land access remains a highly charged issue in post-Apartheid South Africa with land claims and redistribution projects serving as, among other matters,

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168  Ketu H. Katrak reminders of the sensitive issue of the relationship between identity politics and the physical location of a place to call home’ (Castelyn 2011: 31.) 7 KZN DanceLink, www.kzndancelink.co.za (accessed 1 November 2012). 8 On this, see the role of Fatima Meer, activist, academic, author and founder of the Institute for Black Research. Some sources credit her with writing the text for Ahimsa-Ubuntu and even with more responsibility, see http://indian diasporaclub.com/prof-fatima-meer and www.sahistory.org.za/archive/fatimameer-portfolio#sthash.sEhucftb.dpuf (accessed 15 June 2016). 9 See also Indian Council for Cultural Relations, https://india.gov.in/officialwebsite-indian-council-cultural-relations (accessed 15 June 2016). 10 See drizzydre1996, ‘Experience ubuntu.ogg’ (short interview on Ubuntu with Nelson Mandela), www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG6OxDn7Qrk. 11 Some sources erroneously credit Fatima Meer with the choreography see India Diaspora Club, ‘Prof. Fatima Meer’, http://indiandiasporaclub.com/prof-fatimameer (accessed 15 June 2016). 12 Launched 26 June 1952. 13 Interview, Durban, July 2014. 14 I am grateful to Pather for sharing a copy of this ‘Final Report’ with me.

REFERENCES Bell, Suzy (2000), ‘A Dance of National Importance’, The Independent on Saturday, Arts and Leisure, 22 April: 14. Quoted in http://artthrob.co.za/04dec/artbio. html (accessed 29 June 2016). —— (2000), ‘At Last, a dialogue on Indian dance’, The Independent on Saturday, Arts and Leisure, 22 April: 14. —— (2000), ‘The Great SA Dance’, The Independent on Saturday, Arts and Leisure, 18 March: 14. Castelyn, Sarahleigh (2011), ‘“Home is Where the Heart Is”: Black South African identities and Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre’s Home (2003)’, African Performance Review, vol. 5, no. 2: 30-42. Christopher, A. J. (1994), The Atlas of Apartheid (London and New York: Routledge, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press). Dangor, S. E. (2004), ‘Negotiating Identities: The case of Indian Muslims in South Africa’, in Jacobsen, K. and Kumar, P. (eds), South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and religious traditions (Leiden and Boston: Brill): 243-68. Katrak, Ketu H. (1986), Wole Soyinka and Modern Tragedy: A study of dramatic theory and practice (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press). —— (2009), ‘The Arts of Resistance: Arundhati Roy, Denise Uyehara and the ethno-global imagination’, in Anderson, P. and Menon, J. (eds), Violence Perf­ ormed: Local roots and global routes (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan): 244-63. Kumar, P. Pratap (2004), ‘Taxonomy of the Indian Diaspora in South Africa: Problems and issues in defining their identity’, in Jacobsen, K. and Kumar, P. (eds), South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and religious traditions (Leiden and Boston: Brill): 376-92. Pather, Jay (2006), ‘A Response: African contemporary dance? Questioning issues of a performance aesthetic for a developing continent’, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, vol. 20, no. 2: 9-15.

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Jay Pather: Transforming Society Post-Apartheid  169 Sichel, Adrienne (1996) ‘Transposing History and Dance to Inform. The Siwela Sonke Dance Company ensures that KwaZulu Natal pupils come to terms with their socio-political backgrounds’, The Star (Inside section), 30 October: 19. Soyinka, Wole (1999), The Burden of Memory, The Muse of Forgiveness (New York and London: Oxford University Press). Van Niekerk, Natasha (2000), ‘Talking to Director and Choreographer of A South African Siddhartha, Jay Pather’, Berea Mail (10 March), 6–8. YouTube provides abundant illustrations for this article. See, for example, Interview: SABC Digital News, ‘Jay Pather on his Choreography’, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7-XobY-PCao Illustrated Lecture: TEDx Talks, ‘A Love Affair with Spaces | Jay Pather | TEDxUCT’, www.youtube. com/watch?v=1kgNZ3G8lMY Dance sequences: Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, ‘The Beautiful Ones Must Be Born’, www.youtube. com/watch?v=Jn_10wfzLNo Wilhelm Disbergen, ‘Qaphela Caesar – Set, lighting and AV higlights’, www. youtube.com/watch?v=dkCtRE0lABM&nohtml5=False Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, ‘Power Of One’, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgPHZYWDSI Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, ‘Edge: Emerging Choreographers – Trailer’, www. youtube.com/watch?v=kcB6Tqm68s8&nohtml5=False (All accessed 15 June 2016.)

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4

Contested Spaces

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Asian & African Theatre in Mauritius A report from the front line MICHAEL WALLING

When Mauritius became independent in 1968, there was some debate regarding the continental identity of the new nation. While the island lies much closer to Madagascar and the African mainland than it does to Asia, the population has a higher proportion of Indian ancestry than it does of African. Mauritius was, after all, the centre of ‘The Great Experiment’ in indentured labour; whereby, after the abolition of slavery, vast numbers of people from the Indian subcontinent were transported to work on the sugar plantations under a system of ‘contracts’, which entitled the colonists to pay them no more than subsistence wages as they worked off the notional cost of their passage. If the history of Mauritius up to 1833 was a history of African slavery, its history after that date until 1920 was one of Indian indenture. The decision of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the first Prime Minister and ‘Father of the Nation’, to align a post-colonial Mauritius with Africa rather than Asia was therefore an important choice, as it suggested a future national identity that would embrace ethnic diversity and cultural pluralism. The cultural productions of such a socio-political space might, like its emerging and energetic Kreol language, embody and galvanise a process of intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding. They might perhaps envision a society built on equality in diversity, offering a microcosmic model to an ever-more-globalised world. 173

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When I first worked in Mauritius in 1996, such possibilities seemed very real. Under the aegis of the British Council, I was able to collaborate with the Anglo-Mauritian composer Eric Appapoulay to re-interpret the archetypal Mauritian novel, Bernardin de St. Pierre’s Rousseau-inspired romance Paul and Virginie, as a direct confrontation with the island’s slave past, and a challenge to the persistence of racial divisions (which are, as always, a mask for economic divisions) in Mauritian society. The success of this project led to another British Council commission in 1997. This time I directed Macbeth – again finding reflections of contemporary Mauritian realities, for example in the use of French and Kreol alongside the English language, and the inclusion of Indian costume, particularly for higher-class characters in more-formal situations. So King Duncan wore a white kurta, which was later complemented by a black kurta worn by Macbeth as King. Lady Macbeth wore a red churidar, and a bindhi on her forehead. One witch wore a sari, another had traditional African clothing. Although I only discovered it after the production was over, this work ran in parallel with the Shakespearean adaptations of Dev Virahsawmy, a Mauritian writer and political activist, who had made a number of translations of Shakespeare into Mauritian Kreol, as well as writing original plays addressing the question of nation-building, many of them with Shakespearean roots. One of these, Toufann (1991), was translated into English by Nisha Walling and myself, and performed in London in 1999. This text was published in African Theatre: Playwrights and Politics (2001), with significant amounts of complementary dramaturgical material, and Virahsawmy’s Shakespearean adaptations are also a key subject in African Theatre 12: Shakespeare in and out of Africa (2013). For that reason, I will not discuss them at any length here – except to re-emphasise the importance of the Kreol language in Virahsawmy’s work, and the way in which the plays serve to question the politics of language in the post-colonial space. Virahsawmy’s Prospero insists on the

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Hindi term toufann to describe the storm that he has raised (the usual Kreol term would be siklonn), and this linguistic conservatism parallels his desire to maintain distinctions of rank in his marriage plans for his daughter Kordelia. Her liaison with the Creole Kalibann, in defiance of her father’s plans, suggests a new model of cultural integration within the emerging national space. My most recent visit to Mauritius, in August 2015, was a far less optimistic event. The Plaza Theatre in Rose-Hill, where my productions of the mid-1990s and the premieres of Virahsawmy’s plays from that same period took place, is boarded up. The beautiful Port-Louis Theatre, the oldest theatre in the Southern Hemisphere, is disused and in a sad state of repair. Hindi soaps gush constantly from Mauritian televisions. This loss of cultural momentum reflects the persistence of what Virahsawmy has termed ‘the Hindu hegemony’ in Mauritian politics. At the last election, in December 2014, the Labour Party, led by Ramgoolam’s son Navin (a fact that in itself demonstrates the neo-dynastic nature of postindependence Mauritius) was heavily defeated, in large part because of allegations of corruption; and in February 2015, Navin Ramgoolam was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy and money laundering. Police found cash worth $6.4 million at his home, much of it in foreign currency. The 85-yearold Anerood Jugnauth, who replaced him as Prime Minister, had held the office on three previous occasions, and had also been President of the Republic. This Prime Minister’s son, Pravind Jugnauth, was himself convicted under corruption charges in July 2015. Corruption on this scale would not, of course, be possible without the island’s engagement in the globalised economy. Recent decades have seen Mauritius shift its international perspective away from the export of goods produced by cheap labour (although the sugar industry remains huge) and reinvent itself as a playground for the new, global super-rich. The beautiful coast, which is one of the country’s greatest

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assets, has been largely sold off, with much of it owned by some of the most luxurious hotels in the world, where rooms cost as much as £800 (c. USD $1,200) a night. This in a country where the per capita GDP is about £5,000 (c. USD $7,500).1 Even more significantly, Mauritius has become a tax haven and a major centre of offshore banking, offering secret multi-currency accounts in which wealthy individuals and corporations can hide their profits from the authorities elsewhere. Such ‘development’ undoubtedly brings wealth into the country – but it is at the cost of any moral credibility, and makes manifest huge disparities in wealth and lifestyle. The continuance and acceptance of such extreme in­ equality, social injustice and political corruption suggests a culture of passivity and deep self-deprecation. The absence of theatrical life, indeed of any real cultural life, is symptomatic of a socio-political system calculated to disfranchise and disinherit the majority of the population, whether of Asian or African ancestry, and to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a small elite, working closely with international capital. Seen in this light, Virahsawmy’s project to create a national identity through the recognition of a shared language and a vital culture can be seen as an act of resistance to globalisation and its accompanying extremes of inequality and injustice. One key factor in the current failure of this project is the way in which diasporic populations within a globalised space tend to seek, and are encouraged to seek, identities that are rooted in their countries of origin, rather than in the new, shared space of cultural diversity. In the UK, and much of Europe, this has been made manifest in the policy of multiculturalism, which encourages a ghetto mentality and the generation of culturally specific theatre. Against this can be set a policy of interculturalism, which seeks to generate cross-cultural dialogue and work that recognises the shared nature of our social, political and economic space. While mainstream UK theatre continues, at best, to follow a multicultural approach centred on the portrayal of an exotic

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‘Other’, there is an encouraging tendency among smaller companies to explore the cultural dynamics of an emerging intercultural model. Examples might include Tamasha, Tiata Fahodzi, and my own company, Border Crossings. In Mauritius, the cultural identity of the Asian populations is articulated predominantly in terms of the country of origin – India or China. There is a particular emphasis on the observation of religious festivals, and the building of places of worship: during my recent visit, I saw several new Hindu temples in the process of construction. Hinduism, for all its elemental energy, is quite a passive ideology, encouraging its adherents to regard their lot in terms of fate or dharma, rather than as a manifestation of social injustice. More important than this, however, is the sense that the Hindu population is not really a Mauritian population, and most definitely not an African population. The effect of this is to locate cultural identity in an alien space, and so to generate a psychological fissure in the process of self-fashioning. As Vijay Mishra has argued in relation to V.S. Naipaul and the experience of indentured diaspora in Trinidad, the Indian culture carried by the indentured labourer can become a static and rigid caricature that bears little resemblance to the dynamic space from which it once emerged (2006). The trauma of the indentured passage in itself inflicted psychological damage, made manifest on a cultural level, and this is compounded by the moribund nature of the bastardised Indian nationalism that it engenders. This was made very clear to me during my recent visit, in a conversation with my wife Nisha’s aunt, who had made her first visit to India a couple of years before, when she was already in later middle age. ‘We think we are Indian’, she said, ‘but we are not. The exile was too great. We do not have any real emotional relationship to these things [the Hindu myths].’ Not only is such a culture of necessity rigid, conservative and lacking in dynamism; it is also deeply divisive, as it encourages the formation of identities based on difference, and hence a deep distrust of the Muslim and (predominantly Christian)

