African Theatre 11: Festivals. Call for papers
Toyin Falola
A roll-call of venues and examination of programmes indicate that Festivals are thriving in Africa, and that theatrical encounters are taking place at those events. For an older generation of theatre people, 'Dakar 1965', 'Algiers 1969' and 'Festac '77' resonate. For those who have come to theatrical maturity more recently some of those names now have a new meaning: in 2009 international spotlights shone on African productions at a Second 'World Festival' in Dakar and then at a second 'Panaf' in Algiers. Meanwhile in Nigeria, the National Theatre in Iganmu, built for Festac, continues to provide a venue for performances and is the focus for discussion about Nigerian cultural policies and national theatrical ambitions.
The list of hosts to regular theatrical gatherings on the continent is impressive and triggers a tureen full of alphabet soup. The list includes Cairo (CIFT - Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre), Cape Coast (Panafest - Pan-African Festival of Historical Drama), Grahamstown (National Arts Festival), Harare (HIFA - Harare International Festival of the Arts), and Yaoundé (FATEJ - Festival Africain de Theatre Pour L'Enfance et la Jeunesse). While the bi-ennial East African Theatre Institute (EATI) Festival is peripatetic, rotating around the member countries.
The resilient and flexible festival format has been used by various groups including educators, politicians, cultural engineers, nation-builders, and prophets. After organisational tweaking and adding resonant rhetoric, have used the format to give expression to a wide variety of ideologies, historical experiences and aspirations. For example, the Worldwide Festival of Black Arts / Festival mondial des arts negres referred to above as Dakar 1965 embodied Leopold Senghor's vision of Negritude - with a carefully worked-out definition of who it was for and what it was about. The second World Black Festival had a significantly different agenda, just as he Second Panaf (2009) was, in turn, unlike the Panaf of forty years earlier. Festivals have moved with African thinking and in response to urgent issues. For this reason the 6th EATI Theatre Festival (2008), held in Addis Ababa during a time of mounting regional tension bravely undertook to celebrate 'Cultural diversity for African Solidarity and Peace'
Large-scale Festivals such as those mentioned affect cultural planning because of they become 'flag-ship' projects carrying personal reputations and absorbing huge amounts of money. They also provide intense experiences that can have an enduring impact on creative individuals and even shape national theatrical traditions. So, incidentally, can more modest Festivals organised on town, district or national levels. The power of theatre is such that they can decisively challenge and enrich the lives of creative young people.
It is against this background that the editors of African Theatre have decided to dedicate an issue of the journal to the historical, critical and comparative analysis of Festivals. Contributors are invited to work around the theme, to, for example, examine the organisation, impact and legacy of the drama component of post-Independence festivals in Africa.
Suggested lines of enquiry include the analysis of particular issues as reflected in African theatre festivals (issues might include Negritude, censorship, funding, ..), or studies of particular national traditions through Festivals. (Egypt, Senegal, and South Africa are among the countries that have very impressive national traditions of theatre festivals.) There is also scope for analysing the impact of Festivals on a particular man or woman of the theatre, for comparative studies of, for example, schools drama festivals in different countries, or for looking at the impact of performing in international festivals on a particular drama group.
Please submit abstracts and contributions, following the style-sheet printed in each African Theatre title, as Word documents to James Gibbs at James...@btinternet.com or 8 Victoria Square, Bristol, BS8 4ET. Deadline for Abstracts: 15th May 2011; deadline for Papers: 31st August 2011. Maximum number of words: 5000.
Follow up
The experience of the editors suggests that articles prompted by the topic selected will allow reflection on major cultural and political movements in Africa. It is anticipated that, through critical examinations of Festivals operating on a variety of levels in a significant number of African countries, the volume will provide insights into the evolution of theatre on the continent. Contributors are encouraged to scrutinize closely the way Festivals are conceived, organized and delivered, and include critical analyses of the legacies of Festivals.
