TITLE
PAGE
AN
APPRAISAL OF AFRICAN TRAGEDY IN SOFOLA’S WEDLOCK OF THE GODS AND WA THIONG’O
THE BLACK HERMIT
BY
AJAH
OTUOMASIRICHUKWU.B
14/038144003
A
PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND MEDIA STUDIES
FACULTY
OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY
OF CALABAR,
CALABAR
IN
PARTIAL
FULFILEMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF B.A IN THEATRE AND MEDIA
STUDIES
APPROVAL PAGE
This project has been supervised and approved as
meeting the requirement of the department of theatre film and carnival studies,
university of Calabar for the award of B.A in theatre and media studies.
……………..
……………… date
Chinyere Okam Lillian (PhD)
Project supervisor
………………….
……………….
Prof. Emmy
Idegu
H.O.D
……………..
External Examiner
DEDICATION
The entirety of this work is dedicated to God
almighty for his enabling strength, providence and protection over me, all
through my stay in the University of Calabar
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The journey to a thousand milestones is said: begins
with a single step. By and large, my academic pursuit in the University of Calabar
is being a rigorous journey and most importantly, my voyage into this research
work has being the most daunting and tedious undertaking of my life.
I give all glory to the Almighty God for making this
journey and stay in the University of Calabar a success, despite all the
hurdles that beset me all along. I wish to acknowledge and appreciate all those
who believed in and were with me encouraging and supporting me both morally and
financially. Special mention is my uncle, Hon. Desna Aja for being the pillar
of support and the shoulder upon which to lean on, especially for providing the
financial and fatherly support. With a heavy heart I acknowledge my late
father, Mr. Nwaonye Aja, whom fate has deprived of this privilege, to my mother
Mrs. Rebecca Aja, my sister Mrs. Theresa Oguejiofor and her husband, my
brothers and sisters for their support and encouragement.
To the
friends and family that we have built here in Calabar, Catherine, Irifo, Michael,
Onah, Akaya, faith, Obeleagu, Glory, Freida, my specialty colleagues: Critrilogists,
cast and crew of “The Black Hermit”.
Not failing to acknowledge my friends Calistus Leonard, Ayim Dickson, and my
bosom friend Miss. Alexandra Ushike for the salient whispers of motivation and
strength, I love and appreciate you!
My special
and profound appreciation goes to my supervisor Okam, Chinyere Lillian ph.D for
painstakingly guiding and assisting me throughout the period of this research
work, ma I owe you a debt of requited of gratitude, Thank you Ma. Finally, the
management and staff of the University of Calabar, the department of theatre,
film and carnival studies, the head of department, lecturers, Prof. Chris
Nwamuo, Prof. Edde Iji, Dr. liwhu Betiang, Dr. Charles Effiong and a host of
others for extending a hand of friendship and fellowship to me, may success
attain you all in your further pursuits in life, for you all are unstoppable.
ABSTRACT
Tragedy
is the result of dishonor, shame, betrayal of kinsmen, cowardice and a burning,
vengeful curse that propels man to inescapable doom (Ademola in Obafemi, 49). Traore
indicates that in African tragedy “the conflict originates more often from
situations than from clash of two forces” (59). This research project has
looked into the various perspectives held on tragedy by the various schools of
thoughts in the western world, and also concentrated on the African notion of
tragedy as it applies within the African worldview and dramatic expose’. The
first chapter gives us insight into the problem of study, while in the second
chapter, a review of literatures related to the subject was carried out, while
chapter three and four gave analysis of the two play texts “wedlock of the
gods” and “The Black Hermit” to score the elements of African tragedy found within
the texts. While chapter five is a summary and conclusion of the findings.
Key
words: tragedy, African tragedy, Drama,
Worldview.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Approval page
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of contents
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background
of the study
1.2 Statement
of the problem
1.3 Objectives
of the study
1.4 Significance
of the study
1.5 Delimitation
of the study
1.6 Research
methodology
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 literature Review
2.1 The position of the
classical tragedy
2.1.2 The classical
tragic-hero
2.2 Hegelian
perspective on tragedy
2.3 Nietzschian
perspective on tragedy
2.4 Elizabethan
/Shakespearean tragedy
2.5 Tragedy of the
common Man
2.6 The Nature of
African Tragedy
2.7 Summary
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Appraisal of
African Tragedy in Sofola’s “Wedlock of the Gods”
3.1 synopsis of
“Wedlock of the Gods”
3.2 character
portrayal/ tragic-hero in “Wedlock of the Gods”
3.3 language of
presentation
3.4 Style of
presentation
3.5 Manifestation of
African Tragedy
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 African Tragedy In “Wa’
Thiongo’s “The Black Hermit”
4.1 Synopsis of “The
Black Hermit”
4.2 Character
portrayal/tragic-hero in “The Black Hermit”
4.3 Language of
presentation
4.4 Style of
presentation
4.5 The presence of
African Tragedy
4.6 Comparative
Analysis of the Two plays.
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 summary, conclusion
and Recommendation
5.1 Summary
5.2 conclusions
5.3 Recommendations
Works cited.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background Of The Study
One of the most conversant
topic in the field of drama and theatre studies, is the theme of tragedy which
has been accepted from all corners of the globe as the most reflective genre of
drama that captures the real essence and condition of man and his struggles
against the daunting forces of nature and that of the supernatural which placed
him in a position beyond his personal reach.
This standpoint is reaffirmed by Ahmed Yerima who cited Adeoti as saying
That “tragedy seems to be the most realistic of all literary moods in depicting
the dynamism, complexity and Ephemerality
of life, as it presents the story of the protagonist locked fierce
struggles against forces that are bent on bringing him firmly under their
control, however, feeble or aggressive his resistance against such forces.
Thus, the tragic-hero succumbs under the immense weight of the supernatural
(Oedipus and Penthus), the human as represented in the villain (Othello and
Otaelo) and also under pressures from the society (Elesin and Ovonramwen). (online@www.nigerianbestforum.com)
This same writer went further to
buttress his argument on tragedy with the following points: Tragedy therefore,
exemplifies the timeless Dictum “no condition is permanent’ or how else can we
sum up the narrative of Man’s life and in the art of Mimesis itself? As the audience watch the tall tower of
achievements of the protagonist crashing down like a bridge of straw, their
souls are touched in empathy, they are overawed by his suffering: they kiss and
cry in sorrow for they see a part of themselves as men, women, or children in
the hero. But shortly after, they regain their emotional balance having seen
reaffirmed, the social mores which the hero has violated and on accounts of
which he is inevitably suffering in the first instance. Just like Greek
tragedies, the protagonist becomes the scapegoat from whom the rest of humanity
(audience) should learn a lesson in order to live a happier life. (www.nigerianbestforum.com).
Tragedy no doubt presents to us
(audience) the daily routines of man, his choices and the consequences of such
choices on the later. Strikingly, Aristotle’s seminal work on tragedy “The
poetics” stipulates that of all forms of literature, the tragic genre is the
most important because of the subject matter and the class of the individual
whose lives we might tend to view as legendary and outlandish, yet they are
caught up in very great difficulty and some forms of injustice for no true
fault of theirs. Due to this high status which tragedy has gained, much
attention and interests has been generated about and around it, which is what
has given rise to diverging voices on tragedy of which the most prominent
school of thought is that of the American playwright Arthur Miller: (1915-2005
) who challenges ; class and social status (nobility) as the basis of asserting
a tragedy, as it is seen that an ordinary man’s quest is truncated, just before
he/she has achieved such is deemed pathetic and not weighty enough to attract
sympathy.
The Aristotelians built and created
tragedies around the high and mighty (kings, princes, generals and other
privileged) members of the society as more as more suitable for tragic dramas
and characterization, which in a way promotes Aristocracy and Makes the
tragic-hero appear like some sorts of “superman”. Conversely, Brecht in his “New
Organum” kicks against this type of dramatization in that he sees this
form of drama and theatre as an “Elitist” way of life meant to continually box
and deprive the middle and downtrodden of the society. Thereby, making them,
the more powerless.
Miller therefore,
argues that tragedy is not an exclusive Reserve for the nobility but rather,
that anybody from any level in the society can be classified as a tragic-hero,
just so long he has “a goal that he is ready to lay down his life for, if need
be.
The thrust of this argument, therefore, becomes how
various cultures do and generations treat tragedy?, since each human cultures
and value systems differs from the other and is subject to the era in which
they lived.
Tragedy
therefore, has not always being there, until man (Greeks) invented it as a form
of drama, holding tenaciously to the closing lines of Sophocles’ “Antigone”
which made the bold statement that man learns by suffering. According to T.W
Hartley: playwrights of the classical through the neo-classical period adhered
strictly to the Aristotelian postulations and theories on tragedy in their
writings, not until it was obvious that “they distorted and misunderstood his
thoughts” as playwrights of the Elizabethan, and Shakespearean age wrote simply
without paying attentions to any such things as theories, with the exception of
Ben Johnson who sticked to the tenets of theories in his works. (T.W, Hartley,
75)
Scholarship
endeavors over the years, have come to some seemingly true consensus that:
tragedy is without contention originating from a varied background in both
theory and practice which has rendered it open for very divergent
interpretations” the origin of the world tragedy which is translated to mean goat song is
gotten from Greek words ‘tragos’ ‘oide’. An act which is traced to the
practice of the Greeks during the ritual of honoring Dionysus, during which the
chorus wore goat skin for costumes, and a goat was sacrificed in honor of
Dionysus, as well presented as a prize in the early choral contest. (Wikipedia)
The layman used and
understood tragedy to mean simply “anything or circumstances that involves a
catastrophe and an ill-omen (happenings). In this respect, the death of an only
child is considered tragedy just as a natural disaster. However, Aristotle gave
a subsuming definition of tragedy which has continued to be interpreted, tragedy
therefore, is “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete an of
certain magnitude, in a language embellished with each kind of Artistic
ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the
form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper
purgation of this emotions” (Aristotle poetics).
