Email this article 
LINGUISTIC REVITALISATION AND THE DRAMA IN AFRICAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
(1) Department of Languages, Samuel Adegboyega University Ogwa, Edo State Nigeria
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
This paper explores the drama written in indigenous African languages across many countries in Africa. It highlights the intellectual snobbery suffered by drama written in indigenous languages, probing the reasons behind the critical marginalization. It equally probes the elemental compositions of drama written in indigenous languages, investigating how oral elements revitalize and fertilize the dramatic works. The theoretical framework for this study was anchored on Ethnodramatics, a theory of indigenous drama projected by Affiah and Osuagwu while the inspirations which substantiate indigenous African languages as viable and effective linguistic mediums for dramatic creativity are derived from Ngugi wa Thiongo’s theoretical postulation on the language of African theatre in Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986). The paper reveals that traditional African drama in indigenous languages creatively utilizes oral resources and elements such as proverbs, riddles, mime, music, songs, dance, and other folk arts in ways that embellish and relive their drama. The paper concludes that by writing in indigenous languages, playwrights expand the resources and frontiers of African indigenous languages, a situation that nurtures and preserves them.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adeoti, G. (2019). The loudness of the “Unsaid”: Proverbs in selected African drama. Legon Journal of the Humanities, 30(1), 82–104. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v30i1.4.
Affiah, U., & Osuagwu, N. (2012). Ethnodramatics: Towards a theory for indigenous African drama. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 5(2), 6 –10. https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-0520610
Amegbleame, S. (1990). ‘L’Influencebibliquedans la litte´rature ewe’. In J. Riesz & A. Ricard (eds.), Semper Aliquid Novi. Litt´eraturecompar´eeetlitt´eraturesd’afrique: M´elangesofferts `a Albert G´erard. Tu¨bingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Beer, D. (1977). The sources and content of Ethiopian creative writing in English. Research in African Literatures, 8(1), 99-124.
Cancel, R. (1993). African-languages literatures: Perspectives on culture and identity. In O. Oyekan (ed.), A history of twentieth century African literatures. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Chebet-Choge, S. (2012). Fifty years of Kiswahili in regional and international development. The Journal of Pan-African Studies, 4(10), 172 – 203.
Chukwuma, H. (1994). Igbo oral literature: Theory and tradition. Abak: Belpot Company.
Ciarunji, C., & Mwangi, E. (2004). Theatre in Kenya. In M. Benham (ed.), A history of theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Conteh-Morgan, J. (2004). Francophone Africa south of the Sahara. In M. Banham (ed.), A history of theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dathorne, O. R. (1934). African literature in the twentieth century. London: Heinemann Educational.
Eme, C. A., & Mbagwu, U. M. (2011). African languages and African literature. UJAH: Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities, 12(1), 114–127. https://doi.org/10.4314/ujah.v12i1.7
Esslin, M. (1987). The field of drama. New York: Methuen.
Finnegan, R. (2012). Oral literature in Africa. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. http:// dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0025
Gerard, A. (1970). Preservation of tradition in African creative writing. Research in African Literatures, 1(1), 35-39.
Gerard, A. (1993). 1500 years of creative writing in black Africa. Research in African Literatures, 12(2), 147-161.
Gibbs, J. (2004). African theatre. Woodbridge, UK: James Currey.
Ladipo, D. (1970). Oba koso. Ibadan: Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Ltd.
Lichtheim, A. M. (2006). Ancient Egyptian literature. California: University of California Press.
Marzagora, S. (2015). Literature in African languages. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 27(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2014.978842
Mberia, K. W. (2014). Death and survival of African languages in the 21st century. International Journal of Linguistics and Communication, 2(3), 127-144.
Mbughuni, L. A. (1981). Old and new drama from East Africa. African Literature Today, 8, 85–98.
Mooneeram, R. (1999). Theatre in development in Mauritius. In M. Banham, J. Gibbs, & F. Osofisan (eds.), African theatre in development. Oxford: James Currey.
Mugo, M. (1981). Gerish on Ngugi, Peninah Muhando and Ebrahim Hussein: Plays in Swahili. African Literature Today, 8, 137–141.
Mwaliwa, H. C. (2018). Modern Swahili: The integration of Arabic culture into Swahili literature. Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, 55(2), 120-133.
Ngugi, M. (2020). The rise of the African novel: Politics of language, identity and ownership. Abuja: Cassava Republic Press.
Obafemi, O. (2001). Contemporary Nigerian theatre cultural heritage and social vision. Ibadan: Kraft Books Ltd.
Oikelome, A. (2019). The music of the dance: A study of music and dance in African culture. Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts, 13, 185–202.
Okediji, O. (1973). Rere run. Ibadan: Onibonoje Press.
Olali, T. (2015). Trends and development of the Swahili drama since 1957 to 2014. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education, 2(10), 1–7.
Plastow, J. (1996). African theatre and politics: The evolution of theatre in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V.
Ricard, A. (1992). Ebrahim's predicament. Research in African Literatures, 23(1), 175-178.
Sheriff, M. (2004). Sierra Leone. In M. Banham (ed.), A history of theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thiong’o, N. (1986). Decolonizing the mind: The politics of language in African literature. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Thiong’o, N., & Ngugi, M. (1982). I will marry when I want. Harare: Heinemann Educational Books.
Zaki, A. (2014). North Africa: Egypt. In M. Banham (ed.), A history of theatre in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/uc.v3i2.5469
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Patrick Charles Alex
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UC Journal is indexed in:
UC Journal Sinta 4 Certificate (S4 = Level 4)
We would like to inform you that UC Journal: ELT, Linguistics and Literature Journal, or UC Journal has been nationally accredited Sinta 4 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia based on the decree No. Surat Keputusan 152/E/KPT/2023. Validity for 5 years: Vol 2 No 1, 2021 till Vol 6 No 2, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/uc
e-ISSN (validity starting Vol 1, No 2, November 2020): 2774-9401
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
UC Journal: ELT, Linguistics and Literature Journal, a scientific peer-reviewed journal, was established in 20 May 2020 and is published twice a year, namely in May and November, by the English Language Education Study Programme (S1/Sarjana PBI) in collaboration with the English Education Master's Programme (S2/Magister PBI) of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.