Theatre
The Blinkards
Kobina Sekyi · 1915
Synopsis
At Cape Coast, in colonial times, the comedy sets two worlds against each other. On one side the Cosmopolitan Club, where Mrs Borofosem, her friends and her admirers ape the dress and manners of the English, in a mangled English; on the other traditional society, attached to the Fante language and culture. From a garden party in Victoria Park to a bigamy affair in which Miss Tsiba is involved, the play mocks the elites who imitate Europe.
Context
Written in 1915, the play was staged the same year by the author at the Cape Coast town hall, and published in 1974 in London by Heinemann. The characters switch constantly from English to Fante. Raquel Baker reads in it in 2019 a critique of the colonial marriage ordinance of 1884 and a bringing to heel of the newly rich by the old elite, while the critic Micheal Akenoo judges it better suited to reading than to the stage.
Who it is for
For laughing, with a Gold Coast nationalist, at the African elites dazzled by England.
Prizes and reception
Raquel Baker finds it more nuanced than its satirical and nationalist message would suggest.
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