AFRICAN DEITY AND PEACE DEVELOPMENT IN JULIE OKOH’S WE ARE RIVERS AND THE NIGERIAN SPACE

Abstract

Until recent time, African deities, positioned as viable medium of creating sanity and tranquility in the African front have been ironically neglected due to incursion of Christianization, civilization, modernization, and advanced technology. The efficacy of the African deity which is paramount insomuch that it preserves the culture, tradition, norms, values, artifacts, morals, and way of lives of the people, thus militating against evil forces whose agenda is targeted at the people, by increasing the level of death, sickness, ailment, farming, barrenness, strive, poverty, and every other forms of wickedness as portrayed in Julie Okoh’s We Are Rivers, is today, neglected and most often abolished. This has unequivocally created fear and pain of the people and underdevelopment to the nation. It has therewith created impetus for creative portraiture in dramatic and argumentative representations by dramatist and critics over the years, yet, the issue is still persisting. The study therefore aims at repositioning African Deity as viable medium of sanity and a mechanism of enhancing peace and development in the Nigerian space. Thus, with content analytical methodology, this study investigates how Julie Okoh attempts to establish the cause and effect of deity negligence and service on the Nigerian space using the instrument of drama. The effect of it will create positive change amongst Nigerians, thus, create change in their society. The study therefore recommends that maximum attention be made towards promoting African deity to the frontier of politicians as that would define the hallmark of peace and development.