Oguntoyinbo Deji Department of Languages, Faith Academy, Ota.
Art comes from the Latin word ‘ars’ which means skill. Art, according to the Webster New World Dictionary, is defined as “creativity of man as distinguished from the world of nature” (78). In the broadest sense, art, according to the Encyclopaedia Americana embraces all the creative disciplines – literature, poetry, drama, music, dance and the visual arts. In their book, Theatre, The Lively Art, Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb defines art as a “mirror or reflection of life, an abstraction or a projection of how we live, think and feel”(7). They opine that art is not only to be desired and enjoyed but absolutely necessary for human survival.
From Plato and Aristotle to the present, the coalescence between literature and reality has been maintained. Art cannot exist without a nexus (either explicitly or implicitly) to human situations. Corroborating this view, Mao Tse Tung opines, “there is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake” (21). What exists is art for life’s sake. South African critic and Nobel Laureate, Nardime Gordimer opines “that writers choose their plot, characters and literary styles; their theme choose them” (11). This is what Wellek and Warren describes as “the reflection of reality” (239). According to the sociologists of literature, three factors comes to fore when analysing a text. They are the author’s race, the author’s milieu and historical moment. Writing, especially in postcolonial Africa, does not exist in a vacuum. According to Niyi Osundare, an African writer should not write “to entertain and please, but to change the world in process” (30). Towing the same line of reasoning, literature should “reflects, represents and refracts the reality of the world across age and time. It is not just a work of imagination armed solely to give pleasure” (Obafemi 7). On the hybridity between literature and life, Nwahunanya submits on the reason for writing which is “the sheer urge to record as truthful as possible, an excruciating, indelible, visceral experience which the author has been physically or emotionally involved” (109)
Of all the arts, the theatre is the most physical and vibrant. Thus, it acts as a melting pot and rallying point for all the arts. Theatre has affinities with technology, architecture, sociology and psychology amongst numerous other disciplines. In his lecture, The Performing Artist in Academia, Mathew Umukoro while delineating the inextricable link between theatre and other disciplines observes that the theatre transcends the broad canvas of the liberal arts and resolves to christen this branch of knowledge as ‘humanistic science’ (2). Towing the same line of reasoning, Bode Osanyin further submits that “on stage, all the arts forms become dynamic. All artistic expressions are geared towards the enchantment of the human soul and social change” (Oni 186). The art and especially the theatre is so crucial, important and all-embracing, as they affect and influence our lives so deeply. Apart from refining the soul, theatre should mobilise the society towards change. In the course of this paper, the word theatre and drama will be used interchangeably.
Social issues and concerns just like other members of the society affect playwrights. In view of this, the playwright is well in a position to comment, commend or criticize the society through his plays. He or she can also advocate positive changes in the society through his works. In such manner, drama can contribute meaningfully towards positive social emancipation and political change. Drama and theatre, according to Bharucha Rustom is “an activity that needs to be in ceaseless contact with the realities of the world and inner necessities of our lives”(10). Akorede Yetunde also posits that dramatic works “should embody the social reality of the time so as to become effective and relevant to the development of the society” (12). In this wise, Ahmed Yerima maintains, “both the playwright and the society form a team” (18). Uwem Okome avers “the germane playwright is the one who identifies principally and maximally with the courses of his society with the ultimate objective of understanding them” (22).
www.thAe–pcriotemriionne.cnotmmemberThoef Cthrieterfiiorsnt: AgnenInetreartnioatnioonfalNJoiguernriaal ninpElnagylwisrhights, Wole SISoSyNin0k9a7,6o-8p1i6n5es that a playwright should act as the “record of the mores and experiences of his society and as the voice in his time” (21). This position has been validated in most of his latter plays such as Opera Wonyosi (1977), Beatification of Area Boys (1995), King Baabu (2001) as well as in his earlier plays like Madmen and Specialists (1970), Kongi Harvest (1964), The Trials of Brother Jero (1964) and so on. Commenting on Soyinka’s dramatic vision, Olu Obafemi writes that “Soyinka is preoccupied in his creative work, especially his plays, with the socio-political and spiritual state of Africa”(123). Femi Osofisan, another notable playwright of the second generation category with plays like Once Upon Four Robbers (1982), Who is Afraid of Solarin (1979), Red is the Freedom Road (1982), The Chattering and the Song (1977), Aringindin and The Night Watchmen (1992), Farewell to a Cannibal Rage (1986) and Morountodun (1982) satirizes and lampoons the ludicrous attitudes of the nation’s leaders and call the masses to adopt a revolutionary approach in order to change the status quo. In an interview with Muyiwa Awodiya, he states unequivocally that “I am an artist…my art can only express certain things, my reaction to reality, these are basic commitments. Politics for me is not a posture; the concern for justice is deeply embedded in my consciousness” (61).
