Introduction

Summary

The editorial team of African Theatre welcome Professor Kimani Njogu as a guest editor of this volume, which is devoted to the theatre of Wole Soyinka and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Kimani Njogu, formerly of Kenyatta University, is now an independent scholar, Director of Twaweza Communications in Nairobi, and publisher of Jahazi, a journal of the arts, culture and performance. He has brought us his wide range of contacts amongst the theatre community of Kenya, and his deep knowledge of the theatre of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Femi Osofisan, of the core editorial team, has brought together the material on the theatre of Wole Soyinka.

This volume opens with contributions from two of the most distinguished contemporary scholars of African theatre, David Kerr and Biodun Jeyifo. Kerr offers a personal response to the influence that both Soyinka and Ngũgĩ had on him as both scholar and practitioner. Biodun Jeyifo offers a preview of what is destined to be a major monograph, suggesting that although there are differences between Soyinka and Ngũgĩ as theatre theorists, there are strong resonances between them.

We then turn to individual encounters with the plays of Soyinka and Ngũgĩ. Tunji Oyelana, in discussion with Sola Adeyemi, talks of his long association with Soyinka, from the days of the Orisun Theatre in the 1960s, through the Nigerian civil war, and up to the present day. His own contribution to Soyinka’s theatre through his work as a composer and musician has been of the greatest significance. What follows are three experiences of working with Soyinka’s theatre: Tunde Onikoyi on the challenge of a ‘neophyte’ staging The Beatification of Area Boy, Bisi Adigun on his ‘pentecostalization’ of The Trials of Brother Jero, and Silviah Namussasi on adapting and staging The Lion and the Jewel in Mombasa. Turning to Ngũgĩ, it is not surprising that in the contributions of Mũgo Mũhĩa, Oby Obyerodhyambo and Gĩchingiri Ndĩgĩrĩgĩ the discussion focuses on Ngũgĩ and the Kamĩrĩĩthũ experience – an episode in the contemporary theatrical history of East African theatre that still resonates. Finally, Frederick Mbogo relishes the experience and describes the challenges of staging I Will Marry When I Want in South Africa.

James Gibbs – whose documenting of Soyinka’s work is legendary – joins with Mũgo Mũhĩa to offer a ‘playography’ of work by Soyinka and Ngũgĩ. Gibbs concentrates on the production history of Soyinka’s great play Death and the King’s Horseman.