However, it is the
tragic –hero and his struggles against the odds of life and the enormity of his
sufferings that propels this actions and therefore makes the audience to
identify themselves in the events so unfolded. This postulations and theories
of Aristotle were hinged primarily on practices of his days and the samples he
found in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”. Therefore, came the need to re-evaluate and
re-assert this positions as the indices of his arguments have been vigorously
refuted across generations of scholars, though not discarded, this is due to
the variance in human cultures and values, and experiences which is subject to
the dispensation and ethics of the cultures that produces them, which is why it
is difficult to categorize most African Dramatic texts as tragedy following the
canons of western classification.
African scholars and
philosophers have come out boldly to challenge the status quo of western
oriented literary critics and scholars on the criterion for the assessment of
African literature, thereby subjecting those (Africans) to foreign cultural
values and experiences, Chinua Achebe is famed for the quote “Africans did not
hear of culture for the first time from the Europeans”. Wole Soyinka has
presented his Yoruba idea of tragedy, Achebe and Zulu Sofola came up with their
Igbo worldview all of which contrasts
with the western canons/more. In the same note, John pepper Clarke Bekederemo has
equally presented his own idea of tragedy using his Ijaw legend of the Ozidi
saga and the tale of Zifa and his household in his “song of a goat” where the
impotence of a man is considered as tragedy within the ijo setting and indeed
some other African societies. in the Yoruba worldview, an obstruction in the
life cycle of a character results in a tragedy as in the case of Elesin Oba, of
which consequence can wipe a whole generation, while in the Igbo society; enstrangment of a character or the branding of an individual
as an “Osu” outcast, unfit to be
associated with is dimmed tragic enough and not even his proper termination of
life, death as in the case of Otaelo in Ahmed Yerima’s “Otaleo” who despite saving the life of the king is
still been discriminated against.
Ngugi wa Thiongo a pan –African scholar attempts to present
tragedy in both his novels and drama, which borders on the idea of “collective
heroism” which many pan-Africans shared together, which is reflective of the
themes of his plays “ Trials of Dedan Kimathi” and our study text “The Black
Hermit” where he captures the origins of tragedy in African Society dating from
their colonial experiences and the aftermath of colonial (Independence) which
threatens the existence of the African societies especially the values and
mores of the which according to Chinua Achebe “…and that our own brothers who
have taken up his religion also says that our customs are bad” and also evident
in wa thiongo’s Trials of Dedan kimathi is a line voiced by the embittered
protagonist
Kimathi: they danced these before the white colonialists came
In the
arena ….at initiation….
During
funerals…during marriage.
Then the colonialist
came and the people
Danced a
different dance.
Colonialism and
post-colonialism is tied to disconnect and a shift with the African cultural
and Metaphysical value system, which is why ‘Remi left home in the first place,
having experienced the imperialist lifestyle and acculturation, he strives to
establish that disconnect with African tradition to the detriment of those
around him/himself.
In “wedlock of the
Gods” Sofola explores the tragedy of a people resulting from the violation of
some sacred laws as experienced in the multiple deaths, from Adigwu, through
the protagonists and the annihilation of an entire family. This is done through
the use of some insignificant characters yet; their suffering is what appeals
to us, for we see our true selves reflected in them; due to the African
experiences or practices. This is therefore, the thrust of African Scholars on
tragedy, which is that their encounter with the imperialist forces was an
attempt to destroy their cultural bearings as well as their struggles with the
forces of nature and their bitter experiences of political turmoil following
the dawn of independence. Therefore, the
need for them as scholars of African extraction to validate their stand point
of their background as a people with stories worth the hearing of the world.
The need to assert the nature of African tragedy and
the consequences becomes the thrust of this engagement.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Writers
of classical tragedies and some African playwrights wrote in the style of
western /Aristotelian conventions, as against the backdrop of African tragedy
such as Ola Rotimi, while others towed a different direction such as Soyinka,
Sofola, and their contemporaries. The question therefore is what can we
classify as African tragic-drama?, bearing in mind that many African dramatic
texts are still being scrutinized in line with western canons and are often
left inconclusive as to whether or not they are fit to be classified as tragedy
or some unclassifiable configurations. This has therefore prompted to the need
to ascertain if there is any theoretical framework known as African Tragedy.
Using
THE BLACK HERMIT and WEDLOCK OF THE GODS by Ngugi Wa’Thiongo and Zulu Sofola
respectively, as texts of study, the need therefore is to ascertain what
constitutes tragedy, whether it is the western classical scholarly theories or
that of the New African voices of scholars emanating from cultures’/values
which places premium on circumstances over the later which emphasizes the
characters personality. Is it the western philosophy or African cultural
studies that have influenced the production of African dramatic and literary
texts under the genre of tragedy?
Through an exploration of the
pan-African Scholar Ngugi wa’Thiongo “The Black Hermit” and Zulu Sofola’s
“wedlock of the Gods” drawn from western and Eastern African Dramaturgy.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Based on the foregoing the following
questions are therefore worth looking into: thus the objective of this research
is therefore to use “The Black Hermit” and Wedlock of the Gods as study texts
to investigate the following:
1.
To understand the form of African
tragedy
2.
To study how a character attains this
status of tragic-heroism in African Drama
3.
To ascertain how African tragedy is
conceived and presented.
4.
To establish the meeting point between
African tragedy if there is and the western Tragedy.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This work is set to be
a contribution to the existing body of knowledge on the subject matter and to
inspire more critical debates on the idea of tragedy and how it is appreciated in
line with the African Drama. This work will therefore expand the horizon of
available literature on African Tragedy.
1.5 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.6 The
place of African tragedy in drama has defied any known theoretical framework
and such very little seminal documentation are available on the matter of an
African tragedy within the context of two selected plays; Zulu Sofola’s WEDLOCK
OF THE GODS and Ngugi Wa’Thiongo’s THE
BLACK HERMIT
The instrument in this
research is information gathered from relevant texts (i.e) primary, secondary
and other sources that are related to the study of African tragedy. This
research will also make use of analytical research method which will adopt a
comparative approach to illustrate the standpoint of African tragedy and
dramatic literature.
CHAPTER
TWO
2.0
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is on
reviews of existing literature on the concept of tragedy, from the classical
era down to the contemporary African society. Various publications from
different authors, journals, articles, internet sources, published and
unpublished books on the subject matter tragedy, in order to ascertain the gaps
noticeable in African drama and the position of African critics, on tragedy
within the context of African drama.
2.1 THE POSITION OF
CLASSICAL TRAGEDY
The purest form for the serious treatment of theme is
tragedy, for it presents a protagonist who struggles against overwhelming odds
and is defeated by them. One of the most perplexing human phenomena is the
paradox of deriving pleasure through pain.
The
period known as classical era refers to the historical/civilization of the
Greek Empire to the Roman Empire. Therefore, classical tragedy emanates from
the works of Greco-Roman playwrights and scholars. The idea of tragedy is
man-made….we have a body of critical theory about tragedy that is even more
diverse and contradictory than the plays themselves. The seminal work on
tragedy was written for Greeks about Greek drama by the Greek Aristotle. ( T.W,
Hartley, 75), Aristotle being the first classical scholar to presents a critical
thought on tragedy followed the careful analysis of Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”
and defined tragedy as “an imitation of the action that is serious, complete,
and of certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic
ornaments, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the
form of action, not narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper
purgation of these emotions”(Liwhu Betiang, 28)
According to T.W Hartley; “tragedy has been
called the drama of the high seriousness. It deals with the most profound and
universal problems of man-his purpose and destiny, the nature of good and evil,
a man’s relationship to forces greater than himself, the consequences of
individual responsibility.(77) This
standpoint is reaffirmed by Cassady Marsh “tragedy is serious in nature . Its
purpose, through our responses to the characters and their struggles, is to
teach us and to make us feel. (220)
Classical tragedy preserves the unities …one time span,
one setting, one story…as they originated in Greek theatre, it also defines a
tragic plot as one with a royal character losing, through their own pride, a
mighty prize. Furthermore, Aristotle stipulates that; the tragic playwright
must create a unified work; the plays running time must be the exact time span
of the tragedy with no breaks or flashbacks; the setting must remain in one
place. And most importantly, the action follows one inevitable course, and the
tragic-hero must be royal or highborn. In addition, this hero desires a greater
good, such as the rescue or unification of his kingdom, and he places that
prize at great risk with his own choices.( Michael, online@www.penandthepad.com)
Aside the poetics of Aristotle, the Roman poet, critic
and writer, Horace wrote a supporting essay which is concerned principally on
the defensive and elucidation of
Aristotle’s recommendations in his “Ares Poetica” he insist that the tragic
writer must ensure to observe all that has been stipulated by Aristotle, in
terms of plots, characterization and more importantly language.
According to B.A; classical or Greek tragedy are from the
writings Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides upon which Aristotle based his
poetics on an analysis of these works. Therefore, the characteristics of
classical tragedy are contained in the poetics. The stories in this tragedies
being based on myths were known to the audience. Hence, there were little
elements of surprise in them. As part of the religious festivals, there was a
strong religious and moral element in the plays. Fate (Nemesis) was supreme.
