Critical appraisal of hierarchism and conformity in the plays of Esiaba Irobi highlighting character, plot, cultural and socio- political reflections

Critical appraisal of hierarchism and conformity in the plays of Esiaba Irobi highlighting character, plot, cultural and socio- political reflections

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study:

The African dramatist writes about his society through which the masses try to reconnect back to their experiences.  Since what he writes is about the society, it has a way of connecting to the realities that are daily faced by the people whether good or bad. Hence, his role is as important as life is to man.

Dramatists of all ages have tried to criticize their society, and   African dramatists have also tried to use the dramatic medium to express their dissatisfaction with the state of the continent, and the despotic leaderships in Africa, with the aim to clean their society of elements or images which they consider not good for the general well-being of the people and what they consider as factors retarding the development of the African states.

The African dramatist in a postcolonial state is a product of his socio- political environment; he, therefore, studies his environment in an attempt to reform it through his artistic creation. The theatre is one consistent medium the African dramatists have utilized to depict various forms of oppression, marginalization, struggle for identity, the improvement of their social locations and political liberation. Chidi Amuta recognizes the important role of cultural production, especially literature (drama), in the evocation of social consciousness, when he observes that:

Literature is a product of people in society and a producer of the cognitions and values of society; in short a social institution, a super structural manifestation of a fundamentally material process, the process of creation of ideas and values within limits prescribed by the social essence of language. Literature is, in addition, one (only one!) of the instruments for the sharpening and mobilization of social consciousness in pursuit or negation of qualitative change, an instrument for the preservation or subversion of the existing order (8).

 

Other scholars such as Soyinka, Rotimi, Clark, Ngugi, Nwabueze, Irobi, Walcott, Besong, Asigbo, among others, have written extensively on the relationship between drama and society. This is because the dramatist uses his art to support or criticize politics, oppression, bad leadership and other anomalies in their environments. Ngugi Wa Thiong’ O posits that:

Literature cannot escape from the class-power structure that shapes our everyday life. Here a writer has no choice, whether or not he is aware of it, his works reflect one or more aspects of African performance which has always been central to questions of social being. Performance was part of the anti-colonial resistance and after independence part of the questioning of the new postcolonial realities, with theatre becoming the site of struggle for social democracy. Not surprisingly, Africa’s performance was the first to be assaulted by the cultural forces of colonialism to give space for a colonized being. The same colonized being, mutating into a neo-colonial dictator sees theatre as a threat, and he often sends theatre practitioners into prisons, exile, or death in some cases. But theatre refuses to die either as text or as practice. It becomes a crucial part of the entire process of decolonization and understanding of modernity. (xii).

 

The artist is a member of society and uses drama as an avenue to express the society’s experience and to communicate his/her vision. Literature (drama) is produced within a social environment and a historical period. Since literature (drama) is a creation of the individual member of society, it does not only reflect the experiences of the society but also seeks to influence the same society. In other words, there exists a relationship between the artist and society, on the one hand, and between literature and society, on the other.

 

 

 

Critical appraisal of hierarchism and conformity in the plays of Esiaba Irobi highlighting character, plot, cultural and socio- political reflections

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