Theatre
Abraha Pokou ou Une grande africaine
Not translated into English
Charles Nokan · 1970
Synopsis
Princess Abraha Pokou refuses to live under the reign of Ouaré, who came to the throne after poisoning his brother Dakon. She persuades free men, and slaves with them, to leave the kingdom and found elsewhere a community where all would be equal: it is from this exodus that tradition makes the Baoulé people arise.
Context
The play appeared in 1970 in Honfleur, from Pierre Jean Oswald, in the collection Théâtre africain, with a preface by Jacques Howlett; it was followed by a poem, La Voix grave d'Ophimoï, introduced by Mikel Dufrenne. Quotations from Mao Zedong placed as epigraphs set it, according to the Artcena dictionary of theatre, in a resolutely Maoist perspective: the author sets aside the wonders of the legend to make the queen the embodiment of a revolutionary ideal. His publisher stresses the criticism it directs at feudalism, colonialism and imperialism.
Who it is for
A short play, in French; its first edition followed it with another text by the author, in under a hundred pages.
Prizes and reception
Reissued in 1984 by Présence africaine at the head of a volume that brings together four of the author's plays and takes its title from it.
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The pages consulted to check this page.