Staging the Amistad: Three Sierra Leonean Plays (Modern African Writing) - Softcover

Haffner, Charlie; Maddy, Yulisa Amadu; George, Raymond E. D. De’Souza

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821423614 ISBN 13: 9780821423615

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2019

Synopsis

Staging the Amistad collects in print for the first time plays about the Amistad slave revolt by three of Sierra Leone’s most influential playwrights of the latter decades of the twentieth century: Charlie Haffner, Yulisa Amadu “Pat” Maddy, and Raymond de’Souza-George. Until the late 1980s, when the first of these plays was performed, the 1839 shipboard slave rebellion and the return of its victors to their homes in what is modern-day Sierra Leone had been an unrecognized chapter in the country’s history.

The plays recast the tale of heroism, survival, and resistance to tyranny as a distinctly Sierra Leonean story, emphasizing the agency of its African protagonists. For this reason, Haffner, Maddy, and de’Souza-George counterbalance the better-known American representations of the rebellion, which center on American characters and American political and cultural concerns.

The first public performances of these plays constituted a watershed moment. Written and staged immediately before and after the start of Sierra Leone’s decade-long conflict, they brought the Amistad rebellion to public consciousness. Furthermore, their turn to a uniquely Sierra Leonean history of heroic resistance to tyranny highlights the persistent faith in nation-state nationalism and the dreams of decolonization.

About this title

Review:

“Staging the Amistad adds intellectual power and freshness to the brilliant and interesting fiction coming out of Sierra Leone. Christensen handles complex, nuanced, and racially and ethnically charged subjects with care.” Author: Abioseh Porter, Drexel University

“Collectively, these plays work to reinstate the rebel leader Sengbe Pieh as an historical hero, and in doing so, they redress cultural amnesia about this astonishing historical triumph. Christensen’s immensely valuable introduction contextualizes the three scripts, particularly in terms of how the playwrights all find in this particular historical episode new angles for scrutinizing their postcolonial nation, with an eye to moving into the future.” Author: Esther de Bruijn, University of Lethbridge

About the Author:

Charlie Haffner is the founder and director-general of the thirty-three-year-old performance troupe the Freetong (Freetown) Players, and currently chairs the Sierra Leonean National Monuments and Relics Commission. As a playwright and traditional communicator, he has worked extensively to use drama as tool for education and development and to advance Sierra Leone’s post-war reconciliation. His most recent play is the epic historical drama, A Nation’s Journey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0821423614
• ISBN 13: 9780821423615
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198
• Editor: Christensen Matthew J.