Unmasking unconscious fear and derangement in the Plays of Francis Imbuga

Abstract

Francis Davis Imbuga, one of the most prominent African playwrights of the 20th Century, employs diverse motifs to reveal the psyches of the characters in his works. This paper examines Imbuga's Betrayal in the City (1976), Man of Kafira (1984), and The Successor (1979) from Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytic perspectives, in order to deduce the central characters' unconscious fear and derangement in a world that is often devoid of freedom and justice. Specifically, the paper utilizes the postulations of Sigmund Freud on the unconsciousness as well as those of Carl Jung on self-archetypes. Characters' actions are considered as driven by Freudian unconscious and Jungian unconscious anima and animus-where the unconscious in fear reflects elites' greed and selfishness, while the unconscious in derangement mirrors repressed desire and guilt.