Rachel Hadas

Iya Ekundayo

The Legend of Nana Yaa combines adventure, history, myth, and the arts. Audiences will learn, laugh, cheer, and cry. This story is based on history. It combines realism and mysticism to create a fictional narrative about courage and faith during a time of horror. After narrowly escaping capture by a band of slavers, NANA YAA, 13, daughter of an Ashanti Village Chief, joins with the Akan divinity Ananacy who uses his shape-shifting, super-human powers to wreak havoc on the slavers while freeing members of her family. The historical fiction is folded into a contemporary love story that helps non-African audiences understand the historical, cultural, religious references. JAKUTA, 27, son of an African American father and Jewish mother, meets and begins to fall in love with VIRGINIA, 25 years old, a writer. Their live-action encounters, mostly in and near Negril, Jamaica, provide background and some distance from the violent plot. The Legend of Nana Yaa is primarily set in the 1740s with flash forward to the 1840s and contemporary time. It depicts the stark reality of the slave trade in West Africa in ways designed to honor the mysticism that infused Yoruba and Ashanti culture while providing an old-fashioned adventure. The script blends elements of conventional storytelling with Ashanti oral tradition, poetry, performance, and music. For example, drums, animal calls, and whistles were all commonly used to communicate nonverbally over distance, and the script reflects this.

Iya Ekundayo

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