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The study of African indigenous performance forms has been rather patchy, and often readers and students will look at key texts that date back to the 1970s. It is therefore timely that Okagbue has updated the study of four of West Africa's best-known and most theatrical performance traditions and looked at how they are faring in the contemporary world. At the heart of his book are four case studies of individual performance events: Mmonwu, an Igbo masquerade theatre; Bori, a Hausa possession ritual; Jaliya, the Mandinka name for the famous griot singers and musicians of West Africa; and Koteba, the Bamana comedy theatre form. The first two come from Nigeria, the second is in this case from Senegal (the griot tradition crosses country borders),...