Author: SAINT GBILEKAA
Year of publication 2013
Publisher Ahmadu Bello University Press Limited
Place of publication Zaria
Pages: 254
Reviewer: NWAGBO OBI ([email protected])
Theatre Interrogates Socio-Political Crises and Failures in Nigeria
Saint Gbilekaa’s Another Voice: Meta-Critical Essays in Drama, Theatre and Politics is a juxtaposition of theatre and politics to interrogate, mediate and investigate the socio-political crises and failures in Nigeria using revolutionary standpoint.
The 254-page book, which assesses Nigerian democratic culture through the standpoint of theatre practice and scholarship, evaluates the place of theatre in Nigerian politics and politics in the Nigerian theatre. Also, with a focus on Nigerian and even entire African theatre pedagogue the book with nineteen chapters gives emphasis on how Nigerian traditional and literary theatre types deploy cultural aesthetics and performance to construct superlative society and deconstruct social disorder.
In his forward to the book, Professor Olu Obafemi, Director of Research, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State who is also a renowned Nigerian theatre scholar states: “The book treats literature as a weapon of social transformation. Gbilekaa critiques the artists’ burden of constantly struggling with form as a vehicle of enlightenment and illumination; a confrontation of stagecraft with predatory forces in society impending the fulfillment of social vision and inevitable liberation of popular consciousness and imagination. As a scholar politician, he moves into folktale tradition and the embedding heroic mono-myth; The hero in Tiv folktale is replicated in many parts of Africa, including the Tortoise tricksterist personage in Yoruba folktales and the Ananse in Akan’s Anansegoro which late Efua Sutherland built a theatre in Ghana. Then of course the Swange phenomenon-the sensuous dance drama of the Tiv, which is an inevitable menu in the annual national carnivalesque outing in Nigeria today. Saint Gbilekaa must be commended for the courage and enduring aspiration to remain a rigorous and enduring scholar; and engaging researcher into theatrical performance traditions of Nigeria.”
Chapter one, Theatre Criticism in Nigeria Today, offers a definition of criticism, literary criticism, and theatre criticism. It uses review of relevant literatures where the views of scholars and authorities like M.H. Abrahams, Abiola Irele, T.S Elliot, Matthew Arnold etc on criticism were reflected. The summation of all the meanings is that the aim of criticism is to make reasoned judgments upon literary works based on definite criteria. This is why literary criticism is concerned with interpretation and adjudication of works of literature. It is pointed out that the chosen criteria for critical analysis may be based on objectivity or prejudice bearing in mind the cultural history or period of that work of art. This chapter views theatre criticism from the point of view of the development of literary criticism, attributing its dominant thrust to the tradition of English literary criticism inherited at the University of Ibadan, which is pervasive. This same model obtained in the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. However, it is noted that this observation may not be accurate in capturing the Nigerian literary criticism historical development, because most practitioners then were foreigners who saw African literature as an offshoot or imitation of the European world view. In contrast, to this early analysis of Nigerian literary theatre with foreign critical cannons, a reaction arose in the 1960s with the desire to create an indigenous critical tradition that will be independent of foreign of foreign paradigms. This Africanization of African literature and criticism saw African writers including Nigerians captured African background in their works.
In Chapter two, A dialectical interpretation of Nigerian Theatre, looks at concert theatrical practice of the colonial theatre days to post independence literary drama. This state of theatre under colonialism captures how colonial and Christian hegemony produced doctrinal literatures. It captures the introduction of the Europeans forms of entertainments and the capitalist mode of production by the missionaries and the imperialists respectively in Nigeria wrecked havoc on the anti-imperialist culture of the African masses and in turn produced an idealist response from the emergent Nigerian petty bourgeoisie. Chapter three; The Development of the Theatre of Radical Poetics in Nigeria draws the attention of the reader on how the coercive machinery which the colonial powers set up propelled a protest tradition in the Nigerian theatre. This protest habit subsequently led to the development of radical theatre practice. What also followed this was sharpened awareness of Nigerian intellectuals and dramatists of the left and it resulted in socialist tendencies in the plays that were written. The attempts to link the radical drama to sociopolitical and economic development are another issue captured in this chapter. How the radicalism and commitment of the drama of 1940s, 1950s and 1960s were used to harp on the revolutionary potential of the proletariat received attention. “Hubert Ogunde pioneered the battle towards a more relevant committed popular theatre. Ogunde launched attack on the colonial government for her ill-treatment of the Nigerian proletariat. Even after independence Ogunde theatre still manifested political commitment. This could be seen in his play “Yoruba Ronu” produced in 1964.” (p. 39-40). Other dramatists like Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark etc were also committed theatrically. The relationship the Nigerian civil war and the radical theatre had is established as the author states.
