EFO KODJO MAWUGBE

EXPERIMENTATIONS AND INNOVATIONS

Introduction

The quest to find a theatre form inherently Ghanaian has birthed several forms in theatre making

practice since the departure of the colonialist. And even though, forms have emerged through

deliberate, and planned attempts at creating them, like in the instances of Efua Sutherland’s

Anansegoro, and Ben Abdallah’s Abibigoro, there have been many a situation where

practitioners have employed experimentations and workshop laboratories in the quest to identify

with their unique culture through theatre making. For the playwright as an artist, the incessant

urge to be identified with a cultural group has been key, especially in Ghanaian playwriting

practice, and often is the convention where playwrights are found with a particular form of

writing and with a particular cultural orientation represented; usually that of the playwrights

traditional society. From borrowing and reworking of folklores through integration music forms,

dance forms, as well as rituals, these re-appropriated works have been presented as signatures of

the said practitioners.

In the case of Efo Kodjo Mawugbe, the situation seems different. With no particular theatrical

form to his credit, he has written for several forms, with different thematic concerns; as well as

for different genres; psychological in Upstairs and Downstairs, through social commentary in

Prison Graduates, to comedy in Take me to the Altar. Though from the Eastern Block of Ghana,

known as the Volta region, Mawugbe, having lived in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, acquainted

himself extensively with the various nuances in Akan (Asante) court praxis as well as customary
practices, which he represents through drama, with a fresh perspective unlike most that had gone

before him. Other than borrowing from the existing folktales, Mawugbe creates a fresh story and

attempts (whether consciously or unconsciously) to present it through a form that had not

initially existed in the Ghanaian theatre making arena.

This paper seeks to assess Mawugbe’s In the Chest of Woman, on the basis of experimentation

and innovation of form. It examines the play to discover what distinguishes it from other forms

in Ghanaian theatre practice through analysis of select thematic concerns, treatment of content

through style of presentation and attempt to reconcile these pointers towards the above purpose.

In the Chest of a Woman

In the Chest of a Woman is a complex story which interrogates customary practices in Ghana,

and more specifically in the Akan culture while examining their contemporary ramifications.

The first scene opens with Nana Yaa Kyeretwie (ruler of Kyeremfaso and neighboring villages)

and Owusu Agyeman (‘son’ of Nana Yaa) playing the tactical game of oware. When Owusu

asks; “whose turn is it?” Nana Yaa replies; “your turn, of course”. The first two lines that begin

the play is suggestive of what is to become a complicated charade of misconstrued identity,

brutal connivances toward power and wealth-amassing as well as misguided love affairs that had

the tendency to annihilate three generations of royalty. For Nana Yaa, it was the ‘turn’ of her

lineage to mount the stool that governed the entire kingdom of Ebusa. Nana Yaa was denied the

privilege by her dying mother who bequeath the rulership to Nana Yaa’s younger brother King

Kwaku Duah II – even though she had proved capability when she challenged any man to tackle

her and almost killed Ofori to asset her warrior and ruler competences. She, thus, wanted to
make sure that the next king would be from her loins. She had gone through a great deal to make

sure the gender of her daughter Owusu Agyeman is kept secret so they can feign ‘she is a he’.

This would guarantee Owusu the throne when Nana Duah II steps down. But when Owusu is

called to Nana Duah’s palace to begin training towards becoming a King, the unfortunate love

from her cousin shatters the whole pretense scheme and almost cost the cousins and an unborn

child their lives and the king, his crown. Nana Yaa Kyeretwie however dies bringing years

tactical scheming and murderous escapade to a halt.

Slavery

The issue of slavery, though subtle in the field of royal clashes is also worth noting. The

characters Akosua and Adwoa, though presented as comic reliefs receive demeaning recognition

from the royals even though it is through no fault of theirs. When the two meet in the fourth leg

of the play, the lament their plight;

Adwoa: Akosua, you know it isn’t my fault. When you are a slave in a King’s Palace, you are

used like a donkey.