The Greek tragedy, as far as possible, avoided scenes of brutal violence on the
stage though the subjects were often shocking and terrible. There were as few
as five to six characters in the play. Such incidents were narrated by the
chorus which was fifty men strong. The characters usually the protagonist
belonged to a high social order, a man with exceptional character but, with a
flaw which led to his downfall. Women and slaves were not considered fit
subjects for a tragedy. (31-32)
A
remarkable feature of classical
tragedies is that; the tragedies were
“pure tragedies” and there was no mixing of comic with the tragic, thus
following the unity of action, classical tragedies were performed as trilogies;
a series of three plays. But after each serious play usually there would be a “satyr
play” which was separate from tragedy and often crudely comic in nature. (B.A,
32) classical tragedy sought to accomplish catharsis and the purgation of
emotions through the use of pity and fear. Catharsis according to Marsh Cassady
is the purging of emotions-a release of all emotional tension; we should be
left with a sense of tranquility. When the tragic hero pursues a goal to the
end, we feel the strength and persistence in ourselves… (220)
Tragedy is concerned with grandeur of ideas,
theme, characters and action and grandeur is aesthetically pleasing. Through
the tragic character we come to terms with our own death. (Marsh Cassady, 221)
2.1.2 THE CLASSICAL
TRAGIC-HERO
The centre of a classical tragedy apart from the plot which Aristotle regarded
as the soul of the action, character is the second most important, being that
tragedy is “an imitation of the action of men” who are higher than ourselves’’
in both position (stature) and judgment.
Aristotle explains his
view on the importance of a character in a tragedy:
…Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of
an action and of life, and life consists in action and its end is a mode of
action, not a quality. Now character determines men’s qualities, but it is by
their Actions that they are happy or the reverse. Dramatic action therefore, is
not with a view to the representation of character; character comes in as
subsidiary to actions. Hence, the incidents and the plots
are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief of all, again, without
action there cannot be tragedy; there maybe character. (Butcher, 27)
Aristotle mentioned “thought and character’’ as the two
natural form which actions spring” (25) however, for a character to qualify as
a tragic hero he is to possess certain characteristics, which according to
Levon Linnebank, Aristotle would not define him as a tragic hero, which is why
he defines some of the characteristics of a tragic-hero as character based
rather than plot based. (5)
In part X111 of the poetics,
Aristotle outlines in detail the plot elements that an ideal tragic hero should
experience. Aristotle stresses that tragedy should “imitate actions which excites
pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation’’ (Butcher,
45). Going further, he describes certain types of plots that should not be used
in tragedy; the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a
virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity; for this moves neither pity
nor fear, it merely shocks us. Nor again, that a bad man passing from adversity
to prosperity; for nothing can be more alien to the spirit of tragedy; it
neither satisfies moral sense, but it would inspire neither pity nor fear; for
pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like
ourselves.(45)
Generally, the
tragic hero according to Aristotle should be a character between these two
extremes that of that a man who is not eminently good or just yet, whose
misfortune is not brought about by the vice or depravity, but by some error or
frailty (Butcher, 45). This is supported by Liwhu Betiang: this character comes
to misfortune not because he has a human failure, a ruling passion ‘fault or
inadequacy like any of us (Betiang, 54). A character that is neither saintly
nor evil is a character that people can possibly identify with because most
real people are neither perfect nor wicked. This indeed makes it possible for a
tragedy to arouse feelings of ‘fear by misfortune of a man like ourselves”
(45).
Despite
the tragic-hero showing some characteristics with the reader/spectator, this
hero must not be a common man (person). Rather, the hero must be one who is
highly renowned and prosperous. A personage like Oedipus, Thyestes or other
illustrious men of such status. This is because Aristotle believes that tragedy
should be “an imitation of persons who are above the common level” (57). The tint
in the characters personality is called ‘tragic flaw’ foible or hamartia
(Greek) which is interpreted to mean an inadequacy or an active fault (poetics
11.13). Some of these flaw in dramatic literature includes; the capitalist
obsession in Willy Loman (death of a salesman); jealousy in Medea (Medea) and
Othello (Othello) indecision in Hamlet (Hamlet), etc. The foregoing makes a
tragic hero a very admirable personage in spite of his human failings since he invariably
represents the curse of all humanity. (Betiang, 54)
According to Robert Hull;
“The individual
who suffers cannot be one who is utterly blameless” (288). The hero brings
about his own tragic situation because he makes some mistakes or error, and
this mistake is what is meant by Hamartia. Hull uses Oedipus to buttress this
point; in the case of case of Oedipus from Aristotle’s perspective. The
hamartia was killing his father and marrying his mother, actions done out of
ignorance, because of his ignorance, Oedipus can be said to have suffered undeservedly.
Presumably, Aristotle would also agree that Oedipus is not pre-eminently
virtuous. Perhaps he would point to Oedipus ‘Temper’ to his presumption. (288)
The point
Aristotle presented in the above scenario is of two consequences:
(1)
That
man cannot run away from his destiny
(2)
It
portrays to humanity that knowledge is limited…for Oedipus did not know that
the man he called father wasn’t his. Otherwise when he knew and left, why was
he not conscious that anyone could be his father!
In another
development, Liwhu Betiang observes that, the classical tragic hero is
“A lonely existential
man war with his destiny. The tragic hero is also generally full of pride
(hubris) which is what pushes him to pry into the abyss of pain and sorrow
without giving up, thus life for him is a continuous struggle against fate”.
(55)
2.2
HEGELIAN PERSPECTIVE ON TRAGEDY
Tragedy according to Hegel arises when a hero
courageously asserts a substantial and just position, but in doing so
simultaneously violates a contrary and likewise just position and so falls prey
to a one-sidedness that is defined at one and the same time by greatness and by
guilt. (Mark. W, Roche, 11). This position holds tenuously that; tragedy is the
conflict of two substantive positions, each of which is justified, yet each of
which is wrong to recognize the validity of the other position or to grant it,
its moment of truth; the conflict can only be resolved with the fall of the
hero.
A
modified translation of Hegel’s note holds that: the original essence of
tragedy consist then in the fact that within such a conflict each of the opposed
sides, if taken by itself, has justification, while on the other hand each can
establish the true and positive content of its own aim and character only by
negating and damaging the equally justified power of the other. Consequently,
in its moral life, and because of it, each is just as much involved in guilt
(15; 523, aA1196, translation modified).
Hegelian
tragedy is the inevitable consequence of the absolute realizing itself in
history. In the course of history, one-sided positions emerge that contain
within themselves their own limitations (15; 486, A1167). Hegel invites the
audience to ask which values have come into conflict. Which positions are
rooted in the past and which positions are rooted in the past and which are
harbingers of the future? In what ways do individual characters embody the
conflicting strands of history? To what extent are forces beyond the hero’s
intentions and passions shaping the events as they unfold? (Roche, 13)
For Hegel, most
tragic heroes stand for truths that are too new to have a majority behind them;
after the hero’s sacrifice the situation
will change, this new principle is in contradiction with the previous one,
appears as destructive; the heroes appear therefore, as violent, transgressing
laws. Individually, they are vanquished but this principle persists, if in a
different form, and buries the present (18; 515).
The hero is
presented to be standing at a paradoxical cross road between good and bad, the
hero is both innocent and guilty. Innocent in so far as she/he adheres to the
good by acting on behalf of a just principle; guilty insofar as he violates a
god and wills to identify with that violation. (15; 546 A 1215). By guilt we
are talking of the actions for which the hero is responsible: and as a result,
the hero seeks not sympathy or pity but recognition of the substance of her
action, including its consequences… it is the honor of these great characters
to be culpable (Roche, 14).
Hegel
rather than focus on the effect of tragedy like Aristotle and some others
deviates and focuses attention on the “core structure of tragedy” from which he
is able to throw insights on the primordial motifs of fear and pity. Which is
why Roche quoted him in positing that: the audience is to fear not external
fate, as with Aristotle, but the ethical substance which, if violated, will
turn against the hero (14). Hegel does not believe that it is the underserved suffering
of the hero that elicits pity, but rather he reinterprets pity as sympathy not
merely with the hero as sufferer but with the hero as one, who is despite his
fall, is nonetheless in a sense justified.
According
to Hegel, we fear the power of an ethical substance that has been violated as a
result of collision, and we sympathize with the tragic-hero who, despite having
transgressed the absolute. Thus Hegelian tragedy has an emotional element. We
are torn between the values and destiny of each position; we identify with the
characters action but sense the inevitable power of the absolute, which
destroys the hero’s one-sidedness. (Roche,14) not only does the tragic hero
refuse to acknowledge the validity of the other position, but the other
position or least the sphere it represents is also an aspect within the hero
even as he denies it. This is especially clear in Sophocles “Antigone” which
Hegel describes as the most beautiful of all tragedies. (Roche,15).
Hegel argues
that, the action of each hero is shown to be not only destructive of the other,
but ultimately self-destructive. He notes that both Antigone and Creon are
equally stubborn and steadfast; both fail to recognize a legitimate conflict of
goods and each is as single-minded as the other. A central insight in Hegel’s
analysis of tragedy is that, even when the tragic –hero becomes conscious of
the justice of a competing position, character demands consistency and with
this, not vacillation, but action, acknowledgement and guilt (3; 348).
In
a further development, he presents a comparison of classical tragedy with
modern tragedy, and it became obvious that in classical tragedy the characters
completely, identify with the substantive powers and ideas that rule human
life, characters act “for the sake of the substantial nature of their end”
while in modern tragedy what we see is greater internal development of
character as well as the elevation of more particular concerns; what presses
for satisfaction is the subjectivity of their heart and mind and the privacy of
their own characters” (Roche,17)
The thrust of Hegelian perspective on tragedy
is that “fate is Rational; reason does not allow individuals to hold on to one
sided position because each stance is constituted through its relation to the
other, the elimination of one stance leads to the destruction of the other. As
the human result is death, but the absolute end is the reestablishment of
ethical substance. It is this catharsis of tragedy, which takes place in the
consciousness of the audience, as it recognizes the supremacy of the whole of
ethical life and sees it purged of one-sidedness. At the end of the tragic
experience, the tragic-hero’s adherence to a partial position is stripped away
and yields to the larger rational process of historical development. What this
implies is that for Hegel, tragedy contains within itself a hidden moment of
reconciliation and resolution (Roche, 17-18).
