Senegalese theater unabashed : Wolof drama and cultural liberation

Abstract EN

This article examines the evolution of Senegalese drama in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from its French colonial form, with French as the sole medium, to its contemporary expression in Wolof.

It participates in remaking the local cultural paradigm by encompassing elements of the oral tradition and folklore, including music and song, the use of the circular space, local arts and crafts for the creation of the setting, as well as the practice of collective stage creation.

It demonstrates that Wolof drama has contributed in reversing the paradigmatic cultural rupture created by the development of Francophone theater in Senegal.