PROTEST AND POST-COLONIAL RESISTANCE AS RECLAIMING AGENCY IN BEN BINEBAI'S KARENA'S CROSS

Abstract

Ben Binebai's Karena's Cross, a one-woman play, shows a young girl, Karena, fighting to take control of her life against unfair traditions and colonial legacies in an African village. The problem is that existing research on African drama often ignores the unique power of monodrama. Most studies focus on plays with many characters or general feminist themes, leaving a gap in understanding how mono drama, like Karena's Cross, amplify marginalized women's voices and challenge patriarchal and post-colonial oppression. This study fills this void by examining how the monodrama's single-voice format protests gender injustice and colonial legacies, offering a fresh perspective on African feminist drama. The aim of this study is to show how the play empowers women to reclaim their strength through protest and resistance. The study's objectives include examining Karena's struggles, highlighting the play's critique of patriarchy, and connecting it to post-colonial issues. Using a qualitative literary method, it analyzes the play's text to understand its themes and messages. The study adopts Binebai's dislocation theory which sees oppression as a force that knocks people out of balance, and argues that protest can help push back the harm of oppression to restore dignity and identity. Dislocation theory is a perfect framework for this study, since the play's heroine, faces cultural, physical, and emotional dislocations but uses her resilience to fight back. The study's findings reveal that Karena's journey; from facing forced marriage and genital mutilation to becoming a lawyer, shows her reclaiming her life, making the play a strong protest against unfair systems. Karena's Cross uses its mono drama format to give women a voice and challenge colonial legacies. This study contributes to African monodrama, by projecting how it can be a powerful tool for women's empowerment and cultural resistance, thus illuminating monodrama's role in African feminist theatre.