Political Regimes and Influence on Ghanaian Theatre: A Review

Abstract

Ghana has undergone several political regimes which has invariably affected every aspect of the Ghanaian live. This paper retrospectively illuminates some of the political dispensations we have had as a country and reviews how they influenced Ghanaian theatre. It critically examines how the Ghanaian theatre opened itself up to the growing political regime changes taking on nuance development and desistance. The paper covers a broad timeframe assessing the approach to which the various governments valued art and for that matter theatre. From Pre and Post-Independence, existing political regimes have contributed or failed to contribute to development of the arts. The paper highlights contributions and developments that occurred during the various political regimes of the Nkrumah, Busia and Rawlings. Considering the influences of the political regimes, this paper strongly avers that there should be a policy document on theatre arts within a considerable time frame that commits every political regime to adhering to the tenets of it. The idea the paper proposes is that when the policy is set in motion, a regime change will not necessarily end up in toppling the documents. This is to safeguard the development of theatre arts regardless of the excesses of regime changing epochs.

Keywords: Ghanaian Theatre, Nkrumah, Busia, Rawlings, political regime