The Yoruba Travelling Theatre

The Yoruba Travelling Theater was developed in the 1850s and used a combination of traditional Yoruba art forms with the incorporation of Western performance paradigms.[1] It has been pivotal in the development of the Cinema of Nigeria.[2]

The Yoruba Travelling Theatre has focused on fantastic folktales, farcical social satires, and historical or mythological accounts derived from oral tradition. Plays were performed in the Indigenous Yoruba Languages in an attempt to educate Yoruba children. The Yoruba Travelling Theatre has therefore disseminated Yoruba culture.

History

The Yoruba Travelling Theatre began when three doyens of drama got their start in the theatre; Chief Hubert Ogunde[3] started the first operas, with his "The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God" being performed with success in 1944; Kola Ogunmola[4] debuted his play "Ife Owolabi" (Love of Money) in 1950 and it was published in English translation in 1965, and subsequently "Omuti apa kinni" in 1963 brought Mr. Ogunmola to fame. The third amongst them is Duro Ladipo,[5] who presented the famous stage plays "Oba KO So" (The King did not Hang) and "Eda" (Everyman).

In these feats, each one of these men was more particular about the propagation of Yoruba voices towards the colonial rulership in those days. Culminating in Yoruba Ronu, a phrase used to call the attention of the Yoruba people to deep thinking about self preservation and ethnic propagation.

The success of The Yoruba Travelling Theatre can be measured by the successes of Herbert Ogunde; although he staged his first play "The Garden of Eden and The Throne of God" in 1944, the Theatre group he led became truly famous with their stage play "Strike and Hunger" in 1945, which was produced during the general workers strike of 1945. The Yoruba Travelling Theatre has been a influential precursor of the current Nigerian stage dramatists, aiding to further push the cultural values of the entire Yoruba people.

Plays performed

  1. The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God, staged in 1944.
  2. Strike and Hunger, staged in 1946. It dramatises the event of the General Workers Strike[6] in 1945.
  3. Yoruba Ronu,[7] staged in 1964 during the attack on Chief Ladoke Akintola.
  4. The Tiger's Empire,[8] which was also staged earlier in 1946 to give clearance to women to have access to drama. This and the preceding were the major plays of Hubert Ogunde.
  5. Ife Owo and Omuti are all plays by Kola Ogunmola. They further reshape the essence of The Yoruba Theatre play.
  6. Oba Ko so and Eda by Duro Ladipo.

References

  1. ^ Udengwu, Ngozi (2018). "'Women in Men's World': A Focus on the Professional Yoruba Travelling Theatre of Nigeria". Humanitatis Theoreticus Journal. 1 (1): 17–28.
  2. ^ Olayiwola, Abiodun (September 2011). "Nollywood at the Borders of History: Yoruba Travelling Theatre and Video Film Development in Nigeria" (PDF). The Journal of Pan African Studies. 4 (5): 183–195.
  3. ^ "Biography". ogundemuseum.org. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  4. ^ BlackFacts.com. "Kola Ogunmola". Blackfacts.com. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  5. ^ "Duro Ladipo | African Studies Centre Leiden". ascleiden.nl. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  6. ^ "The general strike of 1945 and the Tudor-Davies Commission". The Guardian Nigeria News. 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  7. ^ "Yoruba Ronu". Daily Trust. 2021-03-29. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  8. ^ "Hubert Ogunde: A Visit to the Tiger's Empire (1)". waka-about. 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.