As an image for the Festivals issue of African Theatre, it would be hard to find a more expressive icon than the National Theatre building in Iganmu, Lagos. Its conception and construction - for Festac '77, together with its subsequent use provide a focus for thinking about the long-term impact of a major festival. Discussion of the current state of the theatre building and the use to which it is being put frequently occupies space in the Nigerian press, and the larger legacy of Festac is constantly being dissected on-line by CBBAC.
It may be harder to point to the legacy of the festivals held in educational institutions, but enquiry is encouraged. There are, for example, indications that the Schools Drama Festivals organised in Malawi during the Seventies were a breeding ground for a generation of creative theatre people, and an insidious influence on the national play-writing tradition. This influence was felt because the conditions imposed by the Festival organisers included the stipulation that plays should be written in English - the British Council supported the Festival financially and teachers of English were often responsible for the productions!- that plays should take no longer than half-an hour to perform and involve no more than six actors. Malawian writers sometimes followed these conditions even when working outside the context of the Schools Drama Festival.
As these examples, indicate the brief for the issue is wide. If you would like to get an initial response to a proposed submission, please contact James Gibbs.
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Tony Iyare
Book Review
Chief Tony Enahoro – An Icon of Leadership
By Tony Iyare
The 156 book titled Nigeria and the Dilemma of Leadership – An X-Ray of Chief Tony Enahoro’s Perspective is a compendium on a sustained life of committed, progressive, selfless and forthright leadership by renowned Elder Statesman, Revered Social Thinker, Political Activist, Distinguished Parliamentarian and Journalist, Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro who died recently at the age of 87.
In a country where integrity, strength of character and commitment to the people’s wish and aspiration are in short supply, the book attempts to celebrate Enahoro who moved the historic motion for independence for Nigeria in 1956, for remaining steadfast in spite of the vicissitudes of life until he finally kicked the bucket on Wednesday, December 15, 2010.
Where others have opted to mortgage their voices for a mess of pottage, the late elder statesman neither departed from his exalted vanguard role, effrontery to constantly steer the pathway nor the resolve to regularly speak to authority.
In a sense, Enahoro, according to the narration in the book, not only became the conscience of the nation but its philosopher king. His thoughts and vision are steeped in praxis.
From his involvement in the nationalist movement as a budding student in King’s College, Lagos to the harrowing struggles of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) under the late Military Dictator, General Sani Abacha and the Pro-National Conference Organisations (PRONACO), Enahoro even at 87 still evoked life.
That he got enthralled in the political web for the crystalisation of the Mid-West was understandable. As a decoy by the political foes to undermine the perceived political empire of frontline politician, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, it would have been idealistic to expect it to readily elicit the blessing of Enahoro, considered one of the sage’s most loyal disciples and strategists.
Those of us from the old Mid-west still recall with relish how our state through the effort of the likes of Enahoro, was created out of popular plebiscite, which witnessed the historic vote of the people in a freely conducted referendum.
The defunct Mid-West now carved into Edo and Delta states remained the only state created out of the free will of the people in our nation’s history. Therefore we must always say to ourselves that here is a land of freedom. Those who wish to walk our history on its head must be told that ours indeed is a land of freedom.
That is why it is a contradiction of our people’s vote for freedom to subject our popular will either to the rule of the thumb of any godfather or the shenanigans of election riggers, a campaign being championed by Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
If our people’s fight for freedom yielded fruits in 1963, why must we allow it to be encumbered by the antics of a godfather or those whose stock is to use the fingers of our people to pull chestnuts out of the furnace in 2010?.
So we must insist on “One Man, One Vote”, a popular refrain of the Comrade Governor, in our search for a committed leadership in Nigeria. The book reminds us of the need to rescue our dear country from a position of a laughing stock in the comity of nations and put it back on track as a land of greatness. That our country has become the butt of jesters is tragic.
Oshiomhole has demonstrated that a committed leadership whose authority flows from the will of the people can indeed move mountains even with paucity of resources.
A salute to his deft management of resources can be gleaned from the stoic resolve to nudge Edo, which was in the doldrums for close to 30 years, on the path of Eldorado.
