THE SOCIOLOGICAL INDICES OF AFRICAN DRAMA: A STUDY OF WOLE
SOYINKA’S
THE
BEATIFICATION
OF
AREA
BOY:
A
LAGOSIAN
KALEIDOSCOPEAND OLU OBAFEMI’S SCAPEGOATS AND SACRED COWS
BY
OBUTE ANTHONY CHUKWUDUMEBI
07/15CD119
AN
ESSAY
SUBMITTED
IN
PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT
OF
THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
ARTS (HONS) IN ENGLISH
TO
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
FACULTY OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN,
NIGERIA.
MAY, 2011.
1
CERTIFICATION
This essay has been read and approved as meeting part of the requirements for the
award of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in the Department English, Faculty of Arts,
University of Ilorin, Nigeria.
___________________
____________________
Dr. P.O. Balogun
Date
Supervisor
___________________
____________________
Dr. S.T.Babatunde
Date
Head of Department
__________________
____________________
External Examiner
Date
2
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to Almighty God for His guidance and protection through
out these four years of my academic pilgrimage in the University of Ilorin. I also
dedicate this work to my ever loving, caring and industrious mother, Mrs. R.O.
Obute.
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord
watches over the city, the watchmen keep watch in vain and by strength shall no
man prevail. I thank God for making this Project a reality.
I sincerely appreciate the effort of Dr. P.O. Balogun, my supervisor, lecturer and
foster father in the University of Ilorin community, your corrections and
encouragement made this project come through. My unreserved gratitude also goes
to all my lecturers in the University especially Dr. Mrs. B.F. Ibrahim and Dr. Femi
Dunmade.
I cannot forget the inestimable love of Dr. Mrs. C.E. Adu and family, thank you so
much for clothing, feeding and sheltering me and keeping me in prayers these four
years. Words are defiantly not enough to show the dept of my appreciation. I also
appreciate the concern of my family members; I say a very big thanks to Mr.
Joseph Obute, Mrs. R.O. Obute, Pastor Edward, Rev. Sis. Rita, Chika and Isioma.
Finally, I want to say a very big thank you to all my friends in the University of
Ilorin community, my classmates, and most especially Ayeni Adu, Tony Benson,
Ajibola Toyin, Ijeoma Egbuch and many others, the list is endless. I only wish a
hundred friends could be together for a hundred years. Thank you all.
4
ABSTRACT
A persisting tendency in African Drama has remained a careful evaluation and a
critical analysis of the African society for the purpose of heralding the cultural
virtues and attacking the vices prevalent in the African society for a general social
transformation. Drama has been defined as the mimesis of life on stage before a
given audience and a replication of the human society on stage. Therefore the
purpose of this research is to highlight and discuss in details the sociological
elements evident in African Drama. Having drawn analysis from Wole Soyinka’s
The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemi’s
Scapegoats and Sacred Cows from the sociological theoretical framework, it is
evident that the sensual entertainment evident in African Drama notwithstanding,
its ultimate focus is to instruct the audience about the prevalent social realities in
the society and inform a radical social transformation.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgement
iv
Abstract
v
Table of Content
vi
Chapter One
Introduction
1
Background to the Study
3
Purpose of Study
4
Justification
4
Scope of Study
5
Organization of Chapters
5
Methodology
6
Biography of Wole Soyinka
6
6
Biography of Olu Obafemi
8
Chapter Two
Drama and the African Experience
9
Sociology as a Theoretical Framework
13
Appraisal of The Beatification of Area Boy…
Scapegoats and Sacred Cows at a Glare
16
18
Chapter Three
Introduction
20
Synopsis of The Beatification of Area Boy…
21
Synopsis of Scapegoats and Sacred Cows
23
Sociological indices in the texts
26
Class Stratification
27
Oppression
28
Exploitation
29
Moral Decadence
30
7
Proletarian Revolution
31
Religious Allusions and Concerns
31
Economic Mortality
32
Dramatic Elements in the texts
33
Allusion
33
Humor
35
Characterization
36
Use of Songs
36
Chapter Four
Summary
38
Findings
39
Conclusion
41
Bibliography
42
8
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Aristotle defines drama as the “mimesis of life on stage before a given audience” (Jide
Balogun 2010, Lecture Notes on “Studies in Drama”). Shakespeare in his critical evaluation
draws an analogy in his definition as he opines that “life is but a stage” (quoted by B.F. Ibrahim
and Akande F.F 2000:37). By implication, life is a drama, and all humans are characters, taking
actions from God’s ordained-plot structure of the universe. Fromthe literary and academic point
of view, drama, which is one of the three genres of literature including prose and poetry,
replicates the activities of man through the use of characterization, dialogue, costumes,
etc.,presented on a stage in the presence of a given audience. Drama is an imitation of the real
world because the characters in action only represent and imitate some preconceived
personalities in the real world.
The concept of African Drama implies a type of drama nurtured and developed by
Africans, using African’s aesthetics and features for the African audience and the world at large.
TheAfrican experience of drama is traceable to the creationof man and other animate phenomena
because drama is a replication of man’s daily activities with his fellow man, his immediate
environment as well as the unseen world in terms of ritualistic performances. This experience
has been extensively argued to have originated form Egypt, Greece and the ancestral worshipof
African descents among other sources. Egypt, as the first source of African Drama rests on the
notion of her being the origin of civilization coupled with the historical evidence of the Egyptian
sacred drama celebration in 2000/BC. The Grecian evidence is associated with the worship of an
9
ancient deity called Thespis. The classical celebration of the great medieval Judeo-Christian
myth among others hasalso contributed to the growth and development of the contemporary
African Drama.African dramatic practitioners structure their works after the tenets of Tragedy,
Comedy, Tragic-comedy, Melodrama and Farce. However, the comic genre has been more
closely associated to the African society as the tragic genre was associated with the classical age
(JideBalogun 2009, Lecture “Notes on African Drama”).
Sociology, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (6th edition), is the
scientific study of the nature and development of the society and social behaviors. Over the
years, literary scholars and social analysts have been investigating the society in order to expose
the anomalies therein and inform social harmony and political stability among other issues. As
time went by, sociology metamorphosed into an approach in the literary field through which
writers and critics assess the society using social parameters.
Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu
Obafemi’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cowsare both African comic plays that critically investigate
the Nigerian (African) society and attack the excesses of the military leadership of the country.
Soyinka, in the playjuxtaposes the military strongholds at the helm of the country’s political
affairs as the “area boys”, socialmiscreants,who constitute political nuisances and the masses as
the “beatified area boys” who are symbols of emancipation struggling to resist the oppressive
tendencies of the military dictators. On the other hand, Olu Obafemi in his play examines the
relationship between these military cabals and the masses from the perspective of scapegoats and
10
sacred cows. The military icons constitute the sect of the sacred cows while the masses bear the
brunt of ‘scapegoatism’.
