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Biyi Bandele (also referred to as Biyi Bandele-Thomas) is a novelist, poet, filmmaker and playwright. He was born in 1967 into a middle-class Yoruba family and grew up in the multi-ethnic and multi-religious town of Kafanchan, located in the north of Nigeria. Bandele immigrated to England after his one-act play Rain won the 13 th International Student Playscript competition in 1989. 1 Since his relocation, Bandele has had a number of plays produced by prominent British theatres, including the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company, marking him as one of the UK's most successful African British dramatists. 2 Despite this, it is his novels not his plays that have received the most academic attention. 3 This can be attributed to Bandele's immigrant status (most of his plays have been staged in the UK not Nigeria) and his preoccupation with Africa in his plays (first-generation immigrant dramatists who explore life in the UK tend to be better represented, for instance Trinidadian Mustapha Matura). 4 This chapter initiates an overdue discussion of Bandele's early plays Marching for Fausa (1993, Royal Court), Two Horsemen (1994, The Gate) and (1994, Cochrane). It examines theses plays through two distinct but related lenses. For classification purposes, the plays are situated within the tradition of the African Absurd. They are then analysed through the transnational concept of Afropolitanism. Although the plays predate the term Afropolitan, this chapter demonstrates how the concept's articulation of globalized African identities and cultures provides an ideal framework through which to comprehend the complex conditions of their production and the political and cultural issues with which they engage. Detailed discussions of both concepts will now follow. Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought Theatre of the African AbsurdAs its name suggests, Theatre of the African Absurd describes the meeting of African and European dramatic modes and the creation of new, hybrid forms. Its lines of influence can be traced back to post-war European literary as well as African oral traditions (Balogun 1984, 43-44). Martin Esslin coined the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' in 1962 to describe a new dramatic style that emerged in European plays in
Biyi Bandele (also referred to as Biyi Bandele-Thomas) is a novelist, poet, filmmaker and playwright. He was born in 1967 into a middle-class Yoruba family and grew up in the multi-ethnic and multi-religious town of Kafanchan, located in the north of Nigeria. Bandele immigrated to England after his one-act play Rain won the 13 th International Student Playscript competition in 1989. 1 Since his relocation, Bandele has had a number of plays produced by prominent British theatres, including the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company, marking him as one of the UK's most successful African British dramatists. 2 Despite this, it is his novels not his plays that have received the most academic attention. 3 This can be attributed to Bandele's immigrant status (most of his plays have been staged in the UK not Nigeria) and his preoccupation with Africa in his plays (first-generation immigrant dramatists who explore life in the UK tend to be better represented, for instance Trinidadian Mustapha Matura). 4 This chapter initiates an overdue discussion of Bandele's early plays Marching for Fausa (1993, Royal Court), Two Horsemen (1994, The Gate) and (1994, Cochrane). It examines theses plays through two distinct but related lenses. For classification purposes, the plays are situated within the tradition of the African Absurd. They are then analysed through the transnational concept of Afropolitanism. Although the plays predate the term Afropolitan, this chapter demonstrates how the concept's articulation of globalized African identities and cultures provides an ideal framework through which to comprehend the complex conditions of their production and the political and cultural issues with which they engage. Detailed discussions of both concepts will now follow. Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought Theatre of the African AbsurdAs its name suggests, Theatre of the African Absurd describes the meeting of African and European dramatic modes and the creation of new, hybrid forms. Its lines of influence can be traced back to post-war European literary as well as African oral traditions (Balogun 1984, 43-44). Martin Esslin coined the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' in 1962 to describe a new dramatic style that emerged in European plays in
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