The Women Making Waves in Theatre in Africa Part 2

The Theatre Times: In most parts of Traditional Africa, theatre was a prerogative of the woman. Women were the storytellers, the humor-artisans, the word-spinners whose grease moved the wheels of society. Men from hunting or war would return to the song-singing and dance-dancing of women; the ululations and bosom-shaking of the girls in the arena were the spiritual energy that flexed the muscles of young wrestlers; through old women’s dirges at funerals, families’ loved ones would be given a befitting farewell. The woman crafted the story that kept the family, the clan, the nation, together.