No More The Wasted Breed: Femi Osofisan’s Vitriolic and Ideological Response to Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed

Abstract

The paper is a critical inter-textual and a comparative study of Femi Osofisan’s vitriolic and ideological response theme of the scapegoat to both texts and interrogates the divergence between the two texts, which is overtly in his No More the Wasted Breed to Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed. The paper notes the centrality of the implied in the thematic analysis of the texts. Such disparity is influenced by the ideological perspectives of both literary giants and of course due to the generational gap between them. The paper juxtaposes the traditional perspective from which Wole Soyinka presents The Strong Breed with the Marxist perception which dominates Femi Osofisan’s No More the Wasted Breed. Apparently, the strong belief of Wole Soyinka in the inviolability of the gods and in the irrevocability of destiny is unarguably well delineated, which Osofisan finds offensive, unpleasant and unacceptable. This is because, to Osofisan, the carrier motif, as portrayed by Wole Soyinka, is retrogressive and oppressive, whereas man should be allowed to hold his destiny in his hands. The paper finally captures Osofisan’s belief that the development and the cleansing of the society should be seen as a collective responsibility of everybody and not the oppressive tasks of a few breeds that have been destined for destruction by the gods.