The Dramatist and His Praxis: A Comparative Study of the Political Involvments of Ogunde and Soyinka in Nigeria

Abstract

There seems to be a comparable personal circumstance between the Attic dramatist, Euripides, and the Nigerian dramatist, Wole Soyinka on one hand, and between Soyinka and the popular dramatist, Hubert Ogunde on the other. They all appeared to be actively involved in the politics of their time and society. However, Ogunde’s role seem to have been underplayed, perhaps, because he was, like Shakespeare of the Elizabethan era, looked down upon on account of his little learning by the university wits of Cambridge and Oxford, notably Robert Green. Emerging at the time he did and a contemporary of the university trained Soyinka, this paper asks, Was Hubert Ogunde an upstart Crow? It takes a look at the political involvements of Soyinka and Ogunde and makes the point that Ogunde developed a more appropriate style for reaching his audiences.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 8(2), 153-166, 2011