Ukaegbu, V. (2008) Beyond postcolonial, post-militarist tropes: Osofisan’s theatre of popular revolution. Panel Presentation presented to: Professor Femi Osofisan International Conference on Performance: Relevant Arts for Sustainable Global Development, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 17-21 June 2008. (Unpublished)
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Abstract:
Femi Osofisan, one of Africa’s most radical playwrights blames Africa’s problems on internal failings in the polity, especially corruption, poverty and class conflicts. His dramaturgy locates the revolutionary ethos in a populist dialectics that links genuine socio-political freedom to the collective actions of the population. Osofisan’s revolution is not dependent on the foreign-trained elites that controlled power in postcolonial Africa from independence to the late 1980s. His revolutionary initiative rests with local heroes, the ordinary people whose labours sustain society and the involvement of few people of privilege like Tutubi who throws her lot with the common people in their struggle for true self-determination. To Osofisan, societal and individual freedoms are only possible in a populist collective context in which revolutionary action traverses hegemonic relations, narrow sectional interests and class boundaries. This paper used four of Osofisan’s plays; Morountodun (1982), The Oriki of a Grasshopper (1986), Another Raft (1988), Once Upon Four Robbers (1991) and The Chattering and the Song to interrogate his juxtaposition of radical revolution in a postcolonial, post-military setting
Subjects:
Creators:
Ukaegbu, V.
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:
Date:
June 2008
Date Type:
Presentation
Event Title:
Professor Femi Osofisan International Conference on Performance: Relevant Arts for Sustainable Global Development
Event Dates:
17-21 June 2008
Event Location:
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Event Type:
Conference
Language:
English
Status:
Unpublished
Refereed:
No
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