Femi Osofisan’s Evolving Global Consciousness in Four Adaptations

Femi Osofisan is one of contemporary theatre’s greatest adapters. His dramaturgy frequently intertwines European texts with Yoruba songs, dances, rituals, and other cultural elements to break down ostensible cultural barriers. This article interprets Osofisan’s career as a movement from domestic to international concerns, charting the evolution of his dramaturgical approach from his early to later works to demonstrate his expanding cosmopolitan and postcolonial engagements. I argue that four of his adaptations – Who’s Afraid of Solarin? (1978), Tegonni (1994), Wesoo, Hamlet! (2003), and Women of Owu (2004) – serve as an index of Osofisan’s artistic focus as it shifts from a concentration on Nigeria’s domestic problems to expressing a Nigerian perspective on global issues. The latter three plays rely on complex and dynamic intertextuality, reflecting a postmodern self-consciousness as Osofisan metatheatrically explores the processes of performance, theatre, and art through direct interplay between his own characters and those of his Greek or Shakespearean sources. This argument challenges accounts of Osofisan’s career that emphasize an exclusive interest in Nigeria’s domestic politics, arguing instead that his drama is involved in a longstanding project of intercultural adaptation as a means of addressing international political, economic, and security problems.

Energy Global Governance in a Philosophical Perspective

In the present paper some questions related with energy global governance are dis-cussed. These questions are viewed as a part of the broader problematics of globalization. Due to the very complex nature of this problematics the role of philosophy – in particular analytical and science-based philosophy – is emphasized. We underscore the importance of philosophy for the developing global consciousness and – indirectly – for the development of global society.

From a Society of Knowledge to a Society of Consciousness a Call for Awareness Is on Its Way

The convergence of today’s critical sanitary environmental and socio-economic crises is pressing humanity towards a shifting point from which a new paradigm could emerge, where accelerated scientific-technological innovations transforming social relations may enable a leap of conscience with the improvement appreciation of human life conditions and better caring for the planet as a whole, opening for a more fraternal cooperation and sustainability mind set. The crisis is systemic and has moral roots, so the solutions are asking for a change in human values and human consciousness that may already be found in initiatives like a new socio-economic models such as the Economy of Francisco, the Society 5.0 that are emerging and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Moreover, there is already a humanity awareness movement that defines patterns for levels of global consciousness that together with other development systems models may help to follow up the process of the transition from the society of knowledge to the society of consciousness. This close global monitoring would give us chance for a better global and local management showing signs of improvement, and give calls for alerts. This paper presents advances in this direction and shows how the ICT revolution on its way may already give support to collectively on-line monitoring with already existing important synthetic indicators that represent basic sensors for the process, showing what may be the way for the future, and what kind of metamorphose we may be emerging.

Empire without Sovereignty

This chapter investigates the political economy of French informal imperialism, revealing a little-known facet of the intellectual origins of globalization, and confirming that the pursuit of empire and the emergence of global consciousness were inextricably linked. It highlights lesser known thinkers, which helps recover what the prevailing attitudes of the informed liberal-leaning public towards empire actually were. After 1815, once the word “liberal” entered the political lexicon, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the Abbé Dominique de Pradt, and Michel Chevalier described themselves as liberals — with some justification, since they admired Britain's balanced constitution and were stalwart advocates of free trade. Recovering their views on empire therefore helps to suggest that French liberals did not become imperialistic in the mid-nineteenth century, but instead consistently harboured imperial ambitions, even if, for pragmatic reasons, they tended to shun territorial expansion after 1815. Focusing on these neglected but influential figures also helps correct the common perception of France as having withdrawn from the international stage after the fall of Napoleon.

Green Extraction, Characterization, Applications and Antimicrobial Analysis of Natural Dye from Phyllanthus emblica

Global consciousness towards the organic value of eco-friendly products has attracted the interest of people towards the use of naturally dyed textiles and organic mordants. The present study has been focused not only on exploring the bio-colourant activity of Phyllanthus emblica (Amala) but also on the application of natural mordant for textile dyeing and analysis of its medicinal properties. It has been discovered from the investigation that biomordants like extract of Aloe vera’s as well as extract of mango’s bark extract were able to evince their characteristic colour ameliorate behaviour close to synthetic ones. Besides, the disparity in absorbance band in ultraviolet spectroscopy, distinction in functional groups and differences in surface morphology of two extracted dyes were observed that provided information on colour variation in the cotton fabrics. An eagle gray shade and brown-hued on the cotton fabric were noticed from water and ethanol extracted dyes, respectively. Further, it is confirmed that the natural dyes contain bioactive phytochemicals like tannins, phenols and flavonoids that provide a significant antibacterial activity which will help it to be beneficially utilized in protective medical clothing.