Historical Drama and Feminism at the Crossroads of Postcolonial Dialogue: A Reading of Irene Salami's Idia: The Warrior Queen of Benin

Abstract

This paper, through the prisms of postcolonial theory and feminism, interrogates history as a way of subverting and re-presenting issues that have been subjected to exclusion and oppression. Postcolonialism as a counter discourse is used to create a yardstick by which many discriminative and exploitative practices, regardless of time and space, are confronted. Among the tools of the exploitative practices are history and patriarchy. Writers (dramatists) are assessed in their exploration of history to make certain statements that bear directly on our contemporary society. To achieve this goal, Irene Agunloye-Salami's Idia: The Warrior Queen of Benin is used as case study. This paper, through the plumb line of postcolonial theory and feminism, interrogates history as a way of subverting and re-presenting issues that have been subjected to exclusion and oppression. It further reveals that contemporary African women dramatists engage in re-writing history as a signpost for gender representation and the creation of lofty roles for African women that history refused to acknowledge. The importance of this paper lies in its use of drama to contribute further to the assessment and interrogation of feminist discourse in contemporary Nigeria.