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eBook details
- Title: Tradition and Social Commentary in Kalu Uka's Ikhamma and A Harvest for Ants (Critical Essay)
- Author : Ameh Dennis Akoh & Oja P. Egwemi
- Release Date : January 30, 2010
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 79 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION A dominant motif in modern African drama is the recourse by playwrights to cultural traditions as source material with which to build their theme for the edification of their audience. Kalu Uka can be said to write in the tradition of the first generation of dramatists in Africa, namely, in addition to the above, the obsession with the cults of the ancestors, the concern with the collision of traditions, etc. This no doubt must have informed his adaptation to stage in 1975 of Achebe's Arrow of God. And it was this feat that established Uka as a consummate experimental artist of the virtuoso kind combining as critic, playwright and director; having also already established himself as a courageous scholar in the evolutionist school of the traditions of theatre in Africa in the 1960s. Thus his plays have a touch of the classical tradition of the Sophoclean model where his central characters evoke our sense of compassion. Our focus in this paper is with his two plays: Ikhamma and A Harvest for Ants (adaptation of Arrow of God) (3). One interesting feature about these plays is that their background presents unique cultural experiences of the Igbo people of Nigeria. And it is glaring how he makes effort to pass on these experiences to his audience. The composition generally is based on the Igbo folkways. This becomes the kernel that feeds his artistic oeuvre through and through. And it is needful to note that he does not in either play present an uncritical picture of his people's tradition. Therefore, two issues shall form the centre of our discussion of these plays namely, the interaction between drama and tradition, and the playwright's attitude to the tradition of his people in the face of a fast changing society.
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