The Marriage of Anansewa

By
MUNASHE GUMBONZVANDA
The marriage of Anansewa is a African post modern era adaption of a
ancient African story. Anansewa’s in a sly African character like various
other African folk characters a trickster who uses his intelligence to gain
power, money and influence. He is like a sort of anti – hero who represents
the fact that life is unfair and treacherous. In a way he could be described
as the personification of the unfairness of life.
In description he is a poor village father who is struggling to raise his
only daughter by himself; no mention is made specifically of the mother
figure. He decides to “sell” his daughter to four chiefs in exchange of
money in a sort of fake arranged marriage where he sets up a market for
his daughter between the rural African chiefs and uses that platform to try
and find the most viable monetary reward from that by creating an auction
where everybody is trying the hardest to win the hearts and affection of his
daughter.
 This uncivil and dangerous nature of this plot is routinely punctured
by comedy from Anasweera antics hen he is procuring money from the
chief, from his jokes, his mannerism, how he walks and the music which
plays when he is talking to the chiefs messengers, the comedy behind the
play aims to portray that anasweera is always one step ahead.
The courting of Anansewa’s daughter is largely ignored in any
romantic notion of the word, and is replaced by a ritual of gifts and cash
advances form the ominous chiefs who in actuality never make an
appearance in the play, but are visually represented by their guards and
servants who constantly make an appearance an Anansewa home to give
him stuff which is happily accepted.
Anansewa’s daughter is by no means involved in the courting ceremony
and all proceedings are handled by anasweera. The money that he gets
from the chiefs helps Anansewa raise himself from the poverty that once
engulfed him and his daughter and set up on a journey of wealth and
pleasure. After which he is then foretold of the chiefs plan to visit him in
two weeks, all of them plan on marrying his daughter at the same moment.
This creates a crisis and in order to solve it, anasweera convinces his
daughter to act dead so that in her death she escapes her fate and in her
fake resurrection which would be by no doubt a miracle, they can find a
worth candidate to be her husband.
The play ends in a placebo uncertain happy after where anasweera has
chosen a viable candidate to be his daughters husband.
The play as a post-modern exploration of Africa, explores the current state
of poor village class people who are too poor to even send their children to
school, and the daily grind of their lives, by making use of an ancient
Ghanaian folk tale. This was a very powerful and hard hitting concept, not
new in this society where adoptions of modern fairy tales are popular.
The play failed to set the mood accurately as to where exactly they were
taking us. Africa is to many people a lot of things, and in a wide sweep it is
a lot of encompassing social system and cultures, with significant influence
from the west. The play failed to address exactly where we were, or the
idea of where and what exactly our environment was like, that was all cut
off.
The play was stage in a room, the sitting room I would venture a guess,
with only one scene outside in a street. The play had elements of
barrenness and emptiness in relation to the set, which was very simple.
This made the whole play seem shut in and closed off from the entire
world.
The idea which came through was that we were getting a window, albeit
limited into another dimension. Into a world which was abandoned by the
rest of the world. In the play the only other interaction between Anasweera
and his daughter is when people come and visit or when the mail man
comes with the money from the various chiefs.
In essence Ananswewa even if he is depicting a modern ancient old African
hero, seems like a shunned outcast of society. He does not seem to have
any friends and family apart from his mother and daughter.
If we were to measure his significance in the work by his costume, it would
be close to zero by judging from the dirty torn rags he wears.
It immediately places him in the bottom of the social system and shows his
uneasy sense of self.
In terms of respect he receives very little from anybody. It almost seems
observing anasweera that he is caught up as a prison, and he is actually a
man under a lot of strain. Like he has been stripped of all things, and left
with nothing but the contempt society gives him shown in the form of a
post man who does not take him seriously.
Money and the pursuit of money are two big ideas which come out in the
play. Any money in the play is celebrated by singing and dancing by
anasweera in a loud, happy jovial slapstick type of comedy way. It left to
interpretation whether Ananswewa is a hero or villain, for love lust for
“money, money, money,” actually drives him in the first case to try to sell
his daughter albeit for a better life in escape of a life of happiness with
someone who could support her something which anaseera seems not able
to do.
You are caught up in the situation, either anasweera is a villain who stole
money and tried to sell his daughter in an arranged marriage and got lucky
or he is a clever hero who managed to pull his family out of a damaging
situation. This is left to the audience to decide, but the play still made few
references than I would like to what exactly being poverty stricken is all
about, something not properly addressed in a satisfactory manner, but
used a bridge for various comedic acts and routines
The lingering on issues I would debate, like how being poor was never
actually referenced, and the fact that Anasweera put his daughter in harm
is in fact dangerous. It allows an audience already critical of African society
and culture to witness something which is close to the average black
people, and African stereotype.
The play was sitting on a fine line between morality too, something which
was not in my mind fully explored, the fact that when people are poor they
are under a lot of strain, and the choices these people make on a daily basis
when they are stuck in a cancerous position which robs you of both your
pride, happiness, and recognition in society are very extreme in some
cases.
This once again was not fully discussed to fruition, but left as a side not for
the audience to ponder on briefly later.
The plays aim seemed more as to educate Canadians on what things
happen in some poor African society without explaining which society that
was and what and how it feels to be in that society. This is more that
important in my mind since Africa is a topic most people have a lot of
feeling about, they have zero to no idea on what exactly Africa is like apart
from an idyllic village imagery and widespread poverty, both of which are
true but not the full picture.
That said the play did make use of African concepts which people
had to be made aware of, but were parcelled under the ruse of comedy.
One of these principles is the African idea of dance and expression when
under powerful dangerous hardship. This was evident in the music which
generally was a upbeat, catchy and melodic, which made in one or two
occasions the characters in the play dance or sing.
The instruments most prevalent were the marimba and drums, which
were at the corner of the stage throughout the whole entire play as if to
remind everyone that they were in African musical setting. The effect of
having the music band of the play on stage added a surrealistic unrealistic
nature of the play, a type of extravagant absurdum which when I looked at
it was a type and form of black cultural modern expression. This can be
related to Hip Hop culture which is makes use of absurdum and
experimentation at its root to try to achieve the cool.
This required a fine balance however to play the line with this type of
artist expression which relies on doing things out of the ordinary to create
a sense of wonder, because if you push to much it just becomes plain
ridiculous and foolish. The play in general had worked the line very well,
this absurdum just added to the exotic element that is Africa, but in some
cases like the end of the play were anasweera feigned madness to trick his
daughters suitors into thinking his daughter is dead verged sometimes on
the ridiculous.
It made ananweera look in actual fact like a fool, due to the loud
sounds he made, and the unintelligible gestures which in African culture
have significance meaning and humour, but without the cultural backdrop
to everyone else he just looked totally insane, especially in a society which
urges and works for quiet decency and control of self, it left room for false
interpretation.
 The play also made simple but ample use of the lighting to create
effect, this was not exactly in the terms of realism which the play partly
aimed for, but it made a particular scene in which a women who later falls
in love with anasweera become more romantic robust and powerful.
The play which is given a narrator, who frequently comes to the stage and
discusses the play with the audience in a majestic voice makes great
references to Anasweera intelligence and wit, making great declarations of
his intelligence and power.
The narrator something quite uncommon in western plays is a common
fixture in African ones. He acts like a messenger or MC to a party,
summarizing and making the events of the play rational and clear, whilst
adding a cool twist due to his own presence.