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Creole / African populations in the island. This has been compounded by the recent global increase in Islamophobia, and by the ‘Hindu nationalism’ (what Rabindranath Tagore called ‘organised selfishness’) that is growing ever more powerful in India itself under the leadership of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This often means that cultural productions are seen as the possession of a single ethnic group – while I was there in August 2015, there was a major conference on the Ramayana, with a preponderance of traditional Indian performances. It also means that any theatre work operating outside known and clear traditional practice is subject to suspicions of attacking racial and cultural purity. Virahsawmy has said that one reason he uses the names of Shakespearean characters for his own creations is to avoid names that might be perceived as representing any ethnic group within Mauritian culture.2 His caution was shown to be very prudent during August 2015, when the comedy troupe Komiko performed their light farce Le Correspondant, in Kreol. The fact that one character had a Tamil name led to accusations that the play was an attack on the Tamil community, and riots broke out in the theatre. In such a context, any manifestation of cross-cultural dialogue seems like a victory. In 2014, Virahsawmy’s translation into Kreol of Godspell was performed at the Indira Gandhi Centre in Phoenix. Given that this is emphatically a ‘Centre for Indian Culture’, the presence of a predominantly Creole cast, performing a piece with an overtly Christian agenda, could be regarded as progressive. On the other hand, it could also be argued that such an event serves, like the UK’s policy of multiculturalism, to compound differences rather than to build a new national identity rooted in diversity. Virahsawmy’s embrace of the Christian religion has had many positive effects, particularly the generation of a Kreol orthography in collaboration with the Catholic church, but it perhaps places his work so firmly in line with the Creole population as to ‘other’ the Indian. In August 2015, the choreographer Anna Patten presented Rhythm on Fire at the

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Mahatma Gandhi Institute, drawing off both Indian and African cultural traditions3 – but, as with much ‘fusion’, the effect was to underline the differences and the traditional nature of classical dance forms, rather than to generate anything more specific to the new intercultural space. The real need is for a dynamic and engaged intercultural drama, on the lines of Virahsawmy’s earlier works, that employs the lingua franca of the island to address its true histories and current realities, rather than compounding its dislocation from an imagined past. The one genuine hope I saw during my time in Mauritius was the Museum at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Aapravasi Ghat.4 This is the place where the indentured labourers landed in Mauritius, and the museum takes great care to recreate their experience, often in very theatrical ways. There are stage-like sets of the ships on which they travelled, the dockside as it was in the nineteenth century, and the ramshackle houses on the sugar plantations. There are also video recordings of oral history interviews with Mauritian elders recounting life on the plantations. This cultural reconnection to the reality of the passage, told in the Kreol language, seemed to me to offer a genuine engagement with the cultural roots of the current situation, and so to suggest possibilities for real community cultural development today. Oral history, and the theatre it can become, has the effect of unleashing power in the community from which it comes, connecting memory and imagination to political and social space, and so encouraging the communal ownership of historical experience and cultural formation. As Paulo Freire said: ‘To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming’ (Freire 1970: 76). In Mauritius, we need new names.

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NOTES 1 See www.shangri-la.com/mauritius/shangrila/reservations/select-room-rate and tradingeconomics.com 2 See, for example, African Theatre 12: 88. 3 See LeMauricien.com, ‘En Aout au MGI: Anna Patten sur un rythme enflammé’, www.lemauricien.com/article/en-aout-au-mgi-anna-patten-sur-rythmeenflamme (accessed 15 June 2016). 4 Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site www.aapravasighat.org (accessed 15 June 2016).

REFERENCES Freire, Paulo (1970), Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Herder and Herder). Mishra, Vijay (2006), ‘Traumatic Memory, Mourning and V. S. Naipaul’, in GhoshSchellhorn, M. and Alexander, V. (eds), Peripheral Centres, Central Peripheries – India and its diasporas (Berlin: Transaction): 129-55.

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Hidden Under a Black Veil in Terra Incognita Representations of Africa in Bangladesh Theatre SYED JAMIL AHMED

African theatre was inaugurated in Bangladesh in 1989, when The Strong Breed by Wole Soyinka was produced by a group of students at the University of Dhaka. Since then, there have been seventeen theatrical productions of eleven African texts: The Sultan’s Dilemma, The Donkey Market, Al-Shaytan fi khatr and Bayeen al-harab wa al-salam by Tawfiq al-Hakim, Marital Bliss by Abdel-Moneim Selim, The Trap by Alfred Farag and Interrogation by Farid Kamil from Egypt; The Trials of Brother Jero and The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka from Nigeria; The Trial of Mallam Ilya by Mohammed Ben Abdallah from Ghana, and The Well of Bouctou, based on West African oral narratives by Isaaca Sawadogo from Burkina Faso. This meagre harvest does not mean that Africa does not register in the conceptual terrain of the Bengali people, but it does mean the impact has been limited. During the mid-1930s, following Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, Rabindranath Tagore composed a poem, ‘Africa’, to voice his intense anti-colonial anger against the ‘savage greed’ of Europe (Tagore 1937a: 49-50, 1937b). Not to be missed in the protest by this celebrated Bengali poet is the sign of a woman under a black veil in a terra incognita that signifies the African continent. It can be argued that the image of Africa that Tagore’s poem gives us is the archetype of the continent etched in the Bengali psyche. 181

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Some eighty years after Tagore’s poem, this essay sets off to examine what the theatrical representations of the woman under a black veil stand for in Bangladesh today, and for what the representations act. I will examine the twelve African texts that have been transmuted into eighteen stage productions in Bangladesh. I will ask why the texts were chosen in the first place, and I will look at how they were presented and received. In the absence of questionnaires completed by members of the audiences, reviews will be used to assess how the productions were interpreted. If, as Patrice Pavis insists, ‘[i]n order that fiction take on meaning for the receiver, it is indispensable that the world of fiction which is closed upon itself (the close structure of signs) open out onto the world outside, i.e. the real world of our experience’ (1982: 153). I will investigate how the worlds of the source texts were transmuted through theatrical productions so as to open out to the real world of experience shared by the spectators in Bangladesh. I will keep in mind the question whether or not the productions have demystified the archetype of Africa etched in the Bengali psyche. Most importantly, I will ask ‘what do these productions as representations of Africa act for?’

Representations in the translations Ten of the eighteen productions of African texts were based on translations. Eight of these ten drew on source texts that had undergone two-fold translation: first, interlingual translation – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language’ – from African source texts to target texts in Bengali, and then intersemiotic translation or transmutation. In using ‘intersemiotic’ I am following Roman Jakobson’s usage of the word as ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of non-verbal sign systems’ (2000: 114). I am looking at the way the target texts were staged in Bengali.

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The source texts of three of the productions were in English: The Strong Breed (translated and directed by Khairul Habib, 1989), The Lion and the Jewel (translated by Shafi Ahmed and directed by Quamruzzaman Runu, 1994), and The Trial of Mallam Ilya (translated by Soumya Sarker and directed by Mohammad Ali Hyder, Dhaka, 2015). The source texts of four other productions were Arabic: there were three stagings of Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Al-Shaytan fi khatr and one of Bayeen al-harab wa al-salam. Both the translations from Arabic into Bengali were by Ahsan Syed, and they were staged as a double bill in Chittagong (1999), under the direction of Wahidul Azam Tipu. Al-Shaytan fi khatr was also staged as ‘single bill’: firstly by the Drama Section of the Department of Fine Arts at Chittagong University (1994), and then by Unite Theatre for Social Action (UTSA) in a small town south of Chittagong, Patiya. The source texts of the eighth production, Bouctou’r Kuyan (literally, ‘The Well of Bouctou’), were oral narratives linked to three legendary figures in West Africa: first, the slave Bouctou – a Fulani woman from Massina – who tended the well at the site that came to be known as the city of Tombouctou; second, Samory Touré, who wanted to unify Africa in his Bissandougo empire in the pre-colonial era; and, third, Guimbi Ouattara, the Princess of Sya, who possessed healing powers (Centre for Asian Theatre 2004: n.p.; Haq 2004). These oral narratives underwent (at least) a threefold translation. The first was an interlingual translation from French to English prepared by Margaret Abbe, and the second was another interlingual translation – this time from English to Bengali – by Kajol Bandyopadhyay. This was transmuted into a theatrical production by Burkinabe director Isaaca Sawadogo. In a similarly complex process, two productions based on the African source text of The Sultan’s Dilemma have undergone three-fold translations. Al-sultan al-hair, the source text, was translated from Arabic into English by Farouk Abdel Wahab and this was translated into Bengali by Syed

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Jamil Ahmed and Saiful Alam Chowdhury. The Bengali text was then staged twice: firstly in Chittagong (1991), directed by Kamaluddin Neelu, and then in Dhaka (2009), where it was directed by Akhtaruzzaman. The decision to mount the first of these ten productions, The Strong Breed, may have been the result of the interest in Soyinka’s writing after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. Within three years of the award, students from the University of Dhaka put on the play, under the title Rakta Beej, at the International Seminar on Commonwealth Literature held in Dhaka. Attempting to stay close to the signs of the source text, the director sought to transmute into the kind of theatrical production he regarded as Soyinka’s ongoing praxis, and provide inspiration for self-sacrifice (Habib 1991: 7). In his arena staging, director Khairul Habib declined the opportunity to transmute the production in terms of local signifiers, and he retained ambivalence about the meaning he sought to convey. He emphasised the New Year ritual of purification, in which a stranger is to be made sacrificial scapegoat so that the community can be rejuvenated and absolved of sin for the following year. The performance in Dhaka ended in uncertainty: it was not clear whether the sacrifice had been effective and, by implication, it was not clear whether the intended super-objective of the performance was to prepare spectators to be prepared to perform similarly self-sacrificial acts. Critical reactions to the production were positive. In a review for Weekly Holiday, Professor Niaz Zaman suggested that ‘the play offered an exciting entrance into an exotic and yet familiar and troubling world’ (1990: 6) and, at an event to mark the publication of the playscript, Professor Manzurul Islam observed that Rakta Beej proved that Soyinka’s characters, as well as his time and place, created equivalence in any Third World country of the world (1991: 4). In 1991, the southern city of Chittagong played host to a successful production of The Sultan’s Dilemma by Tawfiq al-Hakim, presented under the title Shesh Sanglap, directed

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by Kamaluddin Neelu and produced by Ganayan Natya Sampraday. In 2009, the same play was staged again, this time in Dhaka, and this time directed by Akhtaruzzaman and produced by Shomoy Natya Dal. The play explores the legitimacy of a Mamluk sultan who discovers that he has never been manumitted and poses the question as to whether the problem is to be resolved by legal process or by the application of force (Ganayan Natya Sampraday 1991: n.p.; Shomoy Natya Dal 2010: n.p.). Neelu and Akhtaruzzaman told the story using resources of both sound and image, but the latter opened out the world of the fiction. For example, where Neelu kept close to the text and relied entirely on Indian classical music, Akhtaruzzaman edited the text extensively, and incorporated a blend of Indian classical, Egyptian traditional and Western music. Both directors incorporated styles of acting borrowed from the indigenous Jatra theatre but the indigenous was more apparent in Neelu’s production.1 Akhtaruzzaman’s ‘opening out’ was most apparent in the set and costume design, where he dispensed entirely with references to the Mamluk Egypt of medieval times. This can be appreciated if one compares the headgear worn by the Sultan with that described in Fuess (2008: 78).2 Both productions were well received: audiences were spellbound by Neelu’s production and reviewers raved over that of Akhtaruzzaman (Daily Sangbad 1992: 8; Reza 2010: A2). The first production ran for fifty performances and the other for sixty-four. One reviewer succinctly posed the question raised by Neelu’s production by linking it to the conflict of terror and rule of law prevalent today (Sikdar 1991: 55). Another reviewer observed that, in spite of being anchored in history, Akhtaruzzaman’s production pointed directly to the realities of the contemporary world (Reza 2010: A2). In 2004, some fifteen years after the premiere of Rakta Beej, audiences in Bangladesh had another encounter with African culture when Bouctou’r Kuyan (The Well of Bouctou) was staged. It was the fruit of a venture involving the Bangladesh Centre

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for Asian Theatre (CAT), the National Theatre of Norway and Le Carrefour International du Théâtre de Ouagadougou (CITO), Burkina Faso. The production was financed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and the director was Isaaca Sawadogo, the first African to direct a stage production in Bangladesh. Bouctou’r Kuyan was a fresh and invigorating experience for the spectators because they witnessed local actors blend in with music, choreography, movement and directorial approach drawn from West Africa. Sawadogo employed a proscenium arch that opened onto a stage that was bare except for a white curtain rigged centre stage, rearranged as and when necessary. The actors carried on and off the few props they required – such as a triangular table and spears. They made dexterous use of stilts and wore costumes that were strongly evocative of West African culture. Though a major event, the production received very little critical attention. Mosharraf Hossain Tutul, then the Administrative Officer of CAT, recalls that Bouctou’r Kuyan struck wondrous notes among most the spectators, and many commented that they had seen ‘something new’.3 This positive response was confirmed by Margaret Abbe, one of the translators, who observed that the performance ‘had different flavours from the average Bangladeshi play’ (Haq 2004). Reviewers, however, were less enthusiastic: one commended the production for presenting the luminous aspects of contemporary West African culture, while another only commented that the production was ‘unusual’ – adding, perhaps from a distance, that ‘ the packed house appeared to have enjoy[ed] it’ (Dash 2004: A18; Haq 2004). With Mallam Itiyar Bichar (Mohammed Ben Abdallah’s The Trial of Mallam Ilya), Bangladesh theatre put aside any pretence of concern with medieval times to engage with the ‘political instability in a post-colonial African country’. The production articulated, as one reviewer observed, ‘a gripping narrative’ of ‘the semiotics of revolution’ (Dey 2014: 9). In spite of the focus on Africa, it was director Mohammad Ali

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Haider’s intention to emphasise the play’s local relevance and to remind spectators of ‘the political instability of pre and post 1975 Bangladesh’, for, Haider believes, Abdallah’s text ‘represents a turbulent statehood reflecting the political condition of any newly independent nation’ (Malik 2014). Staged by BotTola, a leading theatre troupe in the country, Mallam Itiyar Bichar created a huge stir in Bangladeshi theatrical circles, partly because, in the words of another reviewer, the narrative that unfolded in it was extremely familiar in the local context as with its history of political assassinations, undemocratic transfer of power, and the misery of the families close to power (Ran 2015). Mamunur Rashid, an eminent Bangladeshi playwright, commended BotTola for introducing a new and strikingly relevant African playwright to theatre-goers (2014: A2). The strategy chosen by the director for creating the world of his production was such that it evoked an unidentified African nation state. This was achieved by retaining African signs in the costumes, and opening out the signifying system by opting for a spacesetting reminiscent of a military encampment of any nation state in the South.

Representation in the adaptations Eight of the eighteen theatrical productions of African source texts were based on adaptations, the concept of which con­ tinues to waver uncertainly in the metalanguage of trans­ lation studies scholars. For the purpose of this paper, the concept of adaptation denotes ‘a special kind of equiva­lence, a situational equivalence’, applied ‘in those cases where the type of situation being referred to by the SL [source language] message is unknown in the TL [target language] culture’ (Vinay and Darbelnet 1995: 39). Clearly, the defining parameter of adaptations set the world of fiction imagined in such texts is far removed from the world of fiction imagined in the source text.

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At this point, it is appropriate to examine the ‘journey’ of the source texts into adaptations, and then to intersemiotic translations as theatrical productions. Tahmina Ahmed adapted Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero, into Sahaj Saral Path, which then underwent intersemiotic translation as a theatrical production under the direction of this author in Chittagong in 1991. Denys Johnson-Davies translated Inter­rogation, Marital Bliss, The Trap, and The Donkey Market from Arabic into English. Tariq Anam Khan then produced adaptations in Bengali, which he directed as a double bill in Dhaka: the first two in 1993, and the second two in 2015. Since then The Donkey Market has been produced three more times. Two of these were based on an adaptation by the director Pavel Azad, who went back to Johnson-Davies’ translations, and presented street theatre productions in 1993/94 and 1997. The third production of The Donkey Market also started with Johnson-Davies’ translation from Arabic. Utpal Jha used this English version to prepare a Bengali interlingual text that director Debashish Ghosh then mounted as a street theatre production (1999). Tariq Anam Khan, who adapted and directed four source texts from Africa, acknowledges that his appreciation of these plays is based entirely on the English translations. He has indicated that he chose to produce these because he found the plays to be lucid and well-constructed. He thought they were imbued with universal appeal, and considered that the characters offered actors opportunities to create impressive performances. The world of fiction that Farid Kamil evokes in Interrogation is the world of the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. But in his production of Jera, Khan transmuted the world of fiction in the source text to one that is closer to his spectators’ world of actual experience. The set design erased signs indicating a particular time or place, and created the ambience of almost any place in the Third World during the twentieth century. However, there were hints, in language and costume, that pointed to the play being set in a small town in Bangladesh

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during 1971 at which time the Liberation War was heading towards its gory end. Whereas Kamil (1981: 4) describes the Man as wearing Egyptian dress – ‘a galabia, a skullcap with turban wound round it’ – Khan attired the Man in Pakistani dress. Instead of the uniform of a British ‘Tommy’ that Kamil has the Man wear under the galabia, Khan introduced the uniform of the Pakistan Army. The Woman, described by Kamil (1981: 4) as ‘dressed in the clothes worn by the poorer classes in the industrial towns’, is clothed by Khan in a sari. So effective was Khan’s transmutation that Shamsur Rahman the pre-eminent poet of Bangladesh, wrote in his review of the production that although Jera shows no scene of brutality and oppression committed by the Pakistan Army, the monstrosity of 1971 is powerfully evoked by the Woman’s anguished face and fearful glances (1993: 12). Sahaj Saral Path, adapted from The Trials of Brother Jero and produced by Teerjak Natya Dal in Chittagong during 1991, involved another and very different transplantation. Dal set Soyinka’s play about turf wars between Christian sects in southern Nigeria during the 1960s in the vortices of power set in motion by the Islamists in Bangladesh during the late 1980s. That was a time when a constitutional amendment had reversed the secular ideology of the state into an avowedly Islamist dogma, and when signs indicated that religious militants would soon begin to carry out terrorism acts. The name, Sahaj Saral Path (literally, ‘Easy and Straight Way’), is itself a play on ‘Sirat al-Mustaqim’, an Arabic term often used by the Islamists to indicate ‘the right path of Islamic faith’. Whereas Soyinka’s fictional world is a village with a hut on one side, and a beach where a few stakes and palm leaves denote the church of Jero’s revivalist sect (Soyinka 1996: 9, 14), the transmutation of the source text rendered in the theatrical production of the Path opens out its world of fiction to the world inhabited by the spectators in Bangladesh. Dal evoked a generalised rural environment in the country during the 1990s, and then suggested the akhra (a place for spiritual retreat and character reformation) of a pir (a spiritual guide

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who instructs his disciples in the matters of religion). The transmutation also involved the reconfiguration of language (here replenished with many signs borrowed from Islamic culture), and characters. The Immaculate Jero, Articulate Hero of Christ’s Crusade, and the Member of Parliament in the source text were transmuted into ‘safed Sanaullah Pir’, or ‘Sanaullah the Pure White Pir’, and a middle-aged army officer respectively. The play was enthusiastically acclaimed by the reviewers. For example, Daily Janata found the content to be very powerful in the context of the times (1992: 6). According to Rahman writing in the Daily Bangla, the dynamism of the production lay in the way it unmasked the mechanics of religious merchants (1992: 9). The popularity of the production was indicated by the fact that it ran for eighty-eight performances. In 1999, Debashish Ghosh transplanted the world of fiction encoded in a traditional Egyptian folk-tale adapted as The Donkey Market, an hilarious stage comedy by al-Hakim, into a street theatre production that was performed in the open air in Dhaka. Ghosh chose to set his production, entitled Gadha Bazar, in a world that was a curious mix of north-Indian Muslim and rural Bangladeshi cultures. In order to com­ment on the action, he added a chorus of qawwals dressed in green kurta (loose upper garments), green pyjamas and pink caps, and with pink kerchiefs tied to their wrists.4 While one reviewer found that the situational equivalence called into question the fictional universe of the production, others found it both entertaining and relevant (Sarkar 1999). Writing in Daily Bangla, A. M. Apu drew attention to the situation in Bangladesh where unemployment reduces the value of some people to a level worse than that of a beast of burden (1999: 14).

Conclusion As this examination of African theatre in Bangladesh reveals, a total of eighteen productions of twelve African source texts

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have been performed in the country at the time of writing – the beginning of October 2015. Of these, ten were based on interlingual translations, and eight on adaptations. It is time to ask if these productions of Africa have gone any way towards demystifying the archetype of Africa etched in Bengali psyche as a woman under a black veil in a terra incognita. Firstly, it should be said that the sign of Africa does not represent a homogenised culture. Indeed, a closer examination of the list of African source texts makes it evident that only four countries have been represented in Bangladesh by means of theatrical performances. These are Nigeria, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Ghana. Among these countries, Egypt has been represented most – seven out of twelve source texts are from that country. Egypt also features at the top in terms of the number of playwrights produced in Bangladesh – with four, i.e. Tawfiq al-Hakim, Abdel-Moneim Selim, Alfred Farag and Farid Kamil. Among all the African playwrights, Tawfiq al-Hakim has been the most sought after, for four of his plays have been staged and – again – at the time of writing, they have had a total of 216 performances. In terms of exposure, al-Hakim is followed by Wole Soyinka, with three plays and ninety-three performances. Eight of the eighteen productions were mounted in the seven years from 1989 to 1995, averaging over one pro­ duc­ tion a year, and ten were put on in the subsequent twenty years (from 1996 to 2015); that is an average of one production every two years – a statistic that suggests interest in African theatre is declining. (For further details, please see the checklist below.) However, it must be acknowledged that mere numbers often relegate important qualitative values of theatrical productions to the wings. For example, despite the fact that Soyinka’s Rakta Beej ran for only one show and Bouctou’r Kuyan for only two, compared to eighty-eight by Soyinka’s Sahaj Saral Path and 114 by the two productions of al-Hakim’s Shesh Sanglap, a scrutiny of reception might draw attention to the importance of the first two in terms of demystifying the

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Tawfiq alHakim Tawfiq alHakim

Wole Soyinka

6

8

7

5

4

Tawfiq alEgypt Hakim Abdel-Moneim Egypt Selim Farid Kamil Egypt

3

Nigeria

Egypt

Egypt

Nigeria

Wole Soyinka

2

Nigeria

Wole Soyinka

Country

1

Playwright

The Lion and the Jewel

The Interrogation The Donkey Market Al-Shaytan fi khatr

The Trials of Brother Jero The Sultan’s Dilemma Marital Bliss

The Strong Breed

Play

Jera

Sukh

Shesh Sanglap

Sahaj Saral Path

Rakta Beej

Translation/ Adaptation

Dui Boloder Golpo (Street Theatre) Drama section of Shankate Shaytan the Department of Fine Arts Bangladesh The Jewel and the Shilpakala Crown Academy

Aranyak

Natya Kendra

Department of Theatre and DUCSU Teerjak Natya Dal Ganayan Natya Sampraday Natya Kendra

Producing Group

Dhaka

Chittagong University

Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka

Chittagong

Chittagong

Dhaka University

Place

Checklist of African playscripts performed in Bangladesh

1994

1993/ 94 1994

1993

1991

1991

1989

Year

04

25+

04

21+2 each

50

88

01

Performances

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Mohammed Ben Abdallah Alfred Farag Tawfiq alHakim

16

17 18

15

Devised from Burkina Faso oral narratives Tawfiq alHakim

Tawfiq alHakim Tawfiq alHakim Tawfiq alHakim Tawfiq alHakim Tawfiq alHakim

14

13

12

11

10

9

Egypt Egypt

Ghana

Egypt

Burkina Faso

Egypt

Egypt

Egypt

Egypt

Egypt

The Trial of Mallam Ilya The Trap The Donkey Market

The Sultan’s Dilemma

The Well of Bouctou

The Donkey Market The Donkey Market Al-Shaytan fi khatr Bayeen al-harab wa al-salam Al-Shaytan fi khatr

