Theatre of the Silence Space: A Conceptual Frame (Published)
This study introduces Theatre of the Silent Space, a conceptual framework that reimagines African performance theory by centring the unseen, the unspoken, and the marginalized. While existing literature on performance in Africa often privileges Western paradigms, this work addresses a critical gap by grounding theatrical expression in African philosophies, cosmologies, and lived realities. Drawing from subaltern studies and postcolonial discourse, the Theatre of the Silent Space repositions performance as a vehicle for resistance, restoration, and social transformation. Through critical discourse analysis, the study explores how this framework amplifies silenced voices, confronts dominant narratives, and fosters holistic healing in African contexts. As both a theoretical and practical contribution, this framework offers a taxonomy for analysing allied theatrical forms that share a commitment to cultural reclamation and social justice. By affirming the voices within marginalized spaces, the Theatre of the Silent Space offers a transformative lens through which to understand, engage, and reshape performance in Africa.
Keywords: African performance, Social Transformation, cultural resistance, marginalization, restorative drama, subaltern theory, theatre of the silent space
Satire As Typified In Ramonu Sanusi’s Le Bistouri Des Larmes (Published)
Literature is an essential weapon for socio-political, cultural and economic struggles among other things. This art called literature is a source of dialogue, debate, exchange and innovation. A form of creativity which allows transfer of culture and knowledge that are useful for coping with societal challenges In other words, it paints life with a view to share human experiences, feelings, imaginations, observations, findings, predictions and suggestions for practical realities. In this paper, we attempt to examine “Satire as exemplified in Ramonu Sanusi’s Le Bistouri des larmes.”The purpose is to enhance the decoding/understanding of African Literature of French expression. Our review is premised on sociological approach, which holds that literature and other forms of creative arts should be examined in the cultural, economic and political context in which they are written, produced or received. This literary theory explores the connections/relationships between the artist/writer and his or her society. To better understand a writer’s literarywork(s), it may probe into the writer’s society as well as studying how societal elements are represented in the literature itself since it is believed that literature has certain functions to perform in contributing to the development of human societies through moral or behaviour re-orientation. The paper concludes that satire is an essential mechanism in the hands of many African writers to achieve their motives.
Keywords: Creativity, Fiction, Literature, Non-Fiction, Satire, Social Transformation, Society