Dr. Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong

born on February 10, 1974

  • Telephon number: +49 174 4865 458
  • E-Mail: pmforbe@yahoo.fr (Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong)

Education

  • 2008 Ph.D in Drama and Theatre studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
  • 2005 Diplome d’Etudes Approfondie (D.E.A) in Performing Arts, at the University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon.
  • 2000 M.A. in Performing Arts, Yaounde 1 University, Cameroon.
  • 1996 B.A. in Modern Languages and Literatures. University of Buea, Cameroon.

Research interests

Theatre criticism, drama, performance, theatre for development, people cinema, indigenous cultures and popular culture.

Grants

  • Dec. 2006-July 2008 DAAD Postgraduate Research Scholarship at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
  • Nov. 2008-April 2009 Fritz Thyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Research Scholarship at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Book

Rituals in Cameroon Drama: A Semiological Interpretation of the plays of Gilbert Doho, Bole Butake and Hansel Ndumbe Eyoh, Bayreuth, Bayreuth African Series 90, 2011

Publications

  • 2008. The Wilderness in the Forest: Grim and Concentric Reformulations in the works of Butake and Makuchi
  • 2009. Theatre for Development in Kenya: In the Search of an Effective Procedure and Methodology by Christopher Joseph Odhiambo, Bayreuth Africa Studies 86, Bayreuth: Pia Thielmann & Eckhard Breitinger, (“2008) 201 pp. + 9 illus., ISBN 978-3-93966-07-8, Reviewed for Studies in Theatre and Performance, 29.3
  • 2010.  “Intercultural Perspectives in African Theatre and Performance Art” in Irritation und Vermittlung:Theatre in einer Interkulturellen und Multireligiösen Gessellschaft,  Berlin, Lit Verlag Dr. W. Hopf. Paper presented at a conference organised by Abeitskreis und Kirche & University of Hamburg on “Dialog-Theatre und Religion,” Hamburg, December 12-13,2008

Forthcoming conference papers and a book chapter

  • An Initiation Ritual as a Bridge to Political Power: Interpreting Symbols in Bole Butake’s (Cameroon) “Dance of the Vampires.” Forthcoming in Imaginaire No. 14, CRILLIP, Uni. Reims, France.
  • Postcolonial Feminine Emancipation in Bole Butake’s Lake God (1986) and And Palm-wine will Flow (1990), forthcoming in the book, Difference and Empowerment: The Creative Arts in Human Rights Education.

Teaching record

  • SS 2010 Postcolonial Anglophone African Drama in the Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne Germany.
  • WS 2008 a) Theatre for Development in Africa. b) Contemporary Criticism: From Structuralism to Post-Structuralism in the Department of English Studies and Anglophone Literatures at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
  • SS 2008 Post-Colonial Anglophone African Drama: Focus on Cameroon in the Department of English Studies and Anglophone Literatures, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
  • 2002-2006, taught courses in Bilingual training, prose and drama in the Department of Arts and Archaeology at the University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon.

Guest lectures

  • January 20, 2010 Gesture of Audacity in Cameroonian Drama, in the Institute of African Studies, at the University of Cologne, Germany.
  • June 12, 2008 Postcolonial Feminine Emancipation: Cameroon Theatre (Lake God (1986) and And Palm-wine will Flow (1990), in the Institute of Post colonial and Transcultural Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany.
  • June 13, 2008 Postcolonial Feminine Emancipation in Lake God (1986) and And Palm-wine will Flow (1990), in the Centre for the Study of Diversity in Educational Environments at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

Some theatre activities

  • Has written and directed Dancing Masks (2003) and Pamela’s Journal (2005), two short plays, on youth, adolescence, and HIV/AIDS.
  • Has worked as an assistant resource person/facilitator in HELVETAS-sponsored Theatre for Development workshops (2001-2003) in Bamendankwe, Nkor (Noni), Befang/Benakuma, Binka, and Akeh, all villages in North-West Cameroon.

Membership

  • 2010- Member of the Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English (ASNEL).
  • 2007-2008 part-time member of Internationales Promotions-Programm (IPP) Kulturbegegnungen: International PhD Programme: Cultural Encounters at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Current activity

Teaches English Language at the Volkshochschule (VHS), Köln Germany.