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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The dilemma of the popular playwright: the work of Kabwe Kasoma and V.E. Musinga
Author:Etherton, Michael
Year:1976
Periodical:African Literature Today
Issue:8
Pages:26-41
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:theatre
drama
Abstract:It appears that cultural expression of a changing society, and theatrical representatations in particular, are primarily literary, and that the published play, following perhaps an indifferent performance, or in some cases no performance at all, is both more influential and prestigious than the play which is successfully performed for a mass audience and is never published (which perhaps it cannot be because of its multi-language, multi-media, partially improvised form). In this light the author introduced the work of two African playwrights who are popular dramatists in their own countries but whose plays are not readily available to a wider readership: the Zambian playwright Kabwe Kasoma and the Camerounian playwright Victor Eleame Musinga. Both playwrights appear to derive their inspiration mainly from the urban African experience of the common man, as opposed to the urban elite. Yet independent African societies do not appear to recognise the qualities of originality, traditional culture, and non westernised creativity present in the township culture. Bibliogr., Notes.
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