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ODUM, IKECHUKWU ALBERT PG/MA/07/42899

BEYOND RHETORIC AND GRANDILOQUENCE: DECODING ESIABA

IROBI’S DIALECTICS AND METAPHORS IN NWOKEDI AND HANGMEN

ALSO DIE FOR EFFECTIVE DIRECTION

Theatre Arts

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE THEATRE ARTS DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (M.A.) DEGREE IN THEATRE ARTS

Webmaster

Digitally Signed by Webmaster’s Name

DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka

OU = Innovation Centre

2009

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

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BEYOND RHETORIC AND GRANDILOQUENCE:

DECODING ESIABA IROBI’S DIALECTICS AND

METAPHORS IN NWOKEDI AND HANGMEN ALSO DIE

FOR EFFECTIVE DIRECTION.

BY

ODUM, IKECHUKWU ALBERT

PG/MA/07/42899

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE THEATRE ARTS

DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA IN PARTIAL

FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF

MASTER OF ARTS (M.A.) DEGREE IN THEATRE ARTS.

DECEMBER, 2009

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APPROVAL PAGE

This is to certify that this project is an original research

work carried out by Odum, Ikechukwu Albert, PG/MA/07/42899.

It has been read and approved as meeting the

requirements for the award of Master of Arts Degree in Theatre

Arts Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

____________________ ________________

MR. D.M. ASOMBA DATE

Supervisor

______________________ ________________

DR. UCHE NWAOZUZU DATE

Head of Department

_____________________ _________________

EXTERNAL EXAMINER DATE

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DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to late Lady Theresa Amaka Odum

from whose flesh I was given flesh, with whose legs I worked

for nine months and more, and for whom there is no perfect

metaphor to describe her worth. My mother and my model, to

forget you is to forget life. You live in me!

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Lord has been my light and my director. For helping

me achieve this academic tour de force, I extol and adore you

my God. I equally thank and honour the Blessed Virgin Mary

whose countless intercessions open doors of favour for me.

I salute, Mr. Domba Asomba, my indefatigable supervisor

who was patient, humble, thorough and brilliant in his

supervision. Sir, you are indeed a first-rate intellectual. To my

wonderful dad, Chief Barrister A.A. Odum, I say you are an

institution and everything about you has been institutionally

instituted. Without you I would not have crossed this bridge.

Thank you for everything. How can I forget my beloved Mum,

Lady Theresa Amaka Odum, who saw me start this journey and

bore the burden with me until she hurried to heaven to take her

Crown. Mummy, I know you are watching from over there and I

thank you for all the love, prayers and sacrifice. May your kind

soul continue to enjoy bliss in God‟s unfathomable kingdom,

Amen!

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My deep appreciation also goes to my only brother, Mr.

Martin Odum, a living legend who has always been a source of

inspiration and financial backup. To my big sister, Princess

Gladys and her hubby, Prince Alphonsus Lemanya, I say thank

you for the Laptop and for every help you rendered. I am not

forgetting my other sisters; Chy, Ogoo, Barr. Onyii, Uchee and

Chiamaka. You are all angels and for your love and support, I

will forever remain indebted. I also appreciate my in-laws for

their support.

I equally thank my other lecturers, Dr. Uche Nwaozuzu,

my current H.O.D., and Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Udengwu. You have

both proven that you are icons of excellence. My gratitude also

goes to Professor Emeka Nwabueze and Mr. Canice Nwosu of

Theatre Arts Department, UNN and Unizik respectively, whose

words and works are like magic wands. It will be an act of

daftness if I forget the academic colossus and wordsmith, Dr.

Esiaba Irobi whose plays I studied in this work. Thank you for

the grounds you provided.

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Finally, I thank Chukwukelue Umenyilorah, Amanda

Udealor, Emeka, Uba Igweze, Ifeoma Okeke, Fortune Chude,

Amuche, Nnedimma, Lilian, Mrs. Moneke, Mrs. Okeke,

Izuchukwu Odum, Aunty Ngoo, who typed this work and every

other person who helped in one way or the other. May God

mangle your manacles, Amen!

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ABSTRACT

Different playwrights have developed or adopted different

styles or techniques of writing in a bid to make impact in one

way or the other in the minds of the eventual audience of the

work or the society in general. Rhetoric, which is regarded here

as the use of language for persuasive purposes, and

Grandiloquence which is defined here as the use of stylized or

cryptic words in order to impress, are among the techniques

used by playwrights in their bid to make impact. While rhetoric

has received more positive criticisms by critics as well as

acceptance by writers, grandiloquence seems to be viewed by

some with disdain. The two concepts have been found to be to

a very large extent among Esiaba Irobi‟s favourite style of

writing.

This research is therefore set out to attempt a textual and

sub textual discourse of the conversion of conventional

language into special effects by Esiaba Irobi which often leads

to the theatrical effectiveness and literary effectiveness of his

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works and above all project his revolutionary aesthetics. This

research shall reveal that what seems to be rhetoric and mere

grandiloquence might just be more than what it appears to be

on the surface. The work will also reveal the effectiveness or

otherwise of Esiaba‟s style. Metaphors and dialectics will also

be presented as literary devices and great tools for effective

directing and performance. Their communicative and aesthetic

values will be brought to the fore. Esiaba‟s two plays Nwokedi

and Hangmen Also Die will be used for this study.

The research will be presented in five chapters with

chapter one introducing the basic concepts under study.

Chapter two will be a review of related literature while in

chapter three, the researcher will critically analyse dialectics

and metaphor to reveal their communicative and aesthetics

values. Chapter four will be a textual and sub textual analysis of

Esiaba Irobi‟s style, his use of dialectics and metaphors in

Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die and how they aid a director.

The profile of Esiaba Irobi and the synopsis of the two plays

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under study will be part of chapter four. Chapter five will serve

as conclusion with a summary of the salient and critical points

as well as recommendations made.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page - - - - - - - - i

Approval page - - - - - - - ii

Dedication - - - - - - - - iii

Acknowledgements - - - - - iv

Abstract - - - - - - - - vi

Table of contents - - - - - - - viii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of Problem 7

1.2 Scope of Study 8

1.3 Significance of Study 8

1.4 Limitations 9

1.5 Research Methodology 9

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW 10

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CHAPTER THREE

METAPHOR AND DIALECTICS AS LITERARY DEVICES

AND COMMUNICATIVE TOOLS

3.1 Metaphor as a Literary Device 22

3.2 The Communicative Value of Metaphors 24

3.3 Aesthetic Value of Metaphors 26

3.4 Dialectics as a Literary Device 28

3.5 The Communicative Value of Dialectics 29

3.6 Aesthetic Value of Dialectics 31

CHAPTER FOUR

METAPHOR AND DIALECTICS IN NWOKEDI AND

HANGMEN ALSO DIE AND THE DIRECTOR’S TASK

4.1 Profile of Esiaba Irobi 33

4.2 Synopsis of Nwokedi 35

4.3 Synopsis of Hangmen Also Die 36

4.4 Metaphors in Nwokedi 37

4.5 Dialectics in Nwokedi 44

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4.6 Metaphors in Hangmen Also Die 49

4.7 Dialectics in Hangmen Also Die 53

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of Findings 57

5.2 Recommendations 59

5.3 Conclusion 60

Works Cited 62

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Rhetoric, in its broadest sense, is the theory and practice of eloquence,

whether spoken or written. Spoken rhetoric is mostly regarded as Oratory.

In a narrower sense, rhetoric has to do with a consideration of the

fundamental principles according to which oratorical discourses are

structured, which include: creation, arrangement, style, memory and

delivery (Duckworth 1). Rhetoric has become polysemous over the years.

Owing to the complexity of meanings rhetoric has, it is often difficult to

attempt a working definition. Relevant to this discourse is the notion of

rhetoric as the use of language for persuasive purposes. This is

imperative here since the essence of the theatre is to persuade the

audience to see from the playwright‟s perspective, things they ordinarily

would not have seen.

While elucidating the persuasive nature of rhetoric, Nicholas says

rhetoric is “a means of ordering discourse so as to produce an effect on

the listener or reader “(quoted in Corbeth 3). In the same vein, Burke says

it is “the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing co-operation in

beings that by nature respond to symbols” (quoted in Corbeth 3).

Traditionally, the study of rhetoric was concerned with those

instances of formal, premeditated and sustained monologue in which a

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single person sought to exert an effect on an audience. The earliest

mention of rhetorical or oratorical skill was in Homer‟s Iliad, where heroes

like Achilles, Nestor and Odysseus were honoured for their ability to

advise and exhort their peers and followers in wise and appropriate action

(Wikipedia 1). The setting up of democratic institutions in Athens in 510

BC foisted on all citizens the necessity of public service, making skill in

oratory (spoken rhetoric) essential. Consequently, a group of teachers

known as Sophists arose and strived hard to make men better speakers

by rules of art. The first of the sophists Protagoras, made a study of

language and taught his pupils how to make the weaker cause in a

speech or discussion appear the stronger argument (Duckworth 1).

The Greek Philosopher, Plato satirized the more technical

approach to rhetoric, with its emphasis on persuasion rather than truth, in

his work Gorgias, and in Phaedrus he talks about the principles

constituting the essence of the rhetorical art. While Plato‟s condemnation

of rhetoric is clear in Gorgias, he seems to suggest in the Phaedrus, the

possibility of a true art of rhetoric based upon the knowledge produced by

dialectics. Aristotle, in his work Rhetoric regarded rhetoric as the

counterpart of dialectic (Duckworth 1).

Owing to the fact that man is a linguistic animal that uses language

to overcome barriers and bridge gaps, all human actions can be

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considered persuasive and consequently rhetorical. Hence, the study of

rhetoric has shifted to all that we hear and say that involve someone

influencing someone else to make choices.

Grandiloquence on its part refers to a speech or writing marked by

pompous or bombastic diction (Wikipedia 1). It can also be defined as the

use of stylized or complicated words in order to impress. Quite unlike

rhetoric, grandiloquence is a relatively unused term. Though the latter

differ from the former, both terms have points of convergence as far as

their core meaning is concerned. Basically, while rhetoric tries to

persuade, grandiloquence tries to impress but the latter in the course of

impressing the audience, also persuades. While the few scholars who

have made reference to grandiloquence (both directly and indirectly) have

thrown a negative light on it, a critic Cicero opined that it is only when

rhetoric and grandiloquence go together that the best result is achieved. In

his words, “He is the best orator who by speaking both teaches, and

delights and moves the minds of his hearers” (67).

Rhetoric more than grandiloquence, is tied to social values. Hence,

the statements of rhetoricians always reflect the social norms of particular

times and places. Be that as it may, rhetoric has its demerits. Today, the

term rhetoric can be used at times to refer only to the form of

argumentation, often with the pejorative connotation that rhetoric is a

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means of obscuring truth (Wikipedia 1). Seen in this light, rhetoric

becomes a fraudulent practice that deals exclusively with language rather

than ideas, a minimum of muscle and a maximum of sweetness. Speech

and double talk give the appearance of substance while according to

Lindermann, “the real questions go unanswered” (39). The same is also

said of grandiloquence.

This view had formidable support notably from Socrates, Plato and

from Cicero, they insist that, “Once he has been briefed by an expert, an

orator will always be a better exponent of the expert‟s specialism than the

expert himself” (quoted in Blamires 19).

Although both rhetoric and grandiloquence have been viewed with disdain,

it is not disputable that they have played vital roles in the history of the

world. There is usually a renaissance of rhetoric and grandiloquence

during periods of violent social upheaval. Corbeth puts this more crisply

when he observes that, “Whenever the old order is marching-or stumbling

in, a loud clear call goes up for the services of the men skilled in words”

(32).

Soyinka, Osofisan, Rotimi, Irobi and a few others respond to this

change as evidenced in their plays. The obvious use of metaphors and

dialectics in their plays portray their effectiveness as literary devices and

aspects of language.

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A metaphor says Levine, “Identifies one object with another in such

a way that the qualities of the first are imaginatively identified with the

second” (20). A metaphor draws comparison between two things that are

not really alike but seem in the writer‟s mind to be alike in some significant

way. To Seyler, “Metaphor, like connotative words are so powerful, so

emotionally compelling, that we respond to them even if we are not

conscious of their meaning” (5).

Several centuries ago, Aristotle had drawn the attention of poets

who want to be relevant to their societies to the inevitable use of

metaphors as a mark of genius (49). According to Lawley and Tompkins,

“the sources of power of metaphor over other rhetorical acts lie in its

compactness, vividness and expressibility” (1).

Dialectics on the other hand is a method of examining and

discussing ideas in order to find the truth. Put in the words of Guth, it is,

“The kind of reasoning that goes from on the one hand to on the other

hand and onto a balanced conclusion …” (270). Dialectics is much more

tenacious than rhetorics. As a pattern of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, it

is particularly suitable for the discussion of moral or ethical issues, social

conditions and ideas.

Some of the Nigerian dramatists who seem to know this too well

are Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Femi Osofisan and Esiaba Irobi. With all

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the socio-political, ethno religious and economic chaos that bedevils the

country, no other time in the Nigerian polity calls for the services of men

skilled in words – the likes of those mentioned above. They make use of

metaphor as a rhetorical act but go beyond this by using sound dialectics

(argument) to deconstruct age old detrimental beliefs and practices. With

this they go beyond mere verbal eloquence in preaching their

revolutionary ideology.

Irobi for instance, employs both metaphorical and dialectical

perspectives in his works, especially Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die. His

use of dialectics tends to argue that truth must be discovered and tested,

through logic, argument and experiment. In fact, he suggests that more

attention should be paid to how truths are discovered and tested. On the

other hand, his use of rhetorical act (metaphor) suggests that truth cannot

work on its own. That truth must be revealed to the people through

language and appeal; and that unacknowledged and unaccepted truth is

of no use at all. With these, Irobi goes beyond mere rhetoric to test and

discover truth by employing metaphor and dialectics. At the same time, he

unveils the discovered truth to the people.

The focus of this research therefore, is to assess the usage and

importance of metaphor and dialectics as literary devices and highlight

their advantages and effectiveness over rhetoric and grandiloquence. The

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research will also portray metaphor and dialectics as vital codes that can

help a director achieve effective interpretation and a great performance.

The researcher will use Esiaba Irobi‟s Nwokedi and Hangmen also Die as

case studies.

1.1 Statement of Problem

The innovative conception, execution and deployment of the basic

elements of dramaturgy by Esiaba Irobi in his plays cannot be

oversimplified. Of these dramaturgical elements, his bold innovative

linguistic is most striking. Yet to many, including directors, this is what

makes his works incomprehensible and cryptic. This supposedly

misleading language in itself calls for critical attention. Unfortunately this

has not been appropriately reflected in criticism. It amounts to a great

disservice if the works of this playwright and his prophetic postulations

which are daily unfolding in the contemporary Nigerian Polity, are kept in

the background under the pretext that his language does not allow

immediate understanding. Therefore, this is the problem this study is out

to solve by discussing metaphors and dialectics as access routes to

understanding and interpreting Esiaba Irobi‟s Nwokedi and Hangmen Also

Die.

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1.2 Scope of Study

Despite the fact that the research attempts an overview of the use

of metaphors and dialectics in dramatic literature, the main focus of the

work will be textual and sub textual analysis of the use of metaphors and

dialectics by Esiaba Irobi in his two plays, Nwokedi and Hangmen Also

Die and how the metaphors and dialectics can help a director to achieve a

great performance. However, for effective understanding of this critical

discourse, reference will be made to other works. The use of language

generally in the theatre, metaphors and dialectics as literary devices will

also be explored with close attention to their communicative and aesthetic

values.

1.3 Significance of Study

The substance of this research lies in its methodical exploration of

rhetoric and grandiloquence vis-à-vis metaphors and dialectics and the

positive roles they play in the work of a director as well as in

communication and aesthetics in the theatre as this will help correct the

prevailing misconceptions. This research is one of those critical

evaluations that will contribute to the appreciation of the use of metaphors

and dialectics in Esiaba Irobi‟s plays as it attempts to decode his use of

metaphors and dialectics as communicative media. It will also add to the

few critical works on Esiaba Irobi and his plays.

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1.4 Limitation

The path to any serious human endeavour is not known to be free

of impediments. Thus, this research like other serious human endeavours

faced a number of impediments. Time was one factor that militated

against this research. Again, for a research of this magnitude, the

researcher needed all the money he can get so as to source for enough

materials and make the necessary travels even through the cyberspace

but the global economic meltdown made things difficult for the researcher.

Again, the fact that the researcher delved into a topic that has received

little attention especially as regards the concept of grandiloquence, made

it difficult for him to see sufficient materials to work with.

Finally, the fact that the research was carried out simultaneously

with other academic works had serious negative effect on the researcher‟s

time and concentration.

1.5 Research Methodology

The research adopts the literary and the on-line computer research

methods. Therefore, the library provides the bulk of the materials for the

research. The internet and the student DVD Encyclopedia also provide

some of the materials. The case studies and their performances are not

left out. The style of citation adopted here is the 2007 edition of MLA style.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Rhetoric, grandiloquence, metaphor and dialectics cannot be divorced

from language and communication since the usage or application of all of

them has to be done with language which communicates in one way or

the other. Language and communication are at the centre of all human

concerns. In creative writing, effective communication becomes the major

task of the writer or creator. Man invented and employed drama and

theatre as means of communication between himself and the inscrutable

cosmic forces of his environment and between himself and his social

environment (Ebong 25). It should be pointed out here that drama and

theatre are in this research work used interchangeably to mean, as Eko

puts it, “A literary composition that tells a story, usually of human conflict

by means of dialogue and actions, performed on the stage by actors for an

audience” (328). From this simplest Western definition, it will be observed

that dramatic communication can be non verbal or verbal. The non-verbal

encompasses mimes, gestures and gesticulations. Although the non-

verbal communication is inevitable, the most paramount means of

communication is the verbal. The most central thing in the verbal

communication is the spoken/word language or speech or (using a more

literary term) diction. Johnson maintains that:

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Whatever a playwright finds worthwhile to communicate for the audience‟s benefit, whatever a director finds expedient for the audience‟s consumption, would most be imparted through language (114-115).

Right from the primordial stage of drama, emphasis has been placed on

the inevitability of spoken language. To ensure adequate communication

with the audience, the ancient Greek theatre for instance, invented the

“Onkos” to aid projection or audibility (Brockett 44).

During the medieval period, the official language of the church,

Latin was the language of the theatre and this impeded communication on

the side of non Romans. This explains why the first innovation into the

theatre once drama got out of the church premises was the invention of

vernacular religious drama (Brockett 93). Furthermore, the French

Neoclassicists in their bid to ensure the manifestation of truth

(verisimilitude) insisted on the use of appropriate language for appropriate

dramatic type; “lofty and poetic” language for tragedy and “everyday

speech” for comedy (Brockett 126-127). This type of instances runs

through all the ages in world theatre history.

Prominent theatre critics and critical documents did not over

simplify the use of language in the theatre. Aristotle is of the view that

dramatic speech should be given equal treatment with dramatic action. He

asserts that:

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Now, it is evident that the dramatic incidents must be treated from the same points of view as the dramatic speeches …. For what were the business of a speaker if the thought were revealed quite apart from what he says? (49).

Brooke believes that of all the other means of communication, the use of

spoken word is the most important to the writer. He asks, “is there another

language just as exacting for the author as a language of words?” (56).

The knowledge of the inevitability of language in the literary circle,

and the dramatic world as is the concern of this research is a universal

trait. The debate in the contemporary African Literary (dramatic) society

has shifted from whether or not the spoken word is necessary to which

medium of expression to adopt. Consequently, there has been series of

debate as to which medium of expression to adopt for African Literature

since according to Ngugi wa Thiongo, “to choose a language is to choose

a world” (56). It is not within the scope of this study to further debate this

overemphasized issue. Nevertheless, it must be mentioned in the passing

that in a multilingual nation, like Nigeria, without one single native

language as lingua franca, one will have no other option left but to adopt

the language of the colonial masters; the language in which the writer has

been educated and which he practices or uses (Chinweizu and Madubuike

82).

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One contemporary Nigerian playwright whose use of language is

notable is Esiaba irobi. Irobi‟s language tallies with Aristotle‟s admonition

some centuries ago (which is still as relevant as ever) that the diction of

any good work of art should be raised above the common place. To him,

diction of such a work should not consist wholly of everyday conversation,

i.e., common place words, or wholly of unusual (rare strange) words.

Aristotle posits:

A certain infusion, therefore, of these elements is necessary to style; for the strange (or rare) word, the metaphorical, ….will raise it above the common place and mean, while the use of proper words will make it perspicuous (49).

Thrashing out how theatre could be used to forge the National

consciousness of the Nigerian people, Yerima says that a playwright

should use both the common place and unusual words to make his work

“appeal not only to his immediate ethnic people… but also to the wider

public …” (50). Duruaku disagrees with the foregoing because for him,

“diction in drama must be immediately clear and meaningful” (13). The

gestalt theory believes that the audience should not be spoon fed but

should be allowed to be part of the dramatic exercise by mentally filling the

missing gap both in action and in language. Johnson supports this view

when he argues that, “Without clarity of language, the essence of the

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performance fails to reach the audience, or if it does, not at the level it

should” (115).

This complexity or clarity of language has been the yardstick with

which Nigerian playwrights are either maliciously maligned or adequately

critiqued by our critics. This applies to Esiaba Irobi by double emphasis;

most critics denigrate Irobi‟s works for his use of words. Irobi has been

described as a better poet than a playwright (Oyibo Eze 24). Duruaku

summarizes him as “extravagant in use of language” (102). His works

have been termed “harsh raw dramas” (Oyibo Eze 24) and “a

Conglomeration of social science slogans and terminologies loosely

strung with dialogue; their intentions….. Suspect, incoherent…” (Duruaku

91). Esiaba‟s work has also been termed by Azuonye as “counter

hegemonic” in nature (Diala 87).

The foregoing captures the fact that Irobi‟s style of writing and

language are viewed as mere rhetoric and grandiloquence. Nwabueze‟s

view of Irobi and his style is positive because for him, Irobi‟s plays “evoke

new dramatic techniques” (23). Nwabueze probably contends the negative

label placed on Irobi‟s style when he says, irobi “is committed to the

problems of his society” (21). Anyone who is patient enough with Irobi and

attempts to approach his work through certain linguistic access routes vis-

à-vis an understanding of the author and the world around him will

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certainly discover that the essence of language in Irobi‟s works go beyond

mere rhetoric and grandiloquence. Both words (rhetoric and

grandiloquence) are used interchangeably here to mean their present

derogatory usage to give according to Corbeth, “The notion of empty,

bombastic language, or rodomontade (to use a bombastic word) of „sound

and fury, signifying nothing‟ of sounding brass and tinkling-cymbals” (31).

Rhetoric and grandiloquence here become empty hot air with no

substance – a perfect contradiction of the initial intent of the rationale

behind the origin and development. The word rhetoric for instance,

etymologically speaking, is rooted in the notion of words or speech. The

Greek word „rhema‟ (a word) and „rhetor‟ (a teacher of oratory) are said to

stem from the Greek verb „eiro‟ (I say). The English noun rhetoric derives

either from the Greek feminine adjective „rhetorike‟ which is elliptical for

„rhetorike techne‟ (the art of the rhetor or orator) or from the French

rhetorique (Corbeth 31). Grandiloquence on its part is a combination of the

Latin word „grandis‟ (great) and „Loqui‟ (to speak).

This leap into the etymology of the terms draws us closer to the

original meaning of both words especially rhetoric which according to

Britannica means or entails the use of “language eloquently in order to

influence people‟s thoughts and feelings” (32). History seems to indicate

that although the act of using words to induce co-operation existed in the

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primordial times, rhetoric was popularized by Corax and Tisias around the

fifth century B.C. Compbell puts it succinctly in these words:

A despot had come to power and seized much of the privately owned land. When he was overthrown, former land owners went to court to recover their holdings… those more skilled in arguing were more successful and corax and Tisias began to teach rhetoric… (4).

Although rhetoric did not thrive in the arts, it was a powerful

instrument of change in world history. In the contemporary society,

rhetoric has become unpopular. Nonetheless, conscious efforts are made

on daily basis using words to influence other people‟s decision in religions,

politics, academics, commerce and most significantly, arts. Our literary-

cum- dramatic artists employ in their works rhetorical strategies to preach

their ideologies. The present researcher is of the view that Esiaba Irobi,

the playwright under study, uses metaphor and dialectics among other

rhetorical strategies in his works especially Nwokedi and Hangmen Also

Die.

Metaphor is of Greek origin. Hawkes explains it as:

A particular set of linguistic process whereby aspects of one object are “carried over” or transferred to another object, so that the second object is spoken of as if it were the first (quoted in Akai 61-62).

Metaphor in actual sense is as old as the human society. As a result of the

natural and super-natural occurrences in his society, man in the primeval

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times formed a set of figurative language with which he analyzed and

judged his present. This applies to the African society with double

emphasis. The metaphorical language in Africa is woven out of the

substance of human experiences ranging from struggles with natural and

supernatural elements and mysteries of existence to physical conflict,

tribal wars, slave trade and colonial experiences (Courlander 10). These

gave rise to metaphors that existed with the name popular antiquity and

has so much become part of the African life that every occurrence in life

has a metaphor to take care of. Metaphor is known to develop with the

ever-dynamic world. As new registers develop with recent scientific and

technological breakthroughs, new metaphors are formed. Commenting on

the place of metaphor in communication, Aristotle centuries ago advised

dramatists to note that their greatest asset is “by far to have a command of

metaphor” (50). He goes on to say, “This alone cannot be imparted by

another, it is the mark of genius-for to make good metaphor implies an eye

of resemblance” (Aristotle 50). Obviously, Esiaba Irobi understands this

very well and thus argues that metaphor is “the most valid and most

accessible and most universal as well as relevant form of human poetry”

(quoted in Diala 87).

Dialectics on its part refers to any play of ideas bringing together

opposites or contradictions and attempting to resolve them. For Guth, it is,

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“the kind of reasoning that goes from on the one hand to on the other

hand and on to a balanced conclusion” (270). Originally, dialectics was the

method employed by Zeno of Elea in the 5th Century B.C. to reveal that

the position of his opponents gave rise to paradoxes. Plato, influenced by

Zeno and Socrates, called dialectics the supreme science and contrasted

it with deduction. Hegel made notable inputs into dialectics noting that

“every thesis generates an antithesis and then a synthesis that becomes

the thesis of the traid” (Americana 56). Hegel‟s study emphasized the

spiritual essence of man. Marx rejected Hegel‟s spiritual projection and

stressed the economical.

Esiaba Irobi understanding the argument and being aware that truth

is subjective goes further to uphold the view of philosophers and scientists

that truth must be discovered and tested through logic and experiment and

that much more attention should be paid to how truth is discovered.

Consequently, he adopts the rhetorical (persuasive) strategy of dialectics

to discover the validity of certain popular beliefs and opinion of the

contemporary Nigerian Society. The so discovered truth, rhetoricians

would believe, cannot walk on its leg but must be carried by people to

other people through language and appeal. Conscious, therefore, of the

way the Nigerian and even the African mind attune to the powerful

suggestions of metaphorically organised language, Irobi adopts metaphor

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to ensure that such truths are acknowledged and accepted since

unacknowledged and unaccepted truths are of no use at all (Campbell 3).

This effort of his (Irobi) must be understood and carried on by any director

directing any of his plays and for the director to be successful, Klauber,

says he “must be a sensitive instrument responding to the most minute

pulse…” (1). The director in the words of Johnson must be “A super-

creatively intelligent and experienced fellow, who stretches his imagination

far beyond all the fringes of the script” (25). More important is the fact that

the director must understand the play and the playwright‟s goals, and

according to Wright, “once he does understand this, he must then do all

he can to emphasize these goals through his direction” (150). While

emphasizing the importance of the director‟s understanding, Bruch notes,

“Without understanding, the director cannot make choices” (2). The

director‟s understanding is important because if he fails to understand the

playwright‟s metaphors and dialectics then he is bound to fail in his

interpretation of the play. Gottlieb identifies with this view when he says,

“the best interpretive performances grow out of a union of the interpreter

and the text” (72). In other words, if there is no union between the text and

the director who is the interpreter, the performance will definitely not come

out fine. Glen supports the foregoing and thus opines that “it is essential

that the director leaves nothing to chance” (147). According to Wright,

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“Every director has certain obligations to the playwright whose script he is

interpreting as well as to the play itself” (130), thus, the director‟s

obligation to Irobi‟s works is to understand the metaphors and dialectics

he employed and interpret them faithfully without altering their meanings.

Albright does not quite subscribe to this view and therefore argues that the

play‟s content “can be distorted deliberately either by revising the words in

a dialogue, cutting the lines, or by modifying their expressive intent” (327).

With this view Albright asserts that the director must not be faithful to the

metaphors and dialectics of the play. Balewa disagrees with Albright‟s

opinion and maintains that “the director should not seek to change the

story but to interpret it” (116). In other words, the director should not seek

to change the metaphors and dialectics in the play but to interpret them.

Atakpo concurs with the above view when he says, “The best (directorial)

concept… is the one that remains true to the spirit and the meaning which

the playwright had initially intended” (280). According to Parker, Wolf and

Block, the director “must be responsible for coordinating the various styles

as the show is being put together” (65). The various styles as used above

refer in this context to the various styles of the playwright. The director

must understand that by using a variety of metaphors, one is able to

achieve much more multi-dimensional, penetrating and useful analysis

and understanding of persons, times and places (Morgan 23). The director

34

must realize that it is his duty to make the metaphors and dialectics

employed by the playwright clear to the audience. Wright upholds the last

view and says the director “has the final task of making everything clear”

(148). When the director utilizes the metaphors and dialectics in his

interpretation, he not only ensures effective interpretation but also

challenges both audience and participants in a manner that will broaden

their dramatic horizons (Wright 129-130). Therefore, directors must

depend on the manipulation of metaphors and dialectics as the most

prolific play interpretative tools for effective actor-audience

communication.

The subsequent chapter which explores the communicative and

aesthetic values of metaphors and dialectics and the use of these

concepts by Irobi in preaching his revolutionary ideology in Nwokedi and

Hangmen Also Die will be based on the established premise.

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CHAPTER THREE

METAPHOR AND DIALECTICS AS LITERARY DEVICES AND

COMMUNICATIVE TOOLS

3.1 Metaphor as a Literary Device

The classical Greek philosopher, Aristotle declared metaphor one

of the highest achievements of poetic style. According to him, “it is the

mark of genius – for to make good metaphors implies an eye for

resemblances …” (Dukore 50). Our literary world especially, the African

literary world is pervaded with metaphors. Metaphor has become an

indispensable part of our literary world that recent research into our

everyday literary life shows that we use four metaphors per minute

(Tompkins and Lawley 1). This statistic could come as a surprise because

metaphor has become much fundamental in literature that out of the vast

majority of metaphors we use, only the more obvious ones register in our

minds.

As a literary device, metaphor is both descriptive and prescriptive. It

is descriptive in the sense that the essence of a metaphor is

understanding and experiencing or describing one kind of thing in terms of

another (Lawley and Tompkins 1). Through this use of metaphor as a

literal description of unconscious processing, it becomes a gateway to

increased awareness, understanding and change. Thus, metaphor

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specifies and/or constrains our ways of thinking about the original

experience thereby invariably influencing the meaning and importance we

attach to the original experience, the way it fits with other experiences,

and the actions we take as a result hence, its prescriptive essence.

As a literary device also, Lawley and Tompkins observe that

metaphor is “an active process which is at the very heart of understanding

ourselves, others and the world around us” (1); the very essence of

literature. To Lawley and Tompkins also metaphor need not be limited to

verbal expressions. It can include:

Any expression or thing that is symbolic for a person, be that non verbal behaviour self-produced art, an item in the environment or an imaginative representation. In other words, whatever a person says, sees, hears, feels or does, as well as what they imagine, can be used to produce, comprehend and reason through metaphor (2).

From the foregoing, it will be observed that the use of metaphor as a

literary device is something optional that makes a good literary work. Levy

puts it more succinctly when he described metaphor as:

The icing on the cake of composition… it is not essential, but … it has the power to make it special. As with icing, metaphor requires careful handling: used sparingly, it makes a sweet impression, spread too thickly; on the other hand, it is not just sweetening, but sickening (182).

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3.2 The Communicative Value of Metaphor

Gasset summarizes metaphor as “probably the most fertile power

possessed by man” (19). Metaphors are powerful communicative devices.

The use of metaphors, like other figurative devices, says a lot about the

writer‟s immediate environment. Metaphor reveals much about the writers‟

perception of and attitude towards their environment, their point of view

and ideological stance and without understanding these in a play, a

director will experience difficulty in his interpretation. Metaphor makes a

director as well as an audience feel with their senses by applying directly

to the sensory experience they have felt in the past with one object to a

new object. Ipso facto, metaphors are so emotionally compelling that one

responds to them even if one is not conscious of their use. The

communicative values of metaphor could be summed up to include:

The expansion of the reach of language.

Helping the director understand the world of the play, the

playwright‟s vision and circumstances surrounding the play.

Helping actors in their interpretation

Making the audience visualize things that normally they would only

think.

Making the audience share in the emotions and attitudes of the

writer.

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To achieve these communicative values, certain things should be

taken into cognizance. There is need to use fresh metaphors. By

freshness, it is meant that a new figure arrests the reader‟s mind. Cliched

metaphors (also called dead metaphors) call up no concrete association

and make little impressions. There is equally need to ensure that the

chosen metaphors are appropriate to the context in which they are used.

Hence, the need for appropriateness, metaphors used should be generally

understood. The metaphor a writer uses must be accessible to his/her

audience. Finally, even when a metaphor is fresh, appropriate and

generally understood, over use should be avoided. Using too many

metaphors in quite a short space, might distract the audience and make

them focus on the artist‟s artfulness, his dexterity and how the trick is

worked. Levy says, “although it is difficult to find metaphors that are fresh,

appropriate, generally understood and not over used, well chosen figures

can be a striking and memorable figure of writing” (183). The director must

understand the importance of the choice of metaphors and their

communicative values so that in a situation whereby the writer over used

some metaphors, used some inappropriately or made extensive use of

clichéd metaphors, he as the director should work on the metaphors to

ensure proportionality, clarity, appropriateness and freshness. The director

should not try to excuse the less-than-successful metaphors in the

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production by rationalizations of any kind (Wright 129). This is so because

according to Johnson, “It is the prerogative of the director to steer the

performance using appropriate gears” (116). One example of performance

where the director understood the importance of metaphors and utilized

them to communicate is the 2008 Nsukka ANA‟S production of Kalu Uka‟s

A Harvest for Ants directed by Domba Asomba. Despite the need to blue-

pencil the lengthy play in order to reduce the staging time and also ensure

theatrical effectiveness, the director while blue-penciling the play did not

fall into the temptation of cutting off the powerful metaphors of the play.

Such metaphors which were found mostly in the lines of the characters

Anosi, Ezeulu, Akuebue, Obika, Edogo and the Masked Spirits helped

communicate the message of the play effectively to the audience.

3.3 Aesthetic Value of Metaphor

According to Johnson, “Aesthetic choices are made at every

segment of the drama to tune it and keep it in the desired shape and focus

towards achieving that wholesome and sigh-relieving pleasant ideal”

(116). The application of metaphors by playwrights and directors in drama

is one of those aesthetic choices made to tune the drama and use it to

achieve “aesthetic pleasure” (Wright 14). Apart from enhancing the

communicative value of a theatrical work, metaphor helps to enhance the

beauty of such works. Johnson understands this aesthetic value vividly

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and thus says that making a play aesthetically satisfying to the audience

“is the ultimate” (47). In the same vein, Khan says “aesthetics is essential

for the collective performance of both the…. artists and their audiences…”

(145). While summarizing Bamidele‟s view on aesthetic properties of

Language, Johnson says, “a play‟s dialogue needs beautiful

embellishments strong and luring enough to make the language of the

play….compel the audience to appreciate it” (50). The application of

metaphor is one sure way of adding „beautiful embellishments‟ to the

dialogue or language of a play. Thus, when Khan advocated for the use of

“metaphors evoked by or associated with the aesthetic” in a performance,

he certainly subscribes to the view that metaphors have aesthetic value.

