Written Igbo Drama A Critical Analysis

ABSTRACT

The title of the thesis is: “Written Igbo Drama: A Critical Analysis”. The study

examines the origin of written Igbo drama; traces the factors that facilitated its

growth and examines the prevalent motifs that helped to sustain its development to a

matured form of art. It further seeks to identify the various events and situations

that have informed the themes of written Igbo drama at three specific periods and

proves that to some extent, written Igbo drama has influenced people‟s actions and

reactions within the Igbo society as observed in the drama texts mapped out for

analysis. The drama texts used in this analysis are: Anaelechi Chukuezi‟s Udo Ka

Mma; Enyinna Akọma‟s Obidiya; Betram Osuagwu‟s (ed.) Egwuregwu Igbo Abụọ;

Walter Enore‟s Oji Isi Kote Ebu; and Reuben Okoye‟s Otu Ụbọchị. These five texts

are selected to cover the three main periods posited in the study title namely, the

early written Igbo drama (1968 – 1970), written Igbo drama after the civil war

(1970 -1979) and contemporary written Igbo drama (1980 – date). This will be

further explicated in section 1.6 where the scope and delimitations of the study

would be explained.

1.1 Background to the Study

The first written Igbo drama, Udo Ka Mma, was published in 1974 (Nwadike 1998:

108) and (Elemuo 2007: 18). That was forty-one years after the publication of the

first Igbo novel, Omenuko (1933). Not much is known to have caused the belated

emergence of written Igbo drama. However, it may not be unconnected with the

much publicized Igbo orthography problems. The Igbo orthography problems