International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities
This paper examines the bodily politics of African women performing African men in the Nigerian a... more This paper examines the bodily politics of African women performing African men in the Nigerian acting scene. It appraises the complexities in conceptualizing masculinity and cross-acting vis-à-vis gender stereotyping. It argues against the backdrop that the female body is elastic and better positioned for cross-acting than the male body. It draws on the transitory conceptualizations of subversion to claim that the Nigerian female stage actor possesses a fluid ability to play eccentric male roles in ways that express the persona of the African male character. The paper argues that the fluidity of the Nigerian female stage actor is marked by three trimesters or trimetric factors; her innate ability to perform many roles as a woman, her ability to carry other bodies and to endure the pain of it; more so, attended by diverse bodily changes and lastly, her Freudian complex of desiring to become a man in challenging or turbulent situations. It avers that within the precinct of these tria...
Verbatim theatre is still an unexplored area on the Nigerian playwriting scene as well as theatre... more Verbatim theatre is still an unexplored area on the Nigerian playwriting scene as well as theatre stage in spite of its popularity and practice in different parts of the world. One of the central spines of verbatim theatre is that it thrives on documentary, the new/social media and journalistic practices involving more than one person who incidentally are co-creators. It is a form of dramaturgy where live interviews, news tit-bits, documented memos, online chat-threads, screenshots, musical lyrics, vox-pop or recorded conversations are creatively edited and used to create drama. One Nigerian playwright whose drama is rooted in verbatim theatre is Bode Ojoniyi. This paper examines the atypical creative energy in the memoir drama of Bode Ojoniyi whose dramatic vision is located within the frame of existentialism, deadness and the undead consciousnesses. This study contends that Ojoniyi’s memoir drama is woven around a delicate and life draining human experience attended by...
Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy.... more Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy. The rise and expansion of terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Niger-Delta Volunteer Force, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and recently, the Avengers, has risen to vent terror on the peoples of Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia. Whilst each of these countries has its own distinct challenges that led to the formation of such terrorist groups, the emergence of terrorism in Nigeria remains complex. One of the ways an explicit explanation has been given to these complexes in Nigeria is through thriller fiction. Nollywood as well as other film industries in Africa has produced several thriller fictions that attempt to explicate the reasons behind militancy and terrorism in Africa. October 1 and Eye in the Sky are two examples of African cinema that have attempted to film the recent rise of terrorism in Nigeria and Kenya. Within the lens of October 1, terrorism in Nig...
Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy.... more Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy. The rise and expansion of terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Niger-Delta Volunteer Force, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and recently, the Avengers, has risen to vent terror on the peoples of Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia. Whilst each of these countries has its own distinct challenges that led to the formation of such terrorist groups, the emergence of terrorism in Nigeria remains complex. One of the ways an explicit explanation has been given to these complexes in Nigeria is through thriller fiction. Nollywood as well as other film industries in Africa has produced several thriller fictions that attempt to explicate the reasons behind militancy and terrorism in Africa. October 1 and Eye in the Sky are two examples of African cinema that have attempted to film the recent rise of terrorism in Nigeria and Kenya. Within the lens of October 1, terrorism in Nig...
Tributaries: NDU Journal of Theatre and Media Arts. Vol. 1. No. 1, 2018
Tragedy is a genre of dramatic literature that has received divergent critical attention from the... more Tragedy is a genre of dramatic literature that has received divergent critical attention from theorists across several currents. Theorists like Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Miller and Wole Soyinka are some of the popular theorists whose theorizations on tragedy have enjoyed certain forms of canonicity in the appreciation of universal drama. Drawing on diverse indigenous myths and beliefs, the theories propounded by these theorists have formed the bastion for which many drama critics, theatre directors, and teachers convey tragedy or the tragic in dramatic criticism and theatre performance. This paper takes a detour from the Aristotelian logic or Arthur Miller's tragic prototypes. The paper uses myth-archetypal theory to argue that the Egbesu myth of the Ijaws breaks the boundaries created by the Aristotelian, Arthur Miller or Soyinkaresque logic of tragedy without infringing on or altering the humanity of man. It contends that Egbesu is the revolutionary god-hero of the African cosmic universe and the alter ego of Soyinka's Yoruba Ogun; the redemptive god of justice and protection of mankind. The paper uses Ben Binebai's drama, Dance of a Ghost (2008), Barclays Ayakoroma's A Chance to Survive (2011) and J.P Clark-Bekederemo's Ozidi (1966) to showcase the epistemic export of Ijaw restoration theatre as an evolving paradigm in the discourse of tragedy. The study concludes that the Ijaw restoration theatre is anti-tragic a la it preoccupies itself with the restoration of man, nature, traditions, and socio-cultural institutions.