Metaphors make literary works attractive by painting vivid pictures of

things and events. The compressed nature of metaphors adds to their

aesthetic nature saving considerable amount of time and space that would

have been devoted to the description and/or narration of things and

events. They also have subjective undertones depending on individual‟s

language and cultures.

Metaphors create insight, but they also have a way of obscuring

information. Metaphors can liberate the minds of the audience, and they

can also limit their understanding. They can empower and they can also

disempower. They can be a tool for creativity, or a self-imposed prison.

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When wrongly handled, metaphors could be destructive rather than

creative. Thus, both the playwright and director must ensure proper

application of metaphors in a manner that creates aesthetic pleasure

bearing in mind that, as John Keats puts it, “A thing of beauty is a joy

forever” (quoted in Johnson 46). One good example of a performance

where the foregoing reflected is the 2003 Awka production of Esiaba

Irobi‟s The Other Side of the Mask directed by Paul Olisah. The playwright

himself embellished the play with a great deal of metaphors and the

director, Paul Olisah made sure that those metaphors were well delivered

by each actor so as to achieve aesthetic pleasure. The rousing ovation by

the audience after the performance left no one in doubt as to whether

aesthetic pleasure was achieved.

3.4 Dialectics as a Literary Device

Literature portrays the activities of men in their society. The

essence of literature most times is the search for truth. It should be noted

that truth is subjective and therefore, is seen in different lights by different

people. Hence, writers are always involved in this cyclical argument to

make us view not only a certain kind of reality, but also from a certain

angle of visions (Levy 183). As a result of this, the writer cannot do without

dialectics. To reflect this reality from the writers‟ point of view and attempt

to persuade us to take a certain attitude towards it, the writer usually

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evolve new ideas, belief systems, orders and opinions he believes will

counter the previous ones in a more progressive manner.

In the Nigerian theatrical world for instance, we see the use of

dialectical perspective by our writers even though this does not come with

the philosophical name “dialectics”. One writer comes up with a work in

support of an age long order or belief and as soon as this is made public,

another writer comes up with a better argument to counter it. In his The

Strong Breed, Soyinka supports the idea of a family or person being pre-

destined to bear the burden of sacrificing his life in a ritual practice to save

their community. Sooner than later, Osofisan condemns this view with a

stronger argument in No More the Wasted Breed. In his The Raft, Clark

sees the Nigerian nation helplessly adrift. Promptly, Osofisan uses

Another Raft to proffer hope for Nigerians. Several instances abound all

around the literary world in Nigeria. But since dialectics is a philosophical

and not an artistic tendency, the use of dialectical strategies does not

usually go with the tag „dialectics.‟

3.5 The Communicative Values of Dialectics

The use of dialectics in works of art appeals to the sense of

reasoning of the audience. Using dialectics, the audience gets involved

mentally in the incidents of the play. This mental involvement is typical of

the traditional African theatre. Dialectics help communicate at an instance,

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the writer‟s point of view, ideology and attitude towards his characters and

environment. With the writer‟s treatment of issues and events by being

expensive (using many words to develop a point) or being economical

(brief or concise), the writer‟s point of view and ideology as well as his bias

and prejudices are brought to the fore. This can be advanced or marred in

performance by a director. The director must first understand the dialectics

employed by a playwright and do his best to interpret in such a way that

the message is clearly communicated to the audience. Taking advantage

of the playwright‟s dialectics makes communication easy and effective in

any performance. This was clearly understood by Ikechukwu Odum in his

2009 Nsukka direction of Tracie Chima Utoh‟s Cauldron of Death. The

play beams a searchlight on the consequences of immorality in the society

and devastating effects of AIDS. Through the character Junior the thesis

that HIV/AIDS is the punishment for living immoral life is established but

through the character Ozoemena comes the antithesis that HIV/AIDS is

meant for anybody who has bad luck whether he is immoral or not

because “the world is too cruel” (Utoh 142). Eventually, the argument

gives birth to the synthesis that HIV/AIDS is not necessarily a

consequence of immorality or a product of bad luck but a consequence of

carelessness and that the scourge can be avoided by being careful and

courteous in everything. These, the director used the actors to

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communicate to the audience effectively making sure that the constant

expression of emotions like groaning and crying especially by Junior

(played by Obinna Orji) did not interfere with proper delivery of lines.

3.6 Aesthetic Values of Dialectics

In dialectics, a thesis gives rise to an antithesis which finally leads

to a synthesis which gives birth to another thesis and this continues in this

cyclical order. For this reason, no singular act of dialectics can claim to

find a final answer to any issue at stake. Furthermore, dialectics enhance

the beauty of literary works. This is evident in Ola Rotimi‟s Hopes of the

Living Dead and IF, Alex Asigbo‟s War of the Tin gods, Wole Soyinka‟s

Death and the King’s Horseman, Lion and the Jewel and A Play of Giants,

Emeka Nwabueze‟s Spokesman for the Oracle and Guardian of the

Cosmos, Femi Osofisan‟s Once Upon Four Robbers and Another Raft,

Sam Ukala‟s Akpakaland and The Slave Wife, Esiaba Irobi‟s Nwokedi,

Hangmen Also Die, The Other Side of The Mask, Fronded Circle and

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, Ahmed Yerima‟s Trials of Oba Ovonrawen

and Hardground, Canice Nwosu‟s Hopes of the Living and a great deal of

other plays.

On the other hand, when dialectics is used in excess, it could be

distracting to the audience. Since there is often inadequate time for

elaboration, dialectics could be ineffective in solving the problems it sets

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out to. Rather new set of problems could be generated. However, one

power of dialectics is that it continues the debate within the individual and

within members of the audience long after the staging of such works.

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CHAPTER FOUR

METAPHOR AND DIALECTICS IN NWOKEDI AND HANGMEN ALSO

DIE AND THE DIRECTOR’S TASK

4.1 Profile of Esiaba Irobi

To appreciate Esiaba‟s Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die, it is

imperative to start by knowing who Esiaba Irobi is for as Oyibo Eze

observes:

to comprehend any work of art is to a great extent, to understand the author and his world. It is only through this that the meaning and significance of any work can be fully appreciated (24).

Esiaba Irobi is a Nigerian of Igbo extraction. He hails from Osisioma

in Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State. The furling of Nigerian

independence flag on October 1, 1960 incidentally became a symbol of

his birth cry. He had his primary and secondary School Education in his

home state. His Bachelor‟s Degree and Masters Degree were obtained

from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he also lectured briefly. He also

studied in Sheffield University and Leeds University. He had his Masters

Degree in both comparative literature and film/theatre, and a PhD in

Theatre Studies. He has taught at New York University (1997-2000)

Towson University (2000-2002) and, presently, Ohio University, Athens,

USA, where he is an Associate Professor of International Theatre/Cinema.

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He has directed plays in Nigeria, Europe, America and other parts of the

world. He has won a good number of awards which include the BBC Arts

and African 1988 Poetry Award, the Cemetery Road Award, 1992 and the

World Drama Trust Award. In his quest and drudgery to underscore the

feat of deification in African dramaturgy, and the World Theatre at large,

Irobi had added to his credit the writing of the following ten plays:

Nwokedi, The other side of the Mask, Am I too Loud?, The Fronded Circle,

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, A Tent To Pass The Night, Why The

Vulture’s Head is Naked, What Song Do Mosquitoes Sing?, Hangmen

Also Die and Foreplay. As a poet, he wrote the inflorescence and Hand

grenades and Why I Don’t Like Philip Larkin. His recent books include:

African Festival and Ritual Theatre: Resisting Globalization on the

Continent and Diaspora since 1492 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)

and Before They Danced in Chains: Performance Theories of Africa and

the African Diaspora (Harvard University Press, 2008).

Irobi belongs to the third generation Nigerian writers, and the

suffocating impact of high level moral decadence, political instability and

the seemingly endless victimization and dehumanization in the society

coupled with the need to arrest the situation, perhaps inspires the

adoption of revolutionary aesthetics in his works.

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4.2 Synopsis of Nwokedi

Nwokedi Snr, highly disgruntled at his political aides for his

electioneering failure, engineered by his son, Nwokedi, puts his aides

under the Ikurube-oath and sets out to Lagos for a judicial redress. Arikpo,

an in-law to Nwokedi Snr., pursued by his Ugep Youths for defiling their

restriction on his second tenure senatorial bid, runs to Mrs. Nwokedi for

shelter. Tormented by his sustained injuries, and the persistent Ekumeku

ritual and war songs, Arikpo laments over his lost property and political

failure, regretting and cursing the Ugep Youths. At Bakalori, Nwokedi is

penalized to serve his nation six extra months as a corps member, for

arousing his fellow corps members (corpers) to embark on violent

revolution against the politicians. His punishment came after exemplifying

his ideology by refusing recalcitrantly, the military orders of Edom Awado,

and fighting him and other soldiers. Remembering his massacre role in his

school cult, especially the slaying of the Capone and his previous ritual

ram-beheading as the village Ekpe masquerade, Nwokedi became

incensed with blood; seeing possibly human blood, as an anti-dote for the

demanded socio-political purification; he then sets home to accomplish his

calling.

