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ART AND POLITICS IN WOLE SOYINKA’S THE BEATIFICATION OF AREA BOY AND OLA ROTIMI’S OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Wole Soyinka hails from the Yoruba land in the Southern part of Nigeria. He is a nobel laureate and has written in all genres of literature (prose, poetry, and drama). He uses his works as an instrument for social mobilization and change.

Wole Soyinka as a democrat believes in an egalitarian society that is a society where everybody should be answerable to the law and justice is met out without considering the class of the individual. In fact, he believes in a society where there should be no class at all. Everybody should have equal rights in all ramifications.

Although, Soyinka is not much of a politician but those years in his country when absolute power was in the hands of the military he was not at ease because his dream society was not guaranteed under such leadership.

Soyinka abhors the intrusion of military into politics of a country. He finds military in politics contrary to the constitutional duty and argues that the provision of security for the nation as a whole is their duty. He sees the military as leaders without a mandate and as a threat to personal essence and his dream society. He wants changes during the reign of the military and employs his writing toward this end. Soyinka uses satire to bring out the ills of the society and his ideas to bring a desired change.

Ola rotimi hails from the Yoruba land in the Southern part of Nigeria. He has written a great deal of work whose thematic preoccupations are of tremendous literary social significance. He has contributed immensely to the development of African literature especially in the areas of African drama and theatre and a lot of critical attention has been paid to his works by both African and European critics. Ola Rotimi’s mode of assessing a socio-political system, the people’s attitude e.t.c. in a society is satire- a form of writing which makes fun of the evil or foolish behaviour of people, institutions or society in general. The Nigerian society for him is obviously a chaotic one where dreams and aspirations of people remain unrealized. He has seen with shock and disbelief the endemic corruption, moral decay and political morass that have become part and parcel of the society.

Ola Rotimi, Wole Soyinka and other artists are committed as writers to restore order in the society through their various works respectively.

1.2                  PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This research work will aim at examining the adventure of the military into the politics of a country and how Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi have presented this artfully in their works respectively.

This study focuses on the artistic presentation of the military in politics and it examines Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy and Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again respectively.

1.3      SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study focuses on the artistic presentation of the military in politics and it examines Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy and Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again respectively.

1.4      JUSTIFICATION

This research work is done to advance scholarship on art and politics. It enables one in understanding the relationship between the two variables.

 1.5      RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The approach to the research work is descriptive. The Beatification of Area Boy and Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again will be the primary texts while works on the internet and related books will be consulted. The primary texts are described in the light of their preoccupation with politics.