Akosua: It is so. Like the princess does to me. She’ll ask me to do one thing, and, the next

moment, she’ll order me to stop. A few minutes later, she’ll turn round to ask if I had finished

what she asked me not to do. In the Chest of a Woman (p. 60)

The play presents royalty as an arrogant group of power thirsty conspirators who are themselves

slaves to the customs they propound and rule by. Owusu is enslaved by ‘her’ mother, Ekyaa is

enslaved by her father, Akyeame are enslaved by their leaders, Nana Yaa is enslaved by power,
Nana Duah II is enslaved by his greed, and together they are all enslaved by the customs of the

land.

The playwright beckons the audience to sympathize with the plight of all the enslaved and in his

final submission negotiates for equity all.

Customs

Mawugbe expresses his sentiments toward customs as a being at the cross-roads. The

contemporary relevance of customs thus come into play as newer generations have met an

evolved culture thus may be unable to assimilate with previous ones. The dilemma thus is, does

custom stay in its old ways and thus risk becoming obsolete or then make way for newer

perspectives which may or may not render the customs valid. It is indeed true when Agyeman

Ossei in Mawugbe (2008) remarks that customs are at a “cross-road” Nkwanta. And Mawugbe

affirms this with the indecision of Owusu to condemn her cousin Ekyaa to death for getting

pregnant out of wedlock. He (she) says that;

I refuse to think of it.

The thought of it revolts my mind.

I wish I had a chance to choose a by-path,

A by-path that by-passes this narrow mountain-pass of our customs.

A path on which humanity could intercede on your behalf.

But I don’t have that chance.

Who am I to suggest that

The narrow mental footpath of our customs be widened.

To accommodate the free spirit of reforms…. In the Chest of a Woman (p.81)

Mawugbe does not leave the issue in mere rhetoric form but proceeds to suggest a solution; “the

people made the customs”…therefore, “the same people can unmake the custom” In the Chest of

a Woman (p.103)

Language

Mawugbe exhibits in this play a mastery of metaphorical language, unparalleled to any of his

others works, leading critics to remark the play as his masterpiece. The intricate weaving of

words to generate poetry as well as graphic imagery, which he presents as the language of royals

is worth acknowledging. Exemplified in the following monologue;

Owusu: … O! Spirits of our Mothers

Are you around? Why didn’t you forewarn me

Of the insecurity that lay strewn on this

Carved-out path chosen for me by an

Ambitious woman of a mother?

Look at me now, ye spirits…

I am a thief…

Yes, a thief…

A thief disguised and sent into a palace

Through an opened window by the mother.

To steal a stool and sit on it.

And as I groped in the palace for the stool,

I stepped on something soft and tender,

 My heart quivered and my framed shook

I slowly bent down and picked it up.

The moonlight peeping through the cracked

Window frame revealed to me what it was.

… it was a heart.

Yes, I had stepped on a heart.

But it was too late.

For it was broken!

A broken tender heart.

In the Chest of a Woman (p. 56-57)

It is observed that not only is the versed language used in royal discourse but also in matters of

love and affection. When the slave Adwoa wants to express her affection towards the prince, she

paints a graphic imagery, saying;

Adwoa: the way the(his) eyes are set in their sockets, with the nose ridge running down into a

beautiful open furnace of flesh above his upper lip… And if you should him smile… it’s as if

you’ve had cold water poured on your very body after a tedious work under the scorching sun.

You feel it right beneath your skin and if you are lucky, you could see the feeling running into

your arteries and veins, going up to your heart. In the Chest of a Woman (p.39-40)

While Ekyaa in professing her love to her cousin emulates similar picturesque language;

Ekyaa: … my love for you has taken roots

Deep down in the soft fertile soil of my soul.

My promise to keep away from you only

succeeded in hastily pruning

 The wild branches and leaves.

… In the Chest of a Woman (p. 55)

The English language feels burdened in some instances in the play as it seems the use of the

Akan language would have better carried the mood. When Owusu says “See, I have won six

marbles out of three holes” In the Chest of a Woman (p.1), it is evident he is speaking the local

twi, and this probes why the playwright didn’t use a local language instead. And yet, Mawugbe

never proclaimed to be involved in the academic pan Africanist language discourse nor an

activist at that, as an artist, he presents his sentiments about his society in a language and

structure he best knows.