These drama pieces painstakingly probe into the social realities evident in the Nigerian
society and the African continent at large. Therefore, the thrust of this essay is to identify and
analyze some of the sociological indices of African Drama as exemplified in Wole Soyinka’s and
Olu Obafemi’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemi’s
Scapegoats and Sacred cows.
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
It may be appropriate to do an appraisal of African Drama from the perception of a
Moralist, Sociological, Psychological, Formalist, Archetypal or Marxist points of view. Maxwell
Adereth (1960) cited by Ibrahim B.F. and Akande F.F. (2000:22) asserts that literature (African
Drama) does more than mirror the society; it actively intervenes in order to change the society.
Arthur Hallam and Jide Balogun among other scholars have extensivelyargued and
encouragedthe relationship between arts society. Niyi Osundare quoted by Jide Balogun
(2004:117) supporting this relationship opines that “art shorn of human touch is art for art sake”.
Having established this relationship, evaluation of any work of art should always conform to
somegiven social realities; hence the sociological approach remains the most plausible option for
the evaluation of African Drama which is a depiction of the existential African realities. In
conclusion, our focus in this work, to identify and analyze the indices of African Drama using
the sociological approach is not a misappropriation of a literary ideology.
11
As earlier mentioned, our concern in this essay is to identify and analyze those glaring
sociological indices of African Drama as epitomized in the two texts being studied.
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this research is to revalidate the implication of sociology African Drama.
Attention will also be paid to the social, political, economic and the religious issues addressed in
African Drama as projected by Soyinka and Obafemi in their works to be studied. We shall
equally evaluate how the writers, Wole Soyinka and Olu Obafemi have used the comic features
in the play textsto ridicule the African society for the purpose of its positive transformation.
Attention will be paid in more practical terms to the didactic essence of African Drama as against
the venture of sensual entertainment implied. This research work will equally reconcile how
related art, especially African Drama is, to the African society.
JUSTIFICATION
It is a well established fact that literature cannot be separated from the society because no
writer writes in a vacuum but all writers write within a social context. Hence, the sociology of
literature (African Drama) becomes one of the most paramount issues in the Humanities. In this
vein, Jide Balogun (2010) has succinctly researched on the “Psycho-Therapeutic Paradox of the
Scapegoats in Olu Obafemi’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cows”where he established the
relationship between arts and medicine and the concept of ‘scapegoatism’. Femi Dunmade
(2006) has also presented a masterpiece on Understanding Wole Soyinka: The Beatification of
12
Area Boy ALagosian Kaleidoscope, In these researches, an apt attention wasnot paid to the
sociological indices embedded in these texts. Therefore, this research work will crack these
sociological nuts and make this work of great benefit to future researchers in this field and the
Humanities in general.
SCOPE OF STUDY
This research shall limit its scope to the sociological indices of African Drama using
Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemi’s
Scapegoats and Sacred Cows as data for analysis. The sociological issues to be addressed in this
work shall equally be limited to the social, political, religious and economic elements
represented in these texts. In view of the broadness of African Drama we shall narrow our
analysis to the two texts mentioned above. The choice of these texts is to allow for detailed
analysis of issues and for the validationand generalization of research findings.
ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTERS
This research report shall be organized into four chapters. Chapter one shall introduce us
to the research problem, give us a background to the study, discuss the purpose for the study,
justify the research work, discuss its scope and delimitation as well as the methodology to be
adopted.
13
Chapter two shall review relevant literature related to this study. Important journals and
academic articles as well as theses of scholars in this field shall be critically reviewed and
evaluated.
Chapter three shall analyze data from the two primary source texts. Chapter four shall
sum-up findings and present a logical conclusion on the research. This chapter shall also
acknowledge all relevant scholars cited in all parts of the report.
METHODOLOGY
This research shall be mainly empirical and the data for analysis are Wole Soyinka’s The
Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemi’s Scapegoats and Sacred
cows. No interviews or questionnaire shall be required in this research. All collected data shall be
objectively analyzed. The analysis of these texts shall be from a sociological theory paying apt
attention to the Marxist perspective. Analysis shall be based on detailed appraisal those salient
social issues.
BIOGRAPHY OF WOLE SOYINKA
Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka better known as Wole Soyinka was born on the
14th of July 1934 in his hometown Ake, Abeokuta of Ogun State Nigeria. He attended Saint
Peter’s Primary School in his home town and spent a year at Abeokuta Grammar School before
he proceeded to Government College Ibadan. In 1952, he was admitted into the then University
College Ibadan now University of Ibadan where he studied English, History and Greek. He left
14
Ibadan for Leeds University, United Kingdom in 1954 where he graduated with a Bachelor of
Arts English.
Today, Soyinka is an iconof African literature. His literary accomplishment is legendary
being unusually versatile in all the three genres of literature namely drama, prose and poetry. His
scholarship in literature was well rewarded in 1986 with the prestigious award of Noble Prize for
Literature, making him the first African to win that prize. (The Catholic Beacon, Vol 3. No.7,
July 2010)
Soyinka is a multi-dimensional personality, making landmark in various facets of life.
Apart from the literary field, he has made a name for himself in the Nigerian political history. He
uses literature as a tool for social, economic, religious and political transformation. Soyinka is an
erudite scholar, a literary giant, a fearless crusader of peace and justice, a formidable critic of bad
governance and an uncompromising foe of military regimes in Nigeria.
Soyinka has an endless list of publications to his credit. His works include the following:
The Interpreters, Season of Anomy, Idanre and Other Poems, A Shuttle in the Crypt, Ogun
Abibiman, Mandela’s Earth, Ake, Ibadan, Isara, The Jero’s Plays, The Road, A Dance of the
Forest, The Swamp Dwellers, A Play of the Giants, Strong Breed and Death and the King’s
Horseman.
15
BIOGRAPHY OF OLU OBAFEMI
Professor Benjamin Olufemi Obafemi’s a professor of English and dramatic literature in
the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. He teaches literary criticism, theory and creative writing. He
began his teaching career in 1976 as a pioneer staff of the then Department of Modern European
languages, University of Ilorin. His glowing academic career is a product of his intellectualism
which vision is negotiated through multi-media engagements as a literary and cultural scholar,
playwright, poet, novelist and social analyst.
Prof. Obaf, as he is fondly called, had his primary education in Kabba where he was born
in 1950. His secondary education was under hazardous circumstances because of the Nigerian
Civil War. He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in 1975 with a B.A. in English.He
obtained his Master’s degree in 1978 from Sheffield University and his Doctorate degree in 1981
from the University of Leeds, both in England.
Obafemi has registered a remarkable dominance in the literary landscape of Nigeria, and
Africa. The University of Ilorin, between the 1st and 4th of April 2010, played host to scholars
and intellectuals internationally who gathered to celebrate this dramatic icon on his 60th birthday
with an International Conference on African Literature and Theatre. Currently, Olu Obafemi is
the Director of Research, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos.
