Conflict and Empowerment in Selected Prose of Wole Soyinka and Sembene Ousmane.
Abstract
Political conflict and empowerment are crucial issues that have not been studied in a comparative manner in Wole Soyinka and Sembene Ousmane’s writings.
The disparity in the consideration of the female gender by the authors in question has also not been given crucial attention by critics.
In view of the foregoing, the objectives of this research are to explore the thematic affinity and disparity between the two writers and to embark on a comparative analysis of their selected prose.
The connection between them revolves round conflict and empowerment.Hence, the authors reflect how a coterie of individuals, in desperation for power, makes surreptitious moves to retain leadership by further relegating the marginalised.
Again, there exists conflict between traditional African and European cultures.A deliberate artistic device employed by Soyinka and Ousmane to promote healthy cultures is to ridicule traditional or modern methods that are incongruous in our technological age.
While the marginalised are empowered in the first conflict, cultures that should not go into extinction are glorified in the second conflict.
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Conflict is innate in nature; it abounds in every sphere of human endeavour.
There is conflict in the family, contractual disputes between people who hitherto had mutual working relationships, disagreement in worship places and in the neighbourhood among others.
Similarly, conflict is inherent in every piece of literary work; external and internal conflicts do exist in every literary work.
External conflict takes place between the protagonist and antagonist; it is man versus man or the society. On the other hand, ‘internal or psychological conflict arises when a character experiences two opposite desires; usually virtue or vice… (Fleming:1).
This research is however concerned with political conflict and empowerment of the marginalised as portrayed by Soyinka and Ousmane. Political conflict in Africa can be traced back to the pre- independence era.
The struggle or contention was between the Colonizer and the Colonized. The clash was over resources and political power.
The oppressed Africans who were marginalised fought to regain self-rule. It was a racial conflict, which was triggered by socio-economic and political factors. “White folks and black folks fight each other about who owns what’‘(Mazrui: 2).
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Acholonu Rose. ‘‘The Nigerian Novelist: A Victim of Identity Crisis’’ in Ernest N. Emenyonu ed. Literature and Society: Selected Essays on African Literature. Oguta : Zim-Pan African Publisher, 1986. Print.
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