Imoinda
Encyclopedia
IMOINDA or She Who Will Lose Her Name (2008) is the first libretto
to be written by an African Caribbean woman, Dr Joan Anim-Addo. It is a re-writing of Aphra Behn
's Oroonoko
, first published in 1688.
It tells the story of Oroonoko's lover Imoinda, a young African princess who is doubly enslaved; once by her king into marriage and then again sold into the Trans Atlantic slave trade. The play focuses on her experience with the slave masters and the birth of a child who symbolizes the triumphant survival of African-heritage people forcibly transplanted in the Caribbean Diaspora. In subversively re-writing Behn's 1688 proto-novel, this woman-centered narrative foregrounds the importance of women as repositories of cultural and historical memory, ancestral forgiveness and the maternal founding of the 'Creolised Nation'.
This libretto, was first published in Italian (translated by Dr Giovanna Covi and Chiara Pedrotti) by the University of Trento and then later re-published in English by Mango Publishing as demand for the libretto grew. It has also been performed in New York United States. In May 2008, SUNY Geneseo and the Rochester School for the Arts put on a performance with funding from the New York State Music Fund.
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
to be written by an African Caribbean woman, Dr Joan Anim-Addo. It is a re-writing of Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
's Oroonoko
Oroonoko
Oroonoko is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn , published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony....
, first published in 1688.
It tells the story of Oroonoko's lover Imoinda, a young African princess who is doubly enslaved; once by her king into marriage and then again sold into the Trans Atlantic slave trade. The play focuses on her experience with the slave masters and the birth of a child who symbolizes the triumphant survival of African-heritage people forcibly transplanted in the Caribbean Diaspora. In subversively re-writing Behn's 1688 proto-novel, this woman-centered narrative foregrounds the importance of women as repositories of cultural and historical memory, ancestral forgiveness and the maternal founding of the 'Creolised Nation'.
This libretto, was first published in Italian (translated by Dr Giovanna Covi and Chiara Pedrotti) by the University of Trento and then later re-published in English by Mango Publishing as demand for the libretto grew. It has also been performed in New York United States. In May 2008, SUNY Geneseo and the Rochester School for the Arts put on a performance with funding from the New York State Music Fund.