Volume 30 (2011) - Cincinnati Romance Review

WOMANISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE 123
and communities are integrated too, sometimes subverting the original models. The
emancipatory dances and words of Antígona have cultural references centered in
Africa. 3 In that vein, Nah Dove emphasizes the concept of culture as a weapon of
resistance and as a basis for defining a new world order (516). She indicates that, “Any
future and continuing African liberationist theory and activism begins with the effort to
recover, herstorically and culturally, the complementary relationship of the woman and
the man as the basis for “ourstory” and self-determination. In this light, therefore,
African womanism as Afrocentric theory takes on a central and critical role in that
effort” (535). This coincides with Hudson-Weems call for Black women to define
themselves and their critical perspectives and agenda in ways that reflect their particular
experiences and African culture (34). Morgades’ selection of Antígona as the exemplar
citizen and her performance as an African dancer and rebel underscore the importance
of African women in the liberation of their societies.
Transcultural Antígona
The incorporation of African cultural elements to the play brings up the
question of transculturation and the levels of fidelity of Morgades’ Antígona with the
classical play. When asked about the genesis of her play, Morgades explained that “No
por plagio ni por atrevimiento, sino por el asombro en pensar que la naturaleza humana
no cambia y después de 2422 años, se puede traer a Sófocles y su época al Africa de
nuestros tiempos revueltos” (Lewis 91), indicating how she has adapted classical
Antigone to her culture of origin. By doing so she participates in a trend started by
African theatre artists in the early 1960s that made popular Sophocles’ Theban cycle.
According to critics there are several reasons for this popular movement. Barbara Goff
and Michael Simpson explain that first, to adapt or transpose these plays is to reflect on
the theme of identity, one of the most charged themes within anti-colonialist or
postcolonial literature and theatre; second, they are appropriate to represent the
postcolonial moment because these Greek dramas oscillate around the threshold of
civilization; and finally, the re-readings the authors propose put at the center the issue of
transmitting culture: “To change one of these icons is therefore to change, or at least
challenge, the established notion of how these works, and all others, are ever presented
to historical experience; it is also to propose alternatives to this dominant model of
cultural transmission through time and of migration through space” (3). That is, they
engage with the European canon, even as they also ultimate more indigenous traditions”
(1-8). Kevin J. Wetmore highlights the fact that as with Greek tragedy, African theatre is
community-based with a strong connection to ritual origins. The similarity of function
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3 It is interesting that the same argument is used by Macias, but Morgades challenges his
readings of what is “authentic African culture.”
Cincinnati Romance Review 30 (Winter 2011): 117-129.