Sola Osofisan
05-14-2007, 02:33 PM
By Layiwola Adeniji
MUSE and Mimesis: Critical Perspectives on Ahmed Yerima's Drama edited by Gbemisola Adeoti is a worthy tribute to a committed man of the stage. You do not always have to agree with Yerima's worldview yet his prodigious talent and hard-work cannot be ignored. The essays in this book are a testimony of this.
As argued in different fora, the problem of Nigeria literature is not so much about production but the necessary critical feedback that is almost not there. Many have lamented the death of the critical establishment. But then, this book though long overdue gives the hope that all is not lost yet because the critical voices we hear in Muse and Mimesis... are new and fresh. And though some of these are tentative if not timid, there is no denying the fact as attested to by no other person than the venerable Professor Dapo Adelugba that quite a number of these essays have boldly attempted to extend the frontiers of literary criticism with new perspectives. Adelugba talks of a certain kind of paradigm shift which he describes as "a new trend in responsible criticism which does not kowtow to generational eulogies or to damning ideological expletives." This underscores the importance of this book not only in relation to our appreciation of Ahmed Yerima's dramaturgy but also as an invaluable contribution to the development of literary scholarship in Nigeria.
What we have in this book of 420 pages consisting of 20 essays and two interviews, is a bold attempt at a critical interrogation of the various aspects of Yerima's artistic oeuvre including his thematic preoccupations, literary influences and techniques and linguistic choices. Gbemisola Adeoti flags off the collection with a rather ambitious exploratory study of Yerima's drama in which he attempts to examine his literary influences and thematic preoccupations. According to him, Yerima's dramaturgy is a composite of theatrical paradigms guided by experimentations and innovations. As it is with most post-colonial African writers, his major thematic preoccupations include; contemporary politics, religion, adaptation, comedy and what can be described as an imaginative reconstruction of history and myth. And in all of these, it is the contention of Adeoti that Yerima's theatre as much as it can, reflects man's existential anguish and 'unravels the human condition'. These, he says, synthesize into the core muse that motivates the mimetic choices that one encounters in Yerima's dramaturgy.'
The Silent Gods is one of Yerima's most popular and controversial plays and it is no surprise that it engages the attention of quite a number of contributors in this collection. While Adeoti simply glosses over The Silent Gods though without failing to mention his dissatisfaction with the evasive resolution of conflicts couched in a sort of dues ex machina, Chijioke Uwasomba examines the play as it relates to the whole question of ideology, politics and power. And the question he asks is; 'whose politics, ideology, power is the playwright celebrating? This was the same issue raised by some critics when the play was premiered in 1994. To answer this, it is important to understand the circumstances that gave birth to the play or better still, the period during which it was written.
The play was inspired by the political crisis generated by the annulment of the 1993 Presidential elections by the then President Ibrahim Babangida. It was premiered by the National Troupe of Nigeria in 1994. Many critics including this writer took a critical view of that production as a propaganda tool by an agency of government to "mythify" what was a social problem. And so, the gods, who had hitherto been silent suddenly, woke up to intervene in the social crisis bedeviling the society by choosing a ' virgin' King who is a product of the old order, thus practically killing the zeal of the people to take their collective destiny in their hands. According to Chijioke Uwasomba, Yerima's bourgeois inclination forces him to defend the status quo. He writes: "It is our contention that the idea of a 'virgin' is informed by a petty bourgeois creative consciousness that celebrates the concept of a redeeming protagonist as opposed to a struggling collectivity."
Razaki Ojo Bakare seems to agree with this position in his essay titled; "Nigerian Artiste in Government: Yerima's Drama and the Status Quo" in which he concludes that Yerima's position as a Government man (apologies to Stanley Macebuh) definitely has effects on his dramaturgy. "For a dramatist holding public office as Yerima does, his plays are bound to be patronizing and friendly towards government position as well as the status quo. The deployment of historical and traditional resources in his dramatic creations is bound to be influenced by 'official' consideration."