Furthermore, there exists an avalanche of plays by second generation of Nigerian playwrights, which are enveloped, with issues of social concern. Plays like Bode Sowande’s Afamako- The Workhouse (1978), Olu Obafemi’s Night of a Mystical Beast (1986), Bode Osanyin’s Kubura (1973), Segun Oyekunle’s Katakata for Sufferhead (1983) and Kole Omotosho’s The Golden Curse (1976), Shadows in the Horizon (1997), and Sacrifice (1974) all belong to this category
With the third generation of Nigerian playwrights like Esiaba Irobi, Chuks Okoye, Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo, Chris Egbarevba , Ben Tomoloju and Wole Oguntokun, Ahmed Yerima towers among them all. These literary writers use the medium of drama to comment on the prevailing socio- economic and political situations in the country. It goes without gainsaying that Ahmed Yerima is one of the prolific and internationally recognized playwrights in the third generation of Nigerian playwrights.
Ahmed Yerima ia a prolific Nigerian playwright of the third generation category. He has over thirty plays and numerous scholarly publications to his credit. Some of his plays include Three Plays in Transition (1980), The Silent Gods (1996), The Bishop and The Soul with Thank You Lord (1996), The Trials Of Ovoramwen Nogbaisi (1998), Kaffir Last Game (2001), Attahiru (1999), The Lottery Ticket (2002), Dry Leaves on Ukan Trees (2001), Yemoja (2002), Otaelo (2003), Limam and Ade Ire (2004), The Angels and Other Plays (2004), Hard Ground (2006), Ameh Oboni The Great (2006), Idemili (2006),Aetu (2007), The Wives (2007), Tuti (2008), Akuabata (2008), Mojagbe (2008), and The Little Drops (2009). His dogged commitment to playwriting has culminated in various local and international awards. The play, Yemoja, won the best drama (globally) at the 2001 Cervantino International Arts Festival, Mexico. In a similar vein, Hard Ground, won the Nigerian Liquefied and Natural Gas (NLNG) award for Literature in 2006. Some of his critical works include Theatre and Democracy in Nigeria (with Ayo Akinwale) in 2002, Fragmented Thoughts and Specifics: Essays in Dramatic Literature (2003), Basic Techniques in Playwriting (2004), Ideology and Stagecraft in the Nigerian Theatre (with Olu Obafemi) in 2004 and Modern Nigerian Theatre: The Geoffrey Axworthy Years, 1956-1967 in 2005. Presently, there are two festschrifts written in honour of this award-winning playwright. They are Uwemedimo Atakpo and Inegbe Stephen (eds) Making Images, Re-Making Life: Art and Life in Ahmed Yerima (2007) and Muse and Mimesis: Critical Perspectives on Ahmed Yerima’s Drama (2007) edited by Gbemisola Adeoti. The literary critic, Stephen Inegbe, describes Ahmed Yerima as “prodigious, talented and committed” (14). Also, the dramatic scholar, Gbemisola Adeoti refers to him as “one of the most notable dramatists to have emerged on the Nigerian literary stage in the last decade of the twentieth century”(xi). Geoffrey Axworthy, the pioneer head and founder of Nigeria’s first School of Drama at the University of Ibadan, opines that Yerima is a “scholar and a practical man of the theatre” (Yerima 162).
Through his various dramatic writings, Ahmed Yerima has transverses the various cultures in the country. Most of his plays are spatially and geographically situated in Nigeria and they depict the socio-cultural situation of the nation. His creative muse has the Nigerian society (especially post independence) as its canvas. In an interview with Nwagbo Nnenyelike, Yerima submits:
www.the-criterion.com In myTphleayCsr,itIerfiionnd: AonutIntthearnt aItihoanvael Jtoumrnakl ien aEnsoglcisiahl comment.
