Testifyin': Contemporary African Canadian Drama, Vol. 1

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University.

This collection of contemporary African Canadian drama contains work by
some of Canada’s most well-known writers. George Elliott Clarke’s
“Whylah Falls,” which started its artistic life as a collection of
closely linked poems about a murder in mid-century Nova Scotia, is
included, as is M. Nourbese Philip’s 1997 “Coups and Calypsos,” a
play that examines “douglarisation” (racial mixing between Africans
and Indians) and the accompanying tensions in Trinidad. Perhaps the most
gratifying selection is Austin Clarke’s “When He Was Free and Young
and He Used to Wear Silks,” a poignant examination of the experience
of Caribbean immigrants in Canada during the 1970s.

Other works include Andrew Moodie’s “Riot,” H. Jay Bunyan’s
“Prodigals in a Promised Land,” Maxine Bailey and Sharon M.
Lewis’s “Sistahs,” George Seremba’s “Come Good Rain,” Ahdri
Zhina Mandiela’s “Dark Diaspora ... in DUB,” Walter Borden’s
“Tightrope Time,” and Djanet Sears’s “Harlem Duet.” Detailed
introductions and production notes add to the book’s value as a
resource.