Theatre Journal

Abstract:

This essay theorizes the architectural history of Ghana’s National Theatre Movement as the material instantiation of national culture. By attending to the architectural trajectory of the national theatre, it explores how the burgeoning state used the edifice to construct a national identity both rooted in a cultural past and representative of their aspirations for a national future by mobilizing the Indigenous concept of Sankofa. The essay focuses on the evolution of the theatre building during three separate periods in Ghana’s history: the pre-independence era, under Kwame Nkrumah’s leadership, and the Jerry John Rawlings presidential era. A close consideration of questions like who led the architectural conversation and who designed, constructed, and funded the theatre building during each respective time period offers a case study of the process by which (post)colonial ideology gets spatially inscribed onto the national terrain. As Sankofa transforms from an abstract cultural symbol to an actualized and grounded national site, its manifestation in the material environment is shaped, challenged, done, and undone by the nation’s fluctuating relationship to the larger global community.