Skip to main content

Francophone Theatre: Burundi, Djibouti and Rwanda

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
A History of East African Theatre, Volume 2

Part of the book series: Transnational Theatre Histories ((TTH))

  • 127 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the particular influences and theatrical outputs resulting from the dominance of a francophone cultural and linguistic sensibility. It compares the Belgian colonial influence in then Ruanda-Urundi with that of the French in Djibouti, before going on to consider the significance of francophone cultural policies post-independence. The affects of internecine struggle between Hutu and Tutsi populations on cultural production in both Burundi and Rwanda are assessed and the work of leading playwrights in all three nations discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Please note: where no publication details are offered the date given for plays is the date of first performance. Also, Djiboutian names are constructed so that the given name is followed by the father’s name and then the grandfather’s name. Djiboutian names are given with the given name first unless published in a different format.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abdi Ismail Abdi. 1998. Kasse la tete.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abdi ismail Abdi. 1999. Voyage au pays des merveilles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abdi Ismail Abdi. 2002a. La lune de nos faces cacheés. Paris: Acoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abdi Ismail Abdi. 2002b. L’oiseau Houba qui déchante son Bonheur. Paris: Acoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aicha Mohamed Robleh. 1996a. La toubib.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aicha Mohamed Robleh. 1996b. Si madam devenait minister.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aicha Mohamed Robleh. 1997. Tous contre elle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aicha Mohamed Robleh. 2005. La dévoilée. Paris: Théâtre des 5 continents.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aicha Mohamed Robleh. 2008. A la recherche de la perle rare.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ancion, Laurant. 2007. Review of Bloody Niggers, Le Soir, February 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Association des Jeunes pou la Promotion di Developpement et de la Lutte Contre la Segregation. 2005. Umurage Ukwiye U Rwanda.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azeda, Hope. 1998. Amashiyiga ya Sehitsitwa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azeda, Hope. 2004. Rwanda’s Hope/Africa’s Hope.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azeda, Hope. 2014. Shadows of Memory.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bamakhrama, Rifki Abdoulkader. Date unknown. Le pêcheur de la mar rouge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bamakhrama, Rifki Abdoulkader. 1979. L’herbe verte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouleau, Jean Jacques. Date unknown. Le diable fou.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breed, Ananda, and Hope Azeda. 2005. Ukuri Mubinyoma.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breed, Ananda. 2008. Performing the Nation: Theatre in Post-Genocide Rwanda. Tulane Drama Review 18 (4): 32–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breed, Ananda. 2014. Performing the Nation: Genocide, Justice, Reconciliation. London and Calcutta: Seagull Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breed, Ananda, and Alice Mukaka. 2016. Theatre for Survival: Art of Creation and Protection (Kubunda). In Performing (for) Survival: Theatre, Crisis, Extremity, ed. Patrick Duggan and Lisa Peschel. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breed, Ananda, and Astrid Jamar. 2019. Competing Narratives and Performances in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts. In Rwanda Since 1994: Stories of Change, ed. Hannah Grayson and Nicki Hitchcott, 62–82. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butoyi, Gérard. 1977. Mbanzabugabo mwananje.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chemchem Renard. 2017. Les politiciens trottoir.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choukri Osman Guedi. 1996. Maudite benediction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrétien, Jean-Pierre. 2006. The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conteh-Morgan, John. 1994. Theatre and Drama in Francophone Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlmanns, Erika. 2015. The Intore Warrior as a Symbol of the New Man. Modern African Politics, History and Society 3 (1): 113–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delcuvellerie, Jacques. 2006. Rwanda ’94, une tentative. Revue Europe 84: 926–927.

    Google Scholar 

  • Des Forges, Alison. 1999. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York, London, and Brussels: Human Rights Watch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Djama Said Ared. 2015. Panorama de la literature Djiboutienne d’expression française. Science et Environement 29: 71–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duarte, Mary T. 1995. Education in Ruanda-Urundi, 1946–61. The Historian 57 (2): 275–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fardouza Moussa Ehueh. Date unknown. Cage 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fardouza Moussa Ehueh. Date unknown. Cage 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fardouza Moussa Ehueh. Date unknown. La societe M.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fardouza Moussa Ehueh. Date unknown. L’Alliance.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fardouza Moussa Ehueh. 2017. Araweelo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faye, Patrice. Date unknown. le roi tambour.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forum des Jeunes Artistes du Rwanda. 2003. Cyezamitima.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardinier, D. 1980. The Impact of French Education on Africa: 1817–1960. Proceedings of the Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society 5: 70–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Groupov. 2000. Rwanda ’94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helliwell, John. F. Richard Layard, and Jeffrey D. Sachs. 2018. World Happiness Report. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hitchcott, Nicki. 2009. A Global African Commemoration—Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire. Forum for Modern Language Studies 45 (2): 151–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoben, Susan, and Boston University African Studies Center. 1988. Language and Educational Reform in Rwanda. Boston, MA: African Studies Center Boston University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isman Oumar Houssein. 2017. Les représentations de la guerre dans l’espace littéraire francophone: le cas de la Corne de l’Afrique (Unpublished PhD Thesis). Université de Bourgogne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kadamy, Mohamed. 1996. Djibouti Between War and Peace. Review of African Political Economy 70: 511–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalisa, Marin-Chantal. 2006. Theatre and the Rwandan Genocide. Peace Review 18 (4): 515–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamatari, Louis. 1975. Soweto ou le cri de l’espoir.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katese, Odile Gakire. 2004. Iryo Nabonye.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katese, Odile Gakire. 2005. Des espoirs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katese, Odile Gakire. 2009. Ngwino Ubeho.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katese, Odile Gakire. 2019. The Book of Life.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayishema, Jean-Marie Vianney. 1988. Ruganzu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayishema, Jean-Marie Vianney. Date unknown. La reine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayishema, Jean-Marie Vianney. Date unknown. La traverse de desert.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, E. 2014. From Classrooms to Conflict in Rwanda. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinzer, Stephen. 2008. A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kompoare, Prosper. 2005. Artistic Expression and Theatre for Development. Leeds African Studies Bulletin 67: 26–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamko, Koulsy. 2000. Corps et voix: paroles rhizome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamko, Koulsy. 2002. Le dernier jour d’un condamné a mort.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Lay, Maeline. 2016. Literary and Theatrical Circulations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, from the Belgian Colonial Empire to the Africa of the Great Lakes. ARTL 5 (2): 43–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Lay, Maeline. 2018. Africanizing Classical European Playwrights (Shakespeare and Moliêre). Bulletin of SOAS 81 (3): 493–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Mon, Christopher. 2007. Rwanda’s Troubled Gacaca Courts. Human Rights Brief 14: 16–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemarchand, Rene. 1970. Rwanda and Burundi. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Les Jeunes Accolies Contre les Impacts du Chomage. 2005. Urubanza Rwa Gasaruhanda Alias Kigomeke.

