Non-Violence as a Tool of African Revolutionary Praxis in Femi Osofisan’s Red is the Freedom Road

Utafiti ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Clement Olujide Ajidahun
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Wole Soyinka ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Revolutionary Praxis

Abstract The deployment of violence as a subversive and revolutionary tool for effecting social change in post-independent African states has been very controversial among literary scholars. This paper employs Marxism in re-reading Femi Osofisan’s Red is the Freedom Road, and argues that the use of violence as a popular means of engendering progressive transformation of society is too costly in blood and devastation. Instead, tackling the various sociopolitical challenges confronting postcolonial African nations is better pursued through dialogue and negotiation rather than armed confrontation. Osofisan’s revulsion in response to the use of violence permeates his drama; but this does not in any way reduce his literary stature when compared with Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Wole Soyinka, whose literary works seem to support the view that there comes a point when the deployment of violence becomes necessary.

scholarly journals Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero in Relation to Ghanaian Religious Discourse.

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-153
Author(s):  
Evelyn Aku Adjandeh
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Wole Soyinka ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Global Nature

One of the roles of Literature is its aesthetic value. Aside from that literary works serve as important tools that are used to comment on issues of society since most writers base their writings on their societal occurrences. While agreeing with the reflectionist theory of art that Literature reflects the society from which it emerges, this paper underscores that through writing, literary works have often sought to correct the ills of society. Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero satirizes the work of the clergy. The paper analyzes selected reports in the Ghanaian media in relation to the clergy and identifies how Wole Soyinka’s theme is reflected in these papers. The presence of Soyinka’s theme in these reports is a reaffirmation that literary writers do not only present fiction but also express pertinent realities. This study seeks to examine the extent to which themes in Soyinka’s Trials of Brother Jero play out in religious discourses in Ghana. The global nature of the issues problematized by Wole Soyinka also comes out through this study as the work set in Nigeria is analyzed in relation to the selected articles set in Ghana. The paper relies on a content analysis of The Trials of Brother Jero and similar themes presented in the selected articles and makes a few recommendations on how these religious issues could be partially, if not wholly, resolved in Ghana.

African Literature: A Tool for Societal Regeneration

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Funmilola Kemi Megbowon ◽  
Chijioke Uwah
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Interpretative Analysis ◽  
Reading Culture

Contemporary societies across the world are faced with the burden of prevalent and diverse societal wrongdoings which have possible future implications that are alarming and worrisome if not controlled. Therefore, the need for societal regeneration for a better future becomes imperative, and this change can be achieved by various means. This study argues that African Literature can be considered a tool through which the desired change can be achieved. Thus, this study aims to demonstrate how African Literature fulfils the criteria of being a tool for societal regeneration by examining the paradigms and moral positions in matters that affect the society using a textual and interpretative analysis of selected literary works (Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments and The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Achebe’s A Man of the People). This study is premised on the fact that African Literature provides an opportunity for a connection with indigenous roots that made the traditional society a relatively non-perverted one while the simultaneous all-round forward progress of the contemporary is not jeopardised. Considering the potential in literature to achieve social change, a reading culture must be revitalised and encouraged, especially among millennials who are victims and promoters of these menaces, as it provides a mechanism for corrective psychology and orientation.

scholarly journals Privileging the Decolonial Critical Theory in studying wa Thiong’o’s literary works

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-120
Author(s):  
Brian Sibanda
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
North American ◽  
Global South ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Impaired Vision ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
Post Colonialism

Literary theories are the lens in which reality is created and viewed. If an incorrect or limited lens in used, then they impact on vision hence the corrective lenses are used to correct impaired vision. The literary works of Ngugi wa Thiong’o have been comfortably viewed from Marxist, Nationalist and Post-colonialist lens. It is the argument of this paper that though these literary theories do shed clarity on the works of wa Thiong’o, they limit the span of what we see that is outside their frames. The paper privileges the Decolonial Critical Theory, a theory located in the Global South, as the most appropriate lens to visibilise the decolonial thoughts and philosophy of wa Thiong’o. The appropriateness of the Decolonial Critical Theory is that it provides a critical lens outside the Euro- North American “mainstream” canon foregrounded in coloniality. The argument expanded here is that essentialisms and fundamentalisms like Marxism, Nationalism and Post-colonialism are limited in the critique of wa Thiong’o as they do not take coloniality and decoloniality into account. Undoubtedly, wa Thiong’o has been many things politically and philosophically, but decoloniality as a philosophy is the organising idea and overarching line of his thought. Like decoloniality itself, wa Thiong’o has developed, journeyed and passed through different ideological and philosophical liaisons to arrive at his present decolonial consciousness and activism hence Decolonial Critical Theory is a betting lens in looking at this journey.

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