-to provide students with an understanding and appreciation of
African dramatic literature from the colonial period to the
present time, with special emphasis on the relevance of these
texts to contemporary society around the world, including the
United States;
- to help students situate those works within larger historical
and cultural contexts; 
- to provide students with an understanding of the conventions of
literary composition and reception that inform their creation,
such as conventions of genre, metrics, style, etc.; 
- to improve students' communication skills through oral
presentations in class and expository writing assignments,
including in-class and out-of-class essays. 

Students will be required to write a term paper on a given topic
and to write an essay on broad topics on the course as their
final examination. The term paper and the final examination will
comprise 50% of the final grade. Additionally, students will 
take two objective tests in the course, which will also comprise 
50% of the final grade.

The course will explore the influence of Western dramatic
literature in African plays of the colonial and early
post-independence periods, most of which were written by students
and former students of French and British colleges and
universities; the search for a theater more suited for African
audiences and reflecting their social aspirations in the plays of
independent Africa; and the emerging trends in which ideology and
nationalist preoccupations are often secondary to the individual 
experiences and artistic preferences of the playwrights. Special
emphasis will be placed on the relevance of the texts under
discussion to contemporary society around the world, including
the United States. Works studied vary with the individual 
instructor. The following is a sample "syllabus" of readings for 
a
single semester:

/The Lion and the Jewel/ by Wole Soyinka (Nigeria; winner of 
1986 Nobel Prize for Literature), first produced in 1958 by the 
student Dramatic Society of Ibadan, then a college of the 
University of London.

/Three Suitors: One Husband/ by Guillaume Oyono-Mbia 
(Cameroon), translated from French, an African comedy à la 
Molière.

/I Will May When I Want/ by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa 
Mirii (Kenya), translated from Kikuyu, a Brechtian didactic 
play in which songs complement dialogue like in an African 
folktale, first produced in a Kenyan village with Kikuyu 
peasants as actors.

/Death and the King’s Horseman/ by Wole Soyinka, written to be 
staged like a “Yoruba popular opera.”

/We Shall Sing for the Fatherland/ by Zakes Mda (Lesotho/South 
Africa), the voice of African struggle in apartheid South 
Africa.

/She No Longer Weeps/ by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), the 
voice of a female author and film director in contemporary 
Africa.

/King Baabu/ by Wole Soyinka, the art of the veteran African 
playwright and theater director in the twenty-first century.

/African Drama and Performance/, edited by J. Conteh-Morgan and 
T. Olaniyan: for general reading.

All academic work must meet the standards contained in “A 
Culture of Honesty.” Students are responsible for informing 
themselves about those standards before performing any academic 
work.