Fredrich Nietzsche’s “the birth of tragedy’’
from the spirit of music is one of the most important contributions ever made
to the exploration of western tragedy. Nietzsche traces the roots of tragedy
with ancient Greek writers and their festival of Dionysus, at which the great
Tragic plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were performed. He proposes
that through the tragic theatre, the ancient Greeks found solution to Nihilism,
or a way of justifying life “in the face of all its terror and horrors. For
this reason, Nietzsche believed tragedy to be the highest form of art. (www.gradesaver.com/birthoftragedy).
According to
Nietzsche, tragedy is made up of two elements. The Apollonian (related to the
Greek god Apollo, here used as a symbol of measured restraint) and the
Dionysian (from Dionysus, the Greek god of Ecstasy). His conception of the
Apollonian is the equivalent of what Schopenhauer calls the individual
phenomenon. The particular chance, error, or person, the individuality of which
is merely a mask for essential truth of reality which it conceals. The
Dionysian element is a sense of universal reality, which according to
Schopenhauer, is experienced “not as individual egoism. The “Dionysian Ecstasy”
as defined by Nietzsche is experienced “not as individuals but as the one
living being, with whose creative joy we are united”. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Nietzsche
proposes that the events of a tragedy are “supposed” to discharge pity and fear
and are “supposed” to elevate and inspire by the triumph of noble principles at
the sacrifice of the hero. But art, to him must demand purity within its own
sphere. Accordingly, in the tragic theatre, there is a contrast between the
“Apollonian” and the “Dionysian” loosely, the Apollonian is the realm/reality
of sobriety and the differentiation of boundaries, whilst the Dionysian is a
realm/reality of total unity, and ecstasy in which boundaries between people
and things dissolve. Life, he believes, is a constant battle between the hero,
and in the tragic theatre, kit is the singing of the chorus that represents the
Dionysiac whilst dialogue and other action represented the Apollonian. The
mixture of mixture of the two in the tragic theatre allowed spectators to
experience life, the human condition through watching tragedy.
Accordingly,
tragedy for Nietzsche was born out of music in ancient Greece. Actors were
added only later to tragic performances. Thus Nietzsche argues that though the
audience would empathize to some degree with tragic hero, their primary
identification was with the chorus (The Dionysiac) and the actors (The
Apollonian) produces a tension in tragedy through which the audience is able to
feel tragic-joy, or what Aristotle termed Catharsis. Through sympathy with the
tragic hero’s plight and downfall, with the tragic hero’s plight and downfall,
the audience too begins falls towards destruction.
However, because the audience identified
foremost with the chorus, Nietzsche argues that they are able to experience the
ecstatic Dionysian reality of the self actually being part of one whole unity
that can survive the destruction of single rain drops. Through this experience,
we are audience members are comforted even in the face of terrible pain and
suffering. We are unaware of the why we are comforted watching tragedy because
we are shielded by the Apollonian surface of the work that deceives us into
believing that tragedy is about the fate
of an individual in a world of other
individuals. For when the ancient Greeks left the theatre Nietzsche
argues that they felt “strangely comforted and yet “ready for action”(www.gradesaver.com/birthoftragedy).
After
the time of Aeschylus and Sophocles, there was an age where tragedy died.
Nietzsche ties this to the influence of writers like Euripides and the coming
of Rationality, represented by Socrates. Euripides reduced the use of chorus
and was more naturalistic in his representation of human drama, making it more reflective
of the realities of daily life. Socrates emphasized reason to a degree that he
diffused the value of myth and suffering to the human knowledge.
The conclusion of Nietzsche’s thought, is that
the participants of art and myth was lost along with it, much of man’s ability
to live creatively in his optimistic harmony with the suffering of life. But it
is possible to retain the balance of Dionysian and Apollonian in Modern art
through the operas of Richard Wagner in a RE-birth of tragedy. (Wikipedia)
2.4 ELIZABETHAN/SHAKESPEARN TRAGEDY
In the theatre history, the
Elizabethan and Shakespearean era coincides concurrently alongside the same
time frame. Between the reigns of Queen Elizabeth the 1st and the
period during which Shakespeare himself lived and wrote. (1558-1603) A
Shakespearean tragedy is a play written by Shakespeare himself or any other
play written in the style Shakespeare by a different author. Tragedies of
Shakespeare are mostly indebted to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy in his works
but have certain variations that make it worth taking into consideration.
A Shakespearean tragedy is a
specific type of tragedy; a written work with a sad ending where the hero
either dies or ends up mentally, emotionally, or spiritually devasted beyond
recovery (Muhammed Rafiq). According to David Hamilton, Elizabethan tragedy was
influenced greatly by the works of Seneca, and there were two kinds of
tragedies prevalent in this era; Revengers and Reachers tragedies. Revengers’
tragedy came at the end of the genre; it is attributed to either Cyril Tourneur
or Thomas Middleton. Accordingly, Revengers tragedy alternates energetic high
speed action and brooding, slow paced scenes on death, revenge an evil. The
authors aim is to present an ironic a disturbing view of human nature. The exponents
of over Reachers were Christopher Marlowe, Marlowe gives the impression that he
came early and established grand, heroic speeches. The Over Reachers in an act
of Hubris by challenging the gods or thinking he is one as in “Doctor Faustus”
and “Tamburlaine the Great” (DavidHamilton.https://www.newenglishreviews.org).
While many English playwrights and
critics such as Ben Johnson insisted on observing the classical unities of
action, time and place, Shakespeare however, went contrary to this arrangement
with his Romantic tragedy as seen in Richard 11, Macbeth, Hamlet, and King
Lear. Romantic tragedy disregarded the unities (as in the use of sub-plots)
mixed tragedy and comedy, and emphasized action, spectacle and increasingly
…sensation. This violation also included the mixing of poetry and prose and
using the device of a play-within-a –play, as in Hamlet.
The
Elizabethan and their Jacobean successors acted on stage the violence that the
Greek dramatist reported. The tragedies of Marlowe showed the resource of the
English Language with his magnificent blank verse, and the powerful effects
that could be achieved by focusing on a towering protagonist, as in timberline.
In Elizabethan tragedy, the individual leads to violence and conflict. This era
also produced a new form of tragedy “Tragic-comedy”. In tragic-comedy, the
action and subject matter seem to require a tragic-ending, but it is avoided by
a reversal which leads to a happy ending sometimes, the tragic-comedy
alternates serious and comic actions throughout the play.
According to Janet Spens; Elizabethan and
Shakespearean tragedy must end in some tremendous catastrophe involving in
Elizabethan practice the death of the principal character; the catastrophe must
not be the result of mere accident, but must be brought about by some essential
trait in the character of the hero acting either directly or through its effect
on other persons; the hero must nevertheless, have in him something which
outweighs his defects and interests us in Him so that we care for his fate more
than for anything else in the play.(www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/tragedyvscomedy.html)
A criticism of Shakespearean or
Elizabethan tragedy is contained in Gibbs work where he cited Auerbach position
on the nature of Shakespeare’ writing; the tragic in Shakespeare is not
completely realistic. He does not take ordinary reality tragically or
seriously. When common people or soldiers or other representatives of the
middle classes appear, it is always the low style… (Gibbs, 11) For Andrew Gurr,
both Greek and Shakespearean tragedy; based themselves on a world view which
was essentially static. The place of social change in both societies was so
slow as to be imperceptible within them; individuals might be made to change,
but not the whole structure. It followed therefore, that the miseries and the
injustices of human existence called for explanation, not revolution…The gods
were essentially the expression of a hope that order, control, justice did in
fact lie behind life’s seaming chaos.(140)
2.5
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMON MAN
The validity of
Aristotle’s theory on tragedy continued to generate controversy and evolved
into numerous views on tragedy which according to M. Cassady; few tragedies
throughout history have reached the Aristotelian ideal. The definition of
tragedy depends on a person’s viewpoint”. (222)
The position hat
tragedy is an art form exclusively reserved for the nobility and the highly
placed (kings, princes, generals and such other figures) which for Brecht is a
‘bourgeoisie art’ became the bone of contention, is the ordinary citizens like
slave and men who are below average not worth the focus of drama.??
According
to Barnett et. al, that the spectators were not themselves heroic figures seems
to have been assumed by the Greeks and by the Elizabethans; at least there are
usually these lesser choral figures, nameless citizens, who interpret the
action and call attention to the fact that even highly placed great heroes are
not exempt from pain…(388). The Greeks and the Elizabethans, regarded high
place beyond just rank, to weighing the worth. For even though a king may be
unkingly, both ages (Greek and Elizabethans) assumed that kingship required a
special nature…therefore, tragedy deals with kings because they are men with a
certain title, but because they are men with a certain nature. (Barnett et.al,
389).
Arthur Miller is seen as one of the
greatest playwrights of the 20th century and according to Raymond
Williams, “brought back into the theatre, in an important way the drama of
social questions’’ (34). The late 1940’s when Miller first rose to fame was a
time where there was a “widespread withdrawal from social thinking’’ (34). This
was as a result of the horrors of World war 11 which had just ended. Then
people wanted to be happy and focus more on the positive things of life rather
than the critical questions about the society, they were living in at the time.
Miller
in his essay “tragedy and the common man”, explains in detail which important
elements a tragedy should contain, his views differs in many ways from
Aristotle’s. Miller believes that “the
common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were”
(148). He explains that in psychology terms like Oedipus complex can apply to
the common man much as the king, so when it comes to mental and emotional
process, which are very important in tragedies, common people, are essentially
not different from noblemen . Miller went on to argue that most people would
not appreciate or understand tragic plays as much as they do now if tragedy
could only apply to nobility, as the majority of the audience are common people
below that level. Miller believes that
all tragic heroes have the same goal; (from Orestes to Hamlet, Medea to
Macbeth) the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain
his ‘rightful’ position in society’’ (tragedy, 45). Indignity is the ‘fatal
wound’ (48) that set in motion the events of tragedy. He thinks that so long characters are willing
to do anything to secure their dignity,, they inspire tragic feelings in the
audience. Indignity is therefore an essential element in tragedy, which based
on relations of cause and effect. Miller kind of agreed with Aristotle on this
subject, who says that if there is clear causality in a play, the tragic wonder
will then be greater in than if they happened to themselves or by accidents;
for even coincidence are most striking when they have an air of design”
(Butcher 39).
