AYORKUMI (Part 1: The Awakening) is a Total Theatre Act written by Gerald Nyarko Mensah. The Act is set in the colonial era and tells the soul-searching story of the life of an anointed princess from Ghana who narrowly escapes capture by slave raiders as a baby during shea butter market day in Salaga and is rescued and adopted by a salt trader. The salt trader, guided by the gods, takes the princess to his hometown in the south, where, against the skepticism of the local elders, he raises the baby princess to adulthood together with his wife. The royal ancestry of the princess and the future of her lineage as laid out in her destiny is revealed on her 18th birthday in a romantic encounter with the gods and in an engagement with the spirit of her deceased mother.
The drama is interspersed with powerful live band music, choreographed dance, deep narrations
and traditional poetry