CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Literature is the mirror with which one views society. Through literature, one is able to see what the problem is in society. There are a host of writers who help society see the problem and show us the solutions to these problems.
Writers like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, John Pepper Clark, Christopher Okigbo, Tracie Utoh, Osirame Edeipo and a host of others have expertly mirrored what they see in Nigerian society and reflected them in their writings. The political sector of Nigeria is particularly where the rot and decay of this country are perceived the most and this is where the attention of most novelists, playwrights and poets have focused on.
From the moment Nigeria got her hard-fought freedom from her colonial masters, hopes were high that finally, the much-needed change we desperately needed will come. And why not? We believed that the whole cause of our beloved country’s problems was our former colonial rulers.
Therefore with our newfound freedom, there was no stopping Nigeria from taking over the world in food, economy, security and everything good. It didn’t take long for us to be thrown into even worse frustrations than our colonial masters made us face. Slowly, the scales have fallen off our eyes and it is clear to see that the cause of our problems is those who are Nigerians. Greed, corruption, wickedness, poverty, inhumanity and all things bad have become associated with Africa’s giant.
Thus, the writers began using their pens to fight back at the government. According to Ogungbesan Kolawole, Achebe said that “the greatest task confronting the African writer was that he should expose and attack injustice all over the world, but particularly within his own society in Africa.” ( par. 34). Ogungbesan Kolawole went on to say that regardless of whether the efforts of writers have political effects or not, he can’t stop writing. It is up to the writer to continue to uphold moral principles. . . as a part of the political elite, not only must he continue to be influenced by politics, he must not shy away from influencing the political direction of his society (par. 50).
Tracie and Edeipo focused mainly on how politics have made monsters out of humans who should normally have empathy. In their works, Our Wives have Gone Mad Again and Our Youths Have Gone Mad Too, they show how the desire for Nigerians to have a slice of the national cake by all means, has pushed many to become less than human. They explore other themes like domestic abuse, violence and corruption. Tracie looks at politics from the female point of view using a somewhat radical feminist approach and Edeipo centres his play on the youth.
This research looks at the way these two authors with quite similar sounding texts, explore the same themes and what styles they used differently to produce their plays.
1.2 Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study is to compare Tracie Utoh’s Our Wives Have Gone Mad Again and Osiriame Edeipo’s Our Youths Have Gone Mad Too. These plays have similar structuring in their titles save for the difference in four words – wives, youths, again and too. These books were written by a woman and a man 16 years apart. Tracie’s play was released in the year 2001 while Edeipo’s play was written in the year 2017. This research aims to look at the similarities that exist between these two texts and how they differ from each other. The themes and styles contained in both plays will be closely examined.
1.3 Scope of Study
This project is limited to studying the similarities and differences in the texts by examining their themes and style.
1.4 Methodology
A qualitative method of research has been used to acquire data for this project. The data are obtained from the texts Our Wives Have Gone Mad Again, Our Youths Have Gone Mad Too, research and web materials.