Lesson notes on The Marriage of Anansewa PDF

Lesson Note on The Marriage of Anansewa by Efua Sutherland. Efua Sutherland was a Ghanian born on 27 June 1924 and died on 2 January 1996 in Ghana. She was a playwright, director, dramatist, children’s author and cultural activist. The Marriage of Anansewa written in 1975 and Edufa in 1967 are one o...

Lesson Note on The Marriage of Anansewa by Efua Sutherland. Efua Sutherland was a Ghanian born on 27 June 1924 and died on 2 January 1996 in Ghana. She was a playwright, director, dramatist, children’s author and cultural activist. The Marriage of Anansewa written in 1975 and Edufa in 1967 are one of her books. She was a cultural advocate for children. Background of The Marriage of Anansewa. It can be said to be a cultural play. It tells the story of a father, Ananse, who submits his daughter’s suitors to test so as to find out which one of them can show financial strength and also seek the welfare of his daughter. Main Characters in the play. Anansewa is the daughter of Ananse, who is to be given in marriage. She is a twenty years old lady. She is considered the heroine of the play and the play is named after her. Her role is passive, it was determined by her father. Her father’s schemes materialized, that is, happened, because she played along with her father. She is half-orphan because her mother is dead. Her grandmother Aya by name filled the shoes of her mother and her grandaunt, Ekuwa also. She turns to two of them for emotional support. She is educated, very submissive and obedient. She helps her father to achieve his plans by pretending to die. She fakes her death and plays the role of the corpse well. Anansewa marries Chief-Who-Is-Who having developed fondness for him. Her marriage illustrates the idea of matchmaking in the traditional marriage setting. Ananse is the father of Anansewa. He is the protagonist of the play. He is a poor, ageing struggling widower. He is a very cunning man. He is portrayed at the beginning of the play to be a pauper, but as the play continues, he goes from wearing a shabby coat to being dressed in a suit like a business executive. He wanted to be better by giving his daughter out in marriage through benefit of money that will come from the marriage. He takes the picture of his daughter Anansewa, which he takes to four selected chiefs from different parts of the country. These chiefs were to come for the head drink ceremony. Then Ananse runs into trouble as the four suitors decide to come for the head drink ceremony at almost the same time. To save himself from trouble from the four suitors meeting one another, Ananse schemed yet another plan which serves apart from it initial design the purpose of not letting the suitor see one another. Now, his daughter Anansewa is to pretend to die. Ananse announces this to the suitors. Then he found Chief-Who-Is-Who worthy for his daughter. He pretends to invoke Anansewa back to life. He uses his daughter to improve his financial status. Ananse is seen as a crafty and cunning character with the mind for risky scheme. He is the hero of the play. Aya is Ananse’s mother and grandmother to Anansewa. She is traditional, someone who believes strongly in outdooring ceremony which is ritual representing the passage from girlhood to womanhood. She supports her grand daughter Anansewa emotionally. Ananse tricks her and Ekuwa to Nanka, their hometown, so he can carry out his schemes. Aya did not hide her dislike for Christie because she suspects her relationship with Ananse. She is uncomfortable with the intimacy between them with her over-activeness in the household. She sees her as ‘senselessly extravagant.’ Ekuwa is an aunty to Ananse aand a sister to Aya. She is also the grandaunt of Anansewa. She is accommodating, we see this in her relationship with Christie and Ananse in the play. She is important in the outdooring ceremony of her grandniece whom she passes the egg of blessing during the ritual ceremony. Christie is a lover to Ananse. Christie Yamoah is the stylish woman in charge of Institute for Prospective Brides.she was introduced in Act Three of the play, she is contracted by Ananse to prepare Anansewa for marriage. Christie is very crucial in the staging of the fake funeral of Anansewa. Ananse puts her into his confidence to carry out his plan. She helps Ananse realise this. She took the role of Anansewa’s mother during the fake burial ceremony and she is in charge of the reception of the chiefs’ entourages. Christie takes interest in Ananse and she likes being referred to as “Mrs Ananse.” She refers to Ananse by his first name, “Georgie”, which is improper given the kind of relationship between them. This only confirms further that Christie is in love with Ananse. Some other characters in Efua T. Sutherland’s The Marriage of Anansewa are the storyteller, the