Paper long abstract:

Theatre for development (TfD) as community engagement methodology straddles between social accommodation and social transformation. In each case, the project is either developed by the community with the help of facilitators or facilitators with the support of the community. It is usually through a partnership between scholars in higher education institutions, governmental agencies and the communities involved. These experiments were an integral approach for development cooperation and community development for most of the newly independent states in Africa in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s. The symbiotic relationship between the rural communities and the "elite" from the universities and governmental agencies gave birth to the sub-discipline in theatre studies known as Theatre for Development (TfD). This paper examines three experiments in rural communities in Africa; an example of community engaged learning that created a new paradigm for education and development. It will also delineate on how they have contributed to shaping the curriculum development for the TfD phenomenon in higher education institutions in Africa. The paper will further expatiate on how the exchange of ideas, knowledge and thoughts between the community, indigenous people and the higher education institutions spurs the TfD genre on to redefine, recontextualize and reinterpret the concept of development in the global south.