HISTORICITY AND GENDER HEROISM IN OLA ROTIMI’S HOPES OF THE LIVING DEAD

Abstract

The intercourse of history and Drama is an age long phenomenon. On one hand, the evolution and the various developmental stages of drama find expression in history. On the other hand, historical occurrences provided and still provide raw materials for drama. Historically, women have been represented in drama since the beginning of literary tradition. Aristophanes (410 BC) represented Greek women, reflecting the strength and weakness of women and more importantly the role of women in nation building. Shakespeare and Webster portray women substantially in their plays. Nigerian playwrights are not left out in the scheme, as they employ the instrumentality of history to dramatise traits of legendry Nigeria women and thus preserve their heroic deeds for the prosperity of posterity. This paper interrogates the interplay of history and gender heroism in Ola Rotimi’s play, Hopes of the Living Dead. The framework for this discourse is “Stiwanism”, the African expression of feminism. The paper argues that Ola Rotimi, in a bid to celebrate African women does not create a fictitious personality with fabricated legendary deeds, but falls back on history to showcase the legendary and heroic nature of African women. History, therefore, enhances the tangibility of gender heroism as dramatised by Ola Rotimi in the play. We conclude that, in Hopes of the Living Dead, Ola Rotimi employs history to unearth the past, thereby reconstructing the present and taking a peep into the future about what is expected of the African women as leaders and co-workers in social and political re-engineering.