Natya Kendra Natya Kendra

Shomoy Sanskritik Goshthi BatTala

Chittagong

Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka

Banduk Yuddha Gadha Bazar

Dhaka Dhaka

Mallam Ilyar Bichar Dhaka

Shesh Sanglap

Dhaka

Chittagong Yuddha Ebang Shantir Majhamajhi Shankate Shaytan Patiya

Dui Boloder Golpo (Street Theatre) Gadha Bazar (Street Theatre) Shankate Shaytan

Unite Theater for Social Action (UTSA) Centre for Asian Bouctou’r Kuyan Theatre

Theatre Guild

Theatre Guild

Dhaka Padatik

Prachya Nat

2015

2015

2009

2004

1999

1999

1999

1997

3

15

64

2

5

31

26

08

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Bengali archetype of Africa. It could be argued that, despite providing the source text, Africa is almost entirely ‘missing’ in all the eight productions based on adaptations. This is not to argue that Bouctou’r Kuyan was a ‘true’ representation of Africa – even if it were possible to gauge ‘truth’ in terms of the category of ‘sameness’. As Sawadogo explicitly main­ tained, ‘the play remains an African one that has been integrated into Bangladeshi culture: it (is) a blend of the two’ (Haq, 2004). What is disturbing though is the fact that both Rakta Beej and Bouctou’r Kuyan received very little critical attention, and ran for very few performances. The latter was primarily because of limited funding.5 On the other hand, one of the crucial determining factors for the popularity of the productions of Egyptian source texts appears to be the ease with which the closed structure of signs of the fictional universe of these source texts opened out to the theatre people and audiences in Bangladesh. Borrowing from Pavis (1982: 153), it could be explained that the ‘ensemble of accepted knowledge, of presuppositions and maxims, which constitute a foundation on which the fictional structure [of the Egyptian source texts] is erected’, passed ‘as acceptable in the eyes of the receiver’. This was because both the fictional structure and the receivers could draw on the signifying system shared by Islamic cultures. AlHakim’s Shesh Sanglap and the radical, ‘Islamic’, ‘make over’ given to Soyinka’s Brother Jero substantiate this argument that communication is facilitated by a shared religion. It is also significant that only two productions were developed in universities: Rakta Beej (The Strong Breed by Wole Soyinka) was put on in the University of Dhaka, and Shankate Shaytan (Al-Shaytan fi khatr by Tawfiq al-Hakim) was staged in Chittagong University. The explanation for this may be the fact that none of the five public universities that have departments of theatre and performance studies offer any courses on African theatre. Exposure to African theatre is narrow and limited: source texts from Africa have only been produced in the two major cities in Bangladesh

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(Dhaka and Chittagong), and in a small town (Patiya) close to Chittagong. For the rest of Bangladesh, Africa is still the veiled one in terra incognita. This is not to argue that any production, African or otherwise, should ‘faithfully reproduce’ (if such were ever possible), the world of fiction conceived in the source text. For, to be an effective sign system and act of communication, the performance of any play, African or not, ‘must be repeatable – iterable – in the absolute absence of the receiver or of any determinable collectivity of receivers’, even ‘beyond the death of the addressee’ (Derrida 1988: 7). Hence, any sign of the system of a performance, and even the entire system, could be cut free from its playwright, as the sender, and the African audiences as its intended addressee, and any third party can possess it, decode its meaning independently and use it in a manner unimagined by the sender and the addressee. This is the risk of any performance as an act of communication. To be meaningful, it must be iterable; but to be iterable implies it must be repeatable ad infinitum. One should be able to perform an African play for ISIS in Palmyra, Barack Obama at the White House, Desmond Tutu in Cape Town, or for regular evening performances in Accra, Cairo, Kolkata or Dhaka. Because a ‘text’ is ‘a differential network, a fabric of traces referring endlessly to something other than itself, to other differential traces’ (Derrida 1994: 84). An African source text will inevitably spill over into its context to the extent that distinction between the ‘text’ and the ‘context’ becomes irrelevant. As a result, it is inevitable that the performances in each of the cities mentioned above will inevitably send new tentacles into the ‘context’ to generate different, or even deferred, meanings. Nevertheless, a source text of Shakespeare can be played in English in Dhaka or Lagos, and – despite the tentacles of local ‘meanings’ it constructs – Shakespeare still remains an iconic representation of sixteenth-century England. Such is never the case with an African source text in Bangladesh.

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This paper draws to a conclusion with two questions that have begged to be asked throughout: how many Bangladeshi plays have been performed in Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso, or any other country in Africa? How has Bangladesh, South Asia, or even Asia been represented in these productions? In the last instance both these questions and those that flood in as supplementary questions implicate structural inequalities between the North and the South main­tained by the complex and variable functions of nume­ rous discourses. Many tentacles of these discourses may be traced to the nodules of Euro-American ‘learning’ (such as the universities and the publishing houses), resourced by the totalising system of the neoliberal world order – resources that are necessarily consistent with its basic principles of quantification and exchange, and are inevitably driven by a common quantitative measure, i.e. money value. As Schech­ ner puts it, ‘[i]f you follow the money you will soon discover that the governments, NGOs, foundations and universities etc., are the very ones who, in other guises, maintain the structural inequities’ (2002: 162). It is no wonder that Bouctou’r Kuyan, funded by an inter­ national non-government organisation, never ran beyond the inaugural performances, and it is no surprise that Rakta Beej was never funded. Sadly the theatre practitioners in the South fail to engage in intra-South dialogues; sadly they only know about one another via the nodules of Euro-American ‘learning’. Because of this, their work continues to enhance these nodules where the technologies of globalising power have taken root. It is crystallised by means of fundamental points of anchorage to be found in corporate bodies and by financial entrepreneurs operating in the global market. In the final analysis, almost all the representations of Africa in Bangladesh theatre have acted for the corporate bodies and for the financial entrepreneurs flourishing in the contemporary neoliberal world order. That is a world in which the notion of ‘decolonising the mind’ is believed to be archaic.

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NOTES 1 Famous for its declamatory style of acting on a bare, arena stage, Jatra is an indigenous form of theatre prevalent in Bangladesh as well as in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Tripura. 2 ‘During the ceremony of accession to office the Mamluk sultan received his official insignia: a black turban, a black robe, and a sword … On other public occasions Mamluk sultans would wear different kinds of headgear. In the early days of the Mamluk sultanate this could be the sharbu¯sh, a headgear that resembled, according to al-Maqrı¯zı¯, a triangular-shaped crown ¯ı put on the head without a kerchief around it.’ (Fuess, 2008: 76). 3 Personal communication received from Mosharraf Hossain Tutul on 2 October 2015. 4 Qawwals are singers who render a form of Sufi devotional music known as qawwali, believed to be over seven centuries old. This is popular in Pakistan, North India and parts of Bangladesh. 5 Mosharraf Hossain Tutul acknowledged that Bouctou’r Kuyan ran for a limited number of shows because of limited funding (personal communication, received 2 October 2015).

REFERENCES al-Hakim, Tawfik (1974), The Sultan’s Dilemma, in Wahab, F. (ed. and tr.), Modern Egyptian Drama: An anthology (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica): 41-153. Apu, A. M. (1999), ‘Dhaka Padatiker “Gadha Bazar”’, Daily Bhorer Kagoj, 19 July. Centre for Asian Theatre (2004), ‘The Well of Bouctou’ [brochure], (Dhaka: Centre for Asian Theatre). Daily Janata (1992), ‘Teerjaker Sahaj Saral Path’, Daily Janata, 9 February. Daily Sangbad (1992), ‘Shesh Sanglap Dorshokke Montromugdho Kore Rakhe’, Daily Sangbad, 6 January. Dash, U. (2004), ‘CAT’er Notun Natok Bouctou’r Kuyan Prodorshito’, Daily Prothom Alo, Ananda weekly supplement, 12 February. Derrida, Jacques (1988), ‘Signature Event Context’, in Graff, G. (ed.), Limited Inc. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press): 1-23. —— (1994 [1979]), ‘Living On: Border Lines’, in Bloom, H., de Man, P., Derrida, J, et al., (eds) Deconstruction and Criticism (New York: Continuum): 75-176. Dey, S. (2014), ‘Trial of Mallam Ilya: BotTala underlines a socio-political malaise’, Daily Star, 4 January, www.thedailystar.net/trial-of-mallam-ilya-5302 (accessed 21 June 2016). Fuess, A. (2008), ‘Sultans with Horns: The political significance of headgear in the Mamluk Empire’, Mamluk Studies Review, vol. 12, no. 2: 71-94. Ganayan Natya Sampraday (1991), ‘Ganayan Natya Sampraday Proyojona Shesh Sanglap’ [brochure], (Chittagong: Ganayan Natya Sampraday). Habib, K. (1991), ‘Wole Soyinka: Adarshik Adibas Theke Samprotik Manusher Monche’ [Introduction], in Habib, K., Rakta Beej: Translation of Wole Soyinka’s Strong Breed (Dhaka: Shilpataru Prakashana): 4-8. Haq, F. (2004), ‘A confluence of cultures: The Well of Bouctou presented at the Public

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198  Syed Jamil Ahmed Library’, The Daily Star, 5 February, http://archive.thedailystar.net/2004/02/05/ d402051401100.htm (accessed 21 June 2016). Islam, M. (1991) ‘Speech delivered at the publication ceremony of Rakta Beej, “Khairul Habiber Rakta Beej: Special Supplement of Shilpataru Publishers”’ [brochure], (Dhaka: Shilpataru Publishers). Jakobson, Roman (2000) [1959], ‘On linguistic aspects of translation’, in Venuti, L. (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader (London: Routledge): 113-8. Kamil, F. (1981) Interrogation, in Johnson-Davies, D. (tr.), Egyptian One-Act Plays (London: Heinemann): 3-25. Malik, S. (2014), ‘Trial of Mallam Ilya Premiered’, Dhaka Tribune, 2 January, www. dhakatribune.com/entertainment/2014/jan/02/trial-mallam-ilya-premiered (accessed 21 June 2016). Pavis, Patrice (1982), Languages of the Stage: Essays in the semiology of the theatre (New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications). Priebe, Richard (1980), ‘Soyinka’s Brother Jero: Prophet, politician and trickster’, in Gibbs, J. (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka (Washington, DC: Three Continents Press): 79-86. Rahman, M. (1992), ‘Teerjaker Duti Natak: Sahaj Saral Path, Buro Shaliker Ghare Ron’, Daily Bangla, 19 February. Rahman, S. (1993), Natyakendrer Aro Duti Sofol Natak, Daily Bhorer Kagaj, 8 July. Ran, M. (2015), ‘Natoker Modhye Natok’, Kaler Kantho, 20 March, www. kalerkantho.com/feature/doshdik/2015/03/20/200594 (accessed 21 June 2016). Rashid, M. (2014), ‘Prenonadayok Byatibromi Proyojona’, Daily Prothom Alo, 6 February, (Ananda weekly supplement). Reza, M. (2010), ‘Shomoyer Shesh Sanglap’, Daily Prothom Alo, 10 June (Ananda weekly supplement). Sarkar, M. (1999), ‘Dhaka Padatiker Patha Natak Gadha Bazar’, Natnandan, 13 August. Schechner, Richard, (2002), ‘Additional Information’, in Woods, R., Dobbs, L., Gordon, C., Moore, C., and Simpson, G., ‘Report of a Thematic Study using trans­national comparisons to analyse and identify cultural policies and pro­grammes that contribute to preventing and reducing poverty and social exclu­sion’ (Newcastle upon Tyne: The Centre for Public Policy, Northumbria Univer­sity): 161-2. Shomoy Natya Dal (2010), ‘Shesh Shonglap’ [brochure] (Dhaka: Shomoy Natya Dal). Sikdar, S. (1991), ‘Dhakar Monche Gonayoner Shesh Songlap’, Weekly Bivhitra, 20 December: 55-6. Soyinka, Wole (1996), The Trials of Brother Jero and The Strong Breed: Two Plays by Soyinka. New York: Dramatists Play Service. Tagore, Rabindrath (1937a) [1352 Bengali Era], Patraputa [Leaf-made cask], no. 16, in Rabindra-racanabali [Complete Works of Rabindranath Tagore], no. 20 (Calcutta: Visva-Bharati). —— (1937b), Unpublished translation of ‘Africa’, Manuscript File – Poems, no. 9, http://bichitra.jdvu.ac.in/manuscript/manuscript_viewer_bn.php?manid =682&mname=EMSF_029 (accessed 21 June 2016). Vinay, Jean-Paul and Darbelnet, Jean (1995), Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A methodology for translation (Amsterdam: John Benjamin). Zaman, N. (1990) ‘Entering an Exotic World: Rakta Beej reviewed, Weekly Holiday, 2 February: 6, 7.

