Biblical Names in Selected Plays of Wole Soyinka: A lexico-semantic Study

Abstract

This study interrogates the use of biblical names as charactonyms in selected plays of Wole Soyinka, the first Nobel laureate in Africa, with the aim of unearthing their morphological process and sociolinguistic imports in relation to the Holy Bible. The primary data from which extracts were made to illustrate the discussion were four drama texts: The Strong Breed (1963), The Road (1965), Death and the King’s Horseman (1975), King Baabu (2002)- all tragedies, by the same author. The theoretical frameworks adopted were Yule’s (1985) morphological taxonomy and Said’s (1978) postcolonialism. Ten names inundated with biblical elements were purposively selected across-the-board and analysed using the theoretical frameworks. Findings indicated that Soyinka inundated his works with analogy (60%) by deploying six names (Ifada, Sunma, Samson, Simon Pilkings, Olunde, Joseph) patterned after the Holy Bible to illustrate didactic lesson and messianic scapegoatism theme(s). Furthermore, the study revealed that the playwright deployed clipping (20%) through the names Maariya and Tikim, to indicate popular culture among African youth. Finally, the playwright uses biblical names in his works to blend his Christian and traditional background, and as a means of taking indirect swipe at the issue of African complex dispositions to the colonial encounter and its legacies. The work is a contribution to onomastic scholarship in relation to the Holy Bible and African-contact literary texts.