How he got N65 billion to commit to infrastructural development is still something of an enigma. Those who opted to offer the Edo people excuses and a dinner of scorpions while they held sway for 10 years should cover their faces in shame.
As captured in the book, Enahoro’s enduring legacy and bubbling life of political activism which constantly provoked critical discourses on the knotty national question confronting Nigeria, the world’s most populous Black nation impressed on us deep reflections on how far we have fared particularly in the last 50 years of independence.
For those of us who share 50th birthday with Nigeria, our pitiable backward march in spite of our huge resources is discomforting. Our thoughts about ‘our big for nothing country’ can be sometimes very revolting.
Nigeria’s crises of development can only be captured in our grim statistics. Our GDP is lower than that of our West African Francophone neighbours. Average lifespan is 43 years. Maternal and Infant mortality is one of the highest in the world. More than 70 per cent of our people live below one dollar daily.
Most of our youth are jobless. Our country is virtually run on generators since we cannot guarantee power. We are all gripped by the spectre of insecurity. Our industries are daily closing down and taking flight to Ghana, Cote I”voire and Angola where there’s a more clement environment for business.
Those of us who were glued to the television during the last world cup have seen how the South Africans whom we supported in their struggle against apartheid, have left us by light years. The same for many Asian countries, who were not even at per with Nigeria, at independence. But lamentation will do us no good. We must take the cudgels and embark on a genuine path of nation building.
Enahoro’s vote for a return to the parliamentary system founded on our highly consultative traditional society rather than the presidential system, which subjects our hard earned freedom to the whim and caprices of a presidential system and a very powerful president is legendary. We did not seem to have spared much thought for this in our hurriedly cobbled constitutional amendment process.
How can we sustain a system which allows the political elite to mismanage more than $400 billion realised from oil resources in the first four decades of its exploitation? The country is further short changed as a large chunk of these resources is funnelled into foreign banks to oil and provide multiplier benefits to foreign economies.
Although I’m not aware whether Chief Enahoro has written works on Esan language like another very distinguished Esan son, Dr Christopher Okojie but his regular intervention on our dying indigenous languages should make us go back to the drawing board.
Apart from the recent jolting revelation that the Igbo language may become extinct if concrete effort is not done to make the language flourish particularly amongst Igbo children, many indigenous languages particularly in the Middle Belt of Nigeria are almost extinct.
Who says that our parliaments should only conduct their businesses in English Language, Enahoro had always queried. It is not cheering that with the exception of the Lagos State House of Assembly, which has adopted Yoruba as a language of business, all other parliaments in Nigeria conducts their businesses mainly in English.
The biggest scare is that our language and culture are gradually dying because we do not also encourage our children to speak the indigenous languages. We even discuss them in a very condescending manner.
We all know that the easiest way to destroy a civilisation is by tearing a people’s language and culture into shreds. We seem to have forgotten how some Eurocentric scholars, who derided our rich cultural heritage, wrote that Africans had no history as part of the process of reinforcing colonial domination. It is worse if we ourselves have unwittingly resolved to preside over the requiem of our indigenous languages.
Listening to the recent homily of Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole at the CBN headquarters, Abuja and Auchi where he harped on the problems of our fractured federal system tells us that Enahoro is alive and will continue to be relevant in our discourse of the country’s crises of social, political and economic development.
A behemoth federal government takes a lion’s share of the nation’s resources and leaves crumbs for the 36 states and the 774 LGs in a highly disproportionate relationship, Oshiomhole reels in his highly thought provoking debate on the national question. That what is paid into the federation account is at the whim of some people at the NNPC is intriguing.
His equally chilling statistics at a recent parley with Auchi Polytechnic students about how the industrial and educational sectors have sunk only set tongues wagging on our near banana republic that began on a platform of great promise in 1960 but now dithering on the edge of the precipice. From more than 170 textile plants, the nation is now left with less than 10.
