O.O. Àlàmú[1]
1 Introduction
There are divergent views on the issue of the artist's role in the
society. There are critics such as Flaubert (1868) who believe that the role of
any artist is simply to create a work of art, devoid
of any political and/or social comment. On the other hand are critics who
believe that, since the very nature
of every art is to reflect or communicate the artist's view of his society, the
communication should contain some
comments about socio-political issues of the society where the work of art
emanates. To this group, the claim that a work of art be devoid of commitment
is untrue. Bald (1982: 84), in
support of this view, asserts that no 'book is genuinely free from political
bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is in itself
apolitical attitude.'
There are confounding issues about writers,
their societies and commitment. There are misunderstandings about the social
responsibility of a writer as a citizen, i.e. a citizen who is a writer by profession
or an enthusiast and the commitment of his writings. Chinweizu et. al. (1980: 250) argued that
although the public may have become conditioned to the notion that commitment
in art
demands that the artist participates in protest marches, this, according to
him, is simply an act of political
or social commitment which the artist may wish to engage in as a citizen and it
should properly be kept separate from the
commitment of the literature which he produces. Chinweizu et. al. (1980) further argued that an artist who chooses
to engage in social or political activism performs this function only in his capacity as an ordinary
citizen; he has no professional obligation to engage in such activity or not. But the question is can
there truly be a distinction or separation between the commitment of a writer to his society as a
citizen and the focus of his works? Or put in another way; is it a case of the proverbial black pot that produces
the white pap?
The separation of the commitment of a writer
as a citizen and what informed his writings seem somehow impossible for it is a common
knowledge that the attitudes and ideas of a writer are shaped by the
socio-political and cultural background from which he originates. Many writers
bring to
bear in their works, the combination of their personalities and environment. It
is axiomatic that the work of a radical writer, to a certain extent, may reflect class
conflict and an artist who is politically inclined may base his work on politics. A
literary piece must be viewed as part of the life of the artist who
produced it. This, Goldmann (1964: 8) further explains:
An idea which (a writer) experiences or a
book which he writes can acquire for their real meaning for us, and can be fully understood, only when
they are seen as integral parts of his life
and mode of behaviour.
Artistic commitment is a matter of orientation, a matter of perceiving
social realities and of making those perception available in works of art in order to
help promote understanding and preservation of, or change in, the society's
value and norms (Chinweizu 1980). A writer who decides to use his work to reflect a
social cause should show his commitment through the subject-matter he chooses and the manner in
which he treats them. He can satirise or rather be political.
Nwoga (1973: 39), writing on the effects of
commitment in literature, opined that commitment in literature cannot fail to have
the effect of changing men's consciousness and making them aware of what,
previously, they had not even guessed. If art, according to Nwoga (ibid.), is a
valid complement to action in the matter of commitment which is being conceived
as an effort towards making life more meaningful and satisfying to individuals
within the community, then, commitment should become a factor of sensitivity of the
poetic consciousness to the environment and life at all levels within the society of
the artist.
2. Commitment
and the Plays of Ìṣọ̀lá
Undoubtedly, Ìṣọ̀lá is a renowned
Yoruba playwright. In 1966, one of his plays, Efiinsetan Aniwura, won the Yoruba
literary competition of the Egbe Ijinle Yoruba. Ever since, Ìṣọ̀lá, in his repertory, has ten
literary works spanning through drama, prose and poetry. Some of his works
include Ẹfúnṣetán
Aníwúrà, Kòṣeégbé, Olú Ọmọ, Abẹ́ Ààbò, Ayé Yẹ Wọ́n Tán, Ẹfúnróyè Tinúubú,
Ó le kú and Ogún Ọmọdé. For the purpose of this
work, however, we shall limit our discussions to five of Ìṣọ̀lá's plays. The
five plays are the ones available to us at the period of writing this paper and they are Efúnsetán
Aníwúrà, Olú Ọmọ, Abẹ́ Ààbo, Kòṣeégbé and Ayé Yẹ Wón tán. While Ẹfúnṣetán
Aníwúrà and Olú Ọmọ can be classified as historical plays in the
sense that they reflect historical events in Yoruba society, the last three can
be classified as social plays for they present to us some social
problems in the Yoruba contemporary society.
