Theatre
Foriwa
Efua Sutherland · 1967
Synopsis
Kyerefaso, a small town in Ghana, is falling to dust in the apathy of its inhabitants, and its elders refuse to learn new ways. The queen mother would like to rouse it. Her daughter Foriwa, who has returned home, turns away the suitors presented to her. Labaran arrives, a Hausa from northern Ghana, a graduate who lives simply and wants to bring the town back to life; he is regarded as a stranger, and his efforts meet with the indifference of the notables.
Context
The play, performed from 1962, was published only in 1967, in Accra, by the State Publishing Corporation; Women in World History believes it was first staged in Akan and holds the date of 1967 to be a common error. It takes up a short story by the author, New Life at Kyerefaso. Sutherland wanted a theatre based on open-air forms: the Drama Studio opened in 1961 with a roofless auditorium. Critics read it as an allegory of the new Ghana, calling for openness to new ideas and for understanding between the country's peoples.
Who it is for
A play in three acts, in English, short and light; it helps to know that Ghana had only just emerged from independence.
Prizes and reception
It counts among Sutherland's three major plays, and Martin Banham ranks it with those of Soyinka and Clark.
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