This view that indignity is vital in tragedy
is made elaborate when he described tragedy as “the consequences of a man’s
total compulsion to evaluate himself justly” (Miller, 149) the hero feels like
the people around him do not see him in the right way that he thinks he should
be seen and he is determined to make the other people see him in the right way
that he goes too far, with dramatic consequences.
Miller and Aristotle differs on their concepts
of the “tragic flaw’’, Miller stresses that every character, both high born and
common, can have a tragic flaw (149). He describes the tragic flaw not as an
action, but as a character trait, namely the characters “inherent unwillingness
to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his
dignity, his image of his rightful status” (149). There are also “flawless”
characters, but these are not interesting as tragic heroes because they accept
their position in society and do nothing to change it. What this means, is that
for Miller “tragic flaw” is not necessarily a weakness, as the fight for one’s
rightful place in society is an admirable undertaking, this flaw is always the
same in all tragedies, this is very different from that of Aristotle, which implies
actions in every play, but with the same consequences in both cases, which
ultimately is the heroes downfall.
All the above discussed
perspectives on tragedy, have come to agree that tragedy is a genre of drama
that treats very serious subject matters, as in it captures the real essence of
man’s existential struggle in the face of the obscurities of life and how
helpless man is in the face of the supernatural forces which has willed such a
strong fate against him, in all man learns his strengths and weaknesses by
watching one like himself who have risen to the high pedestal of life fall due
to some ignoble weakness or error in judgment which delineates him as human,
capable of failings , for which the onlooker must strive to avoid should he
find himself in a such a dilemma in the near future. Thus, tragedy irrespective
of who is involved in the action, should be able arouse and evoke the cathartic
feelings of empathy and fear that will lead to the purgation of emotions, which
is what tragedy sets out to achieve from the outset.
Millers, idea is
the vision of a world where drama is exploited as a veritable with which to
empower the poor and down trodden, the neglects of the earth to raise up and
take up their proper place in the society, as against a world that is
structured and only celebrates the capitalist rich, therefore, like Brecht , he
seeks to analysis the social condition s within the common man finds himself
struggling against and how, he succeeds in redeeming his image at the end of
the day against the odds that relegates him to the background ( rightful
status), thus African tragedy is placed between miller’s lowly hero and
Brecht’s anti-hero who is fighting for his rightful place in the society and
how tragedy can happen to anyone in the African society: since they were all
created equal by the creator.
2.6 THE NATURE
OF AFRICAN TRAGEDY
Drawing
inference from the different worldviews expressed and assessed, starting with
the classics through the Millers tragedy of the common man, we still are not
satisfied with this various positions being that, this worldviews are
western/European worldviews and in all ramifications, this views are
alienistic, as those of us in the African philosophical and dramatic schools of
thought do not connect with this positions in totality from our cosmogenic
views. Since definition and understanding of tragedy is based on an individual
and cultural understanding.
According to Richard
Williams; in our own time, especially, it is the connection between revolutions
and tragedy. Connection lived and known but not acknowledged as ideas-which
seen most clear and significant; tragedy is a blanket term which when stretched
to cover both religion and revolution is likely to get torn. (140) after
perusing through the works of most African playwrights, critics and students of
dramatic literature have always being confronted with the daunting question of
; is J.P Clarke’s “Ozidi” or Soyinka’s “strong Breed” a tragedy? And in what
light do we begin to apportion such generic classification to works of African
playwrights as their conformity to western canons of writing is very far from
the subject except for a few and some instances. This is what has given rise to
such questions and in response to these questions Effumbe Kachua states that:
African tragedy
is different from other forms of tragedy-classical, French and modern, etc.
this concept basically distinguishes itself based on manners and values. (108)
In African tragedy, there is no conflict
between duty and passion. Traore indicates that in African tragedy “the
conflict originates more often from situations than from clash of two forces” (59).
The crust of African tragedy is hinged on the circumstances and the situations
are the dramatic environments prevalent, and sequel to an action. Michael
Etherton in citing Soyinka’s defense and position on tragedy within the African
text,(dramatic) contends that; Soyinka contends that Europeans or westerners,
tend to see the tragic impulse as being encapsulated by a given world order at
a given time and in relations to a particular individual. The African mind, on
the other hand, has a tragic understanding which transcends the causes of
individual; disjunction, and recognizes them as reflections of a far greater
disharmony in the communal psyche. (253)
Soyinka in his
“Myth, literature and the African World” contends that it is not through ethics
or the moral codes of religions or through political dogmas, that this central
conflict-man’s struggle with chaos is resolved. It is the communal will,
expressed in the theatre by the audience ‘willing through’ the central actor to
bridge the chaos, which provides this deeper understanding of man’s essential
being. This communal will reflects the human condition and is quite amoral; it
is itself a manifestation of the harsh, irreducible laws of the physical world
(Etherton, 254)
This goes on to imply that for
tragedy to have a proper place within the African space, it must reflect the
will of the people (commune)by capturing the human condition reflecting both
the positive and the negative side of the unalterable effects of the harsh
realities of the physical world on the character and society as well, thereby
upholding the tenets of circumstance over characters position or place which is
in consonance with Sofola’s vision of the African theatre: African theatre
addresses the audience directly through the traditional worldview of the
people, which as a result the audience recognizes, understands, identifies with
and participates in the experience unfolded before them in them in the
performance. (54).
Sofola solidifies her stance and the position
and nature of African tragedy by arguing African tragedy contrasts with the
views of western theorists such as Hegel, Edith Hamilton, Joseph Krutch, Arthur
Miller…since each of this scholars are influenced by their own cosmology and
their understanding of the human destiny and how the society seeks to achieve
and sustain metaphysical equilibrium and cosmic attainment” (Sofola, 12-13).
Her argument is built on the fact that, Greeks
and indeed the western world’s orientation, all men are not created equal,
which by implication holds that only, the Aristocrats and those of Nobel can
serve as a connector between the created universe and the supreme deity and
consequently are the only fit to be tragic heroes. This views according to
Sofola contrasts with the African cosmology where all beings are created equal
in destiny from the same supreme essence, which is the very reason why a tragic
hero can emerge from any background of the social ladder “Africans are of the belief
that situations and positions in life are not fixed, but rather it is the
degree of divine presence in the individual that matters. A king may be
spiritually barren while a beggar maybe a spiritual bombshell” (Ejeke, 84.)
Tragic understanding therefore, lies in the
complex awareness of the audience that human existence, which is contained
within a tenuous and uncompromising physical environment, is concerned with the
survival of anyone individual. The audience remain aware of this even when it
has moved away from the a society in which the mere question of survival is
paramount, and moved towards a more complex and seemingly more secure
‘developed’ society. (Etherton, 253)
J.P Clarke
opinion of African tragedy was cited by Olu Obafemi in “songs of Gold”:
Tragedy is a
consequence of a tangible familial or communal sin which has not been
propitiated for or improperly cleansed. In song of a Goat, Zifa infringes
tradition by hastily bringing his father’s body back home to bury to allow the
community to purify itself from his father’s corruption…to this is added the
fact that Tonye and Ebire committed Incest. Tufa’s ignorance his family curse
is the unpardonable cause of the tragedy in the Masquerade…this
persistence on the metaphysical element of ritual purification as a unique
factor of Ijo tragedy comes to a head in Ozidi. This tragic vision built around
the individual and communal pains arises from, as is the Case in Ozidi,
tangible communal sin (Orua’s perpetration of destruction in neighbouring
states) and Ozidi’s excesses. There is a need for a rite of purification for
the regeneration of the community. (54)
In a further development, Olu Obafemi went on
to state that Clarke over ridding vision of tragic vision as evidence in all of
his tragic works: “the essence of social and spiritual regeneration of men and
the community through a movement from transgression to purification via
suffering, pacification and cleansing” (54)
Ademola Frances
defines tragedy within the African context to mean that “man’s predicament lies
in the conflict between his own nature and established error. Tragedy is the
result of dishonor, shame, betrayal of kinsmen, cowardice and a burning,
vengeful curse that propels man to inescapable doom: (49). The audience in African theatre,
sympathize with the individual whose conflict and tragic experience they
witness, it is their presence in the theatre that affords them, the opportunity
of being aware of “the communal significance of the conflict, beyond its
significance for the individual.
African
tragedy most times can be classified as collective tragedy, a situation where
the consequences of one characters flaws/failure results to a greater spectrum
that affects the greater goal of the community: the failure of Elesin Oba in
“Death and The Kings horseman” results in greater calamity in his society. In
Femi Osofisan’s women of Owu the
tragedy arises due to the violation of the Yoruba gods injunction that no
Yoruba kingdom should sell a fellow Yoruba into slavery which was violated by
the people of Owu Ipole, and the communal excesses perpetrated by the allied
forces of Oyo, Ife in their bid to deal justly with the people Owu, they go on
in fury and ecstasy to discrete the shrines of their principal deities leaving
them with no resting place thereby incurring the wrath of the Deities “ Owu was
brought to ruins and none of the Allied forces made it back to their various
destination” which spelt collective and communal tragedy. The forced marriage
of Ogwoma in “wedlock of the gods” results in cycle of deaths. Same as the
Exile of Okonkwo in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” results in the collapse of the
society and more still, Remi’s negligence and indecision in the Wa Thiongo’s
“The Black Hermit” tells greater consequences on the generality of the Marua
Tribe.
