Martin Banham & James Gibbs 
African Theatre 11: Festivals 

Contributors examine how international theatre festivals have been organised and how they have affected the evolution of sustainable theatre.


During the last fifty years, large sums of money, huge resources of labour and vast amounts of creative energy have been invested in international theatre festivals in Africa. Under banners such as ‘Reclaiming the African Past’ and ‘African Renaissance’, the festival participants have used the performing arts to address a variety of topical issues and to confront images embedded by a century of patronising colonial expositions. The themes indicate the desire to take history by the forelock, challenge perceptions and transform communities.


Volume Editor: JAMES GIBBS


Series Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama at the University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of Warwick

Table of Content

Editor’s Introduction – James Gibbs

Festivals as a strategy for the development of theatre in Zimbabwe, 1980-201 – Robert Mshengu Kavanagh

The legacy of Festac ’77: the challenge of the Nigerian National Theatre at Iganmu – Ahmed Yerima

Festac, month by month and Soyinka’s involvement – James Gibbs

The Dakar Festivals of 1966 & 2010 – Yatma Dieye

African Renaissance between rhetoric & the aesthetics of extravagance: FESMAN 2010 – entrapped in textuality – Amy Niang

Theatre Programme for FESMAN, with Commentary – James Gibbs

The Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival (Panafest) in Ghana, 1922-2010: the vision & the reality – Victor K. Yankah

Panafest through the Headlines: an Annotated Bibliography – James Gibbs

International festivals & transnational theatre circuits in Egypt, 1988-2010: ambassadors of no nation – Sonali Pahwa

The Jos Theatre Festival, 2004- 2011:a theatre festival in a divided community – Patrick-Jude Oteh

The Grahamstown Festival & the making of a dramatist: an interview with Andrew Buckland – Andrew Buckland

Playscript:
Prison Graduates by Efo Kodjo Mawugbe with a review of a performance by James Gibbs

Book Reviews

About the author

Femi Osofisan is an internationally lauded playwright, scholar, poet, novelist, actor, director, songwriter, and activist and Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan. Osofisan was awarded the Thalia Prize in 2016. He has published five novellas, six volumes of poetry, and more than 50 plays.