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Book reviews

Wole Soyinka, Alapata Apata: A play for Yorubafonia, class for xenophiles Ibadan, Nigeria: Bookcraft, 2015 [2011], 183 pp. ISBN 9789788457237, N800

Alapata Apata is the latest play for young people by Nigerian playwright and Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Like many established playwrights of repute, Soyinka views his repertoire as incomplete without plays that address young audiences and performers listing among his previous works Childe Internationale, and Travel Club and the Boy Soldier (see inside front cover). However, Alapata Apata is a play that extends the meaning of young or youthful to include actors of any age that not only have the attitude and zest for play like children, but also for dodging anything that looks like hard work such as learning to pronounce correctly ‘foreign’ words that occur in a script, particularly African words. Thus embedded in this play is an implicit educational agenda to address what Soyinka describes as ‘a childish form of laziness’ (ix). The use of drama and improvisation to teach and discuss language use and meaning is almost accepted as given. But Soyinka’s chosen approach to a plot, whose main action is built around the confusion caused by the incorrect transmission of words does more than highlight the importance of language. Alapata Apata is a political satire on contemporary Nigerian society 199

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and is meant to be entertaining for actors and audience alike. Alaba, a renowned successful butcher and suya (skewered beef) master has decided to take early retirement and spends his days, from dawn to dusk, perched on the rock beside his cottage and former butcher’s shop doing nothing, to the bewilderment of old acquaintances and passers-by. Conflict develops around this rock as everyone seems to have an opinion on Alaba and what his mission on the rock is about. To his antagonists, the daily stint on the rock doing nothing is a guise to protect some mineral deposits that have been recently discovered. Therefore, they will stop at nothing to dispossess him of the rock and its hidden riches. As one of such characters, PROSPECTOR, puts it, ‘it’s all about Resource Control. Typical of what’s happening in our country’ (9). Only his mentor, TEACHER, seems to understand that Alaba is actually on a mission to prove that he is well and truly retired and that no amount or type of persuasion will make him change his mind. A semi-illiterate and a failed Ifa apprentice, the relationship between Alaba and TEACHER is an interesting one. Between the two of them ‘doing nothing’ is to become Alaba’s new trade mark and a metaphor for a nation characterised by an unending list of non-performance. This is captured in the scene of their joint comic routine in praise of ‘Nothing’ TEACHER: Transparency is the key, I told you. That is what prevents temptation and backsliding. When you sit up there, where everybody can see you cannot perform, knowing that everybody’s eyes are on you, you have no choice. We can all bear daily witness to you working assiduously, industriously, methodically and conscientiously at doing…? (Raises his hand. What follows is like a practised routine, with him conducting)’. (38)

At the start of the play, Alaba has just completed his first thirty days ‘out of office’ and TEACHER has come to help him commemorate this milestone of ‘zero performance’, hopefully the first of many. For good measure, Alaba’s old butcher’s signboard is to be replaced with a bigger, flashier, more colourful one with the addition of three most prestigious

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letters R.T.D. after the title Alapata. Unfortunately the pupil charged with painting the new signboard, PAINTER (alias Baby Picasso), leaves out the accents needed to differentiate their pronunciation and meaning from similarly spelt words. Reassured that he will not be breaking the principle and code of practice of his retirement, Alaba uses his initiative to instruct PAINTER, a non-Yoruba speaker on where the accents should go. But being only semi-literate Alaba gets it all wrong and inadvertently declares himself a chief, ‘Chief of Orita Mefa’, or to be more precise, ‘Chief of the Rock’ (Alapata of Apata). The resulting confusion caused by Alaba’s misspelling, which needs no Esu to stir it up leads to further hilarious situations in the play, culminating in a hefty fine by the King of Itira for daring to make himself a chief. The fine threatens to bring Alaba out of his retirement but again inadvertently, he earns a reprieve just in time. What is more, his chieftaincy title is made official by royal approval and all is well that ends well. A play in two parts, the plot unfolds rather slowly but humorously. Alaba’s retirement and his daily practice of sitting on the rock presents the playwright with opportunities to satirise government and different aspects of Nigerian society. These include the ruling elite, both military and civilian and its excesses, corruption in high and low places, abuse of power, avarice, institutionalised violence as well as misguided revolutionaries. Even the playwright’s biographical detail announcing that he ‘has embarked on a new career of retiring from public life’ (inside back cover) is further evidence of his humour. Soyinka is an astute observer of every day Nigerian life, characters and situations and he subjects those aspects that come under his radar to satirical treatment. Thus the many anecdotes told in the play are more than incidental or digressions. For example, Alaba uses the local school’s globe as a metaphor to describe a world that is all askew in terms of its values and behaviours and needs straightening up, quite literally. The globe, said to have been donated to the school by Queen Victoria and kept on the tall shelf in the assembly

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hall has always been an object of fascination for Alaba since his school days. The life-changing event surrounding Alaba’s relationship with this globe is only slowly revealed in the course of the play. Soyinka does seem to have a lot of fun with this play and he encourages his actors and audiences to do the same. He adopts a range of comic devices to explore the plot and themes including the use of stereotypical characters. Some of these character types repeatedly appear in Soyinka’s plays, such as the ‘Supercharge’ TEACHER; PASTOR, the ‘“Revivalist” brand-bible and divining rod in hand’ (9); the hypocritical CLERIC; the slim female OFFICE WORKER, an object of guilty desire; the Secretary-General of the Market Women’s Union; as well as others such as the corpulent and greedy GENERAL and his group of zombie soldiers; the opulent local GOVERNOR, ‘mean…fast…cool…[with a] lop-sided smile [that] can lull a rattle snake to sleep while he divests him of his rattle’ (16); and the local KING. However, Alaba, the protagonist around whom the plot unfolds was inspired by the late comedian, Moses Olaiya (alias Baba Sala), that ‘master of irreverence’ (x) to whom Soyinka also dedicates the play. Arguably, Alaba is also a master of understatement, provoking laughter seemingly without even trying. Soyinka has succeeded in crafting a play that will provide audiences with ‘an afternoon or evening of great fun, and of course days and weeks of rehearsal involving improvisations around familiar events and public figures’ for the actors (x). Indeed, Alapata Apata demands a certain kind of performer, one that is youthful and open to its playfulness and at the same time reveals the absurdity and folly of human behaviour. The play has a profusion of characters, young and old, male and female. It is written in very accessible English, with some pidgin English and Yoruba. The Yoruba, like many Nigerian ethnic groups, have greetings for different times of the day and occasion as well as for whatever activity is being done. There are Yoruba proverbs and songs, some of which are popular enough for the audience to join in. Translations

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for some of the Yoruba phrases are included in the dialogue but there is no glossary to help with their pronunciation for non-Yoruba speakers. Text of the play is accompanied with a lengthy letter to the director at the start that provides a helpful context. As with Soyinka’s other plays, the play text only tells a partial story. The full potential of the play is realised in a good production before an audience. Jumai Ewu Manchester Metropolitan University

Bernth Lindfors, Ira Aldridge: The Last Years, 1855–1867 Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2015, 350 pp. ISBN 9781580465380, £35

This is the fourth and final volume of an outstanding bio­ graphical project undertaken by Bernth Lindfors to record and analyse the life of the remarkable nineteenth-century African American actor Ira Aldridge. The first three books – Ira Aldridge: The Early Years, 1807-1833; Ira Aldridge: The Vaga­­bond Years, 1833-1852; and Ira Aldridge: Performing Shake­ s­peare in Europe, 1852-1855 – set the template as well as the standard for this volume. In concluding what is one of the most momentous life stories of its time, this volume con­firms the importance of its subject not only to the field of theatre studies but also to the wider fields of cultural studies and the history of ethnicity and race. Having taken a slight detour in volume three from the strictly chronological path and broad temporal canvas of the opening two volumes, Lindfors returns in volume four to the earlier pattern. The Last Years picks up Aldridge’s story following his highly successful first tour of continental Europe, which ended in 1855 after almost three years and

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which saw him become the most honoured actor of his era. As Lindfors says, ‘These were his glory years, but his career was not yet over’ (3). Initially, Aldridge continued to tour relentlessly, as was his custom, switching between his adopted country Britain – he became a British citizen in 1863 – and the European Continent. However, following appearances in St Petersburg in 1858 and Moscow in 1862, which counted among his most rewarding Shakespearean performances, he decided to concentrate on playing in Russia and its surrounding territories, including visits to quite remote towns. In November 1866, he embarked on his ninth continental tour, this time starting in Paris, where he had long wanted to appear, but as yet had not succeeded in doing so. After a triumphant tour of French theatres and a brief visit to London in March 1867 for a rest, he returned to Paris where he met Hans Christian Andersen at the Universal Exhibition, then moved through northern France to Belgium, Germany and Poland, where he fell ill. He cancelled a performance of Othello in Lodz and, weakened by cholera, died of an ulcerated abscess on his breast. Such was his standing, he was awarded a grand municipal funeral in Lodz, even though its citizens had been deprived of the chance to see the great actor perform. Thus ended forty-three extraordinary years on the European stage. As before, this volume contains revealing material about his private life, particularly after the death of his first wife Margaret in 1864 and his subsequent marriage to his lover Amanda, with whom he already had two children. There is also fascinating speculation on the possible return of Aldridge to the United States, which would have been his first visit since his departure in 1824. Reports appeared in America the year he died that he had been engaged for performances in New York and elsewhere but the historic opportunity to test whether his homeland, after the anguish and bloodshed of the Civil War, would accept a black actor as an accomplished artist was denied by his death.

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Lindfors tells the story of Aldridge’s last twelve years with characteristic authority and lucidity, holding together in a strong narrative the geographically and politically disparate elements of the history and, interleaving the professional and personal aspects with sensitivity and dexterity. He maintains his logical, jargon-free and supple style, which makes for ease of understanding as well as underlining his control over the material. There is a welcome lightness of touch that is not usually associated with this level of scholarship, which is of the highest degree and matches those of the previous volumes. Lindfors provides much new information and corrects the errors of previous scholars and commentators. He draws on a team of translators in order to extend his reach across Europe to gain access to significant original sources, and to keep the research material up to date. He is frank when sources are lost and offers an evaluation of the impor­tance of such absences, for example when faced with the impossibility of reconstructing the entirety of Aldridge’s 1861 and subsequent itineraries because too many primary documents have been lost and may never be recovered. Again, the supporting apparatus, such as the notes and bibliog­ raphy, the attention to detail and the breadth of refer­ence are exemplary. There are some quotations that are given at greater length than might at first sight seem necessary or appropriate, but these, too, are justified by the responsibility to comprehensiveness that is the hallmark of the project. Not only does such full coverage allow the reader to make independent judgements, it affirms the indis­ pensable role of the project, especially as the material is not readily available elsewhere. Alongside the commanding biographical practice, which should inspire future narrators of life stories, the examples of theatrical criticism provided are especially valuable for those engaged in theatre studies, demonstrating, for instance, the import of context and of multifaceted reviewing. While this volume stands complete in itself and as the closing act of the Aldridge biographical project, it forms with

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the other three volumes a benchmark for future scholarship in this field and beyond. Thanks in large part to Lindfors, the name of Aldridge is not forgotten, nor is his achievement in showing Europeans through his theatrical art that black people are also fully human. Colin Chambers Kingston University

Paul Schauert, Staging Ghana: Artistry and nationalism in state dance ensembles Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2015, 342 pp. 24 PURLS accessible through www.ethnomultimedia.org ISBN 9780253017321, Cloth $80; paperback $30; e-book $29.99

Described as an ‘ethnography’, Paul Schauert’s study is absorbing, detailed and wide-ranging. It focuses initially on the origin and evolution of the Ghana Dance Ensemble that was founded in 1962 and attached to the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. Drawing heavily on interviews with past and present members of the Ensemble, Schauert raises important issues, and, in due course, moves on to describe the bifurcation of the Ensemble and the creation of what can be thought of as a splinter group or a parallel organisation: the Ghana Dance Company. The scholarly volume carries marks of having started out as a PhD thesis (the thirty-six-page Introduction has the feel of a ‘Literature Review’) and deftly interweaves accounts of policies with the lives of dancers affected by those policies. Resonant vignettes, vivid episodes, revealing anecdotes and extensive quotations contribute to making the study fascinating and absorbing. Staging Ghana will be of interest to all those concerned with Ghanaian history and cultural politics, and to all students of the ways Africa has presented itself – and been presented –

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to the world. As indicated, Schauert also provides abundant insights into the way individuals ‘manage’ – the verb is given a special meaning – to earn a living from cultural industries in contemporary Ghana. The study is the product of years of labour during which close reading was complemented by research visits to Ghana. There Schauert observed many relevant events in the dance calendar and participated in a significant number of them. From his book, he comes across as a sympathetic listener and a diligent scribe with a talent for friendship and reflection. The ethnography gives him an opportunity to let his informants speak for themselves – while he ‘choreographs’ the whole. His ‘References’ section indicates that he recorded interviews with more than forty informants, and the text also includes remembered exchanges from unrecorded conversations. Through his acquaintance with the work of others, such as Krista Fabian and Katharina Schramm, who also carried out research ‘under the tree’ near the Main Gate of the University of Ghana, he rescues voices from the past and use them to provide historical dimensions to his account. Schauert’s main focus, the Ensemble, is just over sixty years old, and though some of those involved with it – such as Nii-Yartey (see this volume), have died, others with long-term involvement are still with us. These include the hugely influential nonagenarian Kwabena Nketia whose lasting legacies include the generous donation of many of his papers to the International Centre for African Music and Dance (Legon). Schauert salutes Nketia, who was already hugely influential when plans for the Ensemble were being made and who provided him with ‘consistent mentoring and encouragement’ (xiv). The volume is dedicated to Nketia but I hope that does not suggest too close a degree of intimacy between a researcher and a key figure in the con­ tested history he is studying. Thanks to technical wizardry, the volume is linked to a website that gives it two tremendous advantages. First, readers can go online to reach illustrations since each audio,