Experimentations with Form

It is evident from the beginning of the play that Mawugbe intends to experiment with a form when

he decides to call the acts/scenes of his play ‘Legs’. There is an apparent conscious attempt to

present a unique style of work. Prior to his style of writing in In the Chest of a Woman, there were

other forms present in the Ghanaian theatre practice with their characteristic elements. For

Sutherland’s Anansegoro the elements had to include mboguo, storyteller, players who also act as

stage audience, property man, a story with its bearing on a folklore and must solicit audience

participation.. Abdallah’s Abibigoro sought to present African values which includes Ghanaian

values as well as “rituals, mime and African history” Seidu (2012:16). Mawugbe does not use

storytellers in the sense Sutherland portrays. There are no mboguos or intervals, neither are there

players who act as stage audience. No attempt is made at engaging audience participation and the
story has no bearing on a folklore lest the allusion to the time before the queen mother resisted

foreign invasion, which seems a reference to the legend of Yaa Asantewaa and British.

Though the play does not thrive on folklore, it is set in what Agyeman Ossei in Mawugbe (2008)

calls a “time and cultural matrix that is (fast) vanishing even in contemporary Ghanaian society”

(p. x).

The play is structured into six (6) ‘Legs’. The second and fourth Legs are designed as breaks in

between the linear narrative. However though they are breaks, Mawugbe employs Akosua and

Adwoa with the task of filling in the time gaps and missing details the narrative may not be able

to capture due to aesthetic reasons. There is however a semblance between how the two slaves are

employed and how Ama Ata Aidoo employs ‘The mouth that eats pepper and salt” in her play

Anowa. And yet in the case of Mawugbe, the duo make no attempt at engaging the audience. There

is an apparent fourth wall through-out the play. The mood of the play is mostly serious and tensed

with conspiracies dominating, except for momentary goofs example being when the Okyeame

Bonsu remarks that the emissaries from Daseebre Duah II refuse to take water “for fear that the

message they have for Nana might get wet” In the Chest of a Woman (p.6). As well the gossip

‘Legs’ between Akosua and Adwoa. There is a language of royalty which versed and akin to

Asante court discourse. One very significant and distinctive feature Mawugbe employs is the

freeze frame, and flashback. This happens when Nana Yaa is about to tell Owusu Agyeman what

happened during the day the queen mother died and has been the root of all her anger and scheming

for power:

“Nana Yaa: … (I) left for the palace, without an escort. (Exit Nana Yaa… Lights fade out on frozen

Owusu. Slowly, lights come on to reveal a chamber in the palace at Nkwanta. … the dying Queen

mother is lying on a mat …..” In the Chest of a Woman (p.15-16).

There is an infusion of kete dance, akom dance and music, as well as dirges which presents the

play as what critics may call a total African theatre.

Conclusion

In the Chest of a Woman presents the reader with a sense of in-depth contemplation. The stylistic

use of language and range of subject matter under discussion; from gender-relations, freedom, to

love, fear, power, acquisitiveness, greed, cultural reforms, transgender and homosexual

connotations, to art of gossip; the playwright leaves no stone unturned is his critical observation

of natural phenomena, and the human condition. Theatre practice in Ghana will be a beneficiary

should many of his kind emerge on the scene. Mawugbe indeed presents critics with a new form

that is to inspire the next generation of writers. And yet asking that practitioners don’t get stuck

to specific styles as artistic manifestations may vary in their realization.

This paper has assessed Mawugbe’s In the Chest of Woman, on the basis of experimentation and

innovation of form. It is indeed evident that Mawugbe made efforts at innovating newer

representations in theatre practice in Ghana and succeeded in discovering distinguishing features

for his work. Analysis are made of a select few of his thematic concerns, and while very obvious

themes concerning gender relations are not present in this paper, it can by no means be an

exhaustive study on Mawugbe’s work and suggest further studies will come in handy to promote

and develop theatre practice in Ghana.

Reference List

Mawugbe, K. E. (2008) In the Chest of a Woman. Kumasi: IBSS, 2008

Seidu, R. (2012) Dramaturgy of Efo Kodjo Mawugbe: Form and Themes. Unpublished Thesis