Therefore,
the African worldview holds strongly that, it is the decadence of the culture
of a people, that leads to moral and spiritual decadence as replete in
Soyinka’s “The Road, trials of brother Jero and Ogwoma’s stubbornness together
with Remi’s” absence that is the beginning of
tragedy. This therefore, solidifies Etherton’s stance that in the
African sense what makes a drama tragic is because the protagonist reveals to
the audience the chaos before creation. (254). In African tragedy, the
individual is not alone in his suffering and is also not doomed to an
irredeemable, fate as African Pantheon gods allows for the avenue to alter the
fate of a hero, except where the hero blindly or willingly walks to his/her
doom as in the case of Ogwoma and Uloko and the classless nature of African
tragedy allows us to identify and sympathize with Yerima’s “Otaelo” and the
effect of collective tragedy/Heroism
connects us with the Marua tribe, in Kenya.
2.7 SUMMARY
This chapter has
researched into the various perspectives on the dramatic genre of tragedy
beginning from the classical/Greek tragedy down to the Nature of African
tragedy as found in the literature of various societies. Tragedy has been
debated as a product of cultural background and the meaning and functions
attributed to it is dependent on the culture that produces such a tragic-tale.
Western/classical tragedy deals with a tragic hero of very high status, whose
fate is already predetermined and cannot be remedied no matter what, the
differences contained in the different perspective held by the various
societies on tragedy lies on the personality of the tragic hero. While the 20th
century scholar Arthur Miller, argues that tragedy only holds ground when the
audience in the theatre can identify themselves with the tragic hero who does
not necessarily have to be a nobleman or of high estate, but rather anyone who
is ready to lay down his life if need be, to achieve his goal” Berthold Brecht
takes a stance against tragedy, since for him tragedy I an art form meant
exclusively for the highly placed members of the society, therefore, he
developed the anti-hero to counter tragic heroism in the theatre, which is
represented by his title character, Galileo who proclaimed “unhappy is the land
that is in need of heroes”. According to Iji cited in Betiang;
Brecht
preference for the common, downtrodden class is due to his natural sympathy
with the underdog then combines with his deliberate allegiance to the workers
to have him a special interest in creating unpretentious plebian figures, often
with a sardonic or even slightly
disreputable twist…Brecht’s negative attitude to traditional heroism was
informed by his belief that heroes thrive on ill-informed masses to prop
themselves up, thus diverting and distracting the attention of the masses from,
the real imports of social dialectics. (Betiang, 128).
African tragedy
draws inference from Millers “tragedy of the common man” but finds strong roots
in Brechtian characterization and view point “the characters in Brecht’s plays
are often presented as victims of moral dilemma due to the prevalent social
circumstances, while their resolutions arise from the moral choices made by
these characters”(Betiang,128). However, the standpoint of African tragedy is
predicated on the situation which the character finds himself, and the
aftermath of such characters response to the situation, which often does not
consume the tragic-hero who most times acts in manners that are deemed un-heroic,
below average to the point of savagery and self-destruction. Often the
resolution of African tragedy is in the manner of Brechtian Anti-heroism where
the society which looks forth for a hero is doomed alongside with such a hero
at the end of the day.
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 APPRAISAL OF AFRICAN TRAGEDY IN SOFOLA’S WEDLOCK
OF THE GODS
3.1 SYNOPSIS
OF WEDLOCK OF THE GODS
The “Wedlock of the gods” is
compared with Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” the prologue of the play tells
us that Uloko and Ogwoma (male and female) protagonists are lovers from an early
age and they agreed to marry themselves and thus spend the rest of their lives
together. However, there is a twist of fate in their love life and their
lifelong goal of being together is cut short, by Ogwoma’s parents.
Ogwoma is forced to marry Adigwu a
man who is older and wealthier than Uloko, who cannot afford to pay the bride
price for his dearly beloved Ogwoma; this was done in order to secure a bride
wealth to obtain medicine for her sick brother. Adigwu eventually dies and
Ogwoma oblivious of the bounds of tradition feels free to live a happy life
having been released from the chains and pangs of being married to a man that
she never loved, nor wanted to do anything with in the first place.
However, according to tradition, Ogwoma must
mourn her deceased husband for three months after which, she is to marry his
(Adigwu’s) younger brother in order to bear him children. It is observed in the
second month of mourning that Ogwoma is pregnant for her erstwhile lover-Uloko.
This unraveling quickly metamorphosed into a reversal of fortune for Ogwoma and
Uloko. Odibei, Adigwu’s revengeful mother, who had being suspecting and even
accused Ogwoma’s infidelity as the cause
of her son’s death-as she had stated that Adigwu did not die an ordinary death,
as it is an evil for a man to die of a swollen stomach. Odibei, sets out to
avenge the death of her son, she therefore invokes magic to eliminate Ogwoma’s
life.
The community on their part tries to broker
peace, but they have to confront the two lovers who see nothing wrong in their
action, but rather, they see it as an act of the gods. Amid their defiance, the
families of both Uloko and Ogwoma blame each other as being responsible for the
calamity that is befalling the two lovers. However, the families are united in
their quest to ensure that Ogwoma and Uloko are safe and alive, following
Odibei’s threats to harm Ogwoma.
With the aid of
an incantation, Odibei puts Ogwoma under a spell to adhere to her nefarious
plan. Odibei prepares a poisonous drink and instructs Ogwoma to drink it.
Ogwoma dies of the poisonous concotment, angered Uloko avengers the death of
his lover and the mother of his unborn child by killing Odibei to complete the
cycle of death, as the play is termed “a tragedy which finds its roots in the
ritual of death and mourning” Uloko ends his own life by drinking of the same
poison that killed his lover: declaring that “…ours is the wedlock of the
gods…” with the firm belief that their union will continue in the world of the
dead. Having the ending as “Romeo and Juliet” thus, the play ends in tripartite
death, resulting from a break in the tradition of the people.
3.2 CHARACTER PORTRAYAL/TRAGIC HEROISM IN WEDLOCK OF
THE GODS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 AFRICAN TRAGEDY IN WA THIONGO’S THE BLACK HERMIT
4.1 SYNOPSIS OF THE BLACK HERMIT
The black Hermit
was written during the independence period of Kenya to douse the fire of ethnic
agitation and religious conflict which had begun to undermine the cooperate
existence of the young East African Republic. The play tells the tragedy of
Remi, an offspring of Marua tribe, born and breed in a Christian home, however,
he grew up to be the first in his tribe to be educated in the white-man’s way
(western Education), therefore, all the people of Marua cast their hopes that
Remi with his knowledge of the Whiteman’s ideology and politics would return
and lead them to political and religious prominence, in a land where they are
being mistreated.
Remi is an embodiment of Nationalism
deride of religious and ethnic bigotry. While in school he was able to garner
the will of his people, the Marua tribe, to join the Africanist party and work
collectively for the political and economic emancipation of their people, from
the whims and caprices of colonialism. However, following his successful
politicking, he has to surmount a wish from his people, to obey a sacred custom
just as his followers had obeyed him and inherit the widow of his late brother
(Thoni). An act which he sees as mundane and barbaric for a person of his
disposition. Although he reluctantly succumbs to this wish, he vowed never to
share intimacy with this woman, who he believes to be meant for another,
neither could he reconcile living with a woman who does not love him.
In view of this development, Remi flees to the
city to live a life of seclusion and solitude from the things that surrounds
him and never to return home to his people, thus he abandons his tribe, his aged
mother and widowed mother and his new wife Thoni, at their own perils. Remi
becomes a ‘Hermit” in the city. Oblivious of Remi’s resolve Thoni waits
patiently for his return with a burdened heart and a feeling that light would
shine on her way someday. Remi’s disappearance, from the tribe, creates a big
lacuna, as his tribe groans and yarns for a leader who will give them
cognizance in the face of national politics, reduce the burden of heavy
taxation, forced labour and tribal political sentiments. The elders of the
tribe sees Remi as the only one fit to salvage their burden owing to his
education and influence on the ruling Africanist party. They (Elders) come
together in one accord and sent some persons to the city with a portion of
‘Black magic’ and ‘a mothers blessing’ to cajole Remi back to the tribe. Nyobi (Remi’s
mother) also solicits for the support of the pastor who is in need of a young
blood to take over from him and thus he is convinced that
Remi is the right one to take over from him when he is gone. The pastor readily
went to the city with his ‘Bible’ talks Remi into agreeing to return back to
the tribe.
Remi kept to his promise and
returned. However, he returned as a complete disappointment and failure to all
who looked up to him for a saving help; the tribe, his mother, the church and
his wife Thoni. Prior to his return he has had to cut his relationship with his
southern African white girl friend Jane, the lady whom he had lived together in
the city and had promised to marry. He comes home with Omange, a man from another
tribe to preach national unity and progress to his people. He denounced their
tribal sentiments and dreams and called on all parties to unite together and
work for a better society.
He castigated the Christian‘s “Hermistic” (secluded)
way of life. He cautions and reprimands his mother’s choice of wife for him and
scares Thoni away. Thus, Thoni (his wife) gets the message and rather than live
with shame and humiliation, she commits suicide. Thoni’s unexpected suicide
bring Remi to the realization that he she truly loved him, but it is too late,
as he ends up broken and defeated.
Remi:
And after? I
have been a Hermit…from my wife…from the people I see now…a streak, of light
through the darkness…I have hem too Long away from their real thirst and
hunger…what have I done? What have I done? (75)
4.2 CHARACTER/TRAGIC HERO IN THE BLACK
HERMIT
The
central character for which we are concerned with here is Remi (tragic hero).
Remi is a leader, a strong student activist who later rises to the rank of a popular
politician. He leads his people into the mainstream political movement. He is
young, educated and self-willed and does not want to be held back by the
traditions of his people which demands is customary in most African societies
that the younger brother widow as a way of continuing his lineage.
