Dance of the Vampires and Six Other Plays

Bole Butake

Description

This crowning collection brings together seven of Bole Butake�s finest plays since 1984, namely: Dance of the Vampires; Family Saga; Lake God; Betrothal Without Libation; And Palm Wine Will Flow; The Rape of Michelle; and Shoes. More than an academic, Butake has distinguished himself as a playwright, unearthing and foregrounding the ills, travails and predicaments of a land and people trapped by the blood-dripping impunities of vampires in power. In his rich repertoire of over ten plays, Butake takes sides with the downtrodden, the wretched of the earth, the deprived and the underdogs. His jabs and jibes, aimed at the rulers, are scathing, at times vitriolic. He has excelled at a stubborn determination to ignore the sinecures, lure and allure of power without responsibility.

Sujets

• Drama

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 13 mai 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• EAN13: 9789956790432
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES
BOLE BUTAKE
and Six Other Plays
“Bole Butake will be remembered for starting The Mould, a literary magazine
considered as a nursery for budding University students with a creative
instinct. Although nobody has become a Nobel laureate from that nursery, it DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES
undoubtedly contributed enormously in enriching the Anglophone Literature
that we have today. A Fonlonian disciple, Butake insisted that teaching
Literature, ultimately, was futile if it did not lead to making the student, and Six Other Plays
herself, a producer and not only a consumer of literary classics. Buoyed by
this conviction, Butake, alongside Hanzel Ndumbe Eyoh, created the Flame
Players, a drama troupe at UniYao. Over the years, they staged and thrilled
Anglophone drama a�icionados. […] His numerous ordeals notwithstanding,
Butake has been an outstanding scholar, a genuine intellectual, a path-�inding
playwright and a gad�ly for an anaesthetised society.”
Francis Wache, Editor-in-Chief, The Post, Cameroon
This crowning collection brings together seven of Bole Butake’s �inest
plays since 1984, namely: D���� �� ��� V�������; F����� S���; L��� G��;
B�������� W������ L�������; A�� P��� W��� W��� F���; T�� R��� ��
M�������; ��� S����. More than an academic, Butake has distinguished
himself as a playwright, unearthing and foregrounding the ills, travails and
predicaments of a land and people trapped by the blood-dripping impunities
of vampires in power. In his rich repertoire of over ten plays, Butake takes
sides with the downtrodden, the wretched of the earth, the deprived and
the underdogs. His jabs and jibes, aimed at the rulers, are scathing, at times
vitriolic. He has excelled at a stubborn determination to ignore the sinecures,
lure and allure of power without responsibility.
BOLE BUTAKE is an Emeritus Professor of Drama and African Literature
at the University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. He is also a distinguished and
internationally acclaimed playwright.
Langaa Research & Publishing BOLE BUTAKECommon Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
Dance of the Vampires
&
Six Other Plays







Bole Butake





















Langaa Research & Publishing CIG
Mankon, BamendaPublisher:
Langaa RPCIG
Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
[e-mail]
www.langaa-rpcig.net



Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective
[e-mail]
www.africanbookcollective.com





ISBN: 9956-790-39-7

© Bole Butake 2013









DISCLAIMER
All views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views of Langaa RPCIG.Table of Contents


Preface One....................................................................... v

Preface Two...................................................................... ix

Part I: Dance of the Vampires......................................... 1

Part II: Family Saga........................................................... 59

Part III: Lake God............................................................. 111

Part IV: Betrothal without Libation.............................195

Part V: And Palm-wine will flow................................... 243

Part VI: The Rape of Michelle...................................... 285

Part VII: Shoes................................................................. 331
iiiivPreface One

Tribute to Bole Butake, A Literary Luminary
By Francis Wache
Editor-in-Chief ,The Post


