A Dance of the Forests
A
Dance of the Forests is one of
the most recognized of Wole
Soyinka's plays. The play "was
presented at the Nigerian Independence celebrations in 1960, it ... denigrated the glorious
African past and warned Nigerians and all Africans that their energies
henceforth should be spent trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that have
already been made." At the time of its release, it was an iconoclastic
work that angered many of the elite in Soyinka's native Nigeria. Politicians were particularly incensed at his prescient
portrayal of post-colonial Nigerian
politics as aimless and corrupt. Despite the
deluge of criticism, the play remains an influential work. In it, Soyinka
espouses a unique vision for a new Africa, one that is able to forge a new
identity free from the influence of European imperialism.
A
Dance of the Forests is regarded as Soyinka's theatrical
debut and has been considered the most complex and difficult to understand of
his plays. In it, Soyinka unveils the rotten aspects of the society and
demonstrates that the past is no better than the present when it comes to the
seamy side of life. He lays bare the fabric of the Nigerian society and warns
people as they are on the brink of a new stage in their history: independence.
The
play was published in London and New York in 1963 by Oxford University Press (Three Crowns Books).
References
· "Soyinka,
Wole (Vol. 5): Soyinka, Wole 1934–." Contemporary Literary
Criticism, ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 5. Gale Cengage, 1976. eNotes.com. 2006. 23
January 2009.
· · "A Dance of
the Forests", Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy, Virginia Coulon, A New
Reader's Guide to African Literature, Heinemann Educational Books, 1983, p.
169.
·
Omatsola Azumurana, Solomon. "Wole Soyinka's dystopian/utopian vision in A
Dance of the Forests". Tydskr. Letterkd. 51 (2). ISSN 2309-9070.
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