Elements of Drama in Ghanaian Traditional Festivals: A Case Study of the Feok Festival among the Builsa People of the Upper East Region of Ghana

Abstract

A good number of literary artists including Ruth Finnegan, have argued that drama is not a genre that is well developed in Africa. As a result, the origins of that entrance were marked in the main by condemnation, inferiorization, and general disregard. It was asserted or implied that blacks either had no traditions of drama indigenous to them, or had traditions that, in comparison with Europe and Asia, were merely “proto or “quasi-dramatic,” Wherever true dramatic traditions were found, they were considered to be products of the African’s encounter with Europe and therefore, were nothing more than derivatives of western forms and traditions (Jeyifo 1990) This idea was part and parcel of the implacable inferiorisation of Africa and its cultural forms that matured in Europe in the eighteenth century and remains a major constituent of Eurocentrism. This paper seeks to refute the idea that Africa had no drama or had a less developed drama. The study of the Feok Festival  has basically established that some African performances during festivals have all the qualities of drama as spelt out in Aristotle’s “The Poetics” where he spelt out dramatic principles. The study, therefore, effectively sets aside the notion by some literary scholars that Africa has no well developed drama.

Keywords: Festival, drama, elements of drama,