Monarchical monstrosity in postcolonial literature: a reading of Femi Osofisan’s The Chattering and the Song and Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest

Abstract

This paper is a thematic study of Femi Osofisan’s The Chattering and the Song and Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest. Femi Osofisan, in the two plays, exposes the political leadership in Africa as characterized by dictatorship, despotism, tyranny and corruption. The paper provides a theoretical framework where dictatorship is diagnosed and conceptualized. Opinions of scholars are reviewed on dictatorship and the natural dispositions of African rulers to it. From the Marxian perspective, the paper examines the socio- political relevance of the plays to the African society, and Osofisan’s disdain for and rejection of such tyrannical tendencies in African rulers that jeopardize the survival of the downtrodden. Besides, the two plays project the playwright’s vision in arousing the revolutionary consciousness of the masses to revolt against oppression, tyranny and social injustice in the society. They also exhibit Femi Osofisan’s belief in the unity and oneness of the nation. The revolutionary aesthetics of the plays and their dramaturgical essences are also interrogated.