AFRICAN PLAYWRIGHTS AND THE POST-COLONIAL SOCIETY: A STUDY OF EMEKA NWABUEZE’S A PARLIAMENT OF VULTURES AND ESIABA IROBI’S HANGMEN ALSO DIE

Abstract

Writers, like preachers, write to moralize as well as criticize the ills in the society. Their major aim is to recreate and correct using their pens which speak great volume against the moral decadence dominant in the society and the world at large. African playwrights write on several inherent issues dominant in the post-colonial society of which corruption takes the lead. This study examines corruption as one of the pre-dominant issues in the postcolonial society and as a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of the society in the works of two West African writers namely EmekaNwabueze’sAParliament of Vultures and EsiabaIrobi’sHangmen Also Die. Satire as a tool is employed to mock these corrupt leaders who have done more harm than good as well as their level of ignorance in governing the masses. This paper can be x-rayed through the critical lens of Post-colonial theory, Marxism and Eco-criticism. This paper also reveals the effects of corruption as it subjects the masses to poverty, oppression, hunger, depression and even death. Activism is seen as a revolutionary tool among characters in both texts. The selected texts are used as channels for mocking leaders who employ various corrupt practices to oppress the people without taking cognizance of their plight, while aiming for a better and corrupt free society.