I look at the contemporary Nigeria and I find that for instance,
the tragedy that exists is no longer that of Aristotle or Soyinka. When I want to write a play, I have to open up the ills of the society. I also have to comment on why I think the society has fallen rather than my feelings that such particular thing has happened. (9)
He doesn’t believe in art for art sake but art for life’s sake. He believes that the happenings in the society should constitute a burden to the dramatist. Thus, drama should be a tool for depicting and correcting the ills of the society. On his wall page on facebook-a social networking site, Ahmed Yerima avers that he loves “Nigerians and Nigeria. They provide me with stories, characters and essence of my plays”:
Set in Johannesburg Airport, Kaffir Last Game is about the meeting of a Professor of Political Science (Benjamin Omobusola) with his former student (Mbulelo Makwetu). Mbulelo, a South African, was a former student of the professor at the University of Ibadan about twenty years earlier. After exchanging pleasantries, they begin to discuss myriads of problems bedeviling both countries ranging from leadership failure, poor economy, sickly state of Nigeria’s universities, succession crises, neo colonial decadence and a host of others. Mbulelo is however astonished to learn that the professor is leaving Nigeria to South Africa in order to start teaching at the University of Cape Town. According to the professor, the job is a ‘gold mine’, since he is going to be paid eighty thousand dollars.
The play ends on a note of dilemma as the professor becomes confused as to whether to continue his journey to Cape Town or return to Nigeria.
The Sisters narrates the story of four sisters, opened with the mourning of the President who had just died due to unknown cause. Taiwo, the crippled of the sisters, condemns her late brother-in-law (the President) whom she described as a dictator and inhuman. Taiwo defiles the norms of what mourning a relative entails like avoidance of smoking, non-consumption of alcohol and wearing the red colour as against the usual black. She believes, it is more worthy to remember real heroes than mourn a man who didn’t know what compassion for family meant.
During their conversation, Funmi, the President’s childless widow, learns of five children that her husband had fathered during their childless marriage. The sisters also discover that their beloved father had behaved in the same manner by fathering another daughter before his wife was able to conceive and bear him children. Taiwo, also explains how she losses her husband to the intolerance of the President after participating in the coup. Toun recounts how she has decided to marry Jesus after her own failed marriage to Segun. Funmi is oblivious of the realities outside of office as the first lady and is reluctant to evacuate the official residence for the incoming president after four terms in office. The three sisters (Toun, Funmi and Taiwo) believe that Nana is not a member of the family but a maid who has decided to spend her entire lifetime caring for them. She has doses of information, which the others have no clue about. The realization that all along she has been their sister and the one they have called bastard and all sorts of name is too much for them to come to terms with, after they read their father’s will instructing them to share his asset in equal proportion with her. On discovering that Nana, who had served all the three sisters as a maid was in fact their elder sister, the play comes to an end.
The sit tight syndrome associated with African leaders has been the bane of the continent. Hence, African leaders are so lustful of power that they consider leaving their respective offices as an act of cowardice. After completing their legal term, they devise various schemes in order to perpetuate themselves in office. Yerima beams his literary touch on this malady among African leaders in both plays. In Kaffir Last Game, both the Professor and Mbulelo says of African leaders:
Professor: What always amazes me is how the African leader believes he must hold on to power.
