20 Revolutionary Muse: Fémi Òsófisan's Tègònni: An African Antigone

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses a reworking of Antigone by Nigerian playwright Fémi Òsófisan: Tègònni: An African Antigone (1994). Focusing on the politics of adaptation, Van Weyenberg considers Òsófisan's decision to draw on Sophocles within the context of Nigeria, and analyses Antigone's representative value within her ‘new’ surroundings. The emphasis then shifts to the (meta)theatrical aesthetics that characterizes Antigone's cultural translocation and to the related political implications for Antigone's status as a Western canonical figure. In viewing Òsófisan's adaptation as a work of ‘canonical counter‐discourse’, Van Weyenberg argues that it is not so much the canonical text itself at which Òsófisan's attention is directed, but rather the Eurocentric tradition that has claimed Antigone, and Greek tragedy in general, as its point of origin. Òsófisan's metatheatrical translocation of Antigone to Nigeria allows him to effectively demand shared ownership: Antigone no longer exclusively belongs to Europe.