Popular culture in Africa is the product of everyday life: the unofficial, the non-canonical. And it is the dynamism of this culture that makes Africa what it is. In this book, Karin Barber offers a journey through the history of music, theatre, fiction, song, dance, poetry, and film from the seventeenth century to the present day. From satires created by those living in West African coastal towns in the era of the slave trade, to the poetry and fiction of townships and mine compounds in South Africa, and from today's East African streets where Swahili hip hop artists gather to the juggernaut of the Nollywood film industry, this book weaves together a wealth of sites and scenes of cultural production. In doing so, it provides an ideal text for students and researchers seeking to learn more about the diversity, specificity and vibrancy of popular cultural forms in African history.

Colonial Africa saw an explosion of writing and printing, produced and circulated not only by highly educated and visible elites, but also by wage laborers, clerks, village headmasters, traders, and other obscure aspirants to elite status. The ability to read and write was considered essential for educated persons, and Africans from all walks of life strove to participate in the new literary culture. Karin Barber and an international group of Africanist scholars have uncovered a trove of personal diaries, letters, obituaries, pamphlets, and booklets stored away in tin-trunks, suitcases, and cabinets that reveal individuals involved in the new occupation of the colonial era putting pen to paper. Africa s Hidden Histories taps into rare primary sources and considers the profusion of literary culture, the propensity to collect and archive text, and the significance attached to reading as a form of self-improvement. As it explores the innovative, intense, and sociable interest in reading and writing, this book opens new avenues for understanding a rich and hidden history of Africa s creative expression."

brings together an international team of scholars from different disciplines to reflect on African popular cultural imaginaries. Draws on forms such as newspaper columns, televised English Premier League football, speculative arts, romance fiction, comedy, cinema, music and digital genres An authoritative scholarly resource on popular culture in Africa

What can texts - both written and oral - tell us about the societies that produce them? How are texts constituted in different cultures, and how do they shape societies and individuals? How can we understand the people who compose them? Drawing on examples from Africa and other countries, this original study sets out to answer these questions, by exploring textuality from a variety of angles. Topics covered include the importance of genre, the ways in which oral genres transcend the here-and-now, and the complex relationship between texts and the material world. Barber considers the ways in which personhood is evoked, both in oral poetry and in written diaries and letters, discusses the audience's role in creating the meaning of texts, and shows textual creativity to be a universal human capacity expressed in myriad forms. Engaging and thought-provoking, this book will be welcomed by anyone interested in anthropology, literature and cultural studies.

What can texts - both written and oral - tell us about the societies that produce them? How are texts constituted in different cultures, and how do they shape societies and individuals? How can we understand the people who compose them? Drawing on examples from Africa and other countries, this original study sets out to answer these questions, by exploring textuality from a variety of angles. Topics covered include the importance of genre, the ways in which oral genres transcend the here-and-now, and the complex relationship between texts and the material world. Barber considers the ways in which personhood is evoked, both in oral poetry and in written diaries and letters, discusses the audience's role in creating the meaning of texts, and shows textual creativity to be a universal human capacity expressed in myriad forms. Engaging and thought-provoking, this book will be welcomed by anyone interested in anthropology, literature and cultural studies.

Popular culture in Africa is the product of everyday life: the unofficial, the non-canonical. And it is the dynamism of this culture that makes Africa what it is. In this book, Karin Barber offers a journey through the history of music, theatre, fiction, song, dance, poetry, and film from the seventeenth century to the present day. From satires created by those living in West African coastal towns in the era of the slave trade, to the poetry and fiction of townships and mine compounds in South Africa, and from today's East African streets where Swahili hip hop artists gather to the juggernaut of the Nollywood film industry, this book weaves together a wealth of sites and scenes of cultural production. In doing so, it provides an ideal text for students and researchers seeking to learn more about the diversity, specificity and vibrancy of popular cultural forms in African history.

NEW CATALOG COPY (announcing paperback edition):
In The Generation of Plays, Karin Barber recounts the history of the Odin Adejobi Theater Company and uncovers the pulse points of generation, production, and improvisation that merge when a Yoruba popular drama is brought to the stage. This rich and detailed book opens a window into the social and cultural worlds of actors and audiences.

ORIGINAL CATALOG COPY:
"Karin Barber has given us a vivid picture of one of the most vital forms of modern African popular art. It is beautifully written and informed by a deep affection for the subject.... a major contribution to the cultural history of Nigeria." J. D. Y. Peel

From the 1940s to the 1980s, Yoruba popular theater was one of the most spectacularly successful theaters in Africa. Today, these traveling companies have virtually disappeared, largely as a result of economic hardship and the rise of video entertainment. In The Generation of Plays, Karin Barber recounts the history of the Oyin Adejobi Theatre company. Drawing on archival sources as well as extensive interviews and transcriptions of plays, Barber uncovers the pulse points of generation, production, and improvisation that merge when a Yoruba popular drama is brought to the stage. Barber reveals the personalities of the principal actors, how plays are created from the germ of an idea through the logistics of rehearsal and staging how a play is made meaningful to its audience, and how a play changes and develops after several productions or according to the sensibilities of its viewers. The expansion of popular drama into television is also considered. This rich and detailed narrative illuminates notions of gender, language, politics, and self as they are expressed in popular cultural forms. It affords a unique view of the social and cultural perspectives of the actors and audiences involved in what was a flourishing and vital enterprise."

..". a ground-breaking contribution to the field of African literature..." -- Research in African Literatures

"Anyone with theslightest interest in West African cultures, performance or theatre shouldimmediately rush out and buy this book." -- Leeds African StudiesBulletin

"A seminal contribution to the fields of performancestudies, cultural studies, and popular culture. " -- MargaretDrewal

"A fine book. The play texts are treasures." --Richard Bauman

African popular culture is an arena where thetensions and transformations of colonial and post-colonial society are played out, offering us a glimpse of the view from below in Africa. This book offers acomparative overview of the history, social context, and style of three major WestAfrican popular theatre genres: the concert party of Ghana, the concert party ofTogo, and the traveling popular theatre of western Nigeria.