Reflection of History and Struggle in Modern African Drama: A Reassessment of the Historical and Dramatic Characters in Emeka Nwabueze’s The Dragon’s Funeral

Abstract

Historical facts evidently have often time provided source materials for the modern African playwright in creating his story. The committed playwright combines the fact of history, blends it with artistic ingenuity and presents a dramatic experience of a people. This combination of facts of history with fiction could be referred to as “faction”. The facts of history may include struggle for emancipation, war, famine, outbreak of a disease, political instability, fashion, terrorism, natural disaster, colonialism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, etc. It is in view of this that this paper surveys the struggle by Nigerian women during the colonial period for their emancipation out of the evils of colonialism and economic exploitation. The gallant Nigerian women of Aba in 1929, who vehemently challenged the British colonial administration of heavy tax imposition on Nigerians, have been represented in dramatic form by Emeka Nwabueze in his play The Dragon’s Funeral. This work has done a reassessment of the major characters in the play. The aim is to see how these dramatic characters in the play conform to the actual historical characters. For the purpose of dramaturgy, the playwright seems to have added some dramatic techniques; like the aesthetics of storytelling to provide a more vivid dramatic experience. The representation of historical characters in the play provides obvious evidences of the reflection of history and struggle in modern Africa drama and also emphasises the efficacy of modern African plays as viable tools for the documentation of history.