Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences

Volume VII, No I. Quarter I 2016

ISSN: 2229 – 5313

DRAMATISING THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN WOMAN FROM

THE PRIVATE TO THE PUBLIC SPHERE: A READING OF FEMI
OSOFISAN’S MOROUNTODUN

Adeighon Uwadinma-Idemudia
Lecturer at the Redeemers University, Ede Osun State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT
There has been an endemic dominance of the masculine character in the public sphere of
the theatre, whereas, for more than seven centuries, both male and female characters
have featured in the dramatic space of the theatre both in the West and in Africa
respectively. This dominance is not only seen in the gender of playwrights, but also in the
negative status giving to female characters in plays. This paper seeks to advocate that,
projecting the woman figure in plays by given them a voice as domestic and traditional
iconic characters can elevate the woman status beyond the present marginalised sphere
accorded her in the public sphere of African theatre. This research investigates the
characters of Titubi and Alhaja Kabirat in Femi Osofisan MOROUNTODUN as iconic
archetypes that projects the public status of women from the ‘domesticated to the heroin’
and submits that a proliferation of archetypal characterisation of this nature is capable
of increasing the status of women by lending a voice to a global debate through the
public sphere of the theatre
Keywords: Public Sphere, Dramatic, Theatre, Domesticated.

Introduction
In Africa, before the inception of western education, there was a political structure in
place that strived on oral tradition. For the sake of continuity folklore, legendary tales and
ritualistic performances were instruments for mass enlightenment as well as tools for
social-cultural emancipation and a medium for social change through entertainment. In

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Volume VII, No I. Quarter I 2016
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the pre-colonial Africa community, to be accepted into the public sphere included one’s
ability to have one or more skills in both the religious and social life of the community.
This was important because it was through these activities members of the society were
groomed to understand the polity, economic and spiritual life of the people. With these
performances from which African theatre evolved, socio-political reform strategies were
discussed with lasting solutions proffered. In the pre-colonial society, women were on the
center stage as the greatest custodians of traditional norms and values and so,
automatically were seen as very important in national life and development of the society.
Kenechukwu Igweonu supports this view when he declares “indigenous African societies
offer ample recognition to women. This is evidence in the importance and relevance
attached to feminine roles within tradition” (2007:52). Shannon Jackson also lays
credence to this fact by submitting that

As long as tradition of feminist theory tells

us, Public women bear the burden of
standing in the communities to whom they
are speaking in a way that exceeds and
shows the conventions of representative
sense of the term, in political and
performance sense of the term (2003:693).

What we call African drama/theatre today developed from a combination of our

traditional performance form and the western performance form brought to us by our
colonialist. As refined as it is today, African theatre is still as vital in commenting on
national issues as much as it has been in the past. The only difference between what we
had before and what we have now is in de area of male dominance and patriarchal
ideologies in the every aspect. And this range from playwrights to the portrayal of
dominant characters both in text and on stage. This patriarchal dominance however is not
surprising since from the inception of western education in Africa the male species were
favoured more than the fairer sex. As time progressed, the woman became less and less
favoured, sidelined in the society but became good only for those gendered roles
prescribed to her by virtue of her natural delineation. This antecedence is similar to what
has been experienced in the theatre, especially with the shift of formal education from the
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traditional to the western mode. The role of traditional oral performances which was
mostly the preserve of the African woman shifted from the warmth of the fire place to the
prestigious theatre platform of the proscenium and all other latest manifestations of it.

The first set of playwrights to emerge in the public sphere of the theatre, had in their
ideologies projections of a new African state devoid of western manipulations; the
eradication of corruption from a smilingly destroyed society and a fruitless struggle for
identity between the culture of both worlds. In trying to attain this struggle, their male
characters were mostly deified as exemplary icons, while female characters were simply
left at the background to make up character list; to act as comic relief or to further the
plot of their plays. Examples of plays in this category are Wole Soyinka’s Kongi’s
Harvest, A Dance of the Forest, The swamp Dwellers, Madmen and Specialist, The Road
etc. In these plays, we have prominent female characters that were portrayed even
stronger than some male characters. But there seems to a conscious effort by this
playwright to portray these women though as strong characters but in roles that is more
derogatory than popular. For instance, even though a strong political character, Segi is
portrayed as a mere prostitute in Kongi’s Harvest and not as a character with strong
moral standing worthy of emulation. Decrying this stance by African playwrights Victor
Ukaegbu laments that:
Although African women are prominent in
ritual performance, especially when cast in
the service of community and men, this
prominence has not been used as a platform
for their emergence on the political stage as
many writers have done with men. (2007:8)

In her paper titled “Nigerian Women Playwrights: Beyond the Nobel Prize”, Irene
Salami quarries Soyinka’s remark on the positive portraiture of women in his plays and
states that “Soyinka has clearly stated that his use of women in his works is for
symbolism and essence” (2006:141). Playwrights after Soyinka and even his
contemporaries according to Irene Salami, followed the blazing trail of women
representation he set in his works especially after the Nobel Prize. She states that

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For the men, the old-boy network opened up

literary spaces for them, elevating the male
subjects above the female. This obvious lack
is responsible for the uncomplimentary
construction of negative female identity by
some male writers who dominate the seen.
(2006:124)

Although we have had very few female playwrights from inception, which includes Zulu
Sofola, Tess Onweme, Efua Sutherland, Ama Ata Aidoo etc., their numbers, compared
with those of their male counterpart succeeded in drowning their small still voices in
trying to elevate the status of women by their portraiture. It should be noted that even
though the list of playwrights mentioned above chiefly consist of female playwrights, not
all of them portrayed women in the kind of positive light capable of lending women the
kind of position we are here projecting for them in the Public Sphere. While Zulu
Sofola’s plays has been applauded as having feminist ideological tendencies of “placing
women at the center of her narratives, by which means she is able to articulate and (re-
present the importance of women in indigenous traditional Africa most of which has been
eroded through transculturation….” (Kenechukwu, 2007:52) Other women playwrights
for instance, Efua Sutherland has not contributed much in this regard. Victor Ukaegbu
while commenting on The Marriage of Anansewa in “… The Gendered
Misinterpretation of Women” he observes that Sutherland

In forgoing the opportunity to interrogate the

nature of marriage and a woman’s place in
it, Sutherland follows the familiar path of
surrender to costume and convention that
sustains men’s domination of women. This
is unfortunate given the tremendous
capacities that Ananse archetype, the
marriage institution and story telling theatre
offer as sites for gender debate. (2007:10)

A combination of the tri-dimensional issues of “archetype, marriage institution and

storytelling theatre” in The Marriage of Anansewa, is capable of opening up a remarkable

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platform for redefining the true essence of marriage in the theatre of storytelling with the
aim of redefining the kind of supportive roles fathers should play in an institution as
important as marriage, rather than manipulating it to suit their patriarchal and egoistic
bloating as displayed in the portrayal of Ananse. Victor Ukaegbu went further to explain
that:
Whatever else the play intended, its
handling of gender relationships perpetuates
the myth about women in Africa lacking the
enthusiasm for radical feminism. The play
suggests a pattern of dependency on men
that is hard to ignore, yet whenever they
choose, African women have independently
risen to heroism. (2007:10)

The issue of heroism has been a constant discuss in the plays of later African feminist
playwrights. Weather taking a leaf from historical characters or constructing one to serve
the purpose of projecting contemporary women’s voice in discussing issues of national
importance, these later playwrights amongst whom is Irene Salami has in her plays re-
situated heroic characters from the past into contemporary discuss as seen in More Than
Dancing, Emotan, and The Queen Sisters. The discussion of positive gendered issues
however has from the forgoing been discovered not to be the preserve of women
playwright as seen in the cases cited above of Zulu Sofola, Efua Sutherland, and Irene
Salami. Once in a while, we come across male playwrights who have used the public
sphere of the theatre to demonstrate their recognition of the power woman has always and
still wields in the society. Queen Amina of Zazzau by Wale Ogunyemi, Our Husband has
Gone Mad Again By Ola Rotimi, Poison By Chukwuma Okoye, The Last Heroes by Sam
Ukala are some example of such plays that have helped discuss famine issues in positive
lights even though from patriarchal perspectives.

Iconic Archetype in Spellbound

In Spellbound, Janet is a caught between two tradition and two lives. She is a European
by birth and an African by marriage. Her dual nationality is brought to a challenging duel

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with the clash of the African traditional laws and the legal system that dominate the daily
life of the ordinary European woman in a quest for justices.

In Morountodun by Femi Osofisan, the issue of heroism though seen from the male
perspective x-rays a feminine world view that contracts the contemporary ‘domesticated’1
and the legendary heroic in a battle of self actualization thereby given the woman an
opportunity to synthesize her abilities in liberalizing the poor she is socially and
economically pitched against

Femi Osofisan in this play down plays the political aristocratic Alhaja Kabirat from the
lofty height in a seemingly public sphere were she and her archetypes in the society are
commonly found, to a private sphere of immobility where her voice and power is
subjected by the whim and caprice of the superintendent of police who assumes a
patriarchal ego as he listens to the fears of Alahaja Kabirat as replete with the original
status of the African man/woman relationship as follows:

Alhaja: I say I want news of my Daughter!

Superintendent: I heard you Alhaja.
Alhaja: What has happened to her?
I assure you we’re trying our best to find
out.
Alhaja: That is not enough! Two weeks you
said. Only two weeks. And now its five
weeks since she left.
Superintendent: I know.
Alhaja: and I have been rotting away in the
Hotel….
Superintendent: You’re not resting enough?
Alhaja: I don’t need rest!...(1999:55)

We see that despite her political powers and connections; her economic achievements and
social status in the society, her powers could be cubed by that of a man whom she is

1
The normal gendered role the woman is seen in by the society are those roles that make her good enough
for domestic activities. The African man cannot see a woman beyond the eyes of a pet good only for the
satisfaction of his desires: to cook, wash, clean the house, have children etc.

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ordinarily capable of deposing from the police force. But because in the African society,
the primary objective of every mother is to protect and care for her child, she is subdued
by the Superintendents egotism for the sole purpose of redeeming her daughter from the
clutches of impending danger that may arise if things went wrong. At this point of
maternal instinctive love and care, Alahaja Kabirat is disrobed of all form of economic,
social and political paraphernalia that she had acquired in the public sphere to a cocooned
public sphere whose life-blood is dependant only on the ‘macho-istic’ mercies of the
Superintendent of Police.

Unlike her mother, Titubi in this play is portrayed in a dual character personality that saw
her at the beginning as rich beautiful and spoilt and at once as bold aggressive and result
oriented. This sudden change in her dual nature as provoked by Salami the
Superintendent, stimulates an outer ego of strength and inspiration she get from the
legendary Moremi an Iconic character she is poised to emulate. Titubi insists on a chance
to capture the leaders of the peasants after the Superintendent had given up hope on her
and dismissed her as just another woman in the private sphere of the society trying to flex
muscles. In her words she halts the Superintendent thus:

Titubi: Salami! [SUPERINTENDENT stops,

without turning round.] Suppose I do
Volunteer?
Superintendent: [Turns now] What?
Titubi: I said suppose I offer to fight the
peasants?
Superintendent: You’re not through with
your pranks for tonight?
Titubi: It’s their leader you’ve not been able
to capture, isn’t it? That’s why the war
drags on?
Superintendent: Well- ….
Titubi: I can bring him to you.
Superintendent: You? [Laughs.]…
Titubi: Don’t Laugh Salami…. Two weeks.
Give me only two weeks.
Superintendent: This is a dream… (1999:14-
15)

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At first she acts on impulse and curiosity owing to the sarcastic challenge she receives
with from the patriarchal minded Salami. But as Titubi instinctively awakens to the
challenge she sees herself owning up to her own challenge and surpassing even her
expectation by offering to capture the leader of the peasants. The Superintendent’s
sarcasm took the better part of his judgment because like every other African man a mere
woman/girl is not likely to succeed where men had failed not with the failure of a
combined theme of state and federal police force at once. Though Salami halts to listen to
her and grant her request to capture his suspect he instinctively let out a shrill “Laugh”
that could have awaken Titubi to her senses. But with a renewed determination, she is
spurred on by the degrading attitude of the Superintended and insists on re-interpreting
history as inspired by the legendary Moremi.

During a rehearsals section suggesting a possible style of capture by her targets, she
reenacted the script prepared by the Superintendent to the extent that even before she
confronts her fate, she is able to convince her benefactor that she is equal to the task
ahead of her. Impressed Salami salutes her brave display at the rehearsals by applauding
her thus: “Superintendent: …. Even I was impressed. If you can remember all that, you’ll
make it.” (1999:30).

As with everybody who is about to plunge head first into the abyss of the unknown, the
human factor of fear and uncertainty comes in, the factor of making a concrete final
decision of “to be or not to be”. At the point of waiting for her captors, Titubi is suddenly
overwhelmed by fear and she takes herself through a thorough mental reawakening and
preparedness. In her dilemma she is suddenly gripped by anxiety and fear as she weighs
her options and takes her decision based on her convictions and inspiration from the
legendary Moremi as follows.

Titubi: ... […TITUBI walks slowly round the

cell] They are already outside, he said.
They’ll soon be here! I… I am afraid,

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suddenly … [Pause] No! Moremi was not

afraid! [Snaps her fingers backwards over
her head] Fear go away! Doubt and
Trembling retreat from me! ... [She retreats
the Moremi necklace from the floor and
looks at it.] She was a woman, like me. And
she waited all alone, for the Igbo warriors.
All her people went into hiding, but she
alone stood and waited. I can feel her heart
beating, like mine… But how lucky you
were, Moremi! How I envy you! Look I
have only the dampness of these walls
around me, to wish me goodbye. But you
had the scene of the market around you... ah
Moremi! What were your thoughts at that
lonely moment? Can I read your mind?...
Maybe it will strengthen me…(1999:30-31).

In her reverie of thoughts she consoles herself with a realisation that someone else in
history had been in position before. Titubi taps into the abbeys of uncertainty with an self
willed consolation hinged on the common dilemma she shears with an Icon she
represents at another time, but an icon she shears her fears and experience with at a time
of uncertainty. Her consolation is innately achieved in her reflection into the past, a past
she is willingly and ready to face like the tragic figure she has decided to become, a
sacrificial lamb, too willing to redeem her entire race from damnation. At this point of
conviction, Titubi transcends into another circle of awareness as she puts on the symbolic
Moremi’s necklace. She is spirited from her present state to another realm of being where
she recaptures the true experience her iconic figure underwent in another lifetime. (Scene
five, Morountodun 1999.)

As Titubi’s will power heightens with her encounter with the past she is rejuvenated and
ready to go into the unknown and capture her victim. Her bravery and gallantness is
better expressed in the words of the Director as follows:

Director: There she goes then, my friends,

bravely walking into danger. Stepping
carelessly into the unknown. Ah, women!
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My friends the world is strange and women

reign over it. Let us salute their courage.
Their capacity for love. Moremi, I remember
you and I salute you. (1999:40)

The real essence of the space of women in the society is here reiterated by Femi Osofisan
through the Director in this play. The woman, despite her seemingly silent space in the
public sphere is actually the ace that runs the will of that sphere, in her ability to harness
all physical, spiritual and psychological aspect of the society in a balanced space of love
to accommodate and enhance societal values. In this play, we see a complete exchange of
spheres between the characters of Alhaja Kabirat and Titubi her daughter. For Alhaja
Kabirat, her wealth induced position in the public sphere is cowed by the mere prospect
of loosing her only child, as her ego is further deflated by the Superintendent who
represents the societal obstacle that prevents and discourage women from attaining their
rightful position in the public sphere. On the other hand Titubi is rather motivated by the
same obstacle to a level of inspiration she derived from the deep-rooted womanly nature
she possessed inspired by her believe in an Iconic figure she must emulate. And rather
than allow herself the privilege of being but down, humiliated and debased by societal or
patriarchal sarcasm, she let herself pursue the dream she believes in. Because of her will
and dexterity, rather than allow society to reform her, she redeems herself and the society
by constructively weighing the sufferings and pains of the peasants as against the blotted
injustices of the state against the common man the peasant represents. At the end she is
redeemed from her lofty height of affluent and insensibility towards the poor. Titubi did
not just emerge from her experience redeemed, but her new self is a reflective of another
revolutional change the society requires for reformation. And unlike the tragic figure that
ends up pitifully, she emerges triumphant a better hero, a better woman than her mother
can ever be as she paves a way for other women to follow in climbing the lather of the
public sphere.

Conclusively, this paper therefore suggest that in other to redefine the position of women
in the public space of the theatre, both Nigerian playwrights, both male and female,
should rise up to the challenge of using Iconic characters through drama to lend a voice to
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the smilingly diminishing voice of women as exemplified by Alhaja Kabirat in the public
sphere to a more vibrant and result oriented voice like that of young Moremi, with
positive examples derivable from our cultural past.

REFERENCES
Igweonu, Kenechukwu. “Feminism and Representations of Gender in Zulu Sofola’s King
Emene” African Performance Review. Vol. 1 No 1. pp 51-61.
Jackson, Shannon. (2003). “Partial Publicity and Gendered Remembering: Figuring
Women in Culture and Performance”. Cultural Studies: University of
California, USA. Vol. 17 Issue 5. pp 691-713.
Osofisan, Femi. “Morountodun”. In Morountodun and other Plays” Longman Nigeria:
Ikeja.
Salami, Irene. “Nigerian Women Playwrights: Beyond the Nobel Prize”. “After the Nobel
Prize: Reflections on African Literature, Governance and Development”. (Eds)
Gbemisola Adeoti, Mabel Wvwierhoma. Association of Nigerian Authors
(ANA): Lagos. 2006.
Ukaegbu, I. Victor. (2007) “Written Over, Written Out: The Gendered Misrepresentation
of Women in Modern African Performance” African Performance Review. Vol.
1 No 1. pp 7- 23.

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