While some have wavered and allowed their views to be coloured by the blur of the moment, Enahoro who began political activism from his teenage days at King’s College, Lagos was still standing like the rock of Gibraltar even at his twilight and sunset. Our renowned elder statesman even in his final days evoked the gait of the youth. Permit me to quote from an intro I did on him in an interview conducted in 2007.
“At 84, the gait of renowned elder statesman, Chief Anthony Eronmosele Enahoro still radiates the stoic vibrancy and strength of his radical youthful days in the nationalist struggle. His speech which hardly betrays his age and laced with Queen’s English, evokes his fame not only as a stormy petrel of the movement but also one of the nation’s astute parliamentarians. He’s almost a mobile encyclopaedia of the nation’s political history and imbued with an immense memory of recreating events as if they happened just yesterday. Unlike many octogenarians who will opt to live down stairs in their homes because of waning and frail ankles, Enahoro whose name is almost synonymous with the political strides of Nigeria hops the stair case of his sprawling one storey Benin home almost every other day. The espansive balcony overlooking the impeccably weaned courtyard where he’s regularly immersed in books and other research documents and sometimes receives visitors is also located upstairs. As chairperson of the Pro-National Conference Organisations, PRONACO, his Lagos office where he held court with prominent members of the movement was on the fourth floor. He clenches his fist with the ease of former President, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Adams Oshiomhole. His strict family upbringing and sporting background where he’s acclaimed for his love of the game of golf may have kept him strong and agile. As a political son of foremost nationalist, Herbert Macaulay, Enahoro’s epic contribution to the nationalist movement was his moving of the historic motion for self governance in Nigeria, in 1956 at the House of Representatives. In spite of the stiff opposition both from the leadership of the Action Group (AG) and the conservative political elite, he muted the idea of the motion for self governance on the prompting of the Nigerian students in London and was determined to see it through. He was undeterred by threats of possible arrests and incarceration by the colonial government. As he recalled, “I had been arrested and jailed before, so what was the big deal about the new threats”. The controversial motion eventually led to the London Conference and later paved the way for self governance in the defunct West and Eastern regions in 1957 and the independence of Nigeria on October Ist, 1960. Unhappy that the dream of the founding fathers of Nigeria has been side tracked particularly by a protracted period of military rule which has imposed a powerful centre and prostrate units, Enahoro has been back to the trenches and is now in the forefront of efforts to restructure Nigeria where every ethnic nationality will be guaranteed autonomy in its affairs. This will be a departure from our present “command federalism” or unitary government which tends to wish away according to Enahoro, “our individual differences”. End of quote.
Writing a book on Enahoro is not a particularly easy assignment because it is like writing on the political evolution of Nigeria. A single book can hardly suffice to discuss Enahoro’s `historic involvement in the polity just like talking about Nigeria.
We must therefore commend the author for putting together some ideas to fire our thoughts which can later be improved upon. We must also salute the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) for their contribution in seeking to celebrate a very distinguished journalist who had the distinction of becoming one of the nation’s youngest editors at 20.
From my vantage knowledge of the baking process of this book, the writer must have leaned on his meagre resources and little contributions from friends to put this book together. No doubt, the production of the book did suffer from paucity of funds.
Therefore my critique of the content and form of this work will be measured more a by call for greater resources to improve on this historic work on a distinguished elder statesman like Chief Enahoro.
As a reviewer, my role is just to whet the appetite of potential readers of this work and not to give too much away. While recommending the book to everyone that thirst for information on the political evolution of Nigeria, we must be mindful that this work represents just an attempt to capture the epochal life of Enahoro. It should therefore not be regarded as the book.
Iyare is Special Adviser, Media Affairs to Edo State Governor.
ambrose nzeyimana
Compatriot Africans,
We know the problems that our respective countries face today or have experienced in the past.
For us and African future generations to expect seeing some improvement, we need to stop thinking about our problems with a narrow mindset.
Solutions we suggest and try to implement for the change we want should always take into consideration the big picture.
Protecting African Economic Growth From Global Predators
Resisting AFRICOM: the US military occupation strategy for Africa
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