Cette thèse sur la poésie écrite a pour sujet, la connaissance du genre dans la période comprise entre 1970 et 2000. Elle propose sur une base d’auteurs et de textes une ébauche de critique des styles et des formes comme celle du contenu. Quatorze pays qui composent le corpus. Il s’agit du Benin, Burkina Faso, du Cameroun, de la Centrafrique, du Congo, de la RD Congo, de la Cote d’lvoire, du Gabon, de la Guinée, du Mali, du Niger, du Sénégal, du Tchad et du Togo. Ce travail est traité sur trois parties : les itinéraires littéraires, les thèmes importants et les styles.Du point de vue thématique, les poèmes ont permis de déceler plusieurs itinéraires dont le plus pertinent montre les étapes de la déliquescence sociale. Depuis les années 70 se sont succédé les thèmes du désenchantement, du désarroi et du mal-être correspondant aux périodes des années 70/80 ; 80/90 et de 90 à 2000. Toutes ses idées étaient étiquetées dès les premières œuvres de Tchicaya U Tamsi, le précurseur de cette génération de poètes. Parallèlement, se développe une autre orientation qui, elle, donne sur l’espoir. Ce sont les thèmes de la race, de l’amour et de la révolution. Quant à l’écriture poétique, il se passe une éclosion de formes dont certaines revêtent des caractères de plus en plus osés. Très souvent, l’imagination va puiser, dans les tréfonds des cultures, des matériaux de création. Des poèmes intégralement allégoriques (oscillant entre rêve et réalité) aux poèmes, fusion parfaite entre plusieurs genres poétiques (là où on est amené à parler d’influence de la poésie orale sur la poésie écrite) à côté des poèmes plus classiques bâtis sur la recherche de formes fixes. / This thesis on written poetry has for object the knowledge of the kind between 1970 and 2000. It provides on a base of authors and texts, critical insight of the styles and the shapes like the content’s. Fourteen countries are included in the corpus. There are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Afiican Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, the Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo. This work is treated in three parts : the literary routes, important themes and the styles. On the thematic point of view, the poems have helped identify several routes of which the most relevant shows stages of the social deliquescence. Since the 70, themes of disillusionment, dismay and discomfort succeeded one another, corresponding to periods of the years 70/80, 80/90 and the 90s to 2000. All this ideas were labeled in the early works of Tchicaya U Tamsi, the precursor of this generation of poets. Meanwhile, a different trend, which carries hope, develops itself. These are the themes of race, love and revolution. As for poetry writing, an outbreak of forms happens, some carries more and more daring characters. Very often, the imagination will draw from the depths of cultures from creation materials. From fully allegorical poems (oscillating between dream and reality) to poems, perfect fusion between several poetic genres (where one is led to speak of the influence of oral poetry on written poetry) alongside more traditional poems built on the quest of fixe shape.

The process of communicating notions of sustainable development in rural grassroots communities in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria, West Africa, is complex and remains an on-going challenge. The material consequences of ineffective communication between community leaders and their constituencies are evident in the Nigerian communities examined in this dissertation, where poverty is pervasive and where a large majority of the population can neither read nor write in English. Popular performances, specifically theatre, are an essential medium of communication and information dissemination on community development projects in these communities. Theatre for Development (TFD), as these form of popular performances are called, was first introduced to the country in 1975. Its methodology is an adaptation of the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed created by theatre scholar Augusto Boal. The method is aimed specifically at effecting dialogue, encouraging critical thinking, and motivating the desire for community development and social change. A number of challenges, however, limit the effectiveness of this method in achieving these goals. They include funding constraints, which restrict the amount of time TFD participants spend working in any community and limit follow-up visits to sustain integral dialogues begun during a post-performance discussion. In essence, funding restrictions limit the possibility of achieving sustainable community development. To address this key challenge of time constraints and to facilitate sustained development dialogue between community stakeholders, this dissertation examines the use of indigenous performance practices staged by local performers in rural grassroots communities. By creating and staging a TFD performance using structural elements of oriki, an indigenous performance practice in the region, I address a core research question: How do structures and contents of indigenous performance practices create forums for sustained dialogue and collective consciousness awakening? The answer to this question lays the foundation for sustainable development projects in Nigeria and offers a practical way to improve the effectiveness of TFD as a medium of information dissemination, a tool to facilitate sustained dialogue, and a community development approach in rural grassroots communities in the country. / text