DRAMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF ANIMISM, CULTURE INDIGENEITY, AND GLOBALIZATION IN SELECTED AHMED YERIMA’S RECENT PLAYS

Abstract

Animism is a cultural practice in the Nigerian society and it is a common motif in the Ahmed Yerima’s trilogy, Abobaku. Iyase and The Last Grain of Wheat. It is curious that the playwright is giving significant attention to a traditional African practice such as animism in the age of European consciousness and globalization. The study is anchored on the George Herbert Meads Interactionist Theory which advocates inclusivity in both concepts and social behaviour. In the trilogy, Yerima maintains that the influence of deities on mortals in the African hermeneutical system needs to be modified. That the plays exhibit tragic incidents emanating from dogmatic faith in African gods and matrixes of Africa’s backwardness echo the modernization intent of the African playwright. Literary writers on the African continent often disagree on the state of African culture in the contemporary world, the age of globalization which aspires to attain culture unification and makes all cultures accessible to different peoples across the world. Some African literary writers on culture are of the view that the status quo of cultural practices such as promotion of the influence of divinities on mortals should be maintained. However, others are of the view that many of the African cultural practices are too archaic for the fast-moving, rational, and globalising world. Ahmed Yerima in these three plays is of the latter view as the animist consciousness and adherence in the plays results in destructive and fatal consequences. This negative consequence of African animist cultural practice tends to make African culture unattractive for global presence, accessibility and global acculturation.