Theatre and Political Change since Independence, which Chapter four is about emphasized on theatre and political change, where the new national consciousness theatre idiom has been underscoring is stressed pointing out that: “the growing sense of political commitment manifest itself in the Wole Soyinka’s satirical sketches and revues in a collection titled Before the Blackout and later a full length play, Kongi’s Harvest. Both the revues and Kongi’s Harvest were attack on power arrogance, megalomania and corruption, the handicap or lack of progressive political vision that characterized the politics of the first republic. J.P.Clark’s The Raft is also regarded as the political metaphor of Nigeria drifting in those tumultuous times (p. 56). A methodological approach is adopted in chapter five to demonstrate how Radical Theatre as a potent tool for community development in Nigeria is being harnessed. The chapter started by defining the core concepts like radical, drama, popular theatre, in addition to explicating how the drama of the radical poetics in Nigeria share affinity with Community Theatre for Development. The contributions of theatre scholars, practitioners and theatre groups that made impact in the trend and development of community theatre, Theatre for Development, Revolutionary Alternative Theatre etc were acknowledged. Such theatre icons are Paulo Freire, August Boal, then such Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ibadan, Makerere University Traveling Theatre, The Chikwakwa Traveling Theatre, Zambia, Botswana Theatre etc. The use of this methodological approach is explained through training the participant, village research, data analysis, scenario formulation, rehearsal and performance, post-performance evaluation and follow up, then to fully understand the approach, the chapter further explained how several methods are used. These methods are interview, flooding, the official eye, hierarchical, data analysis and performance methods.
Chapter six treats drama and national politics, using Ola Rotimi’s drama as paradigm with the mention of If, A Tragedy of the Ruled, Hopes of the Living Dead, The Gods Are Not To Blame, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, noting that: “Rotimi has explored Nigeria’s continuous culture of intolerance of one another, selfishness and tribal disunity to make fundamental dramatic statements on the present and the future state of the nation.” (84). In Chapter seven, a comparative analysis of Soyinka’s The Strong Breed and Femi Osofisan’s No More the Wasted Breed is carried out to explain how a new course in Nigerian dramaturgy is being charted, while chapter eight deals with culture and the democratic experience in Nigeria using Wale Ogunyemi’s Langbodo as a case study. In examining the tragic and honour, chapter nine uses Wole Soyinka’s Death and The King’s Horseman as example, just as chapter ten explores theatre and society. Ngugi wa Thiongo’s works are cited as instances with the explanation that Ngugi’s major concern is the desire to put the people’s history of struggle in proper perspectives of their participation in the class struggle” (p. 141). Chapters eleven and twelve look at the artist and his credo through an aesthetic evaluation of Iyorwuese Hagher’s plays and Hagher’s life in arts and politics respectively. Chapter ten captures the biographical notes of Hagher and his works, where it is noted that his artistic credo is shaped by his Tiv background. He has published plays like Swem Karagbe, Mulki Mata, Aishatu, We Protest, Anti-People and Camps of Segbwema etc. Chapter twelve gives details of his educational, civil service and academic career in addition to his religious and political accomplishments.
In chapter thirteen, the position of the director in indigenous African theatre is spelt out. With the question is traditional African theatre a director’s theatre? the chapter is divided into four sections to answer it. Section one discusses the duty of director in the conventional theatre, two throws light on the role played by the king or priest in a festival theatre, three focuses on the leader in Tiv Kwagir theatre and four summaries the entire arguments. Chapter fourteen is about the delimitation of satire as revolutionary weapon in Nigeria, whereas chapter fifteen explain in simple terms, Nigerian literature and social using Zaki Biam as a focal point. Chapters sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen centre on comedy and comic form in Tiv Drama, the trickster hero in Tiv folktales, a critical appraisal of the performance of Tiv Swange Dance and its implication for the future and Tiv popular music and dances, myths and reality correspondingly.
It is important to observe that the arrangement of the chapters and the presentation of the discourse are coherent. The book really drew instances from African and Nigerian situations to criticize the circumstances under discussion. It actually criticized certain positions of other critics on a range of subject matters. Indeed, the book is an effort in critical enterprise in Nigerian theatre, which African theatre critics, theorists and practitioners should possess.
NWAGBO OBI is of Training School, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO)