ABSTRACT
Using diaspora as a critical framework, this chapter discusses plays by African British playwrights staged in the united kindom (UK) since the 1990s, focusing on their negotiation of issues of migration and belonging. Dramas by first-generation playwrights produced since the 1990s need to be contextualised through the work that was produced by African playwrights in the pre-independence and immediate postcolonial period in Africa and the diaspora. Second-generation African British plays since the 2000s echo earlier works by Caribbean British writers who treated similar themes of migration and intergenerational culture clashes between immigrant parents and British-born children. The matriarchal Agnes is a symbol of tradition personified as conservative and immutable. The play's ending, with Agnes refusing to leave, ultimately points to an irreconcilable difference between the generations. In the urban dramas the theme of first- and second-generation culture clash is given a new twist as youth of African heritage come into contact with second-and third-generation peers who are of Caribbean origin.
