Author: Msomi Bora

THE TRIAL OF DEDAN KIMATHI By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o About the Play The play was first published in 1976, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and his collaborator, Micere Githae Mugo, built a powerful and challenging play out of the circumstances surrounding the 1956 trial of Dedan Kimathi, the celebrated Kenyan hero who led the Mau Mau rebellion against the British colonial regime in Kenya and was eventually hanged. A highly controversial character, Kimathi’s life has been subject to intense propaganda by both the British government, who saw him as a vicious terrorist, and Kenyan nationalists, who viewed him as a man of great…

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR By Nikolai Gogol The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General It is a satirical play by the Russian and Ukrainian dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the play was revised for an 1842 edition. Based upon an anecdote allegedly recounted to Gogol by Pushkin, the play is a comedy of errors, satirizing human greed, stupidity, and the extensive political corruption of Imperial Russia. Nikolai Gogol THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR By Nikolai Gogol Setting: Russia Cast of Characters – Anton Antonovitch – Mayor – Artemy Filipovitch – Charity Commissioner – A’mmos Fyodorovitch – Judge.…

THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST By Ama Ata Aidoo The Dilemma of a Ghost is a play by Ghanaian poet and novelist Ama Ata Aidoo. The play centres around Ato Yawson, a Ghanaian who recently completed his studies in the United States and returns home with an American bride, Eulalie. From the beginning it is clear that Eulalie isn’t like the girls back home, and that there is potential for conflict here. Already in the opening scene, a short prelude, Eulalie and Ato are arguing. Still, here there seems hope that love can conquer all — at least that’s…

THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO By Wole Soyinka The Trials of Brother Jero is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka. It was first produced in the dining hall at Mellan by Hall, University College, Ibadan, Nigeria, in April 1960. The play was first published in Nigeria in 1963 and by Oxford University Press in 1964. The Trials of Brother Jero is a light satiric comedy that takes aim at religious hypocrisy in the form of a charlatan, or fraud, named Brother Jero, who preaches to his followers on Bar Beach in Lagos, Nigeria. Jero is a master of…

THE VOTER By Chinua Achebe The Voter is a short by a Nigerian poet and novelist, Chinua Achebe. This story is about the main character that has to choose between the modern culture and the traditional culture and this has to be through his political campaigns and elections. Chinua Achebe planned to study medicine, but love of literature and his country’s nationalist movement forever changed his plans. As a student, he came to realize the destructive effects of colonialism and dedicated himself to redefining Africa, to telling Africans’ true story, including their achievements and failures. Chinua Achebe THE VOTER Chinua…

THE LION AND THE JEWEL By Wole Soyinka The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959. It chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The transcript of the play was first published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasises the theme of the corrupted African culture through the play, as well…

THE BLACK HERMIT By Ngugi wa Thiong’o About the Author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, originally James Thiong’o Ngugi born 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 90 languages from around the world. Ngugi wa Thiong’o The Black Hermit was the first play by the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, and the first published East African play in English. The traveling…

THIS TIME TOMORROW By NGUGI WA THIONG’O About the Author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, originally James Thiong’o Ngugi born 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 90 languages from around the world. Ngugi wa Thiong’o T H I S T I M E T O M O R R O W SETTING: KENYA AFTER…

THREE SUITORS ONE HUSBAND By Oyono Mbia About the Author Guillaume Oyono-Mbia, (born 1939, Mvoutessi, Cameroon), African dramatist and short-story writer, one of bilingual Cameroon’s few writers to achieve success both in French and in English. Oyono-Mbia attended the Collège Évangélique at Limbamba and then went to England, graduating from the University of Keele in 1968. With skills often compared to those of Molière, Oyono-Mbia exercised an unusual ability to create comedies that play well both on stage and on radio. Among them are Trois prétendants . . . un mari (1962; Three Suitors . . . One Husband), Until Further…

ANALYSIS OF UNCLE TOM’S CHILDREN By Richard WrightAbout the AuthorRichard Nathaniel Wright (1908 – 1960) was an American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, who suffered discrimination and violence in the South and the North. Literary critics believe his work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century.Richard WrightBackground of the NovelUncle Tom’s Children is a novel written by African-American author Richard Wright that was first published in 1938 and republished in 1940. As the reader may recognize, Wright…