Patronage or Negotiation?

Abstract

The collaboration between theatre directors and funding agencies can impede and/or promote the aesthetics and functionality of theatre performances, thus (dis)empowering the ordinary people. The paper, focusing on two performances, The Boomerang and Pamela’s Journal sponsored by the Fobang-Mundi Foundation and The Society for Women and AIDS in Africa-Cameroon (SWAA-C), explores the role of institutions and organisations that fund theatre projects in Africa to highlight the impact of patronage, specifically in contexts where the patron-artist relation is evoked. Questioning whether such projects could actually confer “power to the people,” depend on the negotiation skills and professionality of the theatre facilitator; the paper focuses on the beneficiaries of commissioned performances.