His works include the following: Naira Has No Gender, Suicide Syndrome, Night of a Mystical
Beast and Wheels.
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Drama and the African Experience
Aristotle, taking a second look at the concept of drama presented a more philosophical
and logical definition, asserting that “drama represents people in action”. Shakespeare
dramatizes his definition as he maintains his neo-classical analogy “that life is but a stage”
(quoted by B.F. Ibrahim and Akande F.F 2000:37). The above opinions of these two dramatic
legends presuppose in the mind of every reader that drama is not an abstract initiative but rather
a practical human experience.
J.C. De Graft (quoted by Best Ugala 1997:1) examines drama as a “condensation from
everyday life, an art form which does not only draw materials from life but also utilizes the
pulsating raw materials of actual human bodies as its medium of expression”. Considering the
opinion of De Graft on drama, we can logically draw a conclusion that drama maintains closest
proximity to life than the other genres ofliterature namely prose and poetry. Ibrahim B.F. and
Akande F.F. (2000:37) opine that “drama is an improvisation of recreation of life where the real
world is presented as an illusion of reality”. Across the globe, drama has remained a veritable
tool for social transformation and entertainment as well as being a form of cultural identity
among people of different origins and ideologies. This is made possible because of the
undeniable affinity drama shares with life; as the audience consumes dramatic materials, they are
better informed of the society they live in. This doe not mean that all other genres of literature do
not draw from the human experiences.
17
The African experience of drama has not been a mere historical or literary antecedent but
has continued to wax stronger in the agitation for the overhauling of the African continent. Best
Ugala (1997:1) holds the opinion that “the great origins of African Drama are deeply rooted in
festivals, sacrifices, rituals, legend and myths”. This assertion is not particular to the African
continent but also the Asian, Chinese and the Medieval Europe. By implication, dramatic
performances across the world share features. However, this close affinity notwithstanding,
African Drama stands out for those of Greek, Europe and Chinese because of the “black beauty”
it radiates from the use of proverbs and other African traditional aesthetics.
Jide Balogun has painstakingly argued that the contemporary “African dramatic
consciousness is also connected to the ancestral worship of African descents and traditional
celebration of all kinds”. In his examples, the heroic celebration of Emperor Shaka the Zulu of
South Africa in Masisi Kunene’s Emperor Shaka the Great,the celebration of the vengeance
mission of the young Ozidi in J.P. Clark’s Ozidi Sagaand the celebration of the holy water of
traditional insight in Ebrahim Hussein’s Kinjeketili are all examples of African dramatic
consciousness (Jide Balogun (2009), Lecture Notes on African Drama).
No doubt, the earlier definitions cited in this chapter exemplify academic success and
maturity but the brains behind these definitions have ignored the perusal of the raw materials that
informed their submissions on the concept of drama. Finnegan (1970:45) supporting our
argument, recommends that “rather than produce verbal definitions, it seems better to point to the
various elements which tend to come together in what in a wide sense, we normally regard as
drama”. Going by Finnegan’s position, it will not be a misappropriation of emphasis at this
18
juncture to submit some of those historical evidences that authenticate the reality of the
contemporary African Drama.
According to a certain African myth, in the dawn of time, man was in a state of pristine
ignorance and endemic innocence. His body was sacred and his heart pure. He was imbued with
prodigy of the spirit, and endowed with mysterious powers. He was very close to the undefiled
and sacred nature, he maintained deep communion with the earth, the vegetation and the animals.
He was indeed in a state of harmony with himself and his environment.
As time went on, the bestial and aggressive instinct in him started to multiply, man
started to desecrate the sanctity of nature, killing animals that were once his faithful companions,
degrading and overturning the earth, burning and devastating the vegetation. Thus, man
distanced himself from nature, equilibrium, egalitarianism and harmony took to flight, peace and
power eluded him and he lost faith in nature and himself. Like a psychosomatic patient, man
started imagining the plurality of threats to his continued existence. He felt terribly threatened by
such elemental phenomena as light, darkness, floods, holocausts, droughts, earthquakes and
storms, gravitation, space, noise and silence. Man also felt threatened by his biochemical process
like hunger, thirst and suffocation. He felt all these threats had capacity to annihilate him.
In the face of these threats, man began the ultimate search for security. This search for
safety was a clear acknowledgment of the existence of a greater cosmic power under which he
could seek refuge. Such primal and fragmentary thoughts passed through a process of temporal
distillation and man came to the knowledge of the existence of gods and deities. De Graft
suggests that it was the awareness of these many threats that led the primitive man to those
19
rituals and apprehensions, propitiation, purification and exorcism of which impersonation was a
cardinal feature. It was this same awareness that animated the drama in such widely different
cultures as those of the fifth-century Greece and medieval Europe.
Man’s conscious attempt to attain full communion or relationship with the unseen world,
his action to avert death and disaster and guaranty fortune in life gave birth to rituals, sacrifices,
worship of ancestral deities, masquerades and so on. These activities gave birth to the concept of
the contemporary African drama. (Ugala 1997:1)
The historical insight of Ugala (1997:1) into African Drama makes it crystal clear to
every critical mind that drama is a problem-solving action as the primitive man found it as the
antidote to his numerous threats and insecurity. The reader also reconciles the intra-conflict of
why rituals, sacrifices and other antecedent features were such integral parts of the earliest
dramatic performances in Africa and around the world?However, African Drama and drama in
general has left its original celestial landscape and journeyed far into other parts of the human
lifeto address social, political, economic and its original religious issues therein and establish a
more functional relevance within the human context.
Among the genres of African Drama, (tragedy, tragic-comedy, comedy, melodrama and
Farce) comedy thrives more than all others in the African society because of the irreplaceable
function it plays. Imo Ubokudom Ben Eshiet (2004) quoting Oyin Ogunba (1975:68) remarks
that “Soyinka’s genius is really for comedy and satire rather than tragedy”. These comic
veterans, Soyinka and Obafemi have adopted this genre to ridicule the “powers that be” in the
20
Nigerian military ethos. African comedy employs the use of satire, extensive amusement and
entertainment as an avenue to communicate didactic essence.
Sociology as a Theoretical Framework
The sociological approach to literature is believed to have originated from the word
sociology which is the scientific study of the nature and development of the society and social
behaviors. As cultural and literary critics began to investigate the human society in the works of
arts, it became of paramount importance to assess the society using social parameters. In the
literary perusal, the contemporary usage of the sociological approach is believed to be an
offshoot of the Utilitarian school of thought. This school of art professes strong and unwavering
creed for the didactic nature of literature, the relationship between arts and the society and the
inevitability of social mobilization of the masses. This literary theory has also been argued to
have taken after the Aristotelian school of mimesis and equally being an umbrella that
accommodates all other literary approaches because all literary criticisms must be within the
confines of a given social context.
