Representations of Yoruba Political History in Drama and their Implications for Yoruba Nationalism

Sesan, Azeez; Ilori, Sanjo

أطراس
Volume 6, Numéro 2, Pages 202-219
2025-07-15

Representations Of Yoruba Political History In Drama And Their Implications For Yoruba Nationalism

Authors : Sesan Azeez . Ilori Sanjo .

Abstract

The political history of modern Yoruba society is replete with the ancient Yoruba civil wars that nearly tore apart the whole of Yoruba nation. The significance of these wars have been found in how their understanding and re-interpretation has been influencing and re-shaping certain cultural episteme of Yoruba identity as re-presented in cultural products such as drama and film. Playwrights of Yoruba extraction have published considerable number of dramatic texts on Yoruba political history and civil wars. Few of these playwrights, however, only chronicle the events as they happened in the past without efforts towards the re-interpretation of the incidences for a virile Yoruba national consciousness. This paper critiques two dramatic texts – Adebayo Faleti’s Bashorun Gaa and Wale Ogunyemi’s Kiriji. These two plays are selected because of their significance in the determination of the fate and destiny of Yoruba ethnic group. The paper finds out that the genesis of the Yoruba internal crises which later culminated in Yoruba civil wars could be traced to the mismanaged euphoria which followed Abiodun-Gaa power tussle in the Old Oyo Empire while Kiriji reveals the fact that the last major Yoruba civil war of Ekiti-Parapo only ended physically at the battle fronts without proper efforts to reconcile all the differences that actually led to the war. Although playwrights of Yoruba extraction have been taking remarkable steps to chronicle Yoruba civil wars, they would do well if they infuse some levels of creativity to re-interpret these historical wars in their texts with a view to charting a new course in the attainment of Yoruba nationalism.