ETHNO-DRAMATICS AND TENSION OF POSTCOLONIALITY: J.P. CLARK’S THE MASQUERADE AND UWEMEDIMO ATAKPO’S ISADOK

Abstract

The two drama texts, J.P. Clark’s The Masquerade and Uwemedimo Atakpo’s Isadok, draw their creative energy on the mainstream inter-cultural dialogue while foregrounding their artistic vision on the ethno-cultural pre-texts and the tension of resilient traditional cultural heritage existing side by side with postmodern world order. The tensed relationship among the characters, the atmosphere and the disharmony that pervade the two dramatic ambiences, depict the confused momentum and the socio-cultural chaos which result from competing worldviews as aptly depicted in the two enactments. It is this tension that defines the rhythm of the two performances and informs the critical context of this work. A critical exploration of the dialogues, actions and settings of the plays buttresses the convergence between the pre-colonial and the postcolonial worldviews in which the indigenous cultural cosmology contends with the postmodern knowledge systems in a continuum of struggles for ideological assertiveness and in resistance to imposition, domination and subjugation. The performances thus signify artistic mediation with the discordant tendencies of contemporary knowledge systems that continually contend with the indigenous cultural heritages of societies.