The Language Problem of the Developing African Theater

Author(s): Saka Acquaye

Source: African Arts, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 58-59
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3334317
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On connait bien l'importancetraditionnelle du conteurdansla societeafricaine.

IIetaitla principaledistractiondu village
et en memetempsen conservaitI'histoire.
L'isolement culturel des villages n'est
plus possible aujourd'huiet les conteurs
de lajeune g6nerationdoivents'adresser
a l'auditoireplus vaste de la communaute nationale. Pour ce faire, ils ont

The

THE

Language

Problem

besoind'utiliserune linguafrancaessentiellement etrangere-l'anglais

ou le
franQais.Le conteur se sert ensuite du
theatre devient dramaturgeet producteur. Adaptera la scene occidentale la
danse et le mime africainspresente de
serieuses difficultes, mais seule cette
synthese rendra possible l'expression
des valeurs africainesessentielles dans
un contextecontemporain.

of

AFRICAN THEATER
DEVELOPING
Saka Acquaye

SakaAcquaye'soperettaThe Lost Fisherman was recently produced in Accra

and was received with great acclaimby
overflowaudiences. As a dramatist,Mr.
Acquayehas had to cope with the problem of languagewhich is a constantdifficulty in all the linguisticallyfragmented
nationsof Africa.From his own experiences he describes the problem that
faces those new young Africanwriters
who seek to find some satisfactorysynthesis between varied traditionsof his
audience and the borrowed European
languagewhich has to be their common
medium.
he Africanstory-telleris a veryimpor-

tant traditional and popular figure in

his community. It is increasingly evident, however, that a serious problem of
language is threatening the continuation
of the art of story-telling. In the past,
when conditions were very favorable
for the performance of this art, the villagers crowded around the fire and the
story-teller entertained them. At that
time his only audience was composed
of members of his own village, who
spoke his same language and observed
the same rituals and customs from which
he drew his ideas. Animism, ancestral
spirits, and taboos constituted his subject matter. So the story-teller, from his
vast store of intimate ideas and expressions of the village, always overwhelmed
his listener. The familiar features signs made with body and hands, singing, miming, and dancing - always
brought joy and laughter to the audience.
At that time, travelling to distant villages and towns was rare. But when
anyone did travel, it was only to the villages nearby whose inhabitants belonged
to the same tribe and spoke the same
language. Therefore, the storyteller
learned no new ideas that might influence or change the meaning of the images

58

and structureof his stories.Furthermore,

strangersfromafarwho might influence
theirwaysandconceptof life nevermade
contactwith them.
Suddenly, these confined villagers
developeda passionto knowaboutother
people living beyond their own village.
They venturedout into regionshitherto
unknownto them and experiencednew
traditions,languages,and beliefs. They
made friends and intermarried with
those they met. Soon, they built roads
to open up the deep forests that had
separatedthem from the other villages.
Missionarieslandedon the coast, travelled into the hinterland,and began setting up schools; an active interchange
of ideasand customsamongthe different
villages and tribes resulted. So the tradition of a single language spoken in
the smallvillage was broken.
Realizingthis change, the story-teller
began adjustinghimself to it. In doing
so, not only did he travelto othervillages
to learn their ways of story-tellingand
to learnabouttheirsubjectmatterwhich
he had to use to entertainhis reconstituted audience, but he also travelledto
remote regions to performhis art. Soon
he was serving not only his village but
also a wide areaof manytribes,weaving
their variousstories, traditions,and beliefs into his tales.
Thus, today, the village story-teller
can no longer performeffectively in his
own language.He now has to communicate also to those who speak different
languages.Unable to cope with this, he
has been graduallypushed aside by the
up-and-comingnew society. In his place
has emerged the younger story-teller,
who has grownup with the new society,
who has been to school, and who has
acquired a different and modern technique of telling those old stories.He can
read and write his own storiesin English
or French, the official language of his

country which has become a sovereign

state. But these new conditions under
which he has to work are posing more
formidableproblems than ever before.
First,the Englishor Frenchlanguage
is not his own, and thereforeit cannot
fully illustratesome of the vivid idioms
best expressed in his mother tongue.
Even if he acquiresan excellent control
of the English language, he has done so
as a resultof manyyearsof toil in school,
an effort which displaces many of his
nativeways. And whetheror not he now
representsthe true village story-telleris
the questionhe alone has to answer.
Second,insteadof usingsinging,dancing, and mimingto illustratethe stories
in the old way, he now weaves them into
plays produced on the Europeanstage
behind a proscenium.His cast are those
who can read and understandhis script,
and who are as well educated as himself. Therefore,they lack the vital part
of the old ways that made them true
products of the soil, and they can no
longer representthe true village actors.
In this sense, if the story-telleris concerned about truly representingthe culture he is attemptingto capture in his
production,he realizesthat his cast must
come fromthose who have not lost their
roots through education. He may be
forcedto trainthe fresh,up-and-coming
artists for genuine representation.This
choice also poses a furtherproblem;the
new languageis alien to these true sons
and daughters of the soil who cannot
expressthemselvesadequatelyin it. Yet
the story-tellercannot returnto the old
system of story-telling, because that
would restricthim to his tribe alone.
Since story-telling is his profession,
the village story-tellerhas now emerged,
in the modern sense, as playwrightor
producer.He now uses prologuelibretto,
mime, and dance to illustratehis ideas.
Dialogue and dance drama,which em-

