Introduction by James Gibbs

In deciding on an editorial approach to this volume on African Theatre Festivals various possibilities were considered. For example, given that African Theatre needs to be marketed through interest in relatively few, high-profile names, the possibility of tracing the impact of festivals on individual playwrights was suggested. One can, for example, imagine following Wole Soyinka through the festivals in which he participated and at which his work was produced. This would include the National Students’ Drama Festival (London, 1958, on the fringe of which The Swamp Dwellers was produced), the Commonwealth Arts Festival (UK, 1965, that prompted the premiere of The Road in London) and the Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Negres, (Dakar, 1966, where Kongi's Harvest was staged and where Soyinka sat on the film panel). And it would have to move up to FESMAN 2010 at which there was a production in French of Death and the King's Horseman , and then on to analyse his contribution to recent Lagos Black Heritage Festivals. While such an approach was not followed in the end, there is material in this volume for those interested in Soyinka, and his fraught relationship with Festac ‘77 comes through.