The Post print edition no. 01354, Sunday, July 01, 2012
CameroonPostline.com -- Growing up in the 50s in the verdant
valleys of Noniland, chances were stacked more on the side of
Nazarius (a name he dropped) Bole Butake becoming a tapper of
frothy palm wine or a farmer a la Achebe’s Okonkwo, levelling the
hillocks and mulching the valleys.
He did not choose those paths.
Instead, he heard about the Golden Fleece and, because he was
highly intelligent, he convinced his uncle to send him to Sacred
Heart, a leading Catholic College. He had lost both parents in
babyhood. He will later attend the prestigious CCAST Bambili, the
lone High School in West Cameroon before moving to the
University of Yaounde. On graduation, as one of the “Mbassi Manga
Boys” (Mbassi Manga was the all-powerful and influential Dean of
the Faculty of Arts), he left for Leeds from where, on his return, he
taught at the University of Yaounde until his retirement this June.
More than an academic, Butake distinguished himself as a
playwright. His repertoire of plays includes, The Rape of Michelle
(1984), Lake God (1986), The Survivors (1989), And Palm-wine Will
Flow (1990), Shoes and Four Men in Arms (1993), Dance of the
Vampires (1995), Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon (2003), Family
Saga (2005, Betrothal Without Libation (2005), Cameroon Anthology
of Poetry (2010) .
In all his plays, Butake takes sides with the downtrodden, the
wretched of the earth, the deprived and the underdogs. His jabs and
jibes, aimed at the rulers, are scathing, at times vitriolic.
Butake will be remembered for starting The Mould, a literary
magazine considered as a nursery for budding University students
vwith a creative instinct. Although nobody has become a Nobel
laureate from that nursery, it undoubtedly contributed enormously in
enriching the Anglophone Literature that we have today.
A Fonlonian disciple, Butake insisted that teaching Literature,
ultimately, was futile if it did not lead to making the student, herself, a
producer and not only a consumer of literary classics. Buoyed by this
conviction, Butake, alongside Hanzel Ndumbe Eyoh, created the
Flame Players, a drama troupe at UniYao. Over the years, they staged
and thrilled Anglophone drama aficionados.
In the 90s, as the nation writhed with the throes of the birth
democracy, Butake burst on the political arena when he was
appointed to accompany a delegation of CPDM stalwarts to
Muanenguba Division in the Southwest Province to drum support
against multiparty politics.
Terrified, Butake penned a rebuttal. He would never–NEVER –
join the ranks of the oppressors, he argued. He would, he insisted,
stay in the amphitheatres and share knowledge with his students.
Up till today, controversy still rages about that act. Some opinion,
still peddled, particularly in Noni circles, bears a grudge against
Butake for depriving them of a Ministerial portfolio. According to
this school, Butake’s trip to Muanenguba was intended to immerse
him into the CPDM baptismal waters. He was to emerge from the
boiling bowels of the Twin Lakes with the halo of Minister of,
guess…, Culture, of course!
That is not true. What happened was a typical CPDM error. Bole,
Dr Butake’s first name, is a common Bakossi name. When the
CPDM ngomba went into conclave and decided that they should
pacify dissident lecturers who were fomenting riots at the University,
a CPDM big shot proposed that there was this Bole…Somebody
who was writing anti-regime plays and needed to be gagged by, he
said, “getting him on our side.” He tried to capture the elusive name
again: “Bole…Bole…Bole…” The other name did not just come.
Another inspired comrade chirped in, “Butake.” The speaker glowed:
“That’s him!”
viAnd that is how, Bole Butake, a blue-blooded Noni notable was
almost transmogrified into a Bakossi CPDM rabble-rouser. All in the
name of dimabolaing (fighting against) multiparty politics.
Be that as it may, Butake did not join the beleaguered CPDM
bandwagon. Instead, he dipped his pen in his inkpot and wrote: “I
refuse to be lapiroed”.
Let Butake, himself, tell the tale: “My troubles really began in
1992 when in early February I was appointed, without being
consulted, as ‘chargé de mission’ for the ruling CPDM party during
the first multi-party legislative elections to some part of the country. I
wrote a damning disavowal… A week later I was replaced. A year <