property man, and the players. The storyteller makes the audience to be aware of the events in Ananse’s household. He is more like a narrator telling a story, the story of the family of Ananse. In his narration, he alternates between speech and song. The property man and the players also contribute to the play. Their roles in the play serve as reminder that the story is not real but just a dramatic presentation. Themes in the play The Marriage of Anansewa are poverty and ambition, wit and cunning, love and materialism, matchmaking, and African marital tradition. The themes are focused on the actions and the antics of the trickster Ananse, the protagonist of the play. 1. Poverty and Ambition. The theme of poverty and ambition is seen in the play. Ananse’s desire to better his position in life, obtain access to wealth, and rise to a higher social rank is the central theme of the entire play. At the start of the play, Ananse is shown as a suffering, unhappy man who lives in a leaky, poor house. He has certain bills that need to be paid off, including his daughter’s school fees and the final payment on the typewriter he bought for her. He then takes advantage of his daughter’s marriage to profit from the numerous suitors without harming her prospective love union. Ananse’s progress from poverty to success as well as the challenges he faced along the way really shows the theme of poverty and ambition. 2. Wit and cunning. Ananse’s cunning and extraordinary intelligence are shown. In the Ghanaian folktale, Ananse is the spider who, like the fox and the tortoise in other cultures, is said to have a keen sense of mischief, cunning, and intelligence that frequently allows him to go through incredibly tight spaces and challenging circumstances. For instance, Ananse eventually escapes from difficulties in this play with an equally impressive display of cunning attitude. 3. Love and Materialism. Although true love and material love are different things, Ananse finds a way to put them together in the play. Despite being driven by his own financial gain, Ananse manages to make his daughter’s marriage based on pure love in the process. 4. Matchmaking. Since matchmaking is frequently driven by material concerns instead of true love, this is another perspective on the issue of love and materialism. The idea of matchmaking always involves a third party who brings the couple together, often for their own selfish gain. The practice of forced marriage, in which a young, innocent girl is “sold out” to a man against her will. Ananse begins his plans for Anansewa by photographing her in various poses. He takes her photographs to some wealthy chiefs in order to make marriage arrangements with them. At first, Anansewa herself rejects the notion of being sold out “like some parcel to a consumer” and wishes to pick her own lover instead. But as the play goes on, we come to understand that this is a matchmaking with a twist, a difference - a matchmaking in which love is a significant factor. Anansewa develops a love for Chief-Who-Is-Chief as a result of her father’s efforts, and she grows more and more willing to endure any hardship or do anything in order to be with him. Finally, we are convinced that Anansewa could not have chosen a better marriage for herself because the chief himself proves to be the best and most sincere of all the suitors. Ananse therefore chooses mild persuasion over force to bring about this ideal marriage. 5. African Marital Tradition. African marital tradition is another clearly seen theme in Efua T. Sutherland’s The Marriage of Anansewa. The payment of the bride price, for example, is common in the African marital tradition as the true sign of the marital union, without which no marriage can be regarded as legal. Also. the placing of the head-drink (symbolized by a symbolic amount of money and some drinks) is a crucial procedure by which the marriage is legally registered in this play or drama, which is based on a Ghanaian tradition. Generally, members of the bride’s family are given it by the suitor’s family. Without the usual head-drink ceremony, no amount of cash or freely given presents can make the relationship legal. This is one of the significant aspects of the African marriage tradition shown in the play. Ananse exploits this significant traditional event to enrich himself at the detriment of the four rich suitors. He also ensures that three of them are not present for the head-drink ceremony. Another important aspect of the African marriage tradition portrayed in the play is the outdooring ceremony. It is an important preparation towards marriage. It signifies that Anansewa is ripe for marriage. It is also an avenue for elders to chant and invoke prayers for the prospective bride. Assignment. Write half a page on the theme of monetization in The Marriage of Anansewa.