Mbulelo: It is in their genes. One day, the DNA researches will show that the average Blackman is a political animal. It will
www.the-criteriboen.fcooumnd that Thhise bClroitoerdiohna: sAan Ipnotewrneart–isoeneakl iJnogurvniarluisn. EVnegrliyshdeadly and very ruthless. I guess the limousine cars and siren raises the blood pressure of the animal in them and in turn, blocks their common sense (34)
This is symptomatic of the various present and past African leaders. Before their eventual dethronement with ignominy, Ben Ali(Tunisia), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Muammar Gaddaffi (Libya) and Lauren Gbagbo (Cotev dvoie) spent twenty three, thirty, forty two and eleven years respectively. Other African dictators include Jose Santos of Angola (33 years), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (32years), Paul Biya of Cameroun (29 years), Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (26 years), Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso (25 years), Mswati III of Swaziland (25 years), Omar Bashir of Sudan (22 years), Idriss Debby of Chad (22 years), Isaias Afewerki of Eriteria (19 years), Yahyah Jammeh of Gambia (18 years), Meles Zenewi of Ethiopia (17 years), Palalitha Monsli of Lesotho (14 years), Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti (13 years),King Muhammed VI of Morocco (13 years), Abdoullaye Wade of Senegal ( 12 years), Paul Kigame of Rwanda (12 years ) and a host of others. Most of these leaders are afraid of life after office, as the perquisites of office have alienated them from the citizenry. The citizens are subjected to a life of penury while they swim in affluence. Basic infrastructure like potable water, motorable roads, constant cum regular electricity and well-equipped schools are virtually non-existent in these dictator led nations. In The Sisters, Yerima returns to this hydra headed monster of sit tight syndrome plaguing the continent. Thus, the President (Dipo), rules the country for twenty years and still wants to contest for the next election. In the word of Taiwo:
What future? The man had ruled this country for twenty four terms, four rotten terms and he was still looking ahead into the future? I always wonder why you people never learn. The people were praying for you to leave and you had the grand illusion that we loved you and wanted you to stay for another term. Did you not have eyes? Were you so much in love with power that you become blind? (19)
And as a result, the citizens celebrate the President’s death “as if Christmas had arrived early” (25). These power drunks are mainly preoccupied with the looting of their respective nation’s treasury. In Kaffir Last Game, the song by both the Professor and Mbulelo exemplifies their heinous and nefarious act. It is apposite to quote the song at length:
Mr. Power President
What are you doing? I’m sitting in
What about the four-year term You crase for head.
What of the voters. I have money
What do we do now?
Don’t worry, with absolute power, I am President for life
So he stuck on to power like a leach The more power, the fatter he got Soon he forgot his mandate
So the voter met and threw him out
Please President for life
www.the-criteriWonh.caotmare youTdhoeinCgri?terion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165
I am sitting in
What about the voters? To hell with them
What if they want you out?
They love me I say I am President for life (26)
In Kaffir Last Game, the plague of brain drain is overtly x-rayed. In the play, the Nigerian Professor is on his way to the University of Cape Town. Mbulelo is however disturbed as why a Professor of Political Science, trained at Oxford, London, and Cambridge, intends to leave the country. To Mbulelo, he (Professor) is “the most brilliant Professor of Political Science in Africa. Learned gentleman of letters. One of the most accomplished political minds in the world” (11). Brain drain is the steady or continuing loss of intellectuals or academics to another country, usually because of the prospects and rewards are better. Up till the early eighties, Nigeria was a desired haven for academics (local and foreign). Thus, citizens that studied abroad were eager to come back due to the conducive working environment that exists. But by the second half of the eighties, the reverse was the case. This was due to a collapse economy, plummeting foreign exchange, high debt profile and a host of other problems that began to bedevil the nation. The introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by the Ibrahim Babangida’s administration did not help matters. It is estimated that about twenty thousand professionals leave the continent of Africa annually. By the end of the twentieth century, the number of Nigerian academics employed by the United States stood at about ten thousand. The brain drain syndrome has been a bane of the nation’s educational sector with poor funding of the universities and poor remuneration of staff as prime causes. Yerima mirrors these ugly trends in Kaffirs Last Game. While adducing reasons for leaving the country, the Professor retorts:
You must be joking, if you call eighty thousand dollars
a joke. Do you know right now that, I am richer than two universities votes put together? Do you know that for the past two years after the so called review of university teaching staff salaries, I have been earning ten thousand naira a month. One hundred and sixteen miserable dollars for a Professor of twenty five years and still counting? Do you know as Dean, all I was given was ten thousand to run the faculty, with researches, conferences and all? (11)
Poor funding has constituted a major setback to the development of Nigerian universities. In the midst of global competition for world-class status, Nigeria’s higher educational system has continued to depend on limited sources of funding including support from the Federal and State government constituting more than ninety eight percent of the recurrent costs and hundred percent of capital costs. In the face of government dwindle resources and other competing needs; public funding of the universities has also suffered tremendously. The number of students admitted far outstripped the financial support by the government. Allocation to the educational sector has been nose-diving over the years. At no time had Nigeria comply with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) standard that twenty-six percentage of a nation’s budget should be allocated to the education sector. In the words of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. James Epoke: “One major challenge which every university faces is funding. The funding of the university is quote low. The lofty plans we have cannot be done without adequate funding”. The highest percentage devoted to the educational sector was 14.68 percent in 1994. At present, only a meager 8.43 percent was allocated to the sector in the 2012 national budget. It was in a bid to get around this problem that government decided to liberalize the educational sector leading to the establishment of private higher institutions of learning. That these private institutions have joined the fray to clamour for additional funds even from the government goes to show the enormity of the challenge.
www.thIte–icsrinteoriloonn.cgoemr news tThhaet Coruitreurinoniv: eArnsiItnytecranmatipounsael sJohuarvnael bineeEnngtluisrhned to theatreISoSf Nw0a9r7s6. –T81h6e5heinous crime of cultism, rape, murder, and harassment of lecturers are now common features on our campuses. Cultism as practiced in tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria has become a social malaise to fellow students, administrators, parents, and the society at large. We have various cult groups, which includes the Mgba Brothers, The Red Devils, Red Berets, Black Berets, Scorpions, Black Cat, Black Axe, while among the female folks are Daughters of Medusa, White Angels, Dirty Bra and others. The nefarious and nocturnal activities of secret cults have also led to the untimely death of cultists and innocent students and lecturers in our institutions of higher learning. Apart from poor funding and remuneration of staff, this had also led to the constant closures of universities. The Professor says: “we in Nigeria are perplexed by the student cult problem in our universities…. Students rape themselves. They kill each other. They even harass lecturers” (32)
Being a patriarchal society, Yerima mirrors the various injustices meted out to women. Through myriads of phallocentric myths and shibboleths, the women folk have been relegated to an inferior status. In The Sisters, all the four sisters (Funmi, Taiwo, Toun and Nana) are in one way or the other exploited by men. The case of Segun and Pa Isaac is apt here. Toun’s husband (Segun) impregnates her wife’s best friend. In order to have the last laugh, he also bribes the judge (another male) to decide the case on his favour. This is purely a male conspiracy. Also, Pa Isaac (the head of Dipo’s family) consummates another marriage for Dipo when he knows that he is already married to Funmi. After Dipo’s death, Pa Isaac informs that he only knows the wife with a child thereby giving way for the concubine. This is another male conspiracy against Funmi, a signification of the women folk. Commenting on the attitudes of men, Toun opines:
Men, you never really know them. Often, they remind me of juicy beautiful green water melon. It looks great
on the outside, but no one knows if it will be sweet or sour until you taste it. And by that time, it is too late(21)
Betrayal of trust is another social theme in The Sisters. This is as a result of the extra marital affairs by Dipo and Ambassador. Despite Funmi’s trust for her husband (Dipo), it is bizarre to know that he has five children outside without the wife’s knowledge. Funmi becomes crestfallen when she discovers on the eve of Dipo’s burial. In the same vein, the sisters’ ‘holy’ father (Ambassador) had a child out of wedlock without the children’s knowledge up to his death. The supposed ‘bastard’ lives with the children without their knowledge. Commenting on this attitude of Dipo, Taiwo asks: “Who could have ever guessed that our saint was busy making children while sister hung diligently hung by his side” (22).
In Kaffir Last Game, the playwright depicts how heroes are not celebrated in the country. Most of the national heroes are not celebrated when they are alive. Thus, they are condemned and lampooned. They metamorphose into heroes when they bite the dust. Professor amplifies this:
Heroes? We bury them…No, they only become heroes when they are dead. When they become inactive, silent and very dead. Take them; Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnmadi Azikiwe, Chief Sam Ikoku, Chief Micheal Adekunle, all dead, all heroes after their deaths(36)
In conclusion, this essay has examined how Ahmed Yerima’s Kaffir Last Game and The Sisters have been used to depict germane issues of societal concern without losing its form ranging from sit tight syndrome of African leaders, poor funding of Nigerian universities, brain drain syndrome, betrayal of trust, and patriarchy. A good playwright, it is said, must be sensitive to the socio political realities of his time. This, Ahmed Yerima has done in both plays.
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