Ekumeku (his age grade) and other villagers await Nwokedi‟s return

with series of ritual and war songs. Traumatized by this ritual atmosphere,

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and Nwokedi‟s persistent spill threats, Arikpo confesses to Mrs. Nwokedi

that he was responsible for the murder of Ezinne (Nwokedi‟s twin sister)

and her three children. Nwokedi convinced of Arikpo‟s crime, connived

with other Ekumekus to substitute Arikpo‟s blood for the sacrifice. Nwokedi

Snr‟s intervention causes him his head, while Nwokedi (Ekpe)

consummates his determination by striking at Arikpo‟s neck.

4.3 Synopsis of Hangmen Also Die

The hanging yard of a prison in Port Harcourt in Izon State ushers

in the play. Yekini, the prison hangman, defies all threats and persuasion

maintaining his ground not to hang seven young men condemned to

death. His refusal to hang them was prompted by the fact that he has

been battling with his conscience over his job as a hangman, and most

importantly, the feeling within him that those young men do not deserve to

die. His attempt to make the Superintendent give details of the crime and

all the circumstances surrounding the crime of those young men, leads to

a flash back.

The flash back takes five phases of the play. Within these phases,

action shows the condemned youths as graduates with good grades who

are forced to take to violence by unemployment, poverty, injustice and

inhumane attitudes of the leaders. They confront one chief Erekosima on

his chieftaincy coronation day. Chief Erekosima had stolen and embezzled

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money paid as compensation to the people of Izon State for the

consequences or damages done by the oil spillage. Angered by the fact

that no citizen of the State no matter how wretched was given any money

from the compensation, they hanged Chief Erekosima. It is as a result of

this that they are condemned to death.

In the last phase, the play returns to the prison yard. Yekini

maintains his stand not to hang the young men arguing that their fight was

just. He (Yekini) instead resigns his job and promises to go back to his

fishing profession. The Superintendent who is bent on making sure that

the men are hanged, sends for Mr. Ekpenyong (the hangman in the

female section of the Prisons) to come and carry out the hanging.

4.4 Metaphors in Nwokedi

To help preach his revolutionary ideology, Irobi employs a

considerable number of metaphors. It is his view that every nation goes

through both turbulent and calm periods for nothing in life is as constant

as change. To illustrate this, he uses the metaphor of the sea to describe

the changes in man‟s life. Habiba metaphorically tells us:

The sea is life… The sea is made of water.. the sea in all its moods reflects the life of man. One moment it is calm, serene, blue and peaceful. And the other? Violent, furious, murderous, savage and foaming at the corners of his mouth (Irobi 35).

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Habiba goes further to say:

our early life is like sailing on a river… the heart of a man is so much like the sea. It has its storms, its tides, its depths; and, it has its pearls too (36).

With these metaphors, Irobi is of the view that the turbulent times

Nigeria and Nigerians are witnessing in their socio-political, economic and

religious lives, is not out of place as this has at one time or the other been

the lot of the developed nations of today. The only problem peculiar to

Nigeria‟s experience is that an average Nigeria “never learns from history”

(Irobi 29). What is witnessed in the Government of Nigeria is a recycling of

the same old faces, the same “grey-haired generation” that has ruptured

the future of the younger generation leaving them “floundering in the wind

like yellow leaves in harmathan” (11). He presents these leaders as being

nice only to people who help them achieve their selfish interests. This Irobi

demonstrates through Nwokedi Snr. Who metaphorically calls his wife and

son “a female spider” and a “rabbit” respectively when he felt they were

standing on his way to achieving his selfish political interests (66). The

next minute when he is deceived into believing they are behind him, he

metaphorically calls his wife “the pillar of my life” and “the very brick and

mortar of my existence” (68). He then calls his son “a star” and “a meteor”

(67).

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Irobi also portrays in powerful metaphors, the result of this self-

centered and corrupt leadership, indicating that the poor masses (the have

nots) are dehumanized. According to Nwokedi, the Nigeria populace has

been reduced to:

beggers groveling, fawning, scrounging with supple knees for the husks of life from the hands of full-fed beasts who ravaged…the future (30).

The rich (the haves) amass wealth by all means to “buy houses in New

York and London” and stash away public funds in Switzerland (55).

To show the sharp contrast between the two classes, Irobi uses

metaphors to describe the haves as “Trousered Apes, bloated by rancid

crude oil” (77). He describes their necks as being “as fat as a castrated

cow‟s” (20). The two classes regard each other with some form of

murderous passion. This the playwright exemplified with some form of

name calling using metaphors. The infinitesimal people in power regard

the masses that form the majority, as stated below by Arikpo, as:

The devils own brigade! A miserable mob. A menace of unemployed chimpanzees. A harvest of political illiterates, Nonentities. Pieces of dirt…louts who cannot find jobs for themselves (3).

They also see them as Arikpo puts it:

A disco-going, hemp-smoking, beer-guzzling generation … louts loitering the streets like lost souls in search of financial salvation. Jobless vagabonds. An irresponsible generation. A brigade of unemployed devils… (15).

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The masses on the other hand look at the old generation that still

dominates in government as exploiters. Nwokedi calls them:

disembodied godheads…spotted scavengers of the sahel savannah who have plundered this nation like a conquered territory (28)… a grey-haired generation that ruptured the future of their offspring and tore it into shreds… (30). . rats that bite and blow .. Bats, Night‟s acrobats… Twilight creatures… political hybrids… a confused generation…. Jackals, Vandals, Cannibals, Carnivores, Scavengers. Culture vultures (77).

This division of the populace into the “haves” and “have nots” and

the insensitivity of the leaders to the plight of the poor masses breeds

several forms of corruption. The haves are busy siphoning public funds at

the detriment of the poor masses who indulge in several forms of noble

and ignoble as well as decent and corrupt life for survival. As a result of

this, only about one percent of the populace is free from corruption. The

playwright explained this with the metaphor of the commander and his

army (81). The nine hundred and ninety-nine percent of soldiers marching

wrongly represent the corrupt percentage of Nigerians (rulers and the

masses alike) and the only one soldier matching rightly represents the

only one percent that is not yet corrupt. Hence the corrupt leaders

exemplified by Nwokedi Snr and Arikpo by using this metaphor tends to be

suggesting that it will be impossible for the situation to change the other

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way round in the nearest future. To prove the other group wrong, Nwokedi

used other metaphors in question form; metaphors like “the inside of a cup

and the outside, which is more important?”, “The hen and the egg, which

first came into the world?” and “the dirge we sing at funerals, who is it

for?” (81-82). With these metaphors, the playwright wants those who have

lost their sense of direction and priority to have a rethink and know that

even if they “prefer darkness to light” that darkness can never play the role

of light (Irobi 82).

Walking along this path, it is possible for one with a good sense of

Nigerian history to recognize that the use of “spoil of war” and “abandoned

property” (31) is metaphorical. Suffice it to say that the several promises

and subsequent failures and betrayals that characterized the coups and

counter coups in the 1960s culminated in the Nigeria – Biafra Civil War

that gave birth to the abandoned property metaphor. One of such coups

and promises is seen in the third cycle of the play.

Quite aware of the role the grey-hair politicians played in brining the

country to a state of topsy-turvy, the playwright is suggesting that politics

should be removed from the hands of the older generation and left in the

hands of the younger ones who are now ripe enough for the exercise. To

him, the younger generation is mature enough and has the strength to

accomplish feats that proved impossible to the older generation for as

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Ozoemena says in the play, “A man labours to get a son so that his son

can fight and win those battles his father lost” (12). The law of natural

justice demands this as it is only just that the old men retire gracefully for:

When a father comes out for moonlight games and sees his son chasing other people‟s daughters, the father should know his son has come of age. He should go home and look after his wife (12).

The old generation believes that they have tried their best. It is apt that

they be rest assured that those taking over will do better since “The tiger

never begets a cowardly cub” (76). The only difference is the use to which

the “cubs” will put their “tigerliness” – negative use as the old order or

positive for a better society.

In a situation, such as that in Nigeria where the old is afraid to

gracefully retire, Irobi is of the view that they will be forced out. This

informs his advocating for revolution. This revolution will by no means,

destroy but is inevitable for the needed change. Failure of a peaceful

change will only make violent change inevitable. This is the reason for the

use of this trenchant metaphor, “father, if the butterfly must fly, the

caterpillars must die” (79). Being quite aware of the communicative value

of the last quotation taken from Nwokedi‟s lines, Nnanna Ndubisi in his

2007 Nsukka direction of the play, Nwokedi, placed emphasis on the

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above metaphor by making Nwokedi (played by Cosmos Miletus) to

deliver the lines with emphasis and vigour.