But then, the playwright does not seem to agree with Chijioke and Rasaki. In his interview with Gbemisola Adeoti, he informs of what he went through in the hands of some agents of government when the National Troupe staged the same The Silent Gods that was being claimed to be a play in the service of the state. While the security agents saw some aspects of the play as subversive, some others saw it as not 'radical' enough. Well, that is the beauty of the arts. Interpretations do not always have to be the same. And so, the old argument resurrects; must art be prescriptive? The answer is definitely no but then, art must be conscious of the peculiarity of each socio-cultural milieu. And in this case, we are referring to post-colonial Africa with all its aches and pains. No thanks to a degenerate leadership. According to those who hold dear to the idea of the functionality of art, the African artiste/writer cannot afford the Eurocentric idea of art for art's sake. For what is in the value of a head without a brain? The artiste as a conscience of the society is expected to intervene on behalf of the people. This explains why works of art are first viewed from this didactic essence.
But the critics of Yerima are not done yet. Either by accident or design the most controversial of his works have been the commissioned ones. Possibly, the play that has enjoyed as much if not a wider space than The Silent Gods is The Trails of Oba Ovonramwen which was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of the British occupation of the old Benin Kingdom. In fact, more than half of the contributors to Muse and Mimesis... either wrote on the play or referred to it. And again, the interest in it cannot be divorced from the reason for its commissioning. According to Yerima's own account, the Benin people found it difficult to relate to Ola Rotimi's own account in Ovonramwen Nogbaisi and so, decided to tell their own story that would be more favourable to the Oba. This in itself sets the stage for controversy. What is the relationship between history and literature? Are they related or distinct disciplines?
Michael Etherton as quoted by Mohammed Inuwa Umar-Buratai in "Historical Drama in Nation Building: Attahiru and the Relevance of Nation Building" says that though they may both be concerned with recording human experience, they are quite distinct disciplines: "Drama is art. It is not history. Its principal mode is the creation of an illusion... History on the other hand, seeks to pierce the illusion of probability and circumstance in order to reach reality; it is not satisfied with the obvious reasons but seeks the hidden or underlying causes."
For the Centenary Committee, no matter the claim, Rotimi did not present their Oba well. Even before the play hit the stage, there were already reactions and again, this reviewer was in the thick of it. Why would an artiste allow himself to be used against another? We asked. But upon hindsight, the debate was probably premature because perspectives do not always have to be the same. And a critical reading of both plays shows no fundamental difference in substance. In both plays, Oba Ovonramwen still comes across as the man "more sinned against than he ever sinned". But then, this is art and so, the argument never ends. From this same material, another playwright, Don Pedro had gone ahead to 'correct' the mis-representation as it affects, Obaseki, one of his forebears. And so, what is this all about if not 'a matter of interpretation? Victoria Adeniyi is therefore correct when she says that though Yerima's Trials... holds a more optimistic view of the future of Benin Empire than Ola Rotimi's Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, both plays actually complement and reinforce the same socio-political issues especially as they relate to the adverse effects of British imperialism in Africa and of course the issues of betrayal and internal power struggle.
For Olutoyin Bimpe Jegede, there is more to Trials of Oba Ovonramwen than the politics of it. Though she is of the opinion that Yerima 'pays attention to the gaps, omissions, silences in Rotimi's Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, she prefers to deploy her critical energy more to the playwright's poetic use of language in which she celebrates his use of the local culture of the Bini as expressed in music, sound, proverbs and parables to establish the fact that 'a literary work is not autonomous; it dialogues with a number of things such as society, the reader and political ideologies.' This argument is further extended in Akin Odebunmi's "A Pragmatic Reading of Proverbs in Yerima's Drama" with specific references to Yemoja, Attahiru and Dry Leaves. His handling of these oral elements Toyin and Akin agree, makes his plays have the desired culture-rootedness and accessibility to readers "... who desire to come to terms with Nigerian culture and tradition..."
The same can be seen in Attahiru, another historical play which attracts considerable attention from such critics as Effiok Bassey Uwatt, Mohammed Inuwa Umar-Buratai and Ameh Dennis Akoh among others. In this play, Yerima deploys history as a veritable tool for social commentary or what Emmy Unuja Idegu describes as 'a bold contribution to the whole question of identity promotion in the contemporary world."