As a leader Remi, is a towering figure with
traits and attributes which makes his followers to view him in high esteem, as
he stands for uprightness, poise, dignity, equality and above all crusader for
national unity and fear a progressive society:
Remi: Go now
elders and remember what I told you…we must help ourselves …you and other
Christians must not live isolated. We must link hands, build a house in which
you and I and all our people can live in peace cultivating the riches of the
heart…I will no longer be led by woman, priest or tribe. (64-65)
On
the psychological level, Remi is presented as a hero who is fragile at heart,
timid, reluctant, shy at women, which is why he could not express his feelings earlier
on for the woman he loved Thoni
Remi…I was shy
with people. Women frightens me…there was a girl in my village whom I secretly
adored. But I was a dumb sufferer. (32)
Remi’s inability
to overcome his frights, throws him into
a hysteria of running away, when demands was for him to settle with the same woman whom he loved all along, but
he was another’s wife; married to his late brother. Evading and concealing his fears
which turn out in the future to be his flaws. He runs to the city where he
works as a clerk with an oil firm. There he seeks solace in escapist
indulgence-night clubbing and partying, living a cocooned life, with the vague
hope of being shielded from the stark realities of his circumstance. While in
the city, he becomes an idealist living in an imaginary world fabricated by his
idealist fantasies. He denies the reality of his marriage to Thoni, on the
grounds that she never loved him, denouncing the custom and people that
approved the union. Remi is one who is withdrawn even from his own shadows;
this is revealed by Jane his lover and Omange who are shocked of their
discovery of the secrets he has been hiding from them all his life.
Jane; you call
yourself a hermit…you are not a hermit. A hermit looks for the truth (52)
Remi as a tragic
hero; Remi on the first level is presented as one with heroic traits, one who
is not in any way close to the classical or neo-classical tragic-hero, nr even
fit for the 21st century criteria for a tragic hero. However, he is
presented as a charismatic leader, who is revered by all the tribes of Marua;
he occupies the highest stool of being the first in his tribe to gain the
Whiteman’s education. Thus the elders describe him as
Elder;
Remi…is the only educated man in all the land,
Exceeding in knowledge all the people,
Black and white put together.(9)
Thus nobility is conferred on him, and he
commands all and sundry including the leaders of the Africanist party, where he
is believed to have a voice in thereby,
raising like Oedipus from being an ordinary traveler to a supposed ‘tribal
leader’
Remi however, is possessive of a tragic flaw
which is an error in judgment, resulting in hasty and rash decisions which cost
him everything including his sense of dignity and pride which he has struggled
from the outset to maintain. Jane’s lines make it clear that Remi’s greatest
flaw/challenge does not know what he wants.
Jane; Yes,
perhaps I am different from you. I know what I want, what I am. You don’t know
yourself, or what you really want, only you are thinking yourself a delicate
being, superior and so much better than anybody else”(52)
We can now asses him as one who is Nobel,
neither good nor bad, admirable, possessing and elevated in status, yet lacking
in purpose or ambition, and even if he had any ambition, his unfortunate
tragedy is that he does not know what he wants and how to go about it. His
decision to run away from the tribe and his wife was the beginning of his
tragedy, for the moment he realized his purpose, which is to lead the people
towards living through the real dividends and gains of Uhuru (independence) he
begins to experience a reversal of fortune; first he loses Jane, disappoint the
tribe, his mother, the church and most painfully he realized too late that he
was wrong all along to have doubted Thoni’s Love and loyalty to him. Though
Remi’s flaw, does not lead to his death, but the unfortunate death of Thoni,
the one he came to realize too late loved him brings him to understand that he
has failed everyone who looked up-to him from the outset, thereby questioning
his ideals and philosophies all along.
Remi:…what good
has nationalism done to people?...and after? I have been a hermit…from my
wife…I see now…a streak, of light through the darkness…I have hem too long away
from their real thirst and hunger…what have I done?
Remi’s
submissions above is replica of Creon’s submission in Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’
Creon;
lead me away, I have been rash and foolish...
Fate
has brought all my pride to a thought of dust.
Choreagos:
there is no happiness where there is no wisdom…
Big words are always punished and proud
men in old age learn to be wise. (41-42)
Remi’s end is significant of a great fall and
carries with it cathartic underpinnings, for we feel with the orator and
commander who is now left alone “the tragic protagonist then is a lonely
existential man at war with his destiny. Life for him is a continuous struggle
against fate…thus, he is placed in conflict with fate and powers at war with
his hubris and existential psyche” (Betiang, 55)
Remi’s is reminiscent of a Clark’s Ozidi, who
in the verge of total conquer, conquers even his own source of strength Oraeme,
thereby exerting excesses through his words and position. For this was
confirmed by second neighbour and Jane
2nd
Neighbour…people were quiet. Some turned their heads away Strung by his
wrathful words. Other Elders went away in guilt and shame
Jane…thinking yourself a
delicate being, superior and so much better than anybody else. (63&52)
4.3 LANGUAGE
The language
used is synonymous to the African society. The language is simple and straight
forward. The choice of words is perfect, as they help the audience to get the
message that is being communicated and understand the given circumstance of the
characters. Words like tribalism, racism, taxation, forced community works,
bribes are there to give us insight into the daily life experiences of the people
involved.
There is interplay of the use of Christian
religious diction and that of the traditional African religion, with pastor and
Nyobi being proponents of the Christian ideals, while elders and Thoni explores
the African religious diction.
The language explores the use of simile,
onomatopia, metaphor: my wound is a woman; she is a seedling whose eventual
fruits will be a blessing to us all. (25&16) Allusion and other figures of speech.
The Africanness of the language is contained in the textual and contextual use
of African sayings and proverbs ; “a man’s public life is given meaning only by
the stability of his private life” (32) “a woman’s joy is seeing her children”(3)
“a woman without a child is not a woman”(3).
The general
undertone of the language carries with it the aura of disappointment, fear,
unfulfilled hopes and aspirations and witty enough to show the dispossessed and
sadistic nature of characters situations and predicaments. It also implores the
use of political cultural and biblical language to express and explain the
various settings of the play.
4.4 STYLE
The playwright
has employed the dialogue style of call and response throughout the play. We
have few cases of flashback technique, especially when Remi narrates brother’s
death and then the moment when he was at college. There is also a twisting of
plot structure, with the middle of the play manifesting at the beginning and
vice-versa. The opening scene, we see Nyobi comforting Thoni, for a reason
unknown to us, not until later when mention is made to the fact that her
husband died and Remi who was to inherit her has run away to the city.
Foreshadow is
also used, with cases of Nyobi, Thoni, Pastor and the Elders trying to
foreshadow the return of Remi (hermit) and the vision of how he will lead them
to victory and help to expand their tribe as revealed by the oracle. The
playwright also employs the use of songs and drumming in page 47 by the
villagers who sing the national anthem in Native Gikuyu (Marua) to welcome the
hermit home. We also see the exploration of the African worldviews, of the
transition from ne plain to another. Thoni’s narrative and the practice of
brother inheriting hid brothers widow, which is also part of the conflict in
“wedlock of the gods” Okezie is to inherit Adigwu’s widow Ogwoma.
4.5 THE PRESENCE OF AFRICAN TRAGEDY
Ngugi Wa Thiongo’
in ‘the Black hermit’ brings to the fore the core of his pan-Africanist
ideology which is reflected in all his literary compositions starting first the
novels and stamping it more aptly with Drama. “The Trials Of Dedan Kimathi, The
Black Hermit, And I Will Marry When I Want” is a carefully crafted
documentation of the terrifying and horrific experience of the blacks, which
finds its roots in the colonial experience and neo-colonialism which has
distorted the values and mores of the African society that was previously hewn
together by the interaction with one another and nature in communion
(communalism).
Kimathi aptly lamented the tragic experience
of Africans due to colonialism;
they used to dance these Before the white
colonialist came In the arena…at initiation…During funerals…during marriage then
the colonialist came and the people danced a different dance.
As Chinua Achebe
stated clearly in “Things Fall Apart”; that our customs are bad; and our own
brothers who have taken up his religion also says that our customs are bad”.
With colonialism came a new form of tragedy for the African primordial state; I
call it “tragedy of the colonized” which is manifest in Achebe’s “things fall
apart” where Okonkwo finds it difficult to reconcile himself to the new way of
life, which came with the Whiteman, and turned his people “Umofia ” against
their own practices and customs thus the magnitude of this new way of life of a
brother abandoning the other is what made Okonkwo to take his own life.
Although the
African continent is heterogeneous in nature, that it is difficult to conclude
that one ideology or religious practice is held tenaciously by the African
philosophy/worldview, is the fact that the African is his brother’s keeper, and
is derived from this symbiotic relationship. In actual sense, there is a
healthy feeling of mutual goodwill among all accept when one proves to be
lacking. Then the African worldview demands to eliminate the evil element so
that, the society will remain intact.
The elements of African drama, which
constitutes tragedy: are rituals, rites of passage and inheritance, belief in
the gods and the strong link between the supernatural and man, incantation,
proverbs, folktales, magic, rituals: this entire element finds roots in “the
Black hermit”
The life and
destiny of man lies with the gods, but it is far different from the
Shakespearean/classical tragedy, because the African gods do not treat humans
as mere puns in a grand game of cheese; rather they leave man to grapple with
his own fate and if at the end, man’s search for the ultimate truth deepens so
much that he makes a mistake, he pays dearly for it. In the black hermit, Remi
has to run from his destiny which is to lead his people, inherit his brother’s
widow and help restore harmony in the society. These things which he tries to
evade make him to wander aimlessly in the city, however, at his return he has to face the music.
In African society and drama; tragedy arises
from a characters deviation from normal social codes and ethics, which are
often negative and inimical to the growth of the society. Therefore, once the
cycle is broken, the protagonist does not suffer alone, but all around him (the
entire community or society) partakes in the suffering. Remi’s tragedy is a
societal tragedy which is resultant of his flagrant disregards for and
ignorance of the canon’s of the cultures of his African orientation which he
views as backward and misguided. This stance that no longer will he be held by
tribe, religion, man, woman or mother, fits into Ademola’s definition of
tragedy; the result of dishonor, shame, betrayal of kinsmen, cowardice and a
burning, vengeful curse that propels man to inescapable doom (Ademola in
Obafemi, 49)
The above finds manifestation in Remi who has
betrayed his kinsmen, brought shame and dishonor to his mother and wife, as
well he showed cowardice and vengeful guts, which does not leave him dead, but
alive to witness what Williams Raymond explained to be “the result of the
tragic, but ordinary tragic action is what happens through the hero…tragedy
lies in the destruction of a certain set of relationships, but in a double
sense. It obliterates past actions and prevents future one’s destroying both
what is actual and the possible is sustained fictionally through
characterization. (luka’cs, et.al, 15). In African cosmogony, a society or
individual suffers many times because of the actions of others, even though,
the suffering seems unjust. Tragedy in the African sense exists to show us the
height to which a man can rise.
