328 drama and theater: Africa that modern theatergoers expect, including costumes, sets, dialogue, character development, conflict, and a climax Performances took place outdoors, but the theaters in which they took place resembled modern theaters, with a stage area, a backstage area, and rows of tiered seating for spectators Playwrights competed for honors with cycles of plays, and theatrical festivals were major events Many of the plays written by the ancient Greeks, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, are still performed on modern stages, and their texts, such as Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus Rex, remain standards in the study of literature The Greeks, too, began to distinguish between tragedies and comedies, with the comic plays of Aristophanes occupying a major place in the history of comedy Such plays as satyr plays, with their depictions of drunkenness and debauchery, provided comic relief for more serious tragic performances The ancient Romans continued the Greek tradition with formal theatrical productions The Romans performed Greek plays, but in time they produced their own playwrights, including Plautus and Terence, whose comedies are still produced AFRICA BY MICHAEL J O’NEAL The words drama and theater in modern life evoke specific responses A person is likely to imagine a theater with a stage, lighting, and rows of seats for spectators Dramatic productions in modern life—and among some ancient peoples as well—are based on a script, usually one written by someone other than the performers Theatergoers bring certain expectations to a dramatic performance, expectations about how the story progresses onstage primarily through dialogue between characters They expect to see a linear performance, where the story unfolds in a logical progression from beginning to end They anticipate a resolution to the story that provides them with some measure of satisfaction Few of these expectations would apply to the drama and theater of ancient Africa, though in the absence of surviving written texts, it is difficult for historians to reconstruct the nature of ancient African theatrical performances To so, they often have to extrapolate backward from later times, finding the roots of later theater in the practices of ancient peoples In some cases archaeological findings can shed light on drama as it was performed by ancient Africans The “stage” for an ancient African theatrical performance could be anywhere, including a private home Most likely, however, theater was conducted in open-air venues where members of the community could gather In some parts of Africa the baobab tree, a tree of great symbolic significance, continues to serve as a gathering place for the community The only lighting was that provided by fires and torches for presentations after dark The “script” for an ancient African theatrical presentation was probably in most cases largely improvised, though such scripts could be based on traditions, folklore, and legends that had been passed down through many generations In ancient Africa there was a close link between theater and storytelling An important member of the community in most African societies was the storyteller, often referred to as a griot, who acted as a repository, a kind of living museum, for the origins, history, and genealogy of the community Such a person would have learned mythic stories about the community and then passed them down orally in dramatic presentations to his audience Such stories could include accounts of creation, the origins of the people, the lineages of kings, the origins of animals and the stars in the sky, and perhaps great victories that were won in battle by the community’s ancestors None of these stories would have been new to the audience These stories were part of the shared cultural inheritance of a people, so they already knew the characters and outcome But like modern theatergoers, they judged the quality of the performance on the level of drama and suspense that the storyteller was able to build Sharing an unwritten text over many generations socialized people into their community and forged social bonds The “actors” of ancient African theater were not trained professionals but could include anyone from the community Again, storytellers, who could craft stories and present them with dramatic flourishes, incantations, repetition, and inflections all designed to capture the attention of the audience, could be considered among the earliest actors It is likely, however, that members of the community participated in the productions through singing and dancing In this sense, theatrical productions took on characteristics of spontaneous community celebrations Dance in particular was probably an important part of a theatrical performance In the absence of a text, the movement of people to the rhythms of drums and other musical instruments allowed people to take part in their shared cultural heritage and celebrate events—a harvest, a successful hunt—with their community Dance, music, and song, including “call and response” singing, allowed people to express and reenact the community’s deepest cultural longings and beliefs and forge a sense of unity and togetherness The most important actors were probably shamans and other religious figures While some drama in ancient Africa had secular purposes and themes, it is difficult to distinguish the secular from the religious in ancient African life, for daily activities almost always had some sort of religious significance This religious significance was often tied to the seasons and the cycles of the natural world Religious meaning was found in virtually everything, from a storm to the emergence of crops to a flood and so on Thus, just as modern dramatists try to interpret the complexities of life by distilling them into a two- or three-hour presentation, so African shamans and diviners tried to interpret their world through religious rituals with strong theatrical elements A good example of this kind of ritualistic performance is provided by the San people, often referred to as the Bushmen Archaeologists had long assumed that the oldest ritual site in African dated back to about 40,000 years ago A re-