Okagbue, Prof Osita
Professor Osita Okagbue holds a BA, MA, MA and Ph.D in Drama and Theatre from the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and the University of Leeds respectively. He has taught African Theatre, Cross Cultural Studies in Performance, Performance Theory & Practice at the universities of Nigeria at Nsukka and Plymouth at Exmouth. At Goldsmiths he teaches African Theatre History, Postcolonial Theatre, Culture and Performance, Analytic Vocabularies, and Modernisms and Postmodernity. Professor Okagbue also convenes the MA Contemporary African Theatre and Performance. He is the founding President of the African Theatre Association (see AfTA) and founding Editor of African Performance Review (APR). He is also an Associate Editor for Routledge's Theatres of the World Series, as well as being Editorial Adviser Platform (an e-journal). Professor Okagbue serves on the Board of Governors of Collective Artists, a SouthEast London-based community theatre company support by the Arts Council.
Keynote lectures
The National Theatre and Development, a Keynote Lecture at National Theatre Kampala at the Uganda National Cultural Centre Golden Jubliee Celebrations for the National Theatre Kampala at 50 on 3-4 December 2009
Dreams Deferred: National Theatres and National Development in Africa, a key note Lecture at Swansea Metropolitan University for African Theatre Association Annual Conference, Performative Inter-Actions: Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise in African Theatre, 21-23 July 2011
Research interests
Main research interests are in African theatre and performance, Caribbean theatre, postcolonial theatre, theatre-for-development. He has previously held a Leverhulme Trust Research Leave and AHRB Small Grant for his research entitled 'Culture, Identity and Politics in Contemporary African and Caribbean Theatre' 2001-2. Other grants include a British Academy Larger Research Grant, an AHRB Small Grant and a Research Leave for his research project on indigenous African performances and theatre entitled ‘African Theatres and Performances’ between 2003 and 2005, now published as African Theatres and Performances by Routledge (2007). He completed work on two books between 2008 and 2009; a single-authored book, Culture and Identity in African and Caribbean Theatre (Adonis and Abbey Publishers, 2009) and a co-edited book with Christine Matzke, African Theatre: Diasporas (James Currey, 2009). Professor Okagbue was invited to direct Mami Wata and the Black Atlantic, a community performance/ritual retracing of the trans-Atlantic slave trade sponsored by the Heritage Lottery in Bristol, Plymouth and Exeter June-August 2007 to mark 200 years of Abolition of trans-Atlantic Slavery, and Black Man Don’t Float for Sameboat Productions. I am currently, the Associate Editor for Africa/Middle East, World Scenography, a three-book and an internet database project (see www.yorku.ca/wrldscen or http://scenography.byu.edu). Co-investigator, Beyond the Linear Narrative: Fractured Narratives in Writing and Performance in the Postcolonial Era’, an AHRC funded three-year research project.
Selected publications
Books
- African Theatres and Performances (London & New York: Routledge, 2007)
- Culture and Identity in African and Caribbean Theatre (London : Adonis and Abbey, 2009)
Co-edited Book
- African Theatre: Diasporas,co-edited with Christine Matzke (London: James Currey, 2009)
Editorship
- African Performance Review (2007 - )
Book Chapters
- ‘J. P. Clark’ in Brian Cox (ed.) African Writers Volume 1, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997.
- ‘Bode Sowande’ in Brian Cox (ed.) African Writers Volume 2, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997.
- 'Process or Product: Theories and Practices of Theatre-for-Development in Africa' in Kamal Salhi (ed.) African Theatre for Development, Exeter: Intellect Books, 1998.
- 'Exile and Home: Africa in Caribbean Theatre' in Dubem Okafor (ed.) Meditations on African Literature , Westport , Connecticut : Greenwood Press, 2001.
- 'Surviving the Crossing: Theatre in the African Diaspora' in Martin Banham (ed.) A History of Theatre in Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Articles
- 'The Strange and the Familiar: Interculturalism in African and Caribbean Theatre' in Theatre Research International Vol.22.No2 (1997).
- 'When the Dead Return: Play and Seriousness in African Masked Performances' in SATJ 11/1&2 (1997)
- 'A Drama of their Lives: Theatre-for-Development in Africa' in Contemporary Theatre Review. Vol.12 Parts 1+2 (2002).
- African theatre entries in Colin Chambers (ed.) Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century World Theatre by Macmillan Press (2002).
- ‘HIV/AIDS Prevention: Devising a Culturally Appropriate Theatre-for-Development for Africa’ in African Renaissance Volume 3. Number 4 (July/Aug. 2006)
- ‘Through Other Eyes and Voices: Women in Koteba and Mmonwu Performances’ in African Performance Review Volume 1Nos 2&3 (2007)
- ‘Images and Memories of Home: African Video Movies in the Diaspora’ in African Performance Review Volume 2 Number 1 (2008)
- ‘Deviants and Outcasts: Power and Politics in Hausa Bori Performances’ in New Theatre Quarterly 24:3 (August 2008)
- 'Progress and Utopia in Bode Sowande's Babylon Trilogy' in African Performance Review Vol 3. No 1 (2009)