brace mime, offer the best answer to his

problems if he can handle them well. If
he chooses to use dialogue, he must train
his cast to read and understandEnglish
well. He must train them equally well
in their richfolkcustomsand ways of life.
If he chooses dance dramaand miming,
he has a wider scope to work with. He
can blend the old folk dances with the
selected sign languageto relate his story.
Here, he can also wisely use some simple
sentencestakenfromthe nativelanguage
to stresshis point where needed.
A combinationof these two elements
of approachprovidesthe best expression
for the new productionconcept. It lends
itself to precise recording with written
technical directions, so that others also
can produce the script. But the most
effective of these resources is miming,
which requires the use of all the signs
made with fingers, hands, eyes, mouth,
and other partsof the body.
The playwright must carefully sort
through this list and readjusttheir code
to give them a more theatricalmeaning.
And through their use they would become familiar symbols with specific
meaningin the Africantheatre.Two very
interesting symbols can be mentioned
here for illustration.In war, or in a quarrel between two chiefs, when a messenger is sent to the rival, he sticksa leaf between his lips. This signifies that the
messenger is not responsible for whatever message he has to deliver, and secures his maximumprotection until he
is back in his own village. The second
symbol uses the thumb. When a person
points or wiggles it in the direction of
anotherperson, it means that the one to
whom it is pointed is a fool, or worthless.
And this can cause a seriousquarrel.The
playwright could ingeniously use such
signs in his plays so as to perpetuate
their intrinsic values.
A few importantinfluenceson African
ways of life should be brought out here,
in particular that of the missionaries.
Throughtheir introductionof education,
the African has made a lot of progress
toward better and healthier living. He
has, on the other hand, been forced to
throwaway some of his own values handed down to him by his forefathers.Nonetheless, in recent years, the Africanvoice
is being heard more and more in world
affairs.This voice must express the best
in the African way of life. Therefore,
firstthe Africanhas to rediscoverhis lost
values which he can then contributeto
the world. If he cannotachieve these two
objectives in the order in which they
come, instead of being useful to himself
and to othershe will lackthe understanding of himself and the self-confidence
necessary to help him stand on his own.
Thus, the African of today, through
drama and other arts, should be able to
extend his rich traditions, so that he can
?
become an asset to the world.

In 1968,the prizecompetitionsof
were in the fields
AfricanArts/Artsd'Afrique
of graphicandplasticarts,and in literature.We
which
havereceivedsome verydistinguishedcontributions,
are at presentbeingevaluatedby two panelsof judges
andArt
selected fromthe departmentsof Literature
Theirtask is not madeeasy by the high
at UCLA.
standardsof the entries,but the judgeswill
announcetheirdecisionin the next issue of
AfricanArts/Artsd'Afrique.
Specialfeaturearticles
willdisplayanddiscussthe workof the prizewinnersin
the two fields.Theresponsefromseveralnewyoung
artistshas beenparticularly
gratifying,andwe think
that in the futurewe mayconsidera dividedprize.
Smallerawardsmightact as an encouragement
to the earlyattemptsof youngartists.

ARTISTS
PRIZES
ANNUAL
FOR
AFRICAN
SECOND
In 1969,the contestwillcovertwo otherfields
of art:musicanddance;films anddramaticwriting(scripts
of playsfor theater,cinema,andtelevision).Scripts
shouldbe typewritten.Formusic,we shouldlike
to receivestandardrecordedtapes whicha panelof
judgesin ourMusicDepartment
mayhearandevaluate.
Themusicmaybe in the contemporary
ortraditionalidiom.Dance,we areaware,willconstitutea
majorproblem.Wethinkthat the prizemightbest
be competedfor by a groupratherthanan individual,
althougha single dancerwouldnot be disqualified.
Submissionshouldincludeevidenceof the standardsof
the group,such as films,photographs,
reviews,and
reportsfromlocalnewspapersuponthe danceperformances.
Anaccompanying
assessmentof the caliberof the
dancingby some localprofessionalwhomaybe known
to us wouldbe advantageous
too. We realizethat
this is not an idealsolution,andyet we do seek to
encourageall the variedarts of Africathroughour
series of prizes,andit is clearlywrongto omitthe
dance,whichis undoubtedly
amongthe mostvitaland
Africa.
of
all
the
arts
of
Theeditorsreserve
significant
the rightto dividethe two $1000awardsamongentrants.
Thisseems the fairestassessmentof the meritof works
andentry
in the competition.Furtherinformation
formsfor nextyear'scompetitionare availablefrom:
africanarts/artsd'afrique
AfricanStudiesCenter
Universityof California
LosAngeles
90024
California
residents
of the
mustbe citizensandpermanent
Entrants
orof theMalagasy
African
continent
Republic.
of entryformsis April
forsubmission
Deadline
15,1969.

59