Performance and politics in Tanzania : the nation on stage

Author(s)

• Edmondson, Laura

Bibliographic Information

Performance and politics in Tanzania : the nation on stage

Laura Edmondson

（African expressive cultures）

Indiana University Press, c2007

• : pbk.

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [143]-168) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In Performance and Politics in Tanzania, Laura Edmondson examines how politics, social values, and gender are expressed on stage. Now a disappearing tradition, Tanzanian popular theatre integrates comic sketches, acrobatics, melodrama, song, and dance to produce lively commentaries on what it means to be Tanzanian. These dynamic shows invite improvisation and spontaneous and raucous audience participation as they explore popular sentiments. Edmondson asserts that these performances overturn the boundary between official and popular art and offer a new way of thinking about African popular culture. She discusses how the blurring of state agendas and local desires presents a charged environment for the exploration of Tanzanian political and social realities: What is the meaning of democracy and who gets to define it? Who is in power, and how is power exposed or concealed? What is the role of tradition in a postsocialist state? How will the future of the nation be negotiated? This engaging book provides important insight into the complexity of popular forms of expression during a time of political and social change in East Africa.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Acts of Complicity: Meanings, Methods, and Maps Part 1. Imagining the Nation 1. Performing, Transforming, and Reforming Tanzania: A Historical Tale 2. Alternative Nations: Locating Tradition, Morality, and Power Part 2. Sexing the Nation 3. National Erotica: The Politics of Ngoma 4. Popular Drama and the Mapping of Home Part 3. Contesting the Nation 5. Culture Wars: TOT versus Muungano 6. A Victor Declared: Popular Performance in the New Millennium Glossary of Swahili Terms Notes List of References Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA8399005X
• ISBN:
  • 9780253349057
  • 9780253219121
• LCCN: 2006037727
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Bloomington
• Pages/Volumes: x, 175 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : PN2995.4
  • DC22 : 792.09678
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Performing arts -- Political aspects -- Tanzania
  • LCSH : Performing arts -- Social aspects -- Tanzania
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA69212495