The playwright also opines that in the course of the advocated

revolt, the recalcitrant old order must be treated “like fowl-dropping that

clung to the sole of a rich woman‟s slippers” (9). They should be made to

face what Arikpo metaphorically described as experience of “Daniel in

Lion‟s den. Jonah in the belly of a whale. Samson among the Philistines”

(54). As implied in the “white horse and its rider” metaphor (88), they

should be disgraced out of office and their “head anointed with dust” like

the rider of the white horse who summersaults “and spread on the

handsome earth” with “a broken name in...hands…” (89). In his 1988

Lagos direction of the play, Esiaba Irobi himself made sure that these

metaphors were properly delivered with the right tempo, gestures and

movements (Azuonye 2007).

The revolution should involve all including those whose relatives

are part of the old order. The metaphors used to communicate and preach

this total involvement include: The hunter devoured by his own hunting

dogs, A man‟s dog biting him to death, the rabbit setting a trap for the

tiger, borrowing a hoe from the elephant‟s family to dig a hole for the

elephant and The female spider cutting off the head of her male partner

after they made love (65-66). More so, with metaphors like “The Sea is

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Life” (35), “the night is perfumed with songs” (38), “Every hero has a

thousand faces” (39), “furnitures of our soul” (40), “you pointed your finger

towards my southern hemisphere” (49), “A man is what he does” (70),

“God gave the Spider a talent” (80) and the likes, the aesthetic value of

metaphors is brought to the fore and any director who understands this

will not joke with those metaphors as they have a way of creating beautiful

or soothing pictures in the minds of the audience.

There are other metaphors scattered all over the play that aids the

communicative and aesthetic values of the play. Any director who carefully

decodes Esiaba irobi‟s metaphors in Nwokedi will discover that, all in all,

his ideology could be summarized to mean revolution (both physical and

mental) because “if the butterfly must fly the caterpillar must die” (79). The

director should therefore, interpret the play to communicate that ideology

vividly.

4.5 Dialectics in Nwokedi

The essence of dialectics in any work of art is to use logic and

argument to bring out a balanced view in an issue in contest. Esiaba Irobi

uses dialectics to reinforce his use of metaphor for two main reasons – to

show the stratification the society has been severed into and to preach his

revolutionary ideology. The playwright comes up with the thesis that

politics should be left to the youths and the younger generation. But

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Arikpo, a synecdoche of the old generation, comes up with an antithesis

that the younger generation is a bundle of confusion. With the question

“who left them unemployed?” the argument was finally brought to a

synthesis that “the younger generation” will be more focused for

government if the old order is forced to withdraw her series of confusion

(15).

It is also a popular, but misinformed conception that the few elected

or appointed persons in governance are the ones loosely referred to as

government in the Nigerian setting. Irobi believes that the masses that

make up the majority of the state under a standardized decorum should

determine how the state should be governed to their favour through the

few elected or appointed officers. Hence, the masses represented here by

Ekumeku are the government (21). These elected officers, the playwright

suggests, should always show transparency in their dealings. Their

actions and not how much of “hide and seek” they play should be their

trade mark (70). Irobi insists that these officers should not be self-centred

because according the character Nwokedi, “The African politician… is a

man who moves only in one direction…towards himself” (80). Irobi argues

that our politicians are congenital liars. Nwokedi tells us thus:

Politicians never tell the truth…To their wives they tell lies. To their parents, lies. To their mother-in-laws lies. Even to their own children, they would tell lies (63).

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One misconception that has so much aided corruption in Nigeria is

the idea of “honesty of purpose” in the civil and public service. Irobi calls

that “a lie of convenience. A lie told to save lives” (69). To this notion, Irobi

succinctly posits that “a lie is a lie no matter how you bend your mouth

when telling it” (69). Be it “honesty of purpose” or “a lie of convenience”, it

is detrimental to the progress and image of the state.

The constituted/unconstituted authority dialectics employed by the

playwright is equally worth mentioning. The constituted authority at all

levels in Nigeria has always been used to dehumanize people that should

be protected. This has gotten to the extent that no clear cut distinction can

be seen between the two forms of authority. These forms of man made

problems bedevil the state. In most cases, the ruling class connives with

the religious entities to further exploit the poor masses. With providential

wisdom, the masses are made to seek divine intervention for human

problems. This Irobi uses dialectical approach to discredit;

Mrs. Nwokedi: so leave vengeance to God… God will act on our behalf.

Nwokedi: When man waits and waits for God to act and God does not act, man takes up the role of God and acts. That is why he created us in his own image … (64).

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For this reason, Irobi believes no other time is more apt and timely for man

to act than now. He uses a dialectical perspective to define his concept of

time, for him:

Time is not the tick-tock of your wristwatches. Neither is it the rising and setting of the sun. Time is event. Time is decision. Time is action. Time is made when young men flex the muscles of a new resolve and decide to change their fate. Decide to change the world, change the course of history. Create a new order… (13).

The time is, in his opinion, ripe for action and the masses are urged to

dare and should continue daring until the much required success is

achieved even if it leads to death. Although this could be termed madness

but it is only “the madness of every moment that makes history” (26). This

revolution requires double sacrifice of both sweat and blood; the blood of

an animal. It will sound outrageous to say that the sacrifice demanded by

this revolution is people‟s or a person‟s life. But dialectically, the playwright

makes us to understand that life could be lost in it. “It is the sacrifice the

future demands…. Yes blood” (73).

Before now, the playwright had made it clear that it could be the

blood of a man. His argument goes thus:

Arikpo: Blood? Whose blood?

Mrs. Nwokedi: The blood of an animal.

Arikpo: Man is an animal.

Mrs. Nwokedi: Yes. Man is an animal (16).

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It should also be noted that the revolution requires more than mere ideas.

“It is better to be idealistic than not to have ideas at all” but the bulk of it

lies with matching ideas with the right action to be able to “beat the

system” (78). Those with the right actions and ideas stand in the path of

the changing bull to face it squarely. This Irobi used the true/false matador

to exemplify affirming that the true matador faces the bull and kills the bull

(82). Taking the argument to another dimension, Arikpo in the play insists

that “A man is what he hides”, Nwokedi argues that a man is not what he

hides instead that “A man is what he does” (70). In other words, the

playwright through Nwokedi argues that a real man should be transparent

in his dealings and be active and not run away from what he is supposed

to do. The way the above dialectics was interpreted by Nnanna Ndubisi in

his 2007 Nsukka production of the play, captured the very meaning of the

dialectics. With the calculated stage movements, balance of gestures and

lines and authoritative delivery of lines, Nwokedi (played by Cosmos

Miletus) and Arikpo (played by Uche Nwaozuzu) sent the message of the

playwright across to the audience.

These and other instances of dialectics were employed by the

playwright to test and discover the truth and consequently, use good

metaphors to carry the truth to the audience.

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4.6 Metaphors in Hangmen Also Die

Esiaba Irobi made extensive use of metaphors in Hangmen Also

Die. The first obvious use of metaphor in the play is seen on the cover

page with the title of the play, Hangmen Also Die. This title is the central

metaphor in the play and every other use of metaphor revolves around it.

The idea of a hangman dying aptly suggests that the only constant thing in

life is change. This metaphor of change is apparent in the lives of all the

major characters in the play. The first character we come across in the

play being affected by this metaphor is Yekini. From his discussion of his

past life, it will be observed that Yekini was a fisherman who would always

sail “out into the belly of the ocean to rescue from the depths of its gullets,

what belongs to man” (8). He worked for the preservation of human life but

was lured into destroying human life for the meager salary of N198 per

month. The life he used to preserve became so cheap that it never

mattered to him that he “ferried” living souls “across the river of life to the

Island of no return” (15). To show that the time of discovery has come, the

playwright allowed the character of Yekini to grow. He lost his “Iron nerve”

and for once felt sorry for the havoc his job has caused mankind that he

opted to resign than continue human destruction.

Next we see Dr. Ahitophel Ogbansiegbe, the great orator who

“used words like a loaded pistol” and who “knew how to hit the target of

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your heart with his verbal bullet” (25). Dr. Ogbansiegbe initially used the

students to revenge his enemies, and thus, Dayan says, “we are just tools

in Dr. Ogbansiegbe‟s hands. Spanners and hammers in the hand of a

political mechanic” (28). The students on realizing this made their mentor

their first victim.

Chief Isokipiri Erekosima is another character affected by this wind

of change. It is most likely that he could be the hangman the title of the

play is pointing at. By his cruel dealings, Chief Erekosima directly or

otherwise has “hanged some citizens of the state”. His inhuman character

and that of his colleagues and contemporaries further inflict pains on the

masses of the state. Ibiaye (the blind beggar) is one of such victims. The

playwright used the metaphor of the crocodile, which Erekosima chose as

the symbol of his party, to further reveal their plans to continue oppressing

and surprising the ordinary people. Erekosima believes that the only way

he, the crocodile feeds is by opening mouth against the tide and letting

little fishes drift into his jaws (42). The crocodile here symbolizes all the

forces of oppression.