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video, or still image media example has been assigned a unique Persistent Uniform Resource Locator (PURL). Second, anyone with access to the internet can read the book. I hope that many, Ghanaians in particular, will take advantage of both possibilities, and that they will establish a public dialogue about the volume. I am acutely aware that Indiana University Press has recently published substantial studies of Ghanaian Popular Music (Plageman), Concert Party (Cole) and Theatre (Shipley), and that there is a danger that Ghanaians are losing control of how the history of the arts in their homeland is being written. Ghana is (still, or once again) in danger of being defined by foreigners and this may perpetuate the apprehension of African artists as objects for study rather than agents of their own destinies. One of the most dramatic twists in the story of dance in Ghana was what Schauert helpfully describes as the ‘bifurca­ tion’ of the Ghana Dance Ensemble. Briefly, and for a variety of motives the Ensemble was split with some dancers remaining in the University-linked Ensemble, and others joining the Ghana Dance Company at the National Theatre. Schauert’s useful account of the sequence of events that brought the National Theatre building into being is very relevant to the topic of this volume of African Theatre since the building was erected by the Chinese Government. The existence of the Chinese-built theatre made the division of the Ensemble possible and the shape of the building then influenced the dance theatre that Nii-Yartey and others created in it. While appreciating the use made of interviews in the book, I would have liked a more extensive engagement with written accounts penned by Ghanaians. There are relevant documents that Schauert does not refer to including reviews by Kojo Senanu of a production of The Lion and the Jewel and of the performance presented by Adzido under the direction of Drid Williams. Senanu’s articles appeared in The Legon Observer – a key, but neglected, publication for the discussion of national and cultural affairs in Ghana over an extended

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period. They are not listed in Schauert’s bibliography and without them, the book misses a local perspective on relevant topics. It is worth pausing to look at what has been missed and to listen to a thoughtful, articulate, informed critic. Schauert notes that the production of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel (1967, revived 1968) was referred to in a ‘university memo dated July 1 1986’. He recognises the significance of that memo which represents the position of Nketia and Mawere Opoku (Artistic Director of the Ensemble) on plans for the group. It seeks to pre-empt criticism by arguing that choreographer Opoku had foreseen the possibility of ‘development and collaboration with other theatrical presentations’. Schauert refers to the production on pages 200 and 223 of his book, but has not looked closely at the paper trail it left. As a result he gives the Opoku-Nketia view rather than a nuanced appreciation. On page 200, he writes of ‘Opoku’s collaboration with the Accra drama studio in his 1967 production of Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel’ and, in commenting on dance dramas and the narratives they used, he wrote: ‘One of the first of these in Ghana was The Lion and the Jewel, choreographed in the early 1960s by Opoku and based on a story of the same name by Wole Soyinka’ (223). There is some confusion in these statements. The production that Schauert credits to Opoku ‘with the Accra drama studio’ was in fact put on at the Drama Studio but by the Ghana Playhouse. It was directed (or in the British idiom of the time ‘produced’) by George Andoh-Wilson, and Opoku was responsible for choreographing dances that were performed by the Ensemble. The production was first staged, as Schauert, rightly indicates in 1967, but that is not, as he later writes, ‘early 1960s’. On page 100, Schauert shows an awareness that The Lion and the Jewel is a play, but on page 223 he describes it as a ‘story’ in a context in which it is not clear when he is referring to dance dramas and when to narratives. While I appreciate that an ethnography may not raise the same expectations as ‘a history’ it should be clear and unambiguous in such matters as these and it

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should show a nuanced awareness of the issues raised. In this instance reference to written sources would have helped to sort out confusion and introduced razor-sharp insights that undermine the claims of the memo. Senanu observed that Opoku’s contribution relied on traditional dances. He claims that Opoku did ‘very little fresh choreography for the production and that he was guilty of various “errors”’. Senanu’s judgement is, broadly, that Opoku did not rise to the challenge of providing appropriate, incorporated dance sequences for Soyinka’s script. Opoku may have claimed to have ‘foreseen’ the possibility of ‘development and collaboration with other theatrical presentations’, but he had, in Senanu’s opinion, not shown any talent for that kind of work. Schauert ‘s work would also have benefitted from reference to Senanu and The Legon Observer in relation to Adzido and the practitioner-anthropologist Drid Williams whose ideas about ‘tradition’ were displayed in that group’s performances. In a section he entitled ‘“Don’t call it tradition!” Contesting essences’, Schauert quotes Mustapha Tetteh Addy on his experience with Adzido and on its distinctive qualities in relation to preserving tradition. However, Schauert misses a valuable contemporary source by not referring to Senanu’s thoughtful review in The Legon Observer of a performance by Adzido in the course of which he dismisses Williams’ commitment to preserving ‘the classical forms of Adowa and Agbekor’ as ‘misguided’. Williams responded to Senanu’s trenchant criticism in an article that was published in a subsequent issue of The Legon Observer. I think that Schauert would have benefitted from familiarity with that exchange, Schauert spends some time on the important differences of opinion between Williams and Opoku, and writes of the continuing awareness among dancers of the clash. To indicate the intense emotions fired by the differences of opinion, he quotes Addy as saying that Williams ‘fought with Opoku a lot. They nearly fought physically’ (106). Schauert has access to some of Williams’ writing but, I think, it would have been

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useful to know how she responded to Senanu in 1967/68. As it is, he draws on her publications of the 1990s. My final point concerns a matter of usage and the spell checker. Of David Balme, the first Principal of the University College that became the University of Ghana, Schauert writes: ‘Blame [sic] had immigrated to the Gold Coast with a degree in classics from Cambridge’ (47). The use of ‘immigrated’ here blurs the issue, for Balme was not so much an immigrant – that implies the intention to become a permanent resident – as an academic, migrant worker recruited to occupy a particular post for a certain length of time. The rendition of the name ‘Balme’ as ‘Blame’ may be taken to indicate that an ‘add to dictionary’ option may have been missed and that spell checkers can make – or at least fail to raise alarm at – Freudian slips. In Staging Ghana, Schauert has effectively marshalled an enormous amount of knowledge and very extensive material from interviews. I hope the ethnography will circulate widely among those involved with making, and making a living by, dance in Ghana, and that it will be read closely. There is a Facebook page for the book: www.facebook. com/stagingghana. James Gibbs

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Maëline Le Lay, La parole construit le pays: Théâtre, langues et didactisme au Katanga (République Démocratique du Congo) Paris: Honoré Champion, 2014, 490 pp. ISBN 9782745327918, €95

This book demonstrates, through extensive and wide-ranging research, that theatre and language have operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the last 150 or so years as twin poles of a didacticism which has frequently presented itself as moral and ‘developmental’, but which is essentially a political strategy exploited for their own ends by quite different agencies ranging from colonialist political and religious rule to nationalist dictatorship; and that finally this has left theatre writing and practice in something of an impasse. In examining the conflictual relationship between French and Swahili language and theatre in the southern area of the DRC around Lubumbashi, language is identified as a bearer of and claimant for particular kinds or levels of ‘culture’, as a written/published or spoken/performed medium, and as a channel of communication to different constituencies. Within this spectrum, theatre is both a language in itself and also a linguistic medium. Across a diversity of zones of investigation (the implan­ tation through educational institutions of French as a religio-political ‘civilising’ agent, the didactic drive of literacy/literature under this umbrella, the positioning of different models of theatre practice and production for different linguistic audiences, the exposition of rival claims to ‘development’, the analysis of textual and para-textual criteria) it emerges clearly that both language and theatre are viewed in large measure as media for the transmission of particular kinds of exhortation. What perhaps is missing in the historical sweep of this overview is an indication of the almost entirely disastrous consequences of these endeavours, whether Christian-missionary moral and social incitement concealing rapacious colonialist pillaging of resources, or

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tendentious mythologisation of indigenous culture as a strategy to further nepotistic acquisition. Although the book makes it clear that language and theatre have been at the forefront of both strands of political policy, it does not foreground the startling immorality of the enterprises and the devastation which has been wreaked upon the majority of the population of what has become one of Africa’s most disadvantaged nations. It does however point to the absence of any evidence of engagement with this in texts or practice at least during the Mobutu/Kabila years (‘les textes sont muets sur cette période’ – 426). The book attempts to avoid the ‘reterritorialisation’ it identifies in most critical engagement with ‘African theatre’, and discusses work in Swahili and the complexities of diglossia – a key political factor which affects the whole history of theatre practice. Theatre in Zaire/Congo/DRC, says Le Lay, has normally been seen as a ‘popular’ form of literature which benefits from a large outreach. Literature itself is generally perceived to contain improving qualities, to derive from the ‘vocation d’instruire’ and to deliver the ‘moral knowledge to be gained from Reading’ [sic] (Newell 2002: 4-5); this originally largely (Belgian) colonialist/missionary perspective has subsequently been transferred to versions of ‘development’ espoused by post-colonial regimes in terms of national identity, recon­ struction, etc. French language, literature and theatre usually take place inside (in theatres and other public or cultural spaces), is written/sole-authored and quite often published, though normally by limited enterprises of a religious/educational kind and consumed by the upper echelon of society; by virtue of its ‘literary’ (non-quotidian) language it is always to an extent ‘ostentatious’ and periodically struggles to find a viable audience. By contrast, Swahili theatre usually happens outside, is largely unscripted, to some extent collectively created, based on familiar scenarios with audience involve­ ment, and accompanied by music and physicality, etc. It is

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often sponsored by non-government organisations and is propagandistic/message-oriented in form. Both have incorporated the didactic mode – in the former case in the service of ‘superior’ culture/morality/ aspiration and in the latter in terms of community/social/ traditional moral and social values. In both cases these may elide, edit out or disguise forms of political, economic and social oppression (though the author does not use this term). The incorporation of Theatre for Development modes is related mainly to the message-delivery scenario. Again the discussion implies rather than directly addresses the question of aesthetic politics, but some comparisons with Boalian work are suggested. Theatre in the DRC is not fully participatory and where a ‘joker’ figure occurs it is usually as a ‘moderator’ who delivers a moralistic commentary, rather than as the instigator of debate; the dominant mode across all forms is mimetic realism in order to institute ‘identification’ with protagonists and scenarios and aid the reception of general moral or social advice: everything conspires to ‘faciliter la transmission du message ... et à véhiculer un ton didactique’ (373). This is a very extensive work: in a short review it’s difficult to do justice to the range and complexity of the perspectives it addresses. For instance, there is a careful analysis of how intertextual strategies (stage directions, etc.) and para-textual material (forewords, dedications, etc.) contribute to the didactic intent and signal the playwrights’ desire to claim authenticity and status – choosing a language and engaging in theatre is thus itself an ingredient in the projection of particular standpoints. Part I is concerned entirely with an account of the linguistic landscape in Katanga, Part II with a history of didactic literature in the Congo – although the second half provides a history of theatre and a description of current practitioners. Part III focuses in detail on diglossia, giving detailed evidence of interlinguistic practice. So it is only in the Introduction, half of Part II and Part IV (on ‘Le Théâtre Didactique’) that we get a – still quite extensive – analysis of theatre practice. That is however why, in spite

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of the impressive scholarship of the work overall, I feel it perhaps misses out on a discussion of the political modalities both as signalled above and in terms of the assessment of the stance of theatre work within those scenarios. However the conclusion returns at least implicitly to this territory in highlighting the still prevalent tendency to privilege outcomes of moral and social optimism. Le Lay indicates that the overwhelming majority of texts utilise a unilinear and end-oriented time-structure which moves inexorably towards ‘des lendemains qui chantent’ but in so doing edits out any real discussion of the causes and characteristics of the present problematic conditions. Some major ‘figures of disorder’ (women, AIDS, foreigners) recur frequently but serve to deflect real investigation, and an escapist focus on the future means that ‘miracles’ and ‘utopias’ proliferate at the expense of dialogue and interrogation. The reluctance to explore history makes any projection of a viable future problematic and writers also tend to edit out the real issues of a diglossic present in the vague hope of a harmonious future. This is a very long and detailed work. From a theatre perspective it takes the reader into important but quite farflung contextual territory; but in so doing it both situates kinds of theatre practice in a specific region that is not widely accessible and identifies complex interrelationships between language, culture, theatre and politics. Ralph Yarrow University of East Anglia REFERENCE Newell, Stephanie (2002), ‘Introduction’, in Readings in Popular African Fiction (Oxford and Bloomington: James Currey and Indiana University Press).

