Rethinking Postcolonial Disillusionment in African Literature: The Case of Femi Osofisan’s Drama

Abstract

This study re-examines the concept of postcolonial disillusionment in African literature. The selected texts are examined in relation to the ideology of post-independence disillusionment in African literature, which posits that leadership failure is the primary problem of Africa. The current study departs from such a stance as it investigates the idealized people in Femi Osofisan’s drama through a critical survey of Osofisan’s selected plays from a postcolonial theoretical angle that has reconceptualized disillusionment. The study reveals Osofisan as an avant-garde dramatist who remains impartial in his critique of both rulers and the ruled. Achille Mbembe’s model of postcolonial literary theory is adopted as a framework, while the socio-artistic approach is employed to explore Osofisan’s re-conception of disillusionment. The revelations exemplify market-women, businessmen, usurers, and kidnappers as complicit in postcolonial disillusionment.

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