Apart from the influence of the
society on his works, many other factors contributed to Ìṣọ̀lá’s uniqueness
as a literary artist. His career as a school master and a university teacher
and his childhood life in a rural setting exposed him to all
the robust experiences of Yoruba traditional life and the mastery of the language. The ease in the
use of Yoruba is evident in Ìṣọ̀lá's works as he moves with ease between various modes of discourse
as dictated by his theme. Ìṣọ̀lá is an artist of description. He uses language beautifully; he
uses ornate and poetic language, which is also lucid and flows. Scenes and incidents, as described in
his works, come up readily alive in the mind of the reader.
There is no doubt that social
problems are treated in the historical plays of Ìṣọ̀lá. Although, to reflect historical
events are the initial motives of writing the texts, simultaneously, they do
not shy
away from social criticism. For instance, the focus of Ẹfúnsetán Aníwúrà is
the high-handedness
and the tyrannical act of power-drunk leaders. In the play, Ẹfúnṣetán
subjected her slaves to oppression. For the mere fact that she does not have
a child, it is unlawful for any of her female slaves to be pregnant. It is an
offence punishable by death. Through her vices, she kills thirteen females and twenty-eight males and orders
her slaves to beat Ògúnjìmí for trespassing on her farmland. But one day, an end is put to her inhumanity as her powers
fail to match the will of the people.
Although a portrayal of historical
event, Ẹfúnsetán
Aníwúrà is a social criticism of one of the prevailing issues in the contemporary
Nigerian society: the arrogance of power. Events in the book can be likened to
the attitude of some Nigerian leaders who, in their arrogance, believe that they possess
supreme wisdom and powers and are not obliged to observe any known decorum or civilised behaviour.
Gagging of people, clamping of people into jails and the killing of innocent citizens are the acts
they have employed to silence the poor masses. Through the play, Ìṣọ̀lá condemns the
shedding of blood and acts of wickedness for which Ẹfúnṣetán is known and
reveals that
the end is always inglorious for leaders who shed blood.
Ògúndèjì (1977) must have captured
the thematic focus of Olú Ọmọ by saying that:
Those who are fraudulently acquiring wealth
and are selling off our country at the international level are comparable to Adébógun in Olú Ọmọ. The
colonial mentality
for which the Saro emigrants and their like are known and against which Tinúubú
vehemently fought on all fronts are still with us in different kinds today.
In Olú Ọmọ, Ìṣọ̀lá discusses the social problems of bribery,
corruption and treachery, social phenomena caused by
greed and lack of patriotism. He sees Adébógun and his cohorts as unpatriotic by accepting
bribe from the people of Dahomey to stop the Egba army from waging war against them. Through
the play, Ìṣọ̀lá sees the role of women as supportive to men and decry the male chauvinistic
attitude as the support given by Tinuubu and other women helped the Ẹ̀gbá men
in winning the war against Dahomey.
Through the use of mordant satire whose
critical shafts are directed at Prophet Jeremáyà, a fraudulent priest,
and Jọ̀ọ́nú, a fanatic, Ìṣọ̀lá, in Abẹ́ Ààbò, condemns the hypocritical
nature of modern
priests and religious fanatics in the society. Jeremáyà, hiding under the
pretext of Christianity, procure jùjú (charms) to draw members to his church for
the purpose of donating money to the church. He uses the money for his selfish
purpose. Also, to whet his sexual appetite, he tries to seduce both Jénẹ́ẹ̀tì and Màríà,
the daughter and wife of Jọ̀ọ́nù respectively. Jímọ́ọ̀, a Muslim and the
younger brother of Jọ̀ọ́nú always antagonises his brother for his spiritual
obsession by
deliberately giving comical interpretation to biblical quotations and Christian
songs. In one of such instances, he parodies the Christian songs ‘Krístíánì ma ti wá
ìsinmi' (Christians seek not yet repose) to:
Wòlíì jọ̀ọ́ lọ fẹ́bìnrin Priest, please go and marry
Má ṣe gba aya aláya Do not snatch another man's wife
Bí o kò bá sọ́ra rẹ If you are not careful
Wà á jọrẹ́ (p 66) You will be whipped
Through Jímọ́ọ̀ and his friend, Olúwọlé, the hypocrisy of prophet
Jeremáyà was shamefully revealed to Jọ̀ọ́nú who initially refuses to believe the
tale of how Jeremáyà is first caught trying to seduce his daughter, Jeneeti. It is
not until Jeremáyà falls into the trap set by Jímọ́ọ̀ and Olúwọlé who invited Jọ̀ọ́nú
to watch the scene of Jeremáyà seducing his wife, Maria, that Jọ̀ọ́nú realises
his foolishness
in being a fanatic. Ìṣọ̀lá, in Abe Aabo, aims at criticising and
exposing the type of corruption that are found in the ‘House of God'. Through
the contents of the drama, the atrocities being perpetrated by religious zealouts are
revealed. Religious dogmatism, which is a phenomenon among ‘born agains',
is also condemned.
In Kòṣeégbé, Ìṣọ̀lá exposes
his society, particularly the frightening state of smuggling and armed robbery. The
tripartite forces in the armed robbery and smuggling acts, namely, the
criminals, custom officers, and the police are exposed. The bad situation in the
Department of Customs and Excise which calls for urgent reform is clearly implicit
in the opening speech of Mako, the Customs and Excise boss. Mako, in his determined
efforts to put an end to fraudulent practices in his department and the
activities of the smugglers of whose composition comprises of elites in the society, faces a lot
of problems. Twice, he faces two different blackmails plotted by the criminals and
to complicate issues, his immediate assistants betrayed him by becoming
accomplices to the activities
of the criminals. However, with high dedication and unrelenting efforts
exhibited by Máko and the leader of the secret security agents,
a successful campaign is mounted against the activities of the criminals. The purpose of Koseegbe, which Ìṣọ̀lá
tries to espouse, is revealed at the end
of the play in the speech of 'Oga Qlopaa'
(the Police Superintendent) that 'Òtítọ́ ni yóò borí, òdodo á lékè (p 98) (Truth will excel, righteousness is
supreme).
In Ayé Yẹ Wọ́n Tán, a sharp
distinction between the attitudes of politicians during political campaigns and after
been voted into power is presented. During campaigns, politicians employ various rhetoric
skills, making pledges or promises to win the votes of the electorates. But it
is always
a matter of perfidy on the part of the politicians, after the electorates must
have fulfilled their own side of contract by voting them into power. The
situation always leads to lack of confidence. Ayé Yẹ Wọ́n Tán, as the title
suggests, symbolises the situation above. In the play, Prince Simmisọ́lá, vying with two other
princes for the post of Onipo of Ipo, makes promises to the people of Ipo during his campaigns. The most important
of his promises is that he would make available an expanse of farmland to the Workers' Union if given the mandate to rule.
After ascending the throne, he fails
to honour his promises. The promised land is diverted into building a
multi-million hotel complex and his
personal residential houses. He also employs brutal force to deal with the
agitating Workers’ Union. The united
Workers' Union, with the help of the uncompromising chiefs, however, deal with Ọba Simisọ̣́lá with equal tactics
and force. Through the play, Ìṣọ̀lá clearly show that it is necessary for the political class of
rulers to demonstrate transparent honesty and sense of commitment when in power. A situation where the
government reneges on its promise when in power is unpardonable. Moreover, the use of brutal force or
unconstitutional means (as employed by Simisọ́lá)
in dealing with the opposition and/or the citizenry is unwarranted.
Through his plays, Ìṣọ̀lá digs up
issues ravaging Nigeria's socio-political milieu and dramatise them to
the world. His aim is to force a change in social behaviour. Since drama is
action, Ìṣọ̀lá,
as a committed dramatist, uses the medium to criticise the shortcomings of his
society, exposing
such societal ills as religious hypocrisy and fanaticism, cultural conflict,
economic sabotage
and exploitation, oppression and the insincerity of the political class. The
lessons of Ìṣọ̀lá's plays are usually clearly drawn in the last scenes of his
plays. He adopts a moralistic approach by making a bad character suffer and the good
character triumph. This is a general pattern in the denouement of his plays.
3. Conclusion
In this study, we have been able to proof that to a certain
extent, a sense of social commitment is
mandatory upon the writer or artist. We have also noted that the playwright has
always used drama as an avenue to
criticise his society. The writer has always seen himself as the custodian of the moral conscience of his society,
as well as the regulator of the social behaviour. We have revealed that Ìṣọ̀lá is not an exception as he
uses his plays to expose some societal ills in the process of promoting changes in the society's norms
and values.
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[1] This
paper was published as Alamu, O.O. (1998), ‘Commitment and Rama: A Critical
Study of the Plays of Akinwumi Isola’, Journal
of Nigerian Languages and Literatures (edited by L.O. Adewole) 6: 34-38.
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