But what probably remains the most engaging of Yerima's plays is Yemoja in which he recreates a well known Yoruba myth. Mobolanle Ebunoluwa Sotunsa and Tunde Awosanmi concern themselves with what Adeoti describes as the trans-cultural implications of the Yemoja myth. While Mobolanle deals with the playwright's exploration of myth making and indigenous performance resources, Olusegun Adekoya examines the play as ritual drama in which Yoruba deities are reconstructed as essences that function as models for human behaviour and social realities. But for Tunde Awosami, this is more about asserting the African essence in the face of a vicious onslaught from Europe through deliberate distortion of its reality. He argues that it is the responsibility of the African intellectual/artiste to fight these distortions. He places Yerima's Yemoja on the same pedestal of works that have consciously sought to construct intra-racial as well as inter-racial bridges.
This review will be incomplete without a mention of Mabel Evwierhoma's "Scripting Women into the Mainstream: The Women of Tomorrow in The Angel and The Sisters" which is undisguisedly a feminist thesis on creating the necessary space for the African woman to express herself. Here, Mabel makes a case for mainstreaming women in the task of nation-building. According to her, Yerima has through the two plays embarked on a gradual effacing of male bastions of authority in the political realm by depicting their marital misdeeds and their effects on the polity. She draws a distinction between those she describes as "Yesterday's Women" as exemplified in Rachel in The Angel and Tomorrow's Women" as seen in Taiwo in The Sisters. While the former would suppress her pains, the latter would fight back. What is the implication of this? The African woman must be allowed to make her choices in life
Other aspects of Yerima's dramaturgy discussed in this book include his efforts at adaptation as in Otaelo from Shakespeare's Othello and such other plays as Kaffir's Last Game; The Lottery Ticket; The Mirror Cracks and The Sick People. The book ends with the two interviews conducted at different times by Gbemisola Adeoti and Adebisi Ademakinwa also help to provide an insight into the mind of the playwright and in some way, answered some of the questions raised by critics.
Muse and Mimesis: Critical Perspectives on Ahmed Yerima's Drama without doubt is a major work that deserves commendation. Not only does it provide a mine of information on the works of one of the nation's most prolific and consistent playwrights, it has also made an invaluable contribution to literary scholarships. It provides both an introduction and guide to the study of this engaging playwright. Ahmed Yerima deserves nothing less. He has been a most faithful acolyte of the creative Muse.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com
MUSE and Mimesis: Critical Perspectives on Ahmed Yerima's Drama edited by Gbemisola Adeoti is a worthy tribute to a committed man of the stage. You do not always have to agree with Yerima's worldview yet his prodigious talent and hard-work cannot be ignored. The essays in this book are a testimony of this.
As argued in different fora, the problem of Nigeria literature is not so much about production but the necessary critical feedback that is almost not there. Many have lamented the death of the critical establishment. But then, this book though long overdue gives the hope that all is not lost yet because the critical voices we hear in Muse and Mimesis... are new and fresh. And though some of these are tentative if not timid, there is no denying the fact as attested to by no other person than the venerable Professor Dapo Adelugba that quite a number of these essays have boldly attempted to extend the frontiers of literary criticism with new perspectives. Adelugba talks of a certain kind of paradigm shift which he describes as "a new trend in responsible criticism which does not kowtow to generational eulogies or to damning ideological expletives." This underscores the importance of this book not only in relation to our appreciation of Ahmed Yerima's dramaturgy but also as an invaluable contribution to the development of literary scholarship in Nigeria.
What we have in this book of 420 pages consisting of 20 essays and two interviews, is a bold attempt at a critical interrogation of the various aspects of Yerima's artistic oeuvre including his thematic preoccupations, literary influences and techniques and linguistic choices. Gbemisola Adeoti flags off the collection with a rather ambitious exploratory study of Yerima's drama in which he attempts to examine his literary influences and thematic preoccupations. According to him, Yerima's dramaturgy is a composite of theatrical paradigms guided by experimentations and innovations. As it is with most post-colonial African writers, his major thematic preoccupations include; contemporary politics, religion, adaptation, comedy and what can be described as an imaginative reconstruction of history and myth. And in all of these, it is the contention of Adeoti that Yerima's theatre as much as it can, reflects man's existential anguish and 'unravels the human condition'. These, he says, synthesize into the core muse that motivates the mimetic choices that one encounters in Yerima's dramaturgy.'
The Silent Gods is one of Yerima's most popular and controversial plays and it is no surprise that it engages the attention of quite a number of contributors in this collection. While Adeoti simply glosses over The Silent Gods though without failing to mention his dissatisfaction with the evasive resolution of conflicts couched in a sort of dues ex machina, Chijioke Uwasomba examines the play as it relates to the whole question of ideology, politics and power. And the question he asks is; 'whose politics, ideology, power is the playwright celebrating? This was the same issue raised by some critics when the play was premiered in 1994. To answer this, it is important to understand the circumstances that gave birth to the play or better still, the period during which it was written.
The play was inspired by the political crisis generated by the annulment of the 1993 Presidential elections by the then President Ibrahim Babangida. It was premiered by the National Troupe of Nigeria in 1994. Many critics including this writer took a critical view of that production as a propaganda tool by an agency of government to "mythify" what was a social problem. And so, the gods, who had hitherto been silent suddenly, woke up to intervene in the social crisis bedeviling the society by choosing a ' virgin' King who is a product of the old order, thus practically killing the zeal of the people to take their collective destiny in their hands. According to Chijioke Uwasomba, Yerima's bourgeois inclination forces him to defend the status quo. He writes: "It is our contention that the idea of a 'virgin' is informed by a petty bourgeois creative consciousness that celebrates the concept of a redeeming protagonist as opposed to a struggling collectivity."
Razaki Ojo Bakare seems to agree with this position in his essay titled; "Nigerian Artiste in Government: Yerima's Drama and the Status Quo" in which he concludes that Yerima's position as a Government man (apologies to Stanley Macebuh) definitely has effects on his dramaturgy. "For a dramatist holding public office as Yerima does, his plays are bound to be patronizing and friendly towards government position as well as the status quo. The deployment of historical and traditional resources in his dramatic creations is bound to be influenced by 'official' consideration."
But then, the playwright does not seem to agree with Chijioke and Rasaki. In his interview with Gbemisola Adeoti, he informs of what he went through in the hands of some agents of government when the National Troupe staged the same The Silent Gods that was being claimed to be a play in the service of the state. While the security agents saw some aspects of the play as subversive, some others saw it as not 'radical' enough. Well, that is the beauty of the arts. Interpretations do not always have to be the same. And so, the old argument resurrects; must art be prescriptive? The answer is definitely no but then, art must be conscious of the peculiarity of each socio-cultural milieu. And in this case, we are referring to post-colonial Africa with all its aches and pains. No thanks to a degenerate leadership. According to those who hold dear to the idea of the functionality of art, the African artiste/writer cannot afford the Eurocentric idea of art for art's sake. For what is in the value of a head without a brain? The artiste as a conscience of the society is expected to intervene on behalf of the people. This explains why works of art are first viewed from this didactic essence.
But the critics of Yerima are not done yet. Either by accident or design the most controversial of his works have been the commissioned ones. Possibly, the play that has enjoyed as much if not a wider space than The Silent Gods is The Trails of Oba Ovonramwen which was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of the British occupation of the old Benin Kingdom. In fact, more than half of the contributors to Muse and Mimesis... either wrote on the play or referred to it. And again, the interest in it cannot be divorced from the reason for its commissioning. According to Yerima's own account, the Benin people found it difficult to relate to Ola Rotimi's own account in Ovonramwen Nogbaisi and so, decided to tell their own story that would be more favourable to the Oba. This in itself sets the stage for controversy. What is the relationship between history and literature? Are they related or distinct disciplines?
Michael Etherton as quoted by Mohammed Inuwa Umar-Buratai in "Historical Drama in Nation Building: Attahiru and the Relevance of Nation Building" says that though they may both be concerned with recording human experience, they are quite distinct disciplines: "Drama is art. It is not history. Its principal mode is the creation of an illusion... History on the other hand, seeks to pierce the illusion of probability and circumstance in order to reach reality; it is not satisfied with the obvious reasons but seeks the hidden or underlying causes."
For the Centenary Committee, no matter the claim, Rotimi did not present their Oba well. Even before the play hit the stage, there were already reactions and again, this reviewer was in the thick of it. Why would an artiste allow himself to be used against another? We asked. But upon hindsight, the debate was probably premature because perspectives do not always have to be the same. And a critical reading of both plays shows no fundamental difference in substance. In both plays, Oba Ovonramwen still comes across as the man "more sinned against than he ever sinned". But then, this is art and so, the argument never ends. From this same material, another playwright, Don Pedro had gone ahead to 'correct' the mis-representation as it affects, Obaseki, one of his forebears. And so, what is this all about if not 'a matter of interpretation? Victoria Adeniyi is therefore correct when she says that though Yerima's Trials... holds a more optimistic view of the future of Benin Empire than Ola Rotimi's Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, both plays actually complement and reinforce the same socio-political issues especially as they relate to the adverse effects of British imperialism in Africa and of course the issues of betrayal and internal power struggle.
For Olutoyin Bimpe Jegede, there is more to Trials of Oba Ovonramwen than the politics of it. Though she is of the opinion that Yerima 'pays attention to the gaps, omissions, silences in Rotimi's Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, she prefers to deploy her critical energy more to the playwright's poetic use of language in which she celebrates his use of the local culture of the Bini as expressed in music, sound, proverbs and parables to establish the fact that 'a literary work is not autonomous; it dialogues with a number of things such as society, the reader and political ideologies.' This argument is further extended in Akin Odebunmi's "A Pragmatic Reading of Proverbs in Yerima's Drama" with specific references to Yemoja, Attahiru and Dry Leaves. His handling of these oral elements Toyin and Akin agree, makes his plays have the desired culture-rootedness and accessibility to readers "... who desire to come to terms with Nigerian culture and tradition..."
The same can be seen in Attahiru, another historical play which attracts considerable attention from such critics as Effiok Bassey Uwatt, Mohammed Inuwa Umar-Buratai and Ameh Dennis Akoh among others. In this play, Yerima deploys history as a veritable tool for social commentary or what Emmy Unuja Idegu describes as 'a bold contribution to the whole question of identity promotion in the contemporary world."
But what probably remains the most engaging of Yerima's plays is Yemoja in which he recreates a well known Yoruba myth. Mobolanle Ebunoluwa Sotunsa and Tunde Awosanmi concern themselves with what Adeoti describes as the trans-cultural implications of the Yemoja myth. While Mobolanle deals with the playwright's exploration of myth making and indigenous performance resources, Olusegun Adekoya examines the play as ritual drama in which Yoruba deities are reconstructed as essences that function as models for human behaviour and social realities. But for Tunde Awosami, this is more about asserting the African essence in the face of a vicious onslaught from Europe through deliberate distortion of its reality. He argues that it is the responsibility of the African intellectual/artiste to fight these distortions. He places Yerima's Yemoja on the same pedestal of works that have consciously sought to construct intra-racial as well as inter-racial bridges.
This review will be incomplete without a mention of Mabel Evwierhoma's "Scripting Women into the Mainstream: The Women of Tomorrow in The Angel and The Sisters" which is undisguisedly a feminist thesis on creating the necessary space for the African woman to express herself. Here, Mabel makes a case for mainstreaming women in the task of nation-building. According to her, Yerima has through the two plays embarked on a gradual effacing of male bastions of authority in the political realm by depicting their marital misdeeds and their effects on the polity. She draws a distinction between those she describes as "Yesterday's Women" as exemplified in Rachel in The Angel and Tomorrow's Women" as seen in Taiwo in The Sisters. While the former would suppress her pains, the latter would fight back. What is the implication of this? The African woman must be allowed to make her choices in life
Other aspects of Yerima's dramaturgy discussed in this book include his efforts at adaptation as in Otaelo from Shakespeare's Othello and such other plays as Kaffir's Last Game; The Lottery Ticket; The Mirror Cracks and The Sick People. The book ends with the two interviews conducted at different times by Gbemisola Adeoti and Adebisi Ademakinwa also help to provide an insight into the mind of the playwright and in some way, answered some of the questions raised by critics.
Muse and Mimesis: Critical Perspectives on Ahmed Yerima's Drama without doubt is a major work that deserves commendation. Not only does it provide a mine of information on the works of one of the nation's most prolific and consistent playwrights, it has also made an invaluable contribution to literary scholarships. It provides both an introduction and guide to the study of this engaging playwright. Ahmed Yerima deserves nothing less. He has been a most faithful acolyte of the creative Muse.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com