Asia Lo Savio: The Space In Between.

I left my previous blog post discussing and confronting the dualities and complications of the term “Universal” in relation to my discoveries about African theatre and the post-colonial theories that have challenged the meaning, use, and conception of this term. The opposition between these two views lies in trying to conceive how two distinct realities can live and be represented under one term. The Western adoption of “universal” in respect to cultures and histories so far has affirmed to negate and assimilate any difference to demonstrate a fictious homogeneity. On the other hand, the “universality” of African theatre shifts away from the Western conception. It does not erase differences and particularities; it rather wants to affirm them. For this reason, the “universal” in respect to Angolan and African theatre seems to rather enclose and hint at the term to demonstrate a “universal existence.” This is that theatre, with all the elements that shape its intention, details, stories, and representations, is universal for implying, like life, cycles of “death and rebirth” (“Art for life’s sake,” p.185). In this sense, when theatre and art – as the title of the article quoted shows – are paralleled and conceived with the intention and the rhythm of life and life cycles, they can be universal. 

The findings and documents about Elinga and Jose Mena Abrantes’s role and works have interestingly and implicitly sustained this relation theatre-life. In many articles and books, Jose Mena Abrantes has been referred to as “the father of theatre in Angola” and during our interviews when I have brought up this claim, he jokingly answered: “now I am the grandfather.” Jose Mena Abrantes’s sarcasm besides being conversationally funny does reveal that there is not a fixed a role and/or position, but a continuation of the theatre’s cycle. Elinga has, in fact, been “the niece” of Tchinganje Group and “the child” of Xilenga. And now Elinga, through its plays and representations, is giving to the world of theatre other children, which echo and resonate within and outside Angola. 

 
The initial tension between the post-colonial theories, the Western use of the term, and my research, has opened up a space in between. Instead of settling for a resolution, this space in between has permitted to further investigate and navigate the contexts surrounding the term and the multiple voices and “children” that theatre creates. 

The present limitations have not permitted to witness and attend neither Elinga’s performances nor other theatrical representations in person. Many books have also not been available if not online. There has been a lack of “touch” and a strong estrangement that the current world condition has provoked. I, therefore, hope to cultivate in the coming months and following  year the lost touch and travel to Angola when it’ll be possible to continue navigating “the space in between.”