Vazquez (1973: 113-114) cited by Jide Balogun (2004: 117) made a legendary landmark
on this as he argued that “art and society are necessarily connected. No art has been unaffected
by the society and no art has failed in turn to influence the society”. Niyi Osundare’s position on
this relationship has been widely heralded because of the accuracy and precision in his argument.
Osundare (1983) quoted by Jide Balogun (1983: 117) supporting this relationship opines that “art
shorn of human touch is art for art sake”. The positions of Vazquez and Osundare clear every
21
iota of doubt in our minds that art has a pride of place in the society and by implication that all
works of art must depict an existing social reality. The implication of Osundare’s submission on
this is that any work of art that consciously or unconsciously neglects social realities of a people
is a purposeless academic and literary venture, judging by the sociological parameters.
Bayo Ogunjimi (1992) quoted by Ibrahim B.F. and Akande F.F. (200:19) maintains that
the “inevitability of social mobilization in the sociological theory suggest dialectics of history in
literature”. An appraisal of Ogunjimi’s position on the sociological theory denotes that literature
especially African Drama is methodical in revealing the truth in a given society to the ignorant
masses.
Ibrahim B.F. and Akande F.F. (2000:19) posit that the sociological theory gathers
conservative cultural credentials and uses these credentials in literary work to expose the setting,
theme and character types. As such, dialectical contents are not emphasized by both writers and
critics belonging to this school of thought. However, in this same sociological theory, social
diversification is inevitable”. The inevitability of this social diversification is what permits the
sociological theory an access into various aspects of the human society.
Jide Balogun (2004: 117) having examined the sociological approach concludes that
“literature (African Drama) should be instrumental to the transformation of the society”. The
transformative tendencies of any society via the avenue of art chiefly lies in the adoption of the
sociological literary approach to the issues of that given society, as saliently exposed by the artist
who is the umpire in the struggle for a veritable society.
22
African writers such as Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Olu Obafemi among others
have gone beyond the realm of adopting the sociological theoryonly in the literary sense of it but
have taken active parts in more practical terms in the agitation for social transformation.
Ademola (2003:207) explains that
Christopher Okigbo in Labyrinths, a post humus publication,
accommodates social and political engagements, and at the same time,
he assumes the role of a prophet, taking up arms in defense of his
people, and died in the process”. Olu Obafemi (1992), explaining
Okigbo’s action, posits that: “the violence in the West from October
1965 after the elections, the military coup in 1966 and the massacres of
the Igbos in Northern Nigeria have direct impact on his (Okigbo)
sensibility.
The
enormity
of
the
general
violence…Okigbo…surrendered himself to the service of his society
and turned a “town-crier” with an “iron-bell” articulating the agony and
torment of the people under the arbitrary rule of the military….”
It has gone down the memory lanes of history that in the same vein did Wole Soyinka
forcefully seize a radio station in the Western Nigeria and made a broadcast titled “the voice of
the people” (Ademola 2003: 208). In the said broadcast, Soyinka verbally mobilized the masses
against the irresponsible government of the Premier of the Western region, equally taking it upon
himself to mediate between the Federal Government and the military cabals of the seceding
23
Biafran Republic. Soyinka describes African writers who are not “sociologically complaints” as
“writers who stand in the side lines during real events”. Olu Obafemi (1992:26) describes
Soyinka’s action as “his ever-growing social awareness which takes the form of real
commitment to social reform through both art and political activism”
Chinua Achebe (1973:78), in ‘The Novelist as a Teacher’ advocates that “any African
(writer and dramatist) who tries to avoid the big social and political issues of contemporary
Africa will end up being completely irrelevant like that absurd man in the proverb who leaves his
house burning to pursue a rat fleeing from the flames”. Ngugi Wa Thiongo (1993:114) concludes
that “as long as this struggle for liberation continues, we cannot say we have exhausted the topic.
To say so, amounts to saying that the African people have ceased to exist”. From all points of
view; the sociological approach is of paramount importance to the progress of any given society
especially the African race in the face of this post-colonial vicious circle. The sociological theory
has two basic matrixes of Feminism and Marxism. However, for the purpose of this study we
will be dwelling on the Marxist view which deals with such issues of class stratification,
economic inequality, oppression, moral decadence, exploitation, proletarian revolution among
other issues.
Appraisalof The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope
The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscopelike other works of Wole
Soyinka has drawn wide range attention and criticism from scholars and literary analysts across
the globe because of the context of this drama piece. This epoch witnessed the brazen military
24
leadership of the country during which Nigeria sank into the present day political and economic
chaos. Years after this military dictatorship, the lasting effects are still being felt across the
country.
Adebayo (2001: 20) x-rays this drama piece from a thematic point of view, succinctly
identifying the themes of war, blood and marriage. However, some other themes like abuse of
power, poverty and unemployment were left out; hence we shall look into them critically.
Imo Eshiet (2004: 250) explains this drama piece from the stand point of Soyinka’s
departure from metaphysical profundity to ferocious topicality. He sumsup The Beatification of
Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscopeas
A trenchantly biting interrogation of a cocktail of adversities
including the free fall to anarchy resulting from the military
usurpation of political power in Nigeria, showcasing the country
as being engulfed in a spiral of military ambushes and economic
decay…. The playwright uses the synecdoche of Lagos as a coat
hanger, upon which he paints a murderously annihilating picture
of a failed state, a deceased political condition, marked by fiscal
prudence, parlous economic situation, massacre and rapine,
alienated state assets, unmitigated poverty, misery, indeed, a sorry
saga of cultural, political and social defenestration.
25
The logical summary of Eshiet on this encapsulates all the salient issues intended by the
playwright in this work. However, our interest in his criticism is to expand, in more practical
terms, the highlighted issues of his synopsis of the play. On a lighter note, Soyinka did not
completely migrate from the metaphysics of Ogun’s myth as opinionated by Eshiet, but Soyinka
carefully synthesized the metaphysical with tangible realities of the Nigerian society.
Chris Egharevba (2004: 318), in his critical analysis, x-rays the play and the lager
Nigerian society within the context of Judge’s(a character in the play) statement of a journey to
the kingdom of lost soul. In his perspective, the Nigerian society has lost her soul and conscience
of nationhood, allowing pervasion and corruption to stroll the streets of the nation. Dunmade
(2006:6) situates the play as a general attack by Soyinka against the military governance in
Nigeria. He advocates that the focal concern of the play emerges with the satirical thrust against
the military and the heroic struggle of Sanda and his allies against the military atmosphere,
identifying the themes of poverty, unemployment, superstition and many others.
From the opinions of these critics on this play, it is evident that the play is a satirical
attack on the excesses of the military government in Nigeria and the ever-growing struggle of the
masses for emancipation.
Scapegoates and Sacred Cows at a Glare
Olu Obafemi is an outstanding African writer who has continued to pitch his artistic tent
with the masses, in the struggle for the liberation of the common man on the streets. His works
26
are also widely celebrated across the globe, hence arousing the interests of scholars and critics
alike.
Owoeye (2007: 19), analyzing Scapegoats and Sacred Cows approached her criticism
from a linguistic point of view. She narrowed her analysis to interpretations of lexemes and other
paralinguistic features exhibited by the characters in the play. She paid arapt attention to the
formalism in the work thereby denying the play its original functional relevance. As good as her
contribution on this may be to the general field of linguistics, we shall examine this play from a
thematic point of view to highlight its sociological imperative.
Jide Balogun (2010:3) distinctly departed from the formalistic approach of Owoeye, to
situate this play within the context of a more tangible human perception. Balogun’s criticism,
though uncommon but important in the Humanities, articulately establishes a close affinity
between arts and medicine, literature and psychotherapy. He maintains that “there would be no
scapegoats without sacred cows. While the sacred cows predominate and use the scapegoats as
an instrument of manipulation, the scapegoats in turn assert their beings as a form of resistance”.
Balogun, a critic to the core, in his creativity, paints the portrait of the “scapegoats and the sacred
cows” on the walls of economic exploitation, social injustice and cultural annihilation of the
African continent by Europe, informed by the illicit historical antecedent of colonialism and
post-colonial oppressions. In clearer terms, he sees the Africancontinent as the scapegoats and
Europe as the sacred cow.
27
No doubt, the above submission of Balogun is with all precision and accuracy, however,
our aim on this, is to situate this obnoxious principle of “scapegoats and sacred cows” within the
Nigerian context from the perspective of “dog eat dog” mentality.
28
CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS
Introduction
Femi Osofisan (2001:88), emphasizing the need for a more artistic relevance,
particularly in the face of the African post-colonial terrorism by the political and military classes,
posits:
History has trapped us: and not only by the force of tradition, also by
the kind of government we have been saddled with since
independence by the treachery and travesties of the ruling class which
have succeeded the colonial powers and continued to hold our people
under siege and by the crying needs of the suffering majority of the
populace…. If we must change our societies, if the theatre (indeed, all
generic forms of literature, oral and written) must fulfill its vocation
as an agent of progress, the dramatist (writers) who create it have no
option but to pitch their camp on the side of the common people and
against the formidable agents of the ruling class.
Wole Soyinka and Olu Obafemi are hybrid writers of the Nigerian colonial and postcolonial experiences, these experiences have seasoned theirworks with revolutionary and radical
protests against the ruling class. The two literary scholars who believe in literature as an
instrument of change have continued to pitch their camps with the masses in the protest against
the home-grown tyrants and dictators in the post-colonial African political scenes.
29
We shall take a critical adventure in this chapter into Wole Soyinka’sThe Beatification of Area
Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemii’sScapegoats and Sacred Cowsto unravel the
desirability of transformation.
Synopsis of The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope
The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscopeis one of Soyinka’s latest plays,
published first in 1995 during the oppressive military regime of late Gen. SanniAbachaand his
Northern military allies. The play is a satire against the military politicking in Nigeria and a
revolutionary attack against theirleadership at the helm of the country’s affairs. The play
examines the “season of anomy” bequeathed on the masses by this military junta.
From the title of this work, the concept of the “beatification of area boy” paints the
picture of a paradox in our minds.“Beatification means to give a dead person a special honor by
stating officially that he/she is very holy, a prerequisite of the Pope” (Oxford advanced Learners
Dictionary, 6th Edition). Therefore the question arises; for what purpose should an area boy be
honored for? This paradox was deliberately used by the playwright to canonize the social
struggle of Sanda, the protagonist, a supposed “area boy” and his group while desecrating the
hitherto canonized concept of military leadership in the Nigerian landscape. The concept of
‘areaboyism’ was borrowed from the contemporary Lagos setting where some youths constitute
themselves into groups, feeding on marijuana and alcohol to arouse a high spirit with which they
perpetuate such vicious acts of extortion from motorists, cyclist and innocent passers-by,
brutality, arson, oppression and homicides as a means of their survival. These social miscreants,
30
“area boys” as they are fondly called in Lagos see their activities as an escapist approach to their
social deprivation by the government. Their nocturnal activities, though negative in the sense, are
forms of protests against the oppression of the ruling government. The activities of the “area
Boys” even go beyond mere extortion to physical and psychological assaults on the innocent
citizenry.
Sanda and his folks, who are termed “area boys”, co-ordinate themselves properly,
“extort” money from shoppers who park their vehicles under their supervision and inject the
money back into the society for human development. Boyko and the Prisoners among others
directly benefit from this scheme. This “taxation scheme” of Sanda and his group could be
likened to the normal taxes collected from the masses by the government which are supposed to
be plough back into the society for human and infrastructural developments, but are impunitively
looted by the government agents. Sanda’s society is seen to be a peaceful one, devoid of
quarrels, brutality and any form of social malady, an example of a good government. On the
other hand, the military agents demonstrate such attitudes of oppression, brutality, exploitation
and homicides.
The military officers’ evacuation of the residents of the Maroko market is a typology of
the illicit activities of the “area boys”. Furthermore, their closure of the high way for the
Miseyi’s wedding at the expense of motorist and the innocent citizens constitute another of the
unacceptable activities of the “area boys”. There is juxtaposition in the play between the “area
boys” and the military agents. The military agents are perceived as the real socio-political
miscreants who have no plans for the progress and well-being of the masses while Sanda and his
31
group are agents of progress and good governance, hence the author regards them as beatified or
canonized area boys.
Synopsis of Scapegoats and Sacred Cows
This play was first drafted in 1994 during the vicious military regime of late Gen. Sanni
Abacha, but was published nine years later in 2003. The play is a comic one with an intense
satirical background against the ruling oppressors in the Nigerian political landscape. It
thoroughly investigates and attacks the oppressive tendencies of the military juggernauts in the
Nigerian politics. The chronicles of unjustifiable prison experiences of writers, social crusaders
and the masses in general informed the play’s dominant prison setting.
From the title of the play, Scapegoats and Sacred Cows,it is suggestive of the intents of
the play. The play explores the illicit concept of scapegoats and sacred cows as it obtains in the
Nigerian society, especially in the military era. The original implication of “scapegoatism”rests
on the idea of a habitual offenderamong other offenders paying the prize for his offences, for
being caught in the action. This concept later metamorphosed to its contemporary usage with the
introduction of the sacred cows, introducing a new semantics of a group of people committing an
offence and an individual or some individuals having to pay for it while some of the offenders
are allowed to go away unpunished . This latter concept was introduced into the human sociopoliticalcontext because of the greedy intents of the ruling class to exploit and oppress the
revolutionary sect.
