West African Popular Theatre

... a ground-breaking contribution to the field of African literature... " -Research in African Literatures

Anyone with the slightest interest in West African cultures, performance or theatre should immediately rush out and buy this book." -Leeds African Studies Bulletin

A seminal contribution to the fields of performance studies, cultural studies, and popular culture. " -Margaret Drewal

A fine book. The play texts are treasures." -Richard Bauman

African popular culture is an arena where the tensions and transformations of colonial and post-colonial society are played out, offering us a glimpse of the view from below in Africa. This book offers a comparative overview of the history, social context, and style of three major West African popular theatre genres: the concert party of Ghana, the concert party of Togo, and the traveling popular theatre of western Nigeria.