- African
- African Diaspora
- Caribbean
- performance studies
- theatre
African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance
The African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group (WG) brings together new and established scholars and practitioners with an interest in African performance on and outside the African continent and the Caribbean to inspire and share their research.
KEYWORDS
Working Group Email
TBA – Please email convenors Dr. Rashida Resario or Dr. D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson listed below
Names of Convenors
Dr. Rashida Resario – rresario@ug.edu.gh
Dr. D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson – forbeda@bgsu.edu
Working Group Theme
Performing Carnival in African, Caribbean, and Diaspora Cultures: Displacement, Subversion, Metamorphosis
Call for Papers & Panel Proposals
The earliest form of carnival, known as Sham El-Nessim, emerged in Ancient Egypt around 4000 BCE as a transition from winter to spring, driving away winter spirits to make way for spring and summer. In Ancient Greece, carnival can be traced back to the festival of Dionysus, the god of wine, fertility, and theatre, celebrating rebirth in spring; and in Ancient Rome, carnival was celebrated in the Roman Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, father of Jupiter.
By mid-12th century Europe, the Roman Catholic Church incorporated carnival into its liturgical calendar as a pre-Lenten festival celebrated from Christmas to Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in February or March. The word “carnival” is derived from the Latin phrases, carne levare, carnelevarium and carnem, which means “removal of meat” or “farewell to meat” marking a period of feasting, gluttony, drinking, and excess before Ash Wednesday, the first of forty days of Lent, which is a period of fasting before Easter. Mikhail Bakhtin observes that European medieval carnivals were suspensions of hierarchies for equality during the carnival season, and European societal structures (1984: 10). European carnivals soon spread to the Americas and Africa introduced through trans-Atlantic slave trade, and colonization.
However, in the Americas, the Bakhtinian suspension of hierarchies in carnival was not necessarily achieved due to unchanging hierarchies in colonization, enslavement, and exclusion. European carnival converged with masquerade traditions from Africans and Indigenous peoples in the Americas that morphed into emancipatory and transformative festivals such as Rara in Haiti, Trinidad carnival in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican carnival in the Dominican Republic, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, Crop Over in Barbados, Rio Carnival in Brazil and others in the region. In Africa, the Calabar Carnival in Nigeria, is known as Africa’s biggest street party. Other African carnivals include the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival in South Africa, the Takoradi Street Carnival in Ghana, Zimbabwe carnival, and other African carnivals and festivals.
Through migrations, the Caribbean Diaspora community carried carnivals and masquerades to North American and European metropoles, including the development of the Notting Hill carnival in London, England, known as Europe’s biggest street party; and West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn, New York City, attracting over four million revelers a year.
We invite scholars to explore critical questions about contemporary and traditional masquerades, parades, and carnivals in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Caribbean Diaspora in North American and European metropoles. Scholars may examine how universalist notions of Bakhtinian carnival theory have shifted over time through colonization, decolonization, immigration, collective memories, restitution and reconciliation. Others may consider performance methodologies in masquerade traditions from African and Caribbean perspectives, and to seek new performance genealogies and theories.
Topics and themes may include, but not limited to –
· Carnival and metamorphosis of identities
· African and Caribbean queer culture
· Spirituality/Religion in African and Caribbean masks and masking
· Caribbean Diaspora carnivals
· Contemporary and Traditional African masquerades, parades, and carnivals
· Immigration and Caribbean Diaspora carnivals
· Windrush generation and the Notting Hill Carnival in London
· Representations of African or Caribbean carnivals in theatre, literature and film
· Emancipation Festivals
· Sexuality studies in masquerade, festivals, parades, carnivals
· Non-profit festival organizations
· African masquerades in the context of decolonization
· African/Caribbean/Diaspora carnival and social media
· Carnival/masquerade and sponsorship
· Aesthetics of carnival and masquerade
· Carnival and sustainability
· Carnival and socio-political protests
Abstract & Panel Proposal Deadlines
Prospective participants are invited to submit their abstracts and/or panel proposals (maximum 250 words) through the Cambridge Core website (https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr)
Please send a 1) copy of your abstracts and/or proposals and 2) a short bio directly to the working group convenors:
· Dr. Rashida Resario – rresario@ug.edu.gh
· Dr. D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson -forbeda@bgsu.edu
You will have to be a paid up IFTR member to submit an abstract and/or panel proposal.
Bursaries: If you would like to be considered for a bursary to offset travel costs to Cologne, Germany - Abstracts and/or Panel Proposals are due Friday, November 22, 2024 (Please indicate that you are applying for a bursary).
Acceptance/Rejection: Wednesday, December 25, 2024.
All Abstracts and/or Panel Proposals are due on Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Members whose abstracts are accepted will be required to submit a 20-minute presentation in written or recorded form for circulation by Monday, March 31, 2025.
Please note that the African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group will circulate conference papers to members in advance of the conference to facilitate in-depth discussions during the conference.
The African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group welcomes new members and encourages prospective members to submit abstracts or simply take part in the group discussion during the conference without presenting.
About the African and Caribbean Theatre & Performance Working Group
The African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group (WG) was founded in 2007, when the annual IFTR conference was hosted for the first time in Africa at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, with the aim to explore research concepts and practices from the African continent. Originally named the African Theatre and Performance Working Group, the WG was renamed in 2012 to fully acknowledge the transatlantic connections between Africa and the Caribbean. As performances themselves travel easily across borders, languages, and cultures, they are a manifestation of the rich, generative exchange and transformation that occur alongside processes of trade, war, travel, and migration. Today, the WG appreciates the mutual influences, shared histories and connections between African performance on the continent, and African performance in its diaspora worldwide. This shift recognizes the historical high mobility of African peoples and cultures worldwide.
Our members contribute a broad range of international perspectives to our WG’s sessions. We encourage experienced and new scholars and practitioners to join. Please reach out to the co-convenors if you would like to become a member of this group.
Mission
The WG’s mission is to provide the space to unearth innovative methodologies and further scholarly discourses on the study and practice of African and Caribbean performance worldwide and to foster networks and collaborations amongst scholars across the globe with an interest in this research area.
Current Projects
We are currently in the process of developing a proposal for a book project based on some of the papers presented during the Accra conference in 2023. The topic of our CFP for was " The Space(s) Between the Storyteller and the Story/Myth." The submissions received for the book project form a collection of critical essays, analyses, and thought-provoking discussions focusing on the space or spaces of representation and deconstruction between the storyteller and the mythmaking process.
The essays collectively represent an international cadre of scholars uniquely focusing on the space(s) between myth(s) and the storyteller(s). In so doing, these scholars’ engagement with myth serves as a crucible where possibilities of mythmaking emerge; to deconstruct old myths, create new myths, and/ or foretell myths to come. Beyond discussions about origins, nature, and functions of myths, the contributions in this book present a complex and diverse view of myth and mythmaking. The book engages with issues about the continual relevance of the mythmaking process to theatre, performance, and film, as well as self-representation in light of specific histories, while acknowledging the interconnectedness of cultures in the increasingly globalized world we all inhabit today.