Scars of Conquest Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African-American, and Caribbean Drama

209 Pages·1995·10.55 MB·English

by  Tejumola Olaniyan

Scars of Conquest/
Masks of Resistance
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Scars of Conquest/
Masks of Resistance
The Invention of
Cultural Identities in
African, African-American,
and Caribbean Drama
TEJUMOLA OLANIYAN
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1995
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1995 by Tejumola Olaniyan
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Olaniyan, Tejumola.
Scars of conquest/masks of resistance : the invention of cultural identities in African,
African-American, and Caribbean drama/Tejumola Olaniyan.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-19-509405-0.—ISBN 0-19-509406-9 (pbk.)
1. American drama—Afro-American authors—History and criticism
2. Baraka, Imamu Amiri, 1934- —Criticism and interpretation. 3. Shange, Ntozake—
Criticism and interpretation. 4. Afro-Americans in literature. 5. Walcott, Derek—Dramatic works.
6. Soyinka, Wole—Dramatic works. 7. Caribbean Area—In literature.
8. Africa—In literature. 9. Blacks in literature. I. Title.
PS338.N4043 1995
809.2'008996073—dc20 94-33238
A portion of an earlier and abbreviated version of chapter 5 appeared in Imagination, Emblems and
Expression: Essays on Latin American, Caribbean, and Continental Culture and Identity, edited by
Helen Ryan-Ranson, copyright 1993 by The Popular Press.
Balboa/The Liar from Dead Lecturer/Three Books by Amiri Baraka. Reprinted by permission of Sterling
Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright & 1975 by Amiri Baraka.
"Note on Commercial Theatre" from Selected Poems by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of
Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. Copyright © 1959 by Langston Hughes.
Reprinted with permission of Simon & Schuster and Reed Consumer Books Ltd. from for colored girls
who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange. Copyright © 1975, 1976,
1977 by Ntozake Shange.
Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo by Ntozake Shange, Copyright © 1982 by Ntozake Shange, St. Martin's
Press, Inc., New York, NY and Methuen London.
"Letter to a Feminist Friend" by Molara Ogundip-Leslie from Women in Nigeria Today by Felix Mthali,
published by Zed Books, London. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Excerpts from Collected Poems 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott. Copyright © 1986 by Dereck Walcott.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. and Faber & Faber.
Excerpts from Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott. Copyright © 1970 by Derek Walcott.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Oyedun and 'Joko
in memoriam
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Acknowledgments
This study has benefited from a great deal of support, both intellectual
and material. I am highly indebted to my very good friends and former
teachers Timothy Murray, Biodun Jeyifo, and Henry L. Gates, Jr., for
their unending encouragement and intellectual succor and challenge. Al-
ways with great and meticulous care, they read versions of this work and
offered useful critical insights. They were part of the general stimulating
environment at Cornell University to which I am indebted more than I
can acknowledge. The members of the Marxist Literary Group and Co-
lonialism reading group provided a highly supportive atmosphere at the
initial stages of this work.
Friendly as well as professional backing at various times came from
Laura Brown, Walter Cohen, Satya P. Mohanty, David Bathrick, Kwame
A. Appiah, and Tom Lodge.
The ambitious scope of the work in bridging the Atlantic would have
remained a mere wish without a generous two-year fellowship from the
Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies at
the University of Virginia. A substantial part of the work was written
during my tenure in this highly congenial milieu. I am deeply grateful
for the unflagging support of the staff of the institute, especially Gail
Shirley, administrative assistant, Mary Rose, programmer, William E.
Jackson, associate director for research, and Armstead Robinson, director.
The presence of other fellows, especially Terry Epperson, Mieko Nishida,
Marianne Ferme, and Michele Wagner, conspired to make my stay at the
viii Acknowledgments
institute rewarding. Deborah E. McDowell, attentive friend and col-
league, read and offerred valuable comments on the manuscript.
Further work on the project was carried out during my tenure as a
Rockefeller Residency fellow at Northwestern University's Institute for
Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities. In all respects,
I found the institute an ideal working environment. I am grateful to the
staff, especially David William Cohen, Ivan Karp (preceptor for 1991/
92), Akbar Virmani, Roseanne Mark, Linda Kerr, and Sandra Collins, for
their friendship and for supplying resources necessary for productive in-
tellectual inquiry. I thank my unrelenting critical sparring partners, mem-
bers of the Northwestern University-University of Chicago Red Lion
Seminar, as well as my co-fellows Kofi Agovi, Adam Ashforth, Misty Bas-
tian, Tim Burke, Nahum Chandler, Paulla Ebron, Abdullai Ibrahim, Cory
Kratz, and Alan Waters. Sandra L. Richards, Margaret T. Drewal, Ralph
Austen, Jean Comaroff, William Murphy, Catherine Bledsoe, and Olu-
femi Taiwo also contributed to the fruitful time I had in Evanston/Chi-
cago.
Friends and former colleagues at the Obafemi Awolowo University and
the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, kept up their interest and assistance
throughout the writing. I am grateful to Femi Osofisan, Reuben Abati,
Dele Layiwola, and Awam Amkpa.
For Wole Soyinka, it is, once again, thanks—for many things, besides
his believing in me and his encouragement of this project. In spite of her
busy schedule of lectures and performances, Ntozake Shange faithfully
kept promises and returned phone calls—I am ashamed to admit that I
was in fact amazed by this.
At the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, I re-
ceived assistance in various ways from Harclyde Walcott, director, Crea-
tive Arts Centre; Elizabeth Wilson, then chairperson, French Department;
Rex Nettleford; Mervin Morris, who helped so much in spite of his
absence when I was there; and the staff of the West Indian Collection of
the UWI Library. Special thanks to Carolyn Allen, who made many
needed connections for me and guided me through the exciting Kingston
theater scene. The Sistren Theatre Collective allowed me to attend some
of its workshops and gave me access to its video library. I thank all the
sisters, especially Beverly Hanson and Honor Ford-Smith, with whom I
had extended interviews. Ruby Burthon of the National Library of Ja-
maica tirelessly tracked down reviews of past productions. At the UWI
Saint Augustine Campus, Trinidad, I enjoyed the superb hospitality of
the Aiyejinas, the family of my former teacher and friend, Funso Aiyejina.
Rawle Gibbons, director of the Creative Arts Centre, granted me an in-
terview and took me round theaters in Port-of-Spain. This work would
have been much poorer without the support of these individuals and
institutions.
I am greatly indebted to Liz Maguire, Colby Stong, and Elda Rotor
at Oxford University Press for their unflagging assistance and understand-
Acknowledgments ix
ing. A portion of an earlier and abbreviated version of Chapter 5 appeared
in Imagination, Emblems and Expression: Essays on Latin American, Car-
ibbean, and Continental Culture and Identity, edited by Helen Ryan-
Ranson of the Popular Press. I also acknowledge the University of
Virginia Small Grants Committee for its assistance in defraying permission
expenses.
The closest supervision of this work comes from Mojisola Olaniyan—
who also did the initial word-processing—and the "train." It is difficult
to admit but there just are times when an intellectual activity needs—
demands—unappeasable disruption. It is a great treasure indeed to have
at hand those who know when and how to do so constructively.