NIGERIAN PLAYWRIGHTS, THE BURDEN OF HISTORY AND THE NOTION OF NATIONHOOD

Abstract

The patriotic zeal of nation building involves every Nigerian, irrespective of social status, ethnic background, vocation and political affiliation. Through their plays, Nigerian playwrights have been reproducing the nation's history and historical events for the purpose of nation building.

Playwrights such as Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Ola Rotimi, Wale Ogunyemi and Ahmed Yerima have written historical plays that have significant reflection on the making of Nigeria as a nation. The position of this paper is that the way a playwright handles history may mar or make social relationship which is a catalyst to nation building. It is however discouraging that the Nigerian audience does not attach utilitarian values to plays, but they rather see them as means of entertainment. If carefully and properly read, plays contain latent messages that can promote democratic governance and the notion of nationhood in Nigeria. For critical discourse and analysis, Ola Rotimi's Kurunmi and Hopes of the Living Dead, Wole Soyinka's A Play of Giants and Femi Osofisan's Morountodun are selected, while the tenets of psychoanalysis and new historicism are adopted. It is observed in this paper that the past experiences of intra- and inter- tribal wars, as well as the Civil War, still affect national cohesion and harmony. Time past has its existential being in time present to attain a formidable future.