32
The characters of 222, 221, other inmates and the masses on a wider spectrum make up
the scapegoats who are subjected to different kinds of social deprivations, sufferings, political
intimidation and economic exploitation for the wealth and affluence of the military cabals who
are the sacred cows. At this juncture, these important questions arise; what are the offences of the
oppressed?Could their agitation for social equality and justice be termed an offence?
A certain Jewish scholar, Isaiah, chronicles our contemporary usage of this concept from
a certain medieval Judeo-Christian myth, making a portrait of the scapegoat on Jesus, whom the
father (God) offered to die in order to save the world (Christians) from their sins, thus;
Surely, he has borne our grieves and carried our sorrows: yet
we esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him and
with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Contextualizing the above biblical allusion in of our study, the masses, who are the
scapegoats, pay the prize for the wealth and affluence of the sacred cows who are the leaders. It
is paradoxical that the contemporary scapegoats are usually numerically stronger than the sacred
cows, however the sacred cows incapacitate the scapegoats psychologically, economically,
politically and otherwise to avoid any form of head-to-head confrontation.
The characters of ITS and Gafa or 222 in the play amply represent the two sects of the
Nigerian populace, the scapegoats and the sacred cows, “the haves and the have nots” as well as
33
the revolutionary and the reactionary elements. Gafa is a symbol of revolution, social justice,
political freedom and an ardent foe of the military powers. On the other hand, ITS make up the
reactionary elements, epitomizing oppression, social inequality and injustice, intimidation,
dictatorship and a typology of the genocidal and homicidal species in the military. The play
begins with a conversation between two inmates who are supposedly psychologically defeated
folks. Via this dialogue, we observe the traumatic prison effect on them as they deliberately work
at altering their psychological horizons.
221:
Dis bed (referring to a wooden plank about one and a half
feet wide and five feet six inches long). You must to think
sayna bed, if you wan sleep at all. Just tell your mind say
na bed be dis. Not to so, your eye no go close samsam.
222:
(infuriated by the bizarre joke) what bed? This rotten, caky,
creaky plank, bed? This misused product of the forest, bed?
221:
Na di mind my brother. Your mind go do anything way you
tell am to do. Make you just adjust the break of your mind.
Not to so, you crash land, you die, finish. (p. 2)
The above dialogue glaringly explores the larger Nigerian society where the masses are
forced by the season of anomy enthroned by the militarygovernment to alter their psychological
standpoints to accommodate the anomalies of the oppressors.
34
The play relates the travails of Gafa, a social crusader who is imprisoned alongside other
inmates for opposing and attacking the excesses of the military government. From his
experience, we are projected into the corrupt and oppressive practices of the military as ITS
crafts plans to silence him either by bribing him out of his social anti-government crusade or by
homicide which he stands for.
The playwright uses the technique of “play within a play” to x-ray the larger society.
Showing the level of moral decadence within the society from a judicial setting, he represents the
society as a fable, using the characters of animals to represent humans. This is a misfortune for
any given society. The character of Ekun (leopard) typifies a hope of the masses which is the
“unbiased” judiciary while Esin (horse) is seen as the intent of the government to hijack the
judiciary as one of its agencies of oppression.
Gafa sums up the situation of the society from the epilogue “we are all in a huge prison of
want and poverty in a land over-flowing with abundant nature and human endowment” (p.46).
From this statement, the themes of poverty and exploitation are evident and these themes and
theirantecedent woes have remained as archetypal issuesin African Drama.
Sociological Indices in the Texts
Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu
Obafemii’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cowsare play text that have not been alienated from the
Nigeriansociety and Africaon a wider spectrum, but have mirrored the social preoccupations in
these vicinities. These issues will be discussed in this segment of the report.
35
Class Stratification
The archetypal concept of class stratification in African Drama finds ample expressions
in Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemii’s
Scapegoats and Sacred Cows. In the former, the physical setting of this play, opulent shopping
complex alongside made shift stalls, informs our senses of this issue of class stratification. The
characters of Barber, Trader, Mama Put, Boyko and Judge constitute the lower classes that are
restricted to such degrading human environments, while Big Man Shopper and the Military
Agents who are enjoying the pleasure of the shopping complex constitute the upper class. This
physical separation of the setting, introduces the human concept of class and struggle. The
military agents and the types of the Big Man Shopper belong to the class who are known for their
affluence and illegal acquisition of wealth.
The lower class society is relegated to the background because they are “no forces to
reckon with” both politically and socially. The narrow separation between the make shift stalls
and the shopping complex implies that this oppressive gap can be bridged to allow a fair cohabitation of these groups of people but the upper class would not let go of their intimidations of
the lower class. The baby who was trampled to death in the stampede of the Maroko market
pilgrims couldnot be identified in terms of itsgender, hence the baby is regarded to as “it”, and it
made up the classless that belong nowhere and cannot find a place in the class driven society of
our world. The struggle to keep up the class stratification by the upper class is also identified in
the intended marriage between the two wealthy families. Miseyi’s betrothal to the Bridegroom
was not out of love but a sacrifice to maintain the family ties as the upper class.
36
In Olu Obafemii’s work, this ideology is represented in the relationship between ITS,
Korofo and the inmates. ITSconverted one of the inmates to a sitting stool for his comfort,
exemplifying the oppressive degree of the high class over the lower class and the classless
people.
Oppression
This has remained one of the most paramount issues of the post colonial African
Literature because of the intimidating postures of the ruling class. It has always been a common
place for African leaders to display one type of oppression or the other on their subjects. This
issue is equally exposed in the two texts, while raising an attack against this obnoxious act. In
The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, the forceful ejection of the masses
from Maroko market, by the military agents, clearly exemplifies the oppressive intents of the
ruling military agents. Furthermore, the brutality experienced by Judge from the military agents
is another form of oppression by the military. The closure of the high way by the military
Governor for the intended marriage between the Bridegroom and Miseyi is in the line of self
gratifying intent of the military and the leaders in general even at the expense of the poor masses.
In Olu Obafemii’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cows, ITS is a typology of the oppressive lot
of the military powers against the social crusaders, inmates and the masses in general. In the
play, ITS ordered Korofo to wet Gafa properly before flogging him. This is a clear example of
man’s inhumanity to his fellow man especially as it affects the post colonial African setting. ITS’
conversion of 221 to a sitting stool is another example of such oppressions of the ruling class.
37
Exploitation
The issue of exploitation is an integral part of such social vices as class stratification,
oppression and intimidation, which is a common place phenomenon among the ruling elite of the
African society under study. In The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, the
exploitativeposture of the military powers remained the reason for the under-employment and
unemployment issues that dominate Sanda’s society. The massive exploitation of the ruling class
enthroned the season of anomy in Sanda’s society. This made the economy fall apart and life
became no longer at ease for Sanda and his associates.
The climax of this exploitation is envisaged in the planned wedding between Miseyi and
the Bridegroom as the military agents came there for a display of the looted treasury of the
nation. This sociological issue continues to linger in the contemporary Nigerian political setting.