What
Ngugi and other African playwrights have done is to paint what Edde Iji calls
“the bleak core of black man’s endemic victimhood, adrift and forlorn in a
mounting destiny of racism and/or disillusionment of Independence” (Edde Iji,
14).
Therefore, African tragedy is the consequence
of one man’s violation of the social, and sacred, moral codes of ethics that
binds the African state together in state of cosmic and primordial harmony and
interaction for which its consequences is shared collectively among, members of
a society, that if not properly litigated in the alter of attrition could spell
doom for the individual and society. As stated by Michael Etherton; tragic
understanding; therefore, lies in the awareness of the audience that human
existence, which is contained within a tenuous and uncompromising physical
environment, is concerned with the community and not specifically with the
survival of anyone individual…the communal will reflects the human condition
and is quite amoral: it is itself a manifestation of the harsh, irreducible
laws of the physical world. (Etherton, 253-254)
4.7 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE TWO PLAYS
Wedlock of the
gods and the black hermit are text that finds their strong holds from the
traditional elements of African drama and theatre, which is shrouded in the
mysteries, rituals, mime, dance, festivals, folkloric traditions, songs, from
which the playwrights have borrowed extensively to drive their points home.
Wedlock of the gods is a play that chronicles the resultant effects of the
violation of the customs of a people and how such offences is being punished or
atoned for the offender. The playwright, Zulu Sofola, aptly stated from the
outset, that the play is “a tragedy that arises from the ritual of death and
mourning”. Ogwoma is expected to carry out the ritual rites of mourning her
deceased husband Adigwu for three months after which she is to be customarily
sanctified and free to mingle freely with other members of the community,
however, she goes against this injunction by letting another man (Uloko) to get
her pregnant before her period of mourning is over, thus, she brings disgrace
to her kinsmen and betrays the sanctity of marriage.
While,
the black hermit, is about Remi, an African returnee from Europe who seeks to
remodel the traditions of his people to suit his taste for European and
westernized standards of life, due to this, Remi sees the traditions of his
people as mundane and sees himself as the one to change it, or he ceases to be
a part of such a barbaric culture that demands “that he inherits the widow of
his late brother (Thoni) in place of finding himself a new wife, although he
succumbs to pressure, we see him running away from responsibilities to lead a
carefree life in the city flirting around. The first striking similarities
about this two text, that, there is a tradition which demands that the both
protagonists fulfills certain ritual rites, Remi is inherit the widow of his
late brother (Thoni), while Ogwoma is to mourn her husband for a set period of
time after which, she is to be inherited by the brother of her late husband
(Okezie), she prefers death rather than accept such a tradition over her life.
:
Anwasia: …it is common thing that when a man
dies his brother takes his wife. This is what our people do. Everyone knows
that.
Ogwoma: ….now
you go and tell them that their plans will fail. Tell them that I will be
buried alive before I become Okezie’s wife. (Wedlock,21&22)
Remi: …soon after this, my father fell ill. It was
the shock of my brother’s death. He called me to his bed and said: Remi you
know our custom. Your brother’s wife is now your wife”. I refused to marry her.
Omange: But you
loved her?
Remi: can’t you
see? …that she was my brother’s wife…how then could I take another man’s wife?
Omange: what
happened next?
Remi: O, mother
wept. My father, although he was a Christian, wailed and cursed. The elders of
the tribe came and prayed me to do a father’s wish and obey a sacred custom.
(The Black Hermit, 34)
This is a
confirmation that in the African society, customs demands that the wife of a
deceased is to be inherited by the surviving brother, however, in both cases we
see the principal characters floating this sacred custom, for which their
families had to struggle to save themselves from the shame and reproach that
accompanies such actions, however, whereas Remi gives in, only to run away
later, Ogwoma from the outset has vowed never to abide by such customs,
resulting in the violation a sacred and ethical code which further escalates
into the tragedies that befalls the characters at the end. As aptly stated by
Williams, “that tragic action is not what happens through the hero…tragedy lies
in the destruction of a certain set of relationships, (luka’cs, et.al, 15).
Thus from the outset, the resolve is to dame
the consequences of abiding by this custom at present and preparing oneself to
deal with the unavoidable tragedy that is loading somewhere in the nearest
future.
In both text we see the manifestation of the
African belief in the eternal union with the supernatural and believe in an
afterlife in the land of the dead, Ogwoma and Uloko believes and express
fervently in the prologue that: ours is the wedlock of the gods…we shall live
this cursed place; we shall ride on the cottons of the heavens; we shall ride
to where there is peace!...the night shall hide and protect us…beautifying as
we impress. (wedlock ,56)
This is also re-echoed by Thoni in the black
hermit;
Thoni: …I will
go through the world…to a country where I’ve many times thought of going.
There, there is all darkness, swallowing you wholly…there is stillness, all
stillness in that country…it was so dark there and so quiet, and the only song
and talk was that of deep darkness. A darkness that showed nothing of pain,
laughter or suffering. But peace…peace (67&68).
According to Alabi .S. Yekini “The
African land of the dead is not heaven in the Christian sense. The life of the
ancestors is pictured as one of dignity and serenity rather than of bliss.
There is no temptations or tribulations in that life” (215) this exactly the
picture painted by the characters in the above illustration, that since they
are rejected in the human plain of tribulations and temptation the only place,
where they can live freely as Uloko indicated “over and around as we roam”
living all to themselves in eternal poise and dignity as people who have stood
for what they believed in. however, one can only be admitted into this plain of
life only when he has completed his sojourn on earth with any blemish, so the
question then is : where do Ogwoma and Uloko belong? Because Thoni can easily
be cleared of any faults that try to hinder her passage were it not that she
chose to cut her own life short, and as such also not worthy to partake of this
life of dignity and serenity that they have all painted, because in African
worldview shedding of one’s blood is forbidden except in the case of a ritual
death, as demanded by custom for the pacification of the individual or society.
In both text, there is a
conscious efforts by members of the community to forewarn, the protagonist to
desist from the their impending tragedy, however, both Remi, Uloko and Ogwoma
are caught in the web of their own decisions, Remi was lack of purpose, and
hasty decisions, while Ogwoma and Uloko are guilty disregard for decency and
moral canons of their community, neither would be guided by public good will,
rather they are full of indignation and unperturbed hearts will lives them defeated
at the end of the day. Therefore, in
both texts we have tragic hero’s that can be best described as: the champions
of a man’s ambition to pass beyond the oppressive limits of human frailty to a
fuller and more vivid life to win as far as possible a self-sufficient manhood,
which refuses to admit that anything is too difficult for it, and context even
in failure provided that it has made every effort of which it is capable (5).
It is important to note that the theme of
“Antigone” finds common place in the two African text which are written many
centuries after Sophocles had lived and died, yet we are still confronted by
the same big issue of women subjugation by patriarchal cultures which treats women as pawns in the hands of the law;
else how does it sound that a woman is passed on from husband to another
without, seeking her consent, and it becomes the bone of contention in both
text, the one who violates the laws is dishonoured accordingly, yet Thoni who
chooses to be law abiding is also mistreated and feels the heaviest blow of her
life, the humiliation of being untouched by a mother, and denied the privilege
of ever being addressed as a mother and the pride of being a woman is also her
unfortunate fate, this are contained in his lamentations which are synonymous
to the pleas of ‘Antigone’;
Thoni: ‘‘I can’t
stay here in this place to be like an unwanted maize plant that has been pulled
out and flung on the bare path, to be trodden beneath men’s feet, and left to
wither and dry up in the sun, can’t go back to humiliation, to be laughed and
shouted, to be driven out, and by my husband’’(66)
CHAPTER
FIVE
5.0 SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 SUMMARY
WORKS
CITED
Sofola, Zulu. Wedlock of the Gods. Evans brother’s
publications
Wa
Thiongo Ngugi. The Black Hermit.
Secondary
sources
Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart
Heinemann publishers
Ademola, Frances. “J.P Clark and
his Audience”, African Forum. Vol.1, No.2. Fall, 1965
Betiang,
Liwhu. Fundamentals of Dramatic Literature. Baaj and Omnide international
limited
B.A
. Understanding drama (special English). Shivaji University, Kwlhapur, centre
for distance
Education,
2016.
Butcher,
S.H. The poetics of Aristotle. Edited with critical Notes and Translation. Ed.
S.H
Butcher, 3rd ed.
London: Macmillan, 1902
Betiang,
Liwhu. Fundamentals of Dramatic Literature and Criticism. Thumb prints international
Company,
Revised e.d, 2014.
Benjamin, Walter, understanding
Brecht, introduction and trans. Stanley Mitchell, London: New left Books 1967.
Barnett et.al. Types of Drama:
Plays and Essay’s. 3rd ed. Little, Brown and Company. Boston 1981
Cassady, Marsh. Theatre an
introduction. NTC publishing Group, 1997
Ejeke,
Odiri Solomon. Zulu Sofola’s tragic vision. In Irene, Salami. A. African women
Drama
And
performance.
Ezenwanebe,
Osita Catherine. Community and the individual in the dramatic world of the Igbo
.
Conformity and Contestation. In Global Journal of Human-social science: A Arts
& Humanities-
Psychology
vol.14, No.8. 2014
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Beautiful work.I must commend you on this giant stride in literary analysis.
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