Theatre and Environmental Education in Cameroon.(Women in Theatre for Development in Cameroon:Participation, Contributions and Limitations)(Book review)

Publication: Research in African Literatures

Publication Date: 22-JUN-08

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Indiana University Press

Theatre and Environmental Education in Cameroon

BY JOHN TAKU TAKEM

Bayreuth African Studies 76. Bayreuth: Pia Thielmann and Eckhard Breitinger,

2006.

193 pp. ISBN -927510-92-0 paper.

Women in Theatre for Development in Cameroon:

Participation, Contributions and Limitations

BY EMELDA NGUFOR SAMBA

Bayreuth African Studies 74. Bayreuth: Pia Thielmann and Eckhard Breitinger,

2006.

245 pp. ISBN 3-927510-86-6 paper.

For the last thirty years, theater has been used by scholars, government agents, and NGOs to foster development in Africa. Though the dreams have not always yielded expected results, Theater for Development has entered the daily life of many in rural and urban Africa, because of its promise as a self-improvement tool in oppressive contexts. These two monographs by John Tiku Takem and Emelda Ngufor Samba raise questions about who the practitioners of theater for social change should be and how far they can effect genuine change. While the first focuses on deforestation and forest preservation issues in Cameroon, the other centers on women as the objects and subjects of Theater for Development.

Theatre and Environmental Education in Cameroon does not cover the whole forestry industry in Cameroon nor all the theater activities that have been geared towards this specific issue. Rather, it concentrates on the Mount Cameroon equatorial rainforest. Moving from the general to the specific, Tiku Takem exposes the fallacious theories and practices behind deforestation and environmental education in Cameroon and assesses Theater for Development's ability to integrate local populations in the education process. To better drive his point home, Tiku Takem focuses on rural and disadvantaged populations while locating both theater activism and deforestation within the contexts of international and national politics.

Chapter one gives a brief history of Theater for Social Change...

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