RESISTANCE ANTICOLONIALE ET TECHNIQUES THEATRALES DANS KONDO, LE REQUIN DE JEAN PLIYA

This dissertation titled: RESISTANCE ANTICOLONIALE ET TECHNIQUES THEATRALES DANS KONDO, LE REQUIN DE JEAN PLIYA, takes a look at the themes and the theatric techniques in the play, Kondo, le requin. Jean Pliya, aiming at contributing towards the glorification and elevation of African past heroes, exposed the exploits of King Gbehanzin of the ancient Dahomey kingdom,in the present day Benin Republic. The reason for this may be due the fact that nowadays, no one, especially in the Western world, talks or writes good things about Africans or African past heroes. In addition, owing to the fact that the efforts of liberation of the Africans from slavery and colonial domination have not been properly acknowledged, Jean Pliya decided to immortalize the effort of this great King of West African sub-region. The technics used by the author in the play led a lot of critics to classify it as the classic of African play in the like of Moliere‟s Avare. The study makes use of two approaches namely: Sociological and psychoanalytical approaches.it is found in this research that the ply wright, Jean Pliya in his play Kondo, the Greedy One, treats themes like heroism, tradition, sacrifice, colonialism and resistance and the Fall of the empire among others. Our findings also show his use of well-articulated stage direction (didascalie), active and warm dialogues, beautiful decors, the use of spaces, for example, rural and colonial space and side talk (aparté). The principal lessons emerging from this research are as follows: Firstly, Africans have had great men in the past like King Gbehanzin, who truly struggled for the liberation of his people from colonial domination. Secondly, even though King Gbehanzin was defeated in the battle to free his people due to superior fire power of the colonial forces, the disunity and betrayal among his subjects led to total victory and final xii imposition of these forces. By this, the author seems to call for African unity and give credence to the saying: “United we stand, divided we fall”. Thirdly and finally, from the findings of the research, the White men are only interested in what they want the Africans to be or look like at the detriment of the sentiments and the true aspirations of the Africans.