Book presentation + scenic reading + discussion
The first africologneANTHOLOGIE will be published by Theater der Zeit in June 2025, featuring nine theatrical texts in German translation. Alongside the plays, the volume includes an essay by Dr. Fatou Ghislaine Sanou (University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), offering critical insights into contemporary African theatre.
The anthology will be launched at the africologneFESTIVAL with a series of staged readings, showcasing excerpts from the featured plays, accompanied by discussions with the authors and translators.
Since its first edition in 2011, africologne has welcomed numerous outstanding and award-winning African and Afro-diasporic playwrights. The inaugural africologneANTHOLOGY SPUREN offers a powerful insight into the diversity of voices, perspectives, themes, aesthetics, and forms shaping contemporary playwriting from Benin, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Uganda.
This first edition focuses on dramatic writing from across West, Central, and East Africa, showcasing a wide spectrum of genres—from tragedy to satire, dramatic poetry to neo-Western. The formats are equally varied, ranging from monologues and dialogues to choral works and discursive texts.
The anthology reflects on post- and neo-colonial realities from non-European perspectives—often written with non-European audiences in mind. Personal and at times autobiographical narratives stand alongside broader socio-political debates, exploring themes such as the search for identity and belonging, shaped by experiences of displacement, violence, and migration. Dehumanizing, anti-immigrant rhetoric is examined with urgency and critical insight.
Many of the featured authors are deeply engaged in civil society and openly critique governmental policies and national histories—sometimes at personal risk. Their works confront the complex and ongoing entanglements between Europe and Africa, tracing lines from colonial exploitation through so-called independence to the present day.
CURATION / MODERATION Kerstin Ortmeier, Kouam Tawa, Frank Weigand, Dr. Sarah Youssef | SCENIC DESIGN Shari Asha Crosson | PODIUMS & PUBLIC TALK WITH Sinzo Aanza, Edoxi L. Gnoula, Asiimwe Deborah Kawe, Kagayi Ngobi, Dieudonné Niangouna, Aristide Tarnagda
There will be two further discussion events as part of the presentation of the anthology:
DIESSEITS SCHREIBEN – ÉCRIRE DE CE COTÉ June 15, 7 p.m. following the performance DE CE CÔTÉ
BETWEEN THE LINES: THEATER TRANSLATION DECOLONIAL THINKING June 16, 4:30 p.m.