Research

During the time of Shakespeare allot of the world was still being discovered, and the explorers and various different people on these trips would come back home telling stories of the lands they had been to and seen, these stories which can only be described as myth, where about Cannibals inhabiting the Caribbean and far away lands, The Character of Caliban is enslaved by Prospero, these stories about Cannibalism are said to of been discovered in the Caribbean  The term of Canabal derived from the term 'Carib' linking with the word Caribbean  Also the name Caliban can been seen as a play on the word Canabal. 

During around the time period of 1950 The Tempest had began being viewed more and more through the lens of A post colonial Theory, this theory looked at the character of Prospero being "The coloniser" and Ariel and Caliban being "The colonized. The character of Ariel has been used by Post colonial writers to be a symbol of the efforts they made to overcome the effects of colonisation  and the effect it had on their culture.

Colonisation - Is the forming of a settlement of colony by a group of people who seek to take control of territories or countries

George Lemming is a Novelist, Poet and Essayist from Barbados, He wrote a collection of Essays " The Pleasure of Exile", these essays attempt to re-interpret The Tempest and the characters of Prospero and Caliban giving them personal identity in the history of the Caribbean .

In 1787 The English tried to abolish slavery, they traveled by ship to Virginia and took 100 slaves, they put these slaves on to a ship  and reversed The "Middle passage" and took these freed slaves back to Sierra Leone, The slaves which they had free'd and taken to Sierra Leone were not all originally from there, they where from many different places around the African continent such as Uganda etc, these Slaves were not welcomed by all the natives of the island, They saw the Slaves as Ghosts as they had no traditions because they had been enslaved. From this the English built a town, they named this town "Free Town" Free town was a land created for Freed American Slaves, In 1792 Free Town became one of Britons colonies in Africa.

The Middle Passage - Was the stage of the Triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World during the Slave trade. 

With in our performance Drugs is going to be a key theme, as Prospero is a Witch Doctor sort of character, the drugs are going to be used with in the performance to control the visitors to the island.

With in our performance there are elements of ritual and summoning of spirits, and with the African culture this often done with elements of dance to it, with this I looked in to African Dance and its Cultural functions.

Dances teach social patterns and value  and help people work, mature, praise or criticize members of the community while celebrating festivals and funerals, competing,reciting history,proverbs and poetry; and to encounter gods, With the exception of some spiritual, religious or initiation dances, there are traditionally no barriers between dancers and on lookers. Dances often have a time where onlookers can participate."One does not dance to go into a trance but to come out of a trance,to join a diversified assembly with a separate contribution, for dancing is a reminder that one is only part of the whole"

                                  

    The traditional dances are:

• Warrior Dances One example of a warrior dance is Adbekor, Franci Elkins, a word renowned African dancer, has been quoted saying that this is her favorite dance. Agbekor comes from the Fog and Ewe people. It is an ancient dance once known as Atamga Agbekor is often performed at cultural events and at funerals. Dance movements mimic battlefield tactics such as stabbing with the end of the horsetail.This dance consists of a phrases of movements. A phrase consists of a "turn" which occurs in every phrase and then a different ending movement.These phrases are added back to back with slight variations within them, make up the dance.
• Dances of Love are performed on a special accessions, such as weddings and anniversaries. One example is the Nnane dance performed in Ghana. It is done solely by women during weddings in honor of the bride.

• Rites of Passage and Coming of Age Dances are performed to mark the coming of age of young men and women. They give confidence to the dancers who have to perform in front of everyone. It is then formally acknowledged they are adults. This builds pride, as well as a stronger sense of community.

• Dances of Welcome are a show of respect and pleasure to visitors, as well as a show of how talented & attractive the host villagers are. Yabara is a West African Dance of Welcome marked by ''The Beaded Net Covered Gourd Rattle'' (sekere-pronounced Shake-er-ay). It is thrown into the air to different heights by the female dancers to mark tempo and rhythm changes. This is an impressive spectacle, as all the dancers will throw & catch them at the same time.

• Dances of Possession and Summoning These are common themes, and very important in many Traditional African Religions. They all share one common link: a call to a Spirit. These spirits can be the spirits of Plants or Forests, Ancestors, or Deities. The  Orishas are the Deities found in many forms of African religion, such as Each orisha has their favourite colours, days, times, foods, drinks, music, and dances. The dances will be used on special occasions to honor the orisha, or to seek help and guidance. The orisha may be angry and need appeasing. kakilbe is a great spirit of the forest who is summoned using dance. He comes in the form of a giant statue carried from the forest out to the waiting village. There is much dancing and singing. During this time the statue is raised up, growing to a height of around 15". Then the priest communes and asks Kakilambe if they will have good luck over the coming years, and if there are any major events to be aware of, such as drought, war, or other things.

