Theatre
Rebellion
Augusta Jawara · 1968
Synopsis
In a Gambian village, a teenage girl, the chief's daughter, wants to continue her studies when her parents intend to marry her to the man of their choice. With fierce anger, she stands up to her father and to custom, complains that women are the slaves of men and challenges the power that tradition gives them. The three acts take the education of girls and the right to choose one's husband as their subject.
Context
The play was published in 1968 in New York, by Philosophical Library, under the name Ramatoulie Kinteh. Gambian newspapers reviewed it, after which it remained unobtainable for nearly fifty years, until a new edition with a foreword by Neema Jawara, one of the author's children, in 2016. Three other plays by her are known, including The African King, staged in Dakar at the 1966 World Festival of Negro Arts.
Who it is for
A short play in English, sprinkled with Mandinka words, accessible again since its reissue.
Prizes and reception
Abdoulaye Saine sees in it perhaps the first openly feminist and pro-girl book in Gambian literature.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.