In Olu Obafemii’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cows, exploitation by the ruling class is
revealed in the interrogation between ITS and Gafa.
Gafa:
Tell me more, especially of those accounts. Name the rouges
who own them?(p.21)
The question of Gafa points to those foreign accounts of the military big guns kept oversees. It’s
disheartening to point out, that these foreign accounts owned by the military powers in the two
texts are credited from the national treasury, unfortunately, for the pleasure of few individuals.
Exploitation is one of the motifs of Gafa’s protest against the military powers.
38
Moral Decadence
The two settings of the plays are a typology of a morally decadent societyin which all
forms of social vices thrive and the recycling of the vicious activities of the military mediocre,
the supposed leaders of the nation are visible. Theconditions under which Sanda and Gafa began
their revolutions against the military oppressors are not better than that of a sick land. The
atmospheres in the two plays are characterized by military dictatorship, anarchy, hardship,
exploitation, struggle and other woes, hence the common man is left with the struggle for
survival either by fair or foul means.
In The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, the concept of moral
decadence is presented in the ritual/money-making episode where a victim claimed his genital
had been collected by the Accused for rituals, in the quest for wealth. Though, this episode
equally x-rays the level of superstition in the society but it is a common place phenomenon in the
present day society. Sanda also identifies these foul means of money making in the following
words: “cocaine, 419 swindle, Godfathering or mothering, armed robbers. Or after a career with
the police or the army, if you are lucky to grab a political post” (p.14).
In Scapegoats and Sacred Cows, ITS enumerates these vicious means of wealth
acquisition in the foregoing statement;“…in your dream, you saw and heard all sorts of things.
Ghost armed robbers, cocaine pushers, politicians, oil bunkerers, 419 people….” (p.21)
Theabove enumerated social vices are the measures taken by the frustrated masses and
the rich people to maintain a wealthy pedigree. Olu Obafemii radically attacks the issue of drug
39
trafficking headlong in his other play Naira Has No Gender with little or no reservation for the
traffickers.
Proletarian Revolution
The primary concern of the revolutionary characters in the two plays is to exert their
being against the oppressions of the military leaders and create an abode for themselves in the
face of the societal mortality. This revolutionary concern takes the form of a fierce agitation
against the agents of the governments in the two plays to abhor all forms of social inequality and
injustice and allow a fair co-habitation of the inhabitants. In The Beatification of Area Boy: A
Lagosian Kaleidoscope, Sanda adopted the method of constituting a new society within the
larger one as a form of protest against the dictatorship of the leaders of the larger society.
InScapegoats and Sacred Cows, Gafa and his co-agitators adopted the method of head-tohead confrontation against the leaders of the society. The agitation for survival and emancipation
of the commoners in any given society is an all time context in African Drama. History has the
record of Christopher Okigbo in his similar agitation for the emancipation of the Ogoni people of
the Niger Delta region. The two plays extensively pay apt attention to the agitation for survival
of the poor man on the street.
Religious Allusions and Concerns
It is an established fact that African Drama uses religion as one of its primary subjects
for satire. This is informed by the corrupt practices in the religious setting of the African
40
continent. In The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, Soyinka equally attacks
the religious practitioners who use the opportunity to exploit their congregation as Sanda
suggests that one can get rich quickly by opening a private church or mosque. These exploitative
potentials of the ruling class in the political settings are equally evident in the religious
practitioners.
Economic Mortality
The two texts evaluate the nation’s economy as a bastardized and failed economy,
characterized by unmitigated poverty, inflation, money laundering and a general annihilation of
the currency. In The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, Trader posits: “…we
currency done fall again, petrol dey scarcity, which mean to say, transport fare done double. As
for foodstuff and other commodity, even garriwey be poor man diet… I need small time to put
new prize for all dese goods” (p.35). The expression of Trader paints a clear picture that the
economy of the nation was in rubbles. In Scapegoats and Sacred Cows, Gafa, ironically teases
ITS of thebuoyant economic situation of the nation “… take a snappy look among your loved
ones? Why do you fear those who love you? …Very strange. Sound and buoyant economy,
yielding love that scares you from the street…” (p.33).This statement was intended by Gafa to
ridicule ITS and his bosses and protest the economic situation they had thrown the nation into.
41
Dramatic Elements in the Texts
These texts are very rich in dramatic elements which the playwrights deliberately used to
communicate didactic essence of their intended messages. The elements to be discussed in this
section include the following; Allusion, Humor, Songs andCharacterization.
Allusion
This is aliterary technique used to make reference to literary, historical and Biblical
events in literary works in order to inform better understanding of the situation being described.
The two texts are very rich in the use of this technique. In The Beatification of Area Boy: A
Lagosian Kaleidoscope, Sanda suggests that there could be a “method in Judge’s madness”, this
is in clear reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet (19 where Hamlet feigned madness to unravel his
father’s murderer. By implication, Judge’s situation of half normalcy and lunacy may be aimed
at attacking the irresponsive military government meanwhile he is taken for granted as a lunatic.
Sanda equally refers to Mama Put as “mother courage”. Mother Courage and Her
Children(1939)is regarded to be one of Bertolt Brecht’s best known works. Mama Put in
Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, is referred to as Mother
Courage in Brecht’sMother Courage and her Childrenbecause of her resilience and strength in
the face of the tragic effect the war caused her.
The Barber equally refers to Sanda as “the original doubting Thomas” (p.14) because of
Sanda’s refusal to consent to the superstition of people being used for ritual by some folks to
make more money. The allusion of “doubting Thomas” finds expression in the Bible where
42
Thomas, a disciple of Jesus refused to believe that Jesus had resurrected from the dead (John
20:29-31). Thomas became convinced when he saw Jesus himself. The use of this allusion is to
describe the level of Sanda’s disbelief of such superstitious acts.
Olu Obafemii’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cowsis also very rich in this dramatic element.
There are strong historical allusions to the heroic struggles from Fidel Castro of Cuba and
Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Gafa advocates that Fidel Castro pitched battle against the
dictatorship of Batista, the former Cuban leader, having librated his people, he recalls that
ninety-nine percent of the total population of Cuba today can read and write. Gafa also recalls
the legendary struggle of Nelson Mandela, who was reprimanded in Robin Island for twenty-five
long years, today; he is celebrated as the emancipator of the present day South Africa. These
references made to by Gafa, were targeted at encouraging the inmates in their struggle for the
total emancipation of the Nigerian masses in the face of the oppressions of the military powers.
By implication, Gafa, fore-shadowed that freedom for the general masses would be achieved in
their struggle.
ITS, characterizing Gafa makes allusion to heroic figures like Jesus Christ, Mohammed
and Oba Songo. “So…. They are right then? You want to die like a hero. Like Jesus Christ,
Mohammed or Oba Songo” (p. 19). These epic figures mentioned above are renowned for having
died for the course they believed in; hence their adherents see them as heroes in such fields.
