Multiculturalism and the Politics of Nation Building in Recent Cameroon Anglophone Theatre

By Tiku Takem

Applied Theatre Researcher/IDEA Journal Number 4, 2003

Abstract
The works of Bole Butake, Bate Besong and Victor Epie Ngome have become classics of Cameroon Anglophone drama today. The performances discussed here show that not only do they articulate the authors’ attitudes, but they also seek to influence the attitudes of audiences towards the nation. Cashing in on a popular desire for change in a society characterised by widespread disillusion, Anglophone theatre presents varying perspectives on reconstructing the nation, based on the vision of each dramatist, ranging at times from mutual reconciliation and recognition of socio-cultural identities to outright usurpation of despotism to usher in democracy.

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This paper will focus on the performances of Victor Epie Ngome’s What God Has Put Asunder, Bate Besong’s Beasts of No Nation and Bole Butake’s And Palm Wine Will Flow. In March 1998 the Obasinjom Players performed What God Has Put Asunder before an audience that was predominantly Anglophone at the Alliance Franco-Camerounaise in Buea, the capital of former West Cameroon. In March 1990 and October 1991, the Yaounde University Theatre produced And Palm Wine Will Flow and Beasts of Nation respectively, before a predominantly English-speaking audience in Yaounde, the current capital of the country located in the French-speaking region. In the portrayal of the cultural, historical and ideological affiliations that inhabit the plays, which the performances tried to articulate, I set out to understand how these shape the manner in which individuals in the larger community express their belonging or otherwise to the hegemonic discourse of nation formation.

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Comments

[bita'a menye jean-hugues]

Dear Dr besong,i am very glad to with you today.I am a Buea university student and I read English and french.I need further information concerning the literary criticism course.

Yours faithfully,BITA'A MENYE.

[ngo bassong adele]

Dr Bate Besong,i wish to thank you for your devotedness towards your students of ENG423 in the University of Buea.Thank you for giving so much of yourself to make sure we become honest citizens of this country.However i would like to find what it takes to be a perceptive critic of literature and also how do I validate your course?
yours faithfully,
Ngo Bassong Adele