International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities
This paper examines the bodily politics of African women performing African men in the Nigerian a... more This paper examines the bodily politics of African women performing African men in the Nigerian acting scene. It appraises the complexities in conceptualizing masculinity and cross-acting vis-à-vis gender stereotyping. It argues against the backdrop that the female body is elastic and better positioned for cross-acting than the male body. It draws on the transitory conceptualizations of subversion to claim that the Nigerian female stage actor possesses a fluid ability to play eccentric male roles in ways that express the persona of the African male character. The paper argues that the fluidity of the Nigerian female stage actor is marked by three trimesters or trimetric factors; her innate ability to perform many roles as a woman, her ability to carry other bodies and to endure the pain of it; more so, attended by diverse bodily changes and lastly, her Freudian complex of desiring to become a man in challenging or turbulent situations. It avers that within the precinct of these tria...
Verbatim theatre is still an unexplored area on the Nigerian playwriting scene as well as theatre... more Verbatim theatre is still an unexplored area on the Nigerian playwriting scene as well as theatre stage in spite of its popularity and practice in different parts of the world. One of the central spines of verbatim theatre is that it thrives on documentary, the new/social media and journalistic practices involving more than one person who incidentally are co-creators. It is a form of dramaturgy where live interviews, news tit-bits, documented memos, online chat-threads, screenshots, musical lyrics, vox-pop or recorded conversations are creatively edited and used to create drama. One Nigerian playwright whose drama is rooted in verbatim theatre is Bode Ojoniyi. This paper examines the atypical creative energy in the memoir drama of Bode Ojoniyi whose dramatic vision is located within the frame of existentialism, deadness and the undead consciousnesses. This study contends that Ojoniyi’s memoir drama is woven around a delicate and life draining human experience attended by...
Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy.... more Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy. The rise and expansion of terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Niger-Delta Volunteer Force, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and recently, the Avengers, has risen to vent terror on the peoples of Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia. Whilst each of these countries has its own distinct challenges that led to the formation of such terrorist groups, the emergence of terrorism in Nigeria remains complex. One of the ways an explicit explanation has been given to these complexes in Nigeria is through thriller fiction. Nollywood as well as other film industries in Africa has produced several thriller fictions that attempt to explicate the reasons behind militancy and terrorism in Africa. October 1 and Eye in the Sky are two examples of African cinema that have attempted to film the recent rise of terrorism in Nigeria and Kenya. Within the lens of October 1, terrorism in Nig...
Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy.... more Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia are few of the countries in Africa faced with terrorism and militancy. The rise and expansion of terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Niger-Delta Volunteer Force, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and recently, the Avengers, has risen to vent terror on the peoples of Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia. Whilst each of these countries has its own distinct challenges that led to the formation of such terrorist groups, the emergence of terrorism in Nigeria remains complex. One of the ways an explicit explanation has been given to these complexes in Nigeria is through thriller fiction. Nollywood as well as other film industries in Africa has produced several thriller fictions that attempt to explicate the reasons behind militancy and terrorism in Africa. October 1 and Eye in the Sky are two examples of African cinema that have attempted to film the recent rise of terrorism in Nigeria and Kenya. Within the lens of October 1, terrorism in Nig...
Tributaries: NDU Journal of Theatre and Media Arts. Vol. 1. No. 1, 2018
Tragedy is a genre of dramatic literature that has received divergent critical attention from the... more Tragedy is a genre of dramatic literature that has received divergent critical attention from theorists across several currents. Theorists like Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Miller and Wole Soyinka are some of the popular theorists whose theorizations on tragedy have enjoyed certain forms of canonicity in the appreciation of universal drama. Drawing on diverse indigenous myths and beliefs, the theories propounded by these theorists have formed the bastion for which many drama critics, theatre directors, and teachers convey tragedy or the tragic in dramatic criticism and theatre performance. This paper takes a detour from the Aristotelian logic or Arthur Miller's tragic prototypes. The paper uses myth-archetypal theory to argue that the Egbesu myth of the Ijaws breaks the boundaries created by the Aristotelian, Arthur Miller or Soyinkaresque logic of tragedy without infringing on or altering the humanity of man. It contends that Egbesu is the revolutionary god-hero of the African cosmic universe and the alter ego of Soyinka's Yoruba Ogun; the redemptive god of justice and protection of mankind. The paper uses Ben Binebai's drama, Dance of a Ghost (2008), Barclays Ayakoroma's A Chance to Survive (2011) and J.P Clark-Bekederemo's Ozidi (1966) to showcase the epistemic export of Ijaw restoration theatre as an evolving paradigm in the discourse of tragedy. The study concludes that the Ijaw restoration theatre is anti-tragic a la it preoccupies itself with the restoration of man, nature, traditions, and socio-cultural institutions.
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Papers by Victor O Ihidero