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Benita Brown, Dannabang Kuwabong & Christopher Olsen, Myth Performance in the African Diasporas: Ritual, theater, and dance Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2014, 166 pp. ISBN 978081809279 (£44.95)

This book is unusual and so necessary in four significant ways. It prioritises dance and expressive performance in rich and suggestive ways. It is the product of a collaborative initia­tive by three scholars and yet stamped with individual pers­pec­ tives, each one of the six essays complementing the other as parts of a whole ongoing conversation. Though published in the United States, its institutional place of origin is Puerto Rico. Finally, its genealogy is to be found in the scholarly/ activist body known as the National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates which pools its resources through periodic conferences. Each of the three authors – Danna­bang Kuwabong, Benita Brown and Christopher Olsen – contributes two chapters that take different aspects of ritual, dance and theatre as active repositories of myth perform­ ance. For a work conceived and produced in this terrain of margin­ality, Myth Performance in the African Diasporas: Ritual, Theater, and Dance is surprisingly free of indignation towards mainstream-oriented fields like post-colonial and theoretical cultural studies, although Olsen in the short Conclusion notes the ‘overinclusive definition … of the term “diaspora” [as] problematic’ and liable to conflate specific historical experiences (152). It is a book invested in the idea of how African diasporic communities ‘have managed to secure their cultural futures’ (3), even with the full awareness that the modes in which these have occurred – myth, legend, history and performance – have not engaged dramatic and dance forms in thematically explicit ways. There is the additional recognition that works which give priority to these modes have neither received the attention they deserved nor approached with such objectives in view. The book is thus designed to expand the study of

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African diasporic cultures in these areas, primarily focused on the concept and practice of myth performance in dramas and dances. This is a consequential act of cultural engineering. In a general overview of the book’s argument, Kuwabong is simultaneously concerned to make a capacious claim for the two modes of myth performance and dance as providing ‘cultural cognitive touchstones’ (4) for new orientations and eager to showcase the idea of culture as unceasing negotiation. Short as it is, this introduction gives an informed sense of the book, perhaps because it does such a good job of highlighting the main points of each of the chapters. Everything that is good about the book, and some of what is not, are sketched out in the introduction. In a sense, Kuwabong’s first chapter, ‘Re-Visionary History as Myth Performance’, which follows closely, reads like an elaboration of this summary. This chapter undertakes the important task of recuperating the subjugated history analogous to the objectives of the three plays he discusses – Maud Cuney-Hare’s Antar of Araby, Willis Richardson’s The Black Horseman, and Aimé Césaire’s And the Dogs Were Silent. Kuwabong’s focus for this chapter is on the ‘performance of discursive reclamation of legendary/mythical African figures in what is now read as the Middle East and thus outside of the arena of the United States and the new world of cultural partisanship defined by phenotypic consideration’ (22). Explaining the historical context for Cuney-Hare’s play places such a huge burden on Kuwabong’s discussion that the essay does not get to the play in time. It is also questionable if he should have expended so much time on the ideological sabre-rattling over the distortion of black history (which the Introduction dwelt upon at length) and this at the expense of Césaire’s less-known play, in comparison to the two other plays. In ‘The Òrìşà Paradigm’, the dance expert Benita Brown, a protégé of Molefi Asante of Temple University, approaches dance as ‘kinesthetic performative’ to formulate an argument about the Afrocentric impulse in the Yoruba òrìşà phenomenon, one developed through her practice

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as a dance professional and scholar. The chapter has the additional value of closely discussing three òrìşà (Oya, Sango, Osun) and highlighting the connections between the sacred dances associated with these òrìşà and dance movements in jazz, bop, jitterbug and swing. Although short, the chapter does a good job of making its case. For his part, Olsen reads plays by contemporary African American playwrights Susan Lori-Parks (Venus) and Lynn Nottage (Ruined) who use ‘African female bodies as metaphors for the exploitation and mythologizing of African women’ (72). Stories about Sara Baartman (so-called Hottentot Venus) and the large-scale sexual violence inflicted on women in the long-drawn-out war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are bored into the consciousness of global blackness, and what these plays do, I think (although Olsen merely suggests it), is to construct political interventions informed by the accretion of ideas about global blackness as an identity of passions (according to Ralph Ellison). The interventions may not be convincing on the template of cultural survival or embodiment, but they represent powerful imaginaries of black life. These are not simple insertions into feminist or black politics: they operate on the complex scale of intersectionality, involving embodiment in chronotopic terms. This book admirably gives priority to the work of black women artists, both well known and marginal – Olsen’s other chapter is about the work of Canadian playwrights Djanet Sears and Rebecca Fisseha. Though very talented and prolific, these playwrights are not so well known in part because of the experimental idioms in which they work, but the chapter presents them in very legible ways without undermining the force of their art. Some arguments in the whole book are questionable. Upon encountering the sentence which says ‘Soyinka’s text is limited to the Yoruba worldview and hence it is criticized for being Yoruba-centric’ (6), one wondered if the author/s had actually read Wole Soyinka’s Myth Literature and the African World. Other flawed propositions exist, but this is a book written in the spirit of

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commendable, increasingly rare, collaboration – the authors’ second in this mode – and such errors are easily understood. Akin Adesokan Indiana University

S. A. Kafewo, T. J. Iorapuu and E. S. Dandaura (eds) Theatre Unbound: Reflections on Theatre for Development and Social Change – A festschrift in honour of Oga Steve Abah Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists, Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 2013, 432 pp. ISBN 9781255943 (n.p.)

This volume is published to celebrate the theatre scholar and practitioner, and a leading proponent of Theatre for Develop­ ment (TFD) in Nigeria, Professor Oga Abah. Contributors include Abah’s teachers, colleagues and students, who have themselves made major contributions to the theatre disci­ pline over the years. Michael Etherton and Jan CohenCruz laid the foundation for the Department of Theatre and Performing Arts in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (ABU), where Abah cut his teeth on the stage and in performance. Abah is the current Director of the Institute for Development Research at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His works have helped in no small measure in defining the focus, direction, aesthetic underpinning and current perception of TFD in Nigeria. Oga Abah is an active researcher, not only in TFD but also in Participatory Learning and Action, Community Development and Development Communication. There is no doubt that he has created a niche for himself in the utilisa­ tion of theatre to disseminate social and ideological concerns on socio-economic and political transformation in Nigeria, with particular reference to his immediate northern Nigerian environment. The book begins with a Foreword by Professor Iyorwuese Hagher, the former High Commissioner to Canada and

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Ambassador to Mexico. It is divided into three broad sections. Sections One, Two and Three deal with theoretical issues, case studies, and interviews and tributes. Section One sets the tone for the study by delving into the historical development, reflection, tendencies and challenges of TFD and its practical application in fostering the development of communities. Section Two enunciates the practical realities of the effect of TFD, using case studies with emphasis on Abah’s theoretic coinage ‘Methodological Conversation’, while the last section gives a succinct biographical account of the life, performances and impact of Abah on TFD, through interviews and tributes by colleagues, friends and family. This collection of essays reflect different scholarly views and experiences that revolve around TFD and social transformation, with emphasis on Abah’s theoretical approach – Methodological Conversation. The first section begins with a synopsis of the entire work as reflected in the title, ‘Theatre Unbound: Reflections on Theatre for Development and Social Change’. Etherton, in Chapter 3, gives details of the nature, functions, essence and issues of language and translation amidst other challenges confronting TFD. Jan-Cruz discusses TFD as an ecosystem that is interwoven and multi-sectoral, connecting art with other disciplines. Theatre for Development was born out of a passionate intent to bring consciousness to lecturers and students on the deprivations of the ordinary people by extending the concept and scope of theatre beyond the four walls of the classroom. It makes theatre available to communities outside the university campus. Oklobia asserts that TFD has helped in redefining development, especially by integrating indigenous norms into development efforts, given its power of illumination and didacticism in the reproduction, exposition and causeand-effect actions in the general phenomena of life. This works in helping people apprehend their challenges and take appropriate action to correct social ills. Ahmed Yerima, in his chapter titled ‘Allegory of Persuasion: The ABU Popular Theatre Practice and the Challenges of the 21st Century’,

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examines TFD as an instructive measure that is dialectical and didactic in nature. Jane Plastow’s chapter ‘The Faithful Copyist or the Good Thief’ draws a fascinating, dialectical distinction between the two terms in relation to theme of the festschrift. To her, a copyist is one who has learned and replicates a method to make Theatre for Development and pass on the knowledge to others. She adjudges a ‘thief’ as one who has acquired an idea, a method, which he/she devises, of modifying, beautifying and edifying by putting it to use in a particular situation without rubbishing the original ideas. Lastly, Abubakar’s ‘Revising the Pedagogical Impulses of Theatre for Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria’, gives credence to the uniqueness of Popular Theatre practice in the university with the struggle and efforts that led to the emergence of TFD practice in the University. The chapter describes the ideological debate that determined and characterised the creation of the ABU Department of Drama out of the Department of English and Literary studies, with the notable contribution of Oga Abah and his colleagues. Section Two discusses and recounts the experiences, work­ shops and practical efforts of TFD practitioners. ‘Footsteps of a “Methodological Conversationist”: Oga Abah, Theatre and Research’ by the now-deceased Jenken Zakari Okwori sets the tone for the second section of the book by examining Abah’s researches under the aegis of the Nigerian Popular Theatre Alliance (NPTA), one of which is a seminal paper titled ‘Citizenship, Participation and Accountability’. Theatre for Development and Participatory Learning and Action are terms that are used interchangeably. However, Abah uses both approaches in the mobilisation and empowerment process, as exemplified by the women in Gurduba village, Ajondi Local Govern­ment Area of Kano State, as discussed by Raheedah Liman in her chapter on conversation and par­ ti­cipa­­tory learning. Amwa Amkpa’s chapter renders a story of an experience in Northern Nigeria to affirm the potency of the elements, nature and characteristics of TFD in raising the awareness of

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both the rural and urban people towards collective action. ‘Com­munity Theatre: The Oyo Experience’ by Hammed Olutoba Lawal examines Community Theatre as a tool for sensi­tising the people through retrieving relevant information on societal problems for mobilising and providing resolution. Lawal draws no distinction between Community Theatre and related theatre forms like TFD, Pedagogical Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed in his case study of Oyo communities where the citizens were mobilised to participate in interrogating some critical social vices for conflict resolution. The Niger Delta region remains one of the major sources of the country’s economic power and revenue derivation, despite the various shades of conflicts, militancy and social inco­herence that have overwhelmed the region over the decades. Martins Adegbe Ayegba gives an eloquent account for the journey of NPTA and TFD with particular references to the Niger Delta in his chapter ‘Pushing the Frontier of Community Development Through Theatre: The Example of Nigerian Popular Theatre Alliance (NPTA) – Local Voices and Choices in the Niger Delta’. Desen Jonathan Mbachaga argues that TFD continues to be embraced by both government and non-governmental organisa­tions to communicate on development and mobilise people in the urban and rural communities. Ted Anyebe examines the ecosystem of theatre aesthetics and the development of the masquerade tradition in Akweye as developed over the years into a totalist (verbal and extraverbal) art as a ‘language’ of development and identity in dance, music, gestures, mime and dialogue. David Kerr asserts that one of the social and health problems, alongside associated numerous challenges – especially the issue of HIV/AIDS, is the danger of misinformation being recycled in the communities. In order to provide a viable solution to this and other related problems, he proposes the train­ing of theatre workers on the fundamental medical facts about HIV/AIDs by mobilising varieties of media platforms through the participation of the community in problem

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identifica­tion, research, play-making, performances, moni­ tor­ing and evaluations, etc., with radio drama and mobile video shows, rather than depending solely on live theatre. In his chapter, ‘From Zaria to Everywhere: Community Performances with Oga Steve Abah in Nigeria’, Tor Iorapuu examines the characteristics of TFD from its beginning in ABU, before spreading its tentacles to every part of the country and the continent, with Abah as a critical voice in the development, growth and spread of TFD. Iorapuu attempts here, with appreciable success, to distinguish between popular Traditional Theatre and the TFD in the pedagogical, radical and critical engagement dimensions, in terms of the genre’s perspectives of stimulating people to interact in new ways about the issues of essence in communities. The interviews conducted by the editors set the tone for the Interviews and Tributes section of the book. ‘Unmasking the Masquerade: An In-depth Interview with Professor Oga Steve Abah’ gives a comprehensive biography of Abah, with the development of TFD from the cradle to its present status. Mabel Evwierhoma renders an account of the ‘Performing Life, Gender and Cultural Economic’ of Oga Steve Abah by reflecting on the Akpa TIDE workshop book by Oga, Performing Life: Case studies in the practice of Theatre for Develop­ ment, a workshop that projects the challenges of some com­ munities in Benue State. Ode Regina offers a positive account of her life-changing encounter with Abah during her doctoral studies at the Univer­sity of Abuja. The kindness, genuine commitment, brilliance, transparency and doggedness of Professor Abah are emphasised in Ode’s and Lorngurum’s chapters. This is an insightful work, with rich compilations that traverse the landscape of the theatre and other artistic genres. With a major theme on TFD, the organisation, rhetorical strategies and manner of presentation of various perspectives and points-of-view in the study make the festschrift easily accessible and comprehensible. The use of personal pronouns in most chapters gives a sense of belonging and attachment,

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not only to the writer of each chapter but also to the readers of the study. It is palpable that TFD is not just a ‘paper work’ existing only in schools’ curricula but a ‘practical work’ that attains tenable and enduring results and a method of social analyses across all levels of governance. Through simple observation, most chapters are accounts of personal experiences, workshops or researches, which offer proof that all the contributors are practitioners and not just scholars and theorists. Olu Obafemi University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Hakeem Bello, The Interpreters: Ritual, violence and social regeneration in the writing of Wole Soyinka Ibadan: Kraft Books, 2014, 177 pp. ISBN 9789789181957 (pbk); 9789789181964 (hbk) (n.p.)

