Nightmares and Burden of Imperialism in Two African Plays
Nightmares and Burden of Imperialism in Two African Plays

Summary/Abstract: The history-drama nexus accounts for the fascination shown by some writers in adopting history as a source for playwriting throughout the ages. Existing studies on historical plays and imperialism have focused on profiling and dignifying the African leaders that are victims of exploitative imperial lords and explicating the predicaments experience by them with little or no consideration for the stylistic techniques employ by the historical plays playwrights. This study, therefore, examines nightmare as a technique for establishing a psychic context for unveiling colonial histories with a view to establishing the link between the conflict of the characters and the predicaments of their societies. The study is based on Carl Jung’s model of psychoanalysis which allows for the investigation of characters’ unconscious motives which manifest in recurring nightmares. Two of Ahmed Yerima’s prominent historical plays are purposively selected: The Trials of Oba Ovonramwen and Ameh Oboni the Great. The plays are subjected to critical textual analysis in both content and form. The nightmares provide the framework for unveiling the plot, revealing characters’ motives and connecting personal and collective histories through patterns of images of the colonizer and colonized. Thus, nightmare is a quintessence of technique for redefining imperial histories.

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