With in our performance Drugs will be a key theme, Prospero will use drugs with in the performance to create some of the magic, and The lost will be distributing some of it also the drug will be a colorful powered which will smeared over the faces of the people the drugs are being used on, which will create a really interesting image on stage, one of the drugs I have researched is Peyote.

Peyote

The Peyote cactus is a small spineless cactus; it is native to Texas and Mexico and mainly found in the Chihuahuan desert, Peyote is mainly distributed in Mexico,
Peyote is reported to trigger stages of "deep introspection and insight", Native American tribes use the plant for its curative properties to cure things such as:

• Toothache
• Pain during Childbirth
• Diabetes
• Colds
• Blindness
• People also apply peyote to the skin for treating fractures, wounds, and snakebites

For thousands of years, peyote has been used during the religious ceremonies of various Native American tribes. Today, recreational use of the drug is prohibited but members of the Native American Church are allowed to use it in Spiritual contexts. Peyote is currently listed as an endangered species, due to over-harvesting and slow growth in the wild. 
Mescaline ( which is in peyote) distorts reality and perspective. Hallucinations, intensified colours and images, and enhanced perceptions of touch and hearing can take up to four hours to reach their peak, and can last up to fourteen hours after ingesting the drug.
Taking Peyote can cause

• Nausea and Vomiting
• Anxiety
• Paranoia 
• Fear
• Emotional instability
• Raised Blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate
• Changes in vision
• Drooling
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Drowsiness
• 
  

Huichol people are a Native American ethnic group of western  central Mexico, there religion consists of Shamanism and Animism, The Huichol people used Peyote like many indigenous American groups, The Huichol people use Peyote with in religious rituals. These rituals involve singing, weeping and contacting with ancestor spirits. " It is Wikiuta, where the Huichol go each year to collect the Peyote, before reaching Wikiuta, their final destination  they pass by the sacred springs of  Tatéi Matiniéri ("Where our mother lives"), the house of eastern rain goddess. They cross steps, The first one is Cloud gate, The second, where "the cloud opens".

Huichol Yarn painting     

                                                                   

     

Although it is a tribe and group of people from a different country they use drugs in the same way as we do in elements with in our piece such as during rituals, The Peyote is used by the Shaman, He's the medicine man of the Indians ( Similar to Prospero ). He gets into a peyote trance, and

he gets deeper and deeper and has a vision, and the whole tribe is healed.

The earliest known depiction of a shaman ( A Siberian shaman), Produced by the Dutch explorer Nicholaes Witsen, who authored an account of his travels among samoydic and Tungusic speaking people in 1692, Witsen labelled the illustration as a "priest of the devil" and gave this figure clawed feet to highlight what Witsen perceived as demonic qualities.

 "He's the medicine man of the Indians"

Medicine man and Witch Doctors

Medicine man or Medicine woman are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native Americans and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples. Anthropologists tend to prefer the term "shaman", which is a specific term for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic peoples of Siberia. The primary function and role for Medicine men and women (Medicine healers) is to secure and get help from the spirit world, for the benefit of the entire community. In many tribes medicine healers and elders are not expected to introduce or advertise themselves. Most Native Americans typically regard illness as the entry of malignancy into the body, or even the departure of the soul from a body, through violation though the activities or a sorcerer from an enemy tribe..

A Witch Doctor is a type of healer who treats aliments believed to be caused by witchcraft,  The witch doctor in Africa ( A misnomer ) are known as Sangomas in southern Africa.  
African witchcraft is very different from most of the other forms around the word, Its unique history has allot to do with it, Witchcraft in Africa supersedes what was found in Europe in the 14th and 15 centuries, European witchcraft focuses on the idea of Demons and Evil spirits, African witchcraft is more focused on the concept of spells and magic. African Witch Doctors believe that with various practices and potions can influence the future of a persons life either good or evil, leaving them to have great influence and power within there community. 

As the visitors to the island are unused to various different illness in Sierra Leone such as malaria, during some of the scenes on stage they could be suffering from this having different symptoms as they would be open to contracting the disease, Malaria is an An age-old disease transmitted through the bite on an infected anopheles mosquito. The signs and symptoms of malaria typically begin 8-25 days following the infection, These symptoms are similar to Flu- like symptoms, and can resemble other conditions such as septicemia, gastroenteritis, and viral diseases.
from seeing the traditional dress for witch doctors I can now see where the inspiration for Prospero costume was from 

Are we Hausa or The Saro?

I believe that The lost consists of characters from Saro, it consists of of Freed slaves , From what i have researched i believe that Hausa consists of one group sped over a wide area, but i believe the lost and other villagers are more Saro because they are Freed slaves from different location settling in one area.

Hegemony -The predominant influence, as of a stage, region , or group, over another or others