Community and the Individual in the Dramatic World of the Igbo: Conformity and Contestation
The Igbo popular maxim, Ohaka (community is supreme), is a product of the people’s interacting life and exemplifies their belief in the power of unity that inheres from communal living. However such patriotic value as implied in the aphorism is rift with challenges in modern time and drama as a reflection of the people’s interacting life recreates both the challenges and the people’s response to them. This paper therefore examines instances of conformity to and divergence from the value of ohaka in selected dramatic literature of the Igbo in order to evaluate its significance in contemporary world. This is done through the analysis of character’s response to the issues of ohaka as dramatized in ‘Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods (1972). Short Biography Osita Catherine Ezenwanebe Ph. D is an Association Professor of Theatre Arts in the Department of Creative Arts (Theatre Unit), University of Lagos, Nigeria. With a B.A in English Education, two Master of Arts Degrees in English Literature (Drama and Society) and in English Language (Nigerian English), and a Ph. D in English Literature (Drama and Society), Osita teaches dramatic theory and criticism among other courses. She is a Senior Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor of Dramatic Arts, 2011/2012 in the Department of English and Foreign Languages, Winston- Salem State University, North Carolina, USA. She has written and produced six plays which are all published: Withered Thrust (2007), The Dawn of Full Moon (2009), Giddy Festival (2009), Daring Destiny (2011), Adaugo (2011) and Shadows on Arrival (2012). Osita Ezenwane be is one of the authors of Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance, a premier publication of the African Theatre and Performance Working Group of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR), 2011.
