ABOUTREADCHAT ARTICLES ABOUTREADCHAT ARTICLES Assignment The students should read the play the marriage of Anansewa and summarise in their note.
TOPIC: BIOGRAPHY OF EFUA THEODORA SUTHERLAND
Efua Sutherland, a Ghanaian playwright, she was a director, dramatist, children’s author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate and cultural activist.
Born: 27 June, 1924, Cape Coast, Ghana
Died 2 January, 1996, Accra Ghana. She founded the Drama Studio in Accra (no the writers’ workshop in the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon).
She trained as a teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge and subsequently entered London University’s school of Oriental and African Studies. In 1951, she returned to Ghana to teach, she founded the Ghana Drama studio in Accra in 1957, she also established the school of performing Arts at the University of Ghana in 1954. The marriage of Anansewa (1975) which presents a comic fable of cultural manipulation. Much of her writing attempts to fuse traditional Ghanaians dramatic conventions and urgently contemporary themes. Her other works are the Roadmakers (1961) and the original Bob (1970), her play Foriwa was written (1962).
TEXTUAL BACKGROUND SETTING OF THE PLAY ‘THE MARRIAGE OF ANANSEWA’
The setting is the comtemporary Ghanaian society. It is a society that is both materialistic and ostention. There is a single location of setting in one place and the action is around Ananse's house .The marriage of Anansewa is from “Anansem’ a form of storytelling by the Akan speaking people developed from “Anansegoro. The name of ‘Anansegoro’ the name of ‘Anansesem’ literally means Ananse story. Anase means( spider) stories. Ananse appears to represent a kind of every man, shows that the society presented in the story could be any contemporary society which is expected to criticize itself through the play.
The development of Anansesem is a result of the history of the evolution of West Africa Drama . Efua T. Sutherland writes in Akan and draws on folktales. She makes use of local language in the play. She seeks to combine traditional African drama with certain aspects of European theatrical convention, thus establishing an original meaningful dramatic act form in Africa.
The play is a celebration of energy, where Ananse uses his energy to become wealthy on the gullibility of the four chiefs.
Assignment
1)The student should read the play and write their summary of the play
2) Summary the messages of the four chiefs to Ananse
3) Define setting in literature
4) What is folktale?
PLOT
The storyline of the Marriage of Anansewa is a linear progression from exposition, middle to the end, there is no complexity in the structure. There is a single location of setting in one play and the action is around Ananse’s house.
The play is in four acts and it reveals Ananse’s attempt, on the one hand, to make so much money out at his daughter’s suitors. The chief of Sapa Togbe Klu IV, Chief of the Mines and Chief who-is-chief and on the other hand, to remove himself from a tangled web of deceit and lies he has woven to cover up his actions.
Ananse secretly favours chief-who-is-chief, when asked by his daughter, Anansewa, why the choice of four chiefs, Ananse replies, ‘let’s say that covers North, South, East West.
Ananse receives gifts from each of the chief, none of whom knows his rivals, the four chiefs decided to come and offer the head drink thus establishing their marriage to Anansewa, Ananse persuades his daughter to pretend to be dead (mock death), then a message is sent to the four chiefs about the death of Anansewa. They all send their messengers with gifts for the funeral ceremony. The speeches from the messengers show to Ananse how much their love would have cared for Anansewa. Through the mock death, Ananse is able to make money out of the chiefs and profit from his tricks. It is the message of chief-who-is-chief that appeals most to Ananse. Chief who-is-chief consider himself already married to Anansewa and as such accepts full responsibility for the funeral and for Anansewa. Ananse later invokes the spirits of the ancestors to restore Anansewa’s life because of Chief-who-is-chief’s love for his daughter.Anansewa comes back to life and we are led to believe that she will marry Chief-who-ischief and live happily thereafter.
ASSIGNMENT
Read the play and summarise as follows:
Write out the cast in your note
Summarise Act One in your own words
Do same for Act Two/Act Three/Act Four
Submit the cast and Act One before the 4th period
Assignment Explain what cast mean in Literature.
Mention the people and describe their roles in the play
Summarise the activities of the characters and the dramatic significance in Act One
Deduce from the play the characteristic traits of the characters
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS:The Primary text: The Marriage of Anansewa Efua T. Sutherland Secondary Source of Information: Internet.
ASSIGNMENT
Read the play and continue with your summary of Act 2, 3 and 4.
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