Jesus Christ is celebrated among the Christians, Mohammed, among the Muslims and Oba
Songo among the Songo worshippers. The implication of ITS’ allusion is to exemplify how Gafa
43
will be celebrated by his adherents as a heroic figure as a result of the emancipation of the
masses.
ITS also alludes to the Yoruba epic of “Esu” (devil). “Esu” is one of the Yoruba’s
primordial divinities, generally perceived to be destructive in nature especially to those who
refuse to offer sacrifices to and obey him. It is believed among the Yorubas that who ever does
not offer sacrifices to “Esu” invites his wrath. ITS, considering this wrath of “Esu”, ITS
characterizing Gafa as “Esu” asks “when did I remove Esu’s offering from the crossroads?”
(p.22).By implication how did ITS invite the wrath of Gafa and his adherent that they are anti the
military government and their agents?
Humor
This is one of the primary techniques of comedy and other satirical works. It is used in
comic works to ridicule a group of people particularly the upper class for their ill doings while
causing hilarious amusement for the audience, but not neglecting the intended message being
studied.The two texts under review are full of humors, intended to protest the excesses and
corrupt practices of the military government. It is also used to ease tensions mounted on the
audience by serious issues being addressed.
InWole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu
Obafemii’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cowsthe issues of coups and counter coups by the military
agents are presented in a very humorous manner. Barber, inThe Beatification of Area Boy: A
Lagosian Kaleidoscope,convincing the Cyclist (a character in the play) to have his hair cut,
44
amuses that he can shave the hair of a whole battalion before the next coup. In this humorous
euphoria, Barber ridicules the military that the coup plotting and seizure of military political
power was too often and unacceptable to the masses. In Scapegoats and Sacred Cows,the
inmates regard the farting of one of them as a bomb explosion which the military would perceive
as a coup execution. They further regard that act as a treasonable felony which is punishable by
death in the military law. The implication of this humor is the unpredictability of coup execution
in the country. More so, the inmates equate the act of farting which is a natural instinct to a
treasonable felony, to show the oppressive and wicked intent of the government.
Characterization
The conflicts in the two plays are built around the characters of Gafa and Sanda who are
the protagonists in the texts and also symbols of social agitation and revolution against the
military governments. ITS and the military form the reactionary elements who are antagonists of
Gafa and Sanda. InThe Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, Sanda leads the
other area boys in their comic struggle for the needed change in the society. Gafa, in Scapegoats
and Sacred Cows,equally plays the hero in the struggle and agitation against the oppressors.
Use of Songs
The use of songs is an integral part of African Drama because it communicates some of
the intended messages of the playwright. The two texts use this element at different points and
45
for different purposes. In The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope, Minstrel uses
songs in protest and ridicule against the military. Let us examine a segment of one of his songs:
Maroko o. what a ruckus…
By sheer atmospheric poison
NO electricity or piped water
No sewage or garbage disposal.
Was it decent
To be indifferent?.... (p. 86)
The above stanza is a deliberate effort by Minstrel at opposing and ridiculing the military
leaders who do not considerit desirable to improve the living standard of the Maroko residents.
This song paints a clear picture of an under-developed society languishing in social deprivation.
In Scapegoats and Sacred Cows, the inmates use songs to praise the valor and resilience
of Gafa against ITS and his bosses. The inmates see Gafa as a symbol of justice and social
equality and freedom for those who are under military captivity. Hence the inmates sing;
221:
Chorus:
221:
Chorus:
221:
Chorus:
221:
Chorus:
221:
Chorus:
Lift him aloft
Carry him high
Darling of the wretched
We’ll lift him high
Companion of workers
We’ve shouldered him
Friend of the world
We’ll carry him yet
The state hounds him
We shall mount him…. (p.9)
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CHAPTER FOUR
Summary
This research has been able to identify and discuss in details the sociological indices of
African Drama drawing analysis from Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A
Lagosian Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemi’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cows. This research has
discussed in details such issues as class stratification, oppression, proletarian revolution among
other obnoxious issues that border the post-colonial African societies.
Chapter one of this research served as a general introduction, discussing the background
of study, purpose of study, justification, scope of study as well as biographies of the authors
whose text were used in this research. Chapter two focused on the review of literatures related to
this study. At this juncture, we discussed drama and the its African experience and coloration, we
equally examined sociology as the theoretical framework of our study. we also looked
highlighted earlier discourses on Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian
Kaleidoscope and Olu Obafemii’s Scapegoats and Sacred Cows.
Chapter three dwelt on the analysis of the said texts which constitute our primary data.
Here, we evaluated such issues as class stratification, oppression, proletarian revolution, moral
decadence and the economic situation of the nation as well as the dramatic elements used by the
two authors. Findings available to us in the course of this research revealed that African Drama
and dramatist have continued to stand up in protest against these social anomalies for the
transformation and overall progress of the African communities.
47
Findings
African Drama has never failed to capture the happenings in the African society but has
continued to chronicle the feasible human realities in the African world. African Drama critically
explores and reflects the African society, paying close attention to the socio-political cum
economic and religious issues therein, in order to correct the anomalies in the society and hasten
the pace of social progress in the same. It has continually identified with the revolutionary
elements and the proletariats against the oppressions of the bourgeoisies who have continued to
dominate the scenes of the post colonial African environment.
African dramatic practitioners have continually identified the salient issues of social
retrogression in the society, while striving in works of art and in active practice to neutralize all
forms of oppressions. This is evident in the works of Soyinka and Obafemi analyzed in the
preceding chapter. These agitations and struggles have contributed in no small measure to the
progress and development of Africa.
Despite the cynicism of some critics, both African and European, about the relevance of
African Drama to the development of the African world, African Drama has continually waxed
stronger as an instrument of social transformation because it probes man’s activity with his
fellow man, the immediate environment and the world at large.
The obvious evidences of entertainment in African Drama especially the comic genre
notwithstanding, its ultimate focus of is to instruct the audience on the basic social realities in the
society which the audience may be ignorant of.It equally focuses on protesting the anomalies of
the leaders against their followers and causes a general social transformation. African Drama is
48
also one of the greatest weapons of the continent in the quest for socio-cultural identity among
people of other continents.
Finally, African Drama chronicles the experience of the continent, struggles in the
contemporary world to obliterate all forms of social vices and recommends standards for future
existence and sustenance of the lasting moral human values of the continent.
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Conclusion
From the foregoing discussion on the sociological indices of African Drama, it is evident
that the African society and African Drama share close affinity because African Drama replicates
the society. African Drama has not also kept mute to the illicit social activities of the ruling class
against the well-being of masses. Such issues as oppression, exploitation and political
intimidation have remained the focus of the African dramatist, in order to enthrone a socially
stable and progressive society.
50
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