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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The performing arts and community education and recreation in Africa
Author:Ebong, Inih A.
Year:1980
Periodical:Umoja: a scholarly journal of Black Studies
Volume:4
Issue:2
Pages:85-97
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:education
theatre
Abstract:Education and progressive community development in traditional Africa (at least before, and for many years after, the 'scramble for Africa') were fundamentally myth-or tented, and involved a dual process of perceptive and imaginative deduction through active participation in the arts, especially the performing arts. In more recent times, however, experiments of the new 'Popular Theatre' movement (Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria) appear to de-emphasize mythology as the source material for entertainment, recreation, education, and development, in preference to topical, day-to-day realities and experiences of the Individual and the society. Both the myth/folktale-oriented theatre and the popular theatre of contemporary 'traditional' Africa aim to perpetuate and vindicate the continued vitality of both the individual and the community, the development of artistic skills, group solidarity and the communal spirit. But, whereas the mythic theatre fantasises and perpetuates nostalgic, and even romantic idealism, the popular theatre tackles the pressing daily problems and absurd realities that infest the community. Notes.
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