Identity And Cultural Negotiation In Anglophone Drama And Video In Cameroon
Mémoires
Dr JACQUES RAYMOND FOFIE 2009 à Yaoundé 1
2009
Identity And Cultural Negotiation In Anglophone Drama And Video In Cameroon (2009)
This research endeavour is based on the premise that Anglophone Cameroon dramatists and video makers use their works as a medium for the negotiation of the Anglophone identity and culture. If drama, theatre and film are known as arts targeted towards entertainment, these arts equally serve as tools for communication, edification and conscientization. The drama texts and videos are viable tools for conscientization as they treat issues which are relevant to contemporary society, thus having a connection with the consumers of the works.
The emphasis on the efforts towards the negotiation of the Anglophone identity and culture is spurred by the fact that the Anglophones are a minority in Cameroon and have faced various manners of marginalization (this has been qualified as the Anglophone Problem), as will be projected by historical and current statistics in this work. In consequence, the works of some performing artists of Anglophone origin, especially the dramatists have taken a certain trend, which some have qualified as Radical Anglophone Drama, aimed at defending the rights of the under-privileged at large, and the Anglophone in particular.
Playwrights like Bate Besong in Beats of No Nation, Victor Epie Ngome in What God Has Put Asunder and Bole Butake in Family Saga and Betrothal Without Libation and video makers like Njiforti Victor in The Inheritance and Derick Nji in Bih Kaba, use their works to assert the Anglophone identity and culture, which occupy a peripheral position in Cameroon. They draw from local and historical events in their societies and environments and subsequently use their artistic capacities to create ideal and beautiful works, which would impact the society.
These playwrights and video makers employ various techniques towards the negotiation of the Anglophone identity and culture, which shall be discussed in this work. The methodologies employed for the analysis of the works in question include the Cultural Criticism and the Social Science approaches.
This work sets out first, to establish the history of the Anglophone Problem in Cameroon in order to elucidate the need for the negotiation of the Anglophone identity and culture. The prime concern in this work is to analyse the afore-mentioned works of drama and video and subsequently project those elements that point to the projection of the Anglophone identity and culture and the techniques employed towards this negotiation. Finally, this work shall analyse the idea of a prospective national cultural identity, which could be emblematic of Cameroon as a whole.