Several critical volumes have been written on the works of Wole Soyinka in the past fifty years. Quite a few of these have explored his interpretation of the social and ritual elements of a universe on the verge of gradual transition to a neo-colonial – and later rapid translation into a postcolonial – environment. Soyinka’s vision has always been clearly articulated with – to appropriate the subtitle of one of Biodun Jeyifo’s books on Wole Soyinka – freedom and complexity. Sometimes however, the message is expressed in metaphors, idioms and ritualistic ethos that lend a charge of obscurity to the language and style of the writer. His writing may seem impenetrable, particularly in dramas such as The Strong Breed or Madmen and Specialists, or the verses in Shuttle in the Crypt, but Soyinka is only reflecting the socio-cultural intricacies of his complex being as a post-colonial writer writing from the cultural background of a Yoruba man, with all the literary and political strands. Nonetheless, these writings have always provided fertile material for critics such

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as Hakeem Bello, whose The Interpreters attempts to decode the elements of ritual, violence and social regeneration in five of Soyinka’s dramas and the two novels – The Interpreters and Season of Anomy. The dramatic works chosen for appraisal in this book are remarkable for their use of ritual metaphors to articulate what the author terms ‘a vision of social regeneration’, of cultural awareness, perhaps, or of strategies to reinvigorate elements of identity in the contemporary Yoruba person. Bello has not so much analysed the plots or the themes of the plays but instead has explored the characterisation of the main protagonists: Eman in The Strong Breed, Olunde in Death and the King’s Horseman, Old Man in Madmen and Specialists, Daodu in Kongi’s Harvest, and Isola in Camwood on Leaves. Similarly, two important characters are chosen in the two novels for study: Sekoni and Demakin in The Interpreters and Season of Anomy respectively. An analysis of the characters in these works is appropriate to illustrate how the texts reflect the effect of the rituals on those characters and their society. However, I am not quite certain that the approach evokes the ethos of Yoruba rituals that Bello is trying to connect to the writing of Soyinka, in particular the context of rituals associated with Ogun, Yoruba god of war and creativity. Therefore, after reading the book, I wondered at the limitation of choosing the characters for analysis, a comparative one at that, but the reason soon became apparent. The book is an amalgamation of two dissertations – a BA thesis and a study produced as part of an MA in English literature. It became even clearer with understanding of the subtext of the book, which is an analysis of and a connection to the Ogunnian persona that is sometimes invoked on Soyinka’s personality. That is the major weakness of this volume: a book that seeks to amalgamate two distinct studies needs a more rigorous review and rewriting than was done in this case. Bello’s The Interpreters is divided into two parts: The Dramas and The Novels. While some of the conclusions reached by Bello are striking, the superficiality of parts of

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the analysis is questionable. The first part is hinged on the argument that Soyinka adopted metaphors and language steeped in deep and contextual idioms to propose rituals as the way to regenerate the community whose cultures have been influenced by foreign cultures. In this case, the foreignness of the instrumental culture is not determined by neo-colonial or colonial factors; rather, it is the elements of propagating the extant rituals that have become foreign. For instance, Eman as a Carrier in The Strong Breed would not serve as a veritable sacrifice because of the alien nature of his adopted community in comparison to the evocative rituals of his original community. The idea of a performative ritual is interpreted by Bello as Soyinka’s thesis for writing that play. According to him, for Soyinka, ‘myth and ritual become mediating vehicles both for celebrating continuity in human existence and for interpreting contemporary experience of diverse nature’ (32). Of course, Bello acknowledges that the philosophy underlining Soyinka’s dramatic theory evolves out of a reworking of existing Western ritual approaches to drama through the ‘particularities of Yoruba cosmology’. This is what Bello conceptualises as the ‘Anjonu metaphor’. The ‘anjonu in Yoruba metaphysics’ – quoting directly from the author – ‘is a creature from the chthonic realm who with fierce determination commits itself to the regulation of social order’ (126). Anjonu exhibits a dual (?) capacity to be vengeful and judicial. Now, metaphorising this impassioned being and combining it with the Ogunnian concept is suggested by Hakeem Bello as the creative muse that evokes rituals as means of social regeneration for Soyinka. In dealing with the novels, Bello’s analysis of Soyinka’s The Interpreters is more convincing and of greater depth than the analysis of Season of Anomy. However, as already mentioned, Bello is more interested in using certain characters to support his thesis. The argument is compelling, though the significance in understanding the works of Soyinka is understated in spite of an employment of the intricacies advanced in his essay ‘The Fourth Stage: Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the

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Origin of Yoruba Tragedy’ (1973) to underpin the suggestion. Using Anjonu – not Ogun – as the alter ego of Soyinka, Bello explores the social and psychological influence of the writer’s work in furthering the agenda of social regeneration or revealing the agency of change in his creativity. This is competently presented in the analyses of the novels. Here, Bello describes the contradictory personality of the characters and their relationship to the other characters in the novels. As a book in forging criticism of Soyinka in a new, tangential area, the author would have assisted us a lot in understanding his concept, with a definition of that thin line between ideology and commitment. Nevertheless, Bello’s The Interpreters is useful in engaging the works of Soyinka with his contemporaries such as J. P. Clark (Bekederemo) and Wale Ogunyemi, whose contributions to the dramatic development of Nigeria are discussed, and it is recommended in particular for its engagement with some of Soyinka’s lesser studied texts. Sola Adeyemi University of Greenwich

Ekpe Inyang, The Swamps Bamenda: Langaa Research and Publishing CIG, 2015, 77 pp. ISBN: 9956762385, £14.95

Augustine Brempong, The King’s Wages Bamenda: Langaa Research and Publishing CIG, 2015, 140 pp. ISBN: 9956762016, £15.95

Denja Abdullahi, Death and the King’s Grey Hair and Other Plays Ibadan: Kraft Books, 2014, 106 pp. ISBN: 9789789181667, £15.95 All three books distributed by African Books Collective.

It is interesting to note that dramas emerging from Africa in recent years are adopting the ‘retro effect’ of pre-colonial drama­tic forms and structure. Drama, in the Western style,

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came to Africa in translation, largely through the Greek and Roman classics, Shakespeare, the renaissance theatre, as well as the French classics of Racine, Molière and Corneille. After the period of translations and adaptations, in the drama of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, J. P. Clark, Ola Rotimi, Ama Ata Aidoo, and several others, came the period of committed writers who chose drama to contest traditional ideas of politics and social cohesion. These were the post-negritude dramatists – Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Bate Besong, Efua Sutherland and so on. In the five plays reviewed below, we see another direction in the renascent drama of young dramatists from West Africa. There are still ciphers of commitment to causes but the dramatic form has evolved to embrace the type popular in the 1960s. That is the interesting aspect. The Swamps by Ekpe Inyang presents a tapestry of a dysto­ pian Cameroonian society in search of political and spiritual regeneration through a judicious deployment of myth, history, parables, song, mimicry and dance. Inyang’s presen­ tation of class political behaviour in Cameroon exposes the complete erosion of civil liberties by corrupt rulers and the elite of the community of Ekon. The elite have usurped and mismanaged political and economic resources of the com­ munity, and misappropriated the state apparatus to tyrannise the populace. The element of instability in the play is reflected in the fragility of the institutions set up to administer the community; the king, Obon Obini, is a despot who is paradoxically weak and dependent on the agency of middlemen and servants to effect his nefarious activities. One can almost read the play as a parable of the modern African state. Ultimately, Obon Obini realises that he has surrounded himself with ‘snakes’ when a group of his subjects conspired to revolt and defy his authority. Augustine Brempong’s The King’s Wages is a satire on leader­ship and the desire to acquire power and wealth by all means, including regicide. From Ghana, The King’s Wages dramatises the story of Tutu who murders his brother, King Okokroko, in order to become the king. Belatedly, he realises

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that becoming the king was the easy part. At this point, the notion of magic realism manifests in the intervention of the gods, in the figure of the chief Akan god, Tano, who seeks to punish the usurper. Okokroko’s ghost haunts Tutu till, in desperation, he commits further crimes, including incest, to avert the anguish of ancestral persecution. His daughter curses him and his self-serving friend betrays him. In the end, he loses his mind. Brempong’s mythical drama invests this story with rich Akan expressions, proverbs and idioms. The language is simple yet theatrical and the style is reminiscent of the historical dramas of Wale Ogunyemi (1939-2001). The volume by Denja Abdullahi contains three plays. Death and the King’s Grey Hair is ‘inspired’ by the myth of the Jukun ethnic group in the Middle Belt of Nigeria where, in ancient days, the community did not permit their kings to age; at the first sign of grey hairs, the king had to die. The corpse is then taken to a sacred forest and the soul is believed to be reborn as a lion. Abdullahi has appropriated this myth to dramatise the implication of misusing power in a modern state. The king in this play refuses to sprout grey hairs, through a subterfuge perpetrated by one of his friends who is from a different community. After his annual pilgrimage to ‘rejuvenate’ the king, the king’s subjects arrest the friend and convince him to reveal the secret, which leads to an unexpected ending for the king, as well as for his community. Truce with the Devil is a more modern play. Like Brempong’s play, it is a satire – but that is where the similarity ends. Truce with the Devil assesses Marxism, student activism and political reality in a modern African state. Two student leaders meet again after several years but now they are on the opposite sides of the economic and political divide. While one is the union leader engaged in mobilising workers to work to rule, the other is the Personnel Manager and the classic capitalist controller of the organisation. The encounter between the two is revelatory of the effect of globalisation after perestroika in the 1980s USSR.

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Fringe Benefits is a radio play written for the BBC African Performance drama competition in 1997. Though another version was produced for the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection, against abuses of women and the girl child in 2005, the version in this volume is closer to the 1997 edition. It is a short skit that exposes the nature of corruption, abuse of power and sexual harassment of female students by male lecturers in a university (presumably in Nigeria), as the playwright claims the drama is ‘an exposé of happenings in our ivory towers, seen from the eyes of a participantobserver’ (Author’s Note: 95). This is the most engaging of the three plays in Abdullahi’s volume; the language is humorous, sometimes bordering on sauciness; with four characters, the form is compact and suitable for production by small, touring companies. I mentioned above that these plays, in form and style, are similar to the dramas written by early dramatists in West Africa. Without being facetious, this is where their allure actually lies. The dramatists have re-engaged with the tradi­ tional stories, myths and legends to create plays that are accessible to a modern audience. Sola Adeyemi University of Greenwich

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Books Received Peter E. Omoko, Majestic Revolt (A Play). Lagos: Malthouse Press, 2016. ISBN 9789785407044, £6. Distributed by African Books Collective

Ameh Dennis Akoh, Abdul Rasheed Abiodun Adeoye and Osita C. Ezen­ wanebe (eds), Theatre, Creativity and Democratic Practice in Nigeria. Pro­ceedings of the 27th Annual Convention and International Conference of the Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists, University of Lagos, August 2014. ISBN 9789789428427. Available from SONTA, National Secretariat, Depart­ment of Theatre Arts, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria (n.p.)

Mbuh Tennu Mbuh, Who is Afraid of Mongo Wa Swolenka? A One Act Play. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group, 2016. ISBN 9956-763-89-6. Distributed by African Books Collective.

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