Theatre
The Trial of Busumbala
Gabriel J. Roberts · 1970
Synopsis
In 1962, before independence, a court tries Marafan Busumbala, accused of having taken the radio set of Maxwell Armitage, principal of the Georgetown school and member of parliament, who had it playing at full volume, even when away, amid the teachers' quarters. The defence witnesses file past, Mohammadou Casterbridgia, who refuses to swear on the Bible as on the Koran, and the schoolteacher Sambang Sambou, while the accused maintains that the theft brought back peace.
Context
Broadcast by the BBC on 2 August 1970, the play appeared in London from Heinemann, in the African Writers Series, within Nine African Plays for Radio, an anthology edited by Gwyneth Henderson and Cosmo Pieterse. Gambian commentators see in it the first recognition of a theatrical work from the country beyond its borders. It was afterwards often performed by senior pupils in Gambian schools.
Who it is for
For discovering Gambian radio drama through a man of the schools, on the life of teachers and their quarrels.
Prizes and reception
Cherno Omar Barry sees in it in 2022 a lively picture of the life of a school and of its staff housing.
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The pages consulted to check this page.