    Google Scholar 

  • Les Star du Théâtre. Date unknown. Le Neuvoux Patron.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menga, Guy. 1976. La marmite de Koka-Mbala. Lyons: Ä’ditions Clé.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesfin, Berouk. 2011. Elections, politics and external involvement in Djibouti. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohamed Houmed Hassan. 2013. Emergence et evolution d’une culture Populaire urbaine a Djibouti. In Djibouti contemporain, ed. Amina Said Chire. Paris: Editions Karthala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nayigiziki, Saverio. 1950. Escapade Ruandaise. Bruxelles: G.A. Deny.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nayigiziki, Saverio. 1954. L’Optimiste. Astrida: Groupe Scolaire.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngorwanubusa, Juvénal. 2013. La literature de langue francaise au Burundi. Brussels: Les Ä’ditions M.E.O.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngorwanubusa, Juvénal. 2014. Pour une culture de paix dans la région des grands Lacs Africains. https://hal-auf.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01230126/document.

  • Niyonizigiye, Rivardo. 2020. Ija-mbo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niyonsaba, Ambroise. 1975. La metamorphose.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niyonsaba, Ambroise. 1978. L’espoir au pays des Mbala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nsengimana, Joseph, and Jean-Baptiste Nkuriyingoma. 1997. Rwanda. In The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, vol. 3, 236–239. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nzikobanyaka, Emmanuel. 1967. Abuzukuru ba Kimotabugabo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nzikobanyaka, Emmanuel. 1971. Nsubiza aho unkunye.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nzikobanyaka, Emmanuel. Date unknown. Nagasaga.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nzikobanyaka, Emmanuel. Date unknown. Karara Undabe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olol’enyanya, Arnold. 2020. Kambe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Omar, Guedi Ali. 2010. Programme de Soutien aux Industries Culturelles. Djibouti City: Djibouti.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prunier, Gérard. 2009. Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricard. 2002. Echos du silence: remarques sur la littérature des Grands Lacs…. Études littéraires africaines 14: 4–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rifki Abdoulkader Bamakhrama. Date unknown. Le pécheur de la mer rouge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rifki Abdoulkader Bamakhrama. 1979. L’herbe verte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, Don, ed. 1997. The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, vol. 3. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2007. Bloody Niggers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2010. Market Place.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2011. Gamblers: Or the Last War of the Hungry Soldier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2012. Holy War.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2016. Return to Kigali.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2019. Umurinzi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugamba, Dorcy. 2020. The Supreme Remains.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugano, Kalisa. 1991. Rugari Rwa Gasabo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugano, Kalisa. 2005. Umukino w’Umuganura.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabimbona, Freddy. 2009. Guilte au double.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabimbona, Freddy. 2012. Dechirement.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibazuri, Marie-Louise. Date unknown. La condition masculine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibazuri, Marie-Louise. Date unknown. Scandal a huit clos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibazuri, Marie-Louise. Date unknown. Sens unique ou le baiser de Judas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibazuri, Marie-Louise. 1997. Burundi. In The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, ed. Don Rubin, vol. 3, 72–75. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Souad Kassim Mohamed. Date unknown. Un Enfant a Tout Prix.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soyinka, Wole. 1971. Madmen and Specialists. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, Paul, and Kristin Skinstad van der Kooij. 2018. The History Syllabus in Post-Genocide Rwanda. Cogent Education 5: 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watt, Nigel. 2016. Burundi: The Biography of a Small African Country. London: Hurst & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, Herbert. 2012. The Congo’s Independence Struggle Viewed Fifty Years Later. African Studies Review 55 (1): 109–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, Peter. 1966. The Investigation. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrong, Michela. 2021. Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad. London: 4th Estate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wurtz, J.P., and V. Thfoin. 1996. Guide au théâtre en Afrique et dans l’océan Indien. Paris: Afrique en creations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaytzeff, Ariane. 2015a. Odile Gakire Katese: Making Art & Reinventing Culture with Women. In African Theatre: Contemporary Women, ed. Jane Plastow, Yvette Hutchison, and Christine Matzke, 85–96. Oxford: James Currey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaytzeff, Araine. 2015b. Performing Cultural Memory After the Genocide of the Tutsi: Near Memory and the Reinvention of Culture in Rwanda (Unpublished PhD) New York: New York University.

    Google Scholar 

Interviews

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jane Plastow .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Plastow, J. (2021). Francophone Theatre: Burundi, Djibouti and Rwanda. In: A History of East African Theatre, Volume 2. Transnational Theatre Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87731-6_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics