The Main Thematic Preoccupation of Femi Osofisan's Radical Drama

Introduction

Gerald Moore, a very perceptive critic of drama and theatre, has grasped the thematic focus of the Nigerian literary drama of the radical vein. This new dramatic trend started its potent incursion on the Nigerian stage from about the 1970s and is fast becoming an aesthetic force to reckon with. Writers in this radical framework (in Marxist parlance) include Femi Osofisan, Bode Sowande, Kole Omotoso, and others. The works are, essentially, philosophically influenced by Marxist dialectical-historical materialism which emphasises the apprehension of the objective reality of the world as well as changing that reality for the benefit of society.

Revolution and Revolutionary Romanticism in Osofisan’s Radical Dramaturgy

While the drama of non-radical idiom views conflict in society through the medium of theatre as being the divine design of the gods, radical dramaturgy perceives the conflict as generating from class struggle in society. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels pointed this out when they posited that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.”

The four plays of investigation — The Chattering and the Song, Morountodun, No More the Wasted Breed and Red is the Freedom Road — all contain, thematically, the revolutionary element from the class antagonistic perspective. In The Chattering and the Song, for example, the conflict in the main play is between the workers and the State. The workers’ budding revolutionary movement, termed the Farmers’ Movement, is spearheaded by Leje, Sontri, Mokan, Yajin and later Funlola.

In Morountodun, the revolutionary belligerency is staged by the farmers against the coercive State apparatus. The major aim of the peasants in this bitter struggle is to restore humanity to society which has been systematically dehumanised by the diabolic agencies of the State.

No More the Wasted Breed hinges on a revolutionary conflict constructed on the traditional purification ritual of human sacrifice. Saluga interrupts the process by questioning the rationality of choosing only the propertyless as scapegoats, instead of the rich.

Red is the Freedom Road deals with revolutionary conflict for the purpose of freedom of the oppressed who have been captured and enslaved in a foreign kingdom. Akanji manages to mobilise the slaves into a formidable revolutionary force, explaining that their degrading condition is not the work of the gods but can only be overcome by their collective might.

The theme of revolution is tied to what is termed, in Marxist parlance, as revolutionary romanticism. This construct is anti-metaphysical and is built on revolutionary optimism. In all four plays, the collective energy of the people is not based on metaphysicality; it is based on social awareness and articulated struggle. Freedom is presented as man’s vocation which must be pursued relentlessly.

Conclusion

This study has identified and explicated the main thematic preoccupation of the selected radical dramas of Femi Osofisan. The focus has been on the themes of revolution and revolutionary romanticism which are the fulcrum of Marxist dramatico-theatrical aesthetics.

End Notes

• 1. Gerald Moore, “Political Drama in Nigeria,” A B.B.C. Talk Show, broadcast on Sunday, 8th October, 1978, quoted in Yemi Ogunbiyi, ed., Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria Magazine, 1981, p. 129.
• 2. Dialego, Philosophy & Class Struggle, Ibadan, Afrografika Publishers, (nd), pp. 5-6.
• 3. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Peking, Foreign Language Press, 1975, pp. 32-33.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Femi Osofisan, The Chattering and the Song, Ibadan, Ibadan University Press, 1977, p. 20.
• 6. Femi Osofisan, Morountodun and other Plays, Longman Nigerian Ltd., 1982.
• 7. Femi Osofisan, The Chattering and the Song, p. 20.
• 8. Ibid.
• 9. Ibid., p. 42.
• 10. Femi Osofisan, Morountodun and Other Plays, 1982, p. 49.
• 11. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Penguin Books, 1972, p. 20.
• 12. Morountodun and Other Plays, p. 105.
• 13. Ibid., p. 120.
• 14. Ibid.
• 15. Ibid., p. 131.
• 16. Ibid., p. 132.
• 17. Nikolai Bukharin, “Poetry, Poetics, and the Problems of Poetry in the USSR,” in Bernard F. Dukore, ed., Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, INC. 1974, p. 969.
• 18. Ibid.
• 19. Morountodun and Other Plays, pp. 110-111.
• 20. Ibid., p. 57.
• 21. Ibid., pp. 78-79.
• 22. Ibid., p. 79.
• 23. The Chattering and the Song, pp. 41-42.
• 24. Charles Uji, “Osofisanic Theatre Experiment in The Chattering and the Song,” unpublished review, University of Ibadan Arts Theatre, 14/4/77, p. 4.
• 25. The Chattering and the Song, p. 47.
• 26. Ibid., p. 56.