Appreciating African Theatre through the concept of Social Identity: the case of Ananse in the land of idiots.

The proponents of African Theatre agenda to a large extent seek to create and restore the identity of the African. The measurement of the success or otherwise of this agenda cannot be used to retard the worthwhile idea to forge to keep alive this schema. For a better and broader appreciation, leveraging on other established concepts in other domains has the potency to provide some illumination on the discourse so far and also to provide the impetus to forge ahead with the agenda. Social Identity, an established theory in psychology, interestingly has categorization or identity as a major meeting point with African Theatre. In the African social identity discourse, one cannot underestimate tradition and culture, because they have become an integral part of our society and since drama is the reflection of life, this study will consider specific social elements that could help categorize or identify a group of people. It is in the light of these that this paper considers the relationship between African Theatre and Social Identity based on Yaw Asare’s play Ananse in the land of idiots.