"The theatre is the agora, the public sphere par excellence, the place that is the most difficult for a woman to make her mark.  Never before [writing Princesses] had I thought about treading there.  It was only my immense loss that encouraged me to tear off the final veil, the one glued to the skin that we wear without even knowing it.'

-Fatima Galliarie

(1975)

Malek Alloula
Postcard from the Edge
Below, left:  The Colonial Harem, Algerian Woman (1923)

The origins of North African theatre lie ancient oral tradition of indigenous people-like folk tales, with unique story lines, and an audience ranging from small to large audiences. However, performances on stages came  much later. The formal North African theatre tradition dates only as far back as the 1820s (Box, 2004).

The strong influence of  colonialism created a strong Christian beliefs within the culture, thusly theatre was considered by many colonizers as evil. However, in the early twentieth century it church clergy who made an important contribution to a tradition of theatre when they used drama in teaching biblical passages. In 1920, religious leaders also encouraged the production of comedies and the dramatization of Zulu narrative( Ebewo, 2001).

Theatre began to flourish in black townships where performance arts became increasingly popular in the 1920s and 1930s as a form of working class entertainment. In 1929 the Methethwe Lucky Stars was created, basing its productions on themes of rural and working life. In 1932, came the  Dramatic Society, which aimed to encourage 'North African playwrights  and to develop African dramatic theatre (Orlando, 2004).

The 1970's saw a  blooming of the work of Fatima Gallaire - teacher, poet, and playwright - the first North African playwright to make a significant attempt through drama to challenge colonial domination and gender issues. In  The Girl Who Killed to Save was the first play by a black writer in English to be published. Indigenous theatre continued to develop in the 1940s and 1950s with the formation of organizations like the Orlando Boy's Club Dramatic Society.

The plays are still frequently raw and angry and ragged, but now they encompass themes that would, in earlier years, have been considered irrelevant. Love, religion, family violence, homosexuality, drugs, are explored in works that engage and involve their audiences.

Khristie .
Copyright © 2001 by University of North Texas. All rights reserved.
Revised: 05 Dec 2007 17:10:32 -0600

  Assia Djebar, 2005

'"The other women have grown silent," I said. "The only one left to weep now is the mother... Such is life," I added a moment later. "There are those who forget or who simply sleep. And then there are those who keep bumping into the walls of the past. May God take pity on them!"' (from 'There Is No Exile')

1984

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