Finally, the title Hangmen Also Die, points at the suicide squad as a

character. The group is made up of graduates from various fields. At

school, they were filled with visions, dreams and aspirations. After school,

they faced the hard part of life. Faced with the realities of the oppressive

64

society, the young men formed themselves into this bandit. This could be

regarded as a sort of brain drain. The knowledge and skills these young

men would have used for the development of the society were left

unobserved like “a piece of furniture in the living room of a blind man”

which the blind man does not observe because he is blind (51). Hence,

those unobserved or untapped skills are now been put to negative use.

Psychologists, reinforced by the aggressive cue theory of mass

communication, are of the view that there is an iota of madness,

aggression and violence in every human. In other words, “there is a thief

in all of us” (42). The inherent negative behaviours are either subdued or

made manifest by societal influences. As is the case of the suicide squad,

theirs were made so manifest that they became “the Kamikaze” (33), “the

flotsam and the Jetsam” (31). The tragic end of the suicide squad is an

indication by the playwright that crime does not pay.

Another metaphor in Hangmen worth nothing is the line, “Big name

wey dey kill small dog” (8). This is an indication of the types of sycophancy

in the contemporary society. The smallest achievement by any political

leader is saluted with litany of praise names and titles. This also affects

the citizenry as is the case of the suicide squad. The playwright used that

metaphor to warn the audience to desist from such sycophancy.

65

The State of the poor masses in a country as ours is seen in the

metaphor of “the Sewage of the gutter” (24) and “the cry of the antelope

pleading his innocent cause between a tiger‟s bleeding paws” (36). To turn

around the situation of the poor masses, there must be men and women

who are strong willed. He describes men who are not able to fight for the

poor masses as “cocoyam stems who cannot strike a blow for the poor”

(65). He uses the character Tamara whom Mortuary calls “a goddess”, to

describe the role even women will have to play in the revolution (63). He

also used the metaphor “a brood of Vipers” to describe how deadly the

Suicide Squad is (37). As the director of the 2009 Awka AGN production

of the play, Gerald Okafor made sure every metaphor is accompanied by

a matching gesture and in some cases stylized movement. Such

movement was seen when the character R.I.P (Played by Peter

Chinweze) says, “We are a brood of Vipers” and R.I.P and other members

of the Suicide Squad fall on the floor of the stage and crawl like Vipers.

Gerald Okafor showed understanding of the metaphors and through the

actors communicated the message of the play effectively and beautifully to

the audience which some members of the audience confirmed through

their remarks after the performance.

There are several other metaphors that suggest the state of

physical, financial and mental insecurity of the masses in the play. It

66

should be equally noted that certain metaphors in the play will hinder the

understanding of the play in some tropical zones. The playwright made

use of several metaphors that typify the riverine setting of the play.

However, with patience, constant reading and the aid of a good dictionary,

one will be able to decode the metaphors and further understand and

appreciate the playwright‟s creative endeavour. The metaphor “the

moon… becomes a lantern for the lonely fisherman” (11) creates a lot of

beautiful pictures in the mind of the audience, and when one appreciates

the aesthetic value of such metaphors, Irobi‟s work makes more meaning.

4.7 Dialectics in Hangmen Also Die

The major use of dialectics in Hangmen Also Die is to emphasize

the social conditions which the poor people are being subjected to by the

rich and affluent in the Nigerian Society. From the beginning of the play,

the oppressed/oppressors dialectics is clearly used. A few examples of

these will suffice here. A careful examination of Yekini and Warden, then

Doctor and Superintendent naturally leads to the conclusion that the poor

masses who do the most tedious, risky and dirty works live under very

harsh, insecure and critical conditions and receive the lowest

remunerations. The rich and affluent in the society live under the most

conducive conditions and get the highest remunerations even though their

works are less tedious, risky and dirty.

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The chants of the Suicide Squad gradually move to the dialectical

conclusion that the poor masses are so impoverished that they cannot

provide for themselves not to talk of having a family of their own. As such,

they are not part of the life cycle in Africa culture. Thus, they say:

We have no jobs. Therefore we have no money, which means we cannot marry. And consequently cannot have children. We are the rejects of the world, so, if today we have turned to violence as the only weapon to redeem our destiny… it is because … we have been marginalized out of existence (31-32).

They went further to say “Our job in this nation is to look for jobs” (31).

This state of hopelessness does not end with the present. The future is

not even guaranteed for “even that which we do not have”, and that which

is yet to be achieved have been stolen by the oppressors (36).

Consequently, the Suicide Squad concludes that:

No matter what we do, no matter how much we try, no matter how high we aspire, there is something waiting in the atmosphere to destroy us … (38).

It is thus logical that no set of brilliant, gifted and ambitious youths

would fold their arms, unemployed and poor, to watch their present and

future being mortgaged by unscrupulous and inhumane political jobbers.

Thus, the Suicide Squad concludes that their patience has gotten to

elastic limit for “the tyranny of tyrants is determined by the patience of the

oppressed” (29). They believe that the wicked politicians should be

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dragged from “grace to disgrace” (80). To achieve this, the playwright

recommends a revolution. He argues that “revolutions are always based

on terrorism” (25) and that “Revolutions are never achieved by holding

hands and singing „We shall overcome‟” (26). However, Irobi contends

that “there is a difference between revolutionary tactics and meaningless

anarchy” (28). Having decoded the dialectical perspective of the

playwright, Uche Nwaozuzu in his 2009 Nsukka direction of the play, used

Ngugar Agav (played R.I.P), Richard Umezinwa (Mortuary), Anthony

Nwosu (Moshe Dayan), Richard Okenyi (Khomeini), May Orji (Tetanus),

Chidalu Nwoke (Acid) and Vincent Nnamele (Discharge) to effectively

interpret the afore-mentioned dialectics for the audience. Just as Gerald

Okafor, Uche Nwaozuzu ensured the right purses, pitch, transitions,

moods, gestures and movements and these helped to communicate

aesthetically and effectively the dialectical perspective of the playwright to

the audience.

With the afore-mentioned dialectical approaches and good sense of

metaphor, Esiaba Irobi worked out Hangmen Also Die as a metaphor for

modern day warning that crime does not pay. The November, 10, 1995

hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists (which is equivalent

to the hanging of the Suicide Squad), the passing of the Niger Delta

Commission Bill, the issue of Resource Control, Allocation Sharing

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Formular, the Confab and the 25 Percent Derivation, the activities of

militants in the Niger Delta, the 2009 Amnesty Programme of President

Yaradua‟s Administration and other related issues show the social

relevance of this prophetic play, Hangmen Also Die. Irobi himself confirms

this in a recent interview with Azuonye in which he says:

Everything I wrote in Hangmen Also Die has come to pass including the hanging of the boys, the killing of the chiefs, the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa in a prison in Port Harcourt. The recent revolt by riverine women against foreign oil companies in Nigeria reminds us strongly of Tamara in the play and also resonates with the reason for the iconoclastic philosophy of The Suicide Squad(1).

Thus, Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die, borrowing the words of

Jamike, “are not made to please neither are they made to comfort” (44).

Instead, they are “heated needles pointed at the eye, to hurt, to terrify, to

shock like spiders on your navel” (Irobi 44). Put differently, Irobi has not

written these two plays to show off his skills in rhetoric and grandiloquence

but to strongly and dialectically argue out and communicate, using

beautiful metaphors, the message that will inspire positive change.

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CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 Summary of Findings

Communication is at the heart of every human endeavour. And so

is the use of language at the centre of human communication. This applies

to the theatre because theatre is communication. Thus, there is need to

enhance communication skills. The researcher‟s exploration shows that

the use of metaphor and dialectics are among such language skills or

communication skills. Hence the use of language is a dynamic one. The

research found out that metaphor and dialectics communicate more

effectively than rhetoric which has been in use since the fifth century B.C.

The research shows that what appears to be mere rhetoric and

grandiloquence if carefully analyzed could be powerful metaphor and

strong dialectics which communicate truth to the society and improve the

aesthetics of art. This is evident in Irobi‟s works as seen in this research.

However, since everyday life involves someone influencing

another‟s perception of issues and events, which is the whole essence of

theatre and art in general, writers do not simply jettison rhetoric. They

simply borrow and employ one or two rhetorical perspectives. Aware of

the place of figurative and elevated language in African society, Esiaba

Irobi (the playwright under study) employs rhetorical strategies of

metaphor and dialectics as contemporary literary devices in his works

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especially Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die. These plays as studied

reveals that metaphor transfers the qualities of one object to the other in

such a way that it appears as if the second object is been talked of and

not the first, while dialectics examines and discusses ideas in other to

discover the truth. With these two literary devices, Esiaba Irobi is able to

communicate powerfully his revolutionary ideology in Nwokedi and

Hangmen Also Die which are themselves metaphors for the modern day

Nigerian situation. Irobi uses series of metaphors and dialectics in

Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die to condense succinctly, Nigeria‟s political

rigor mortise and socio-economic imbroglio. To direct these two Irobi‟s

plays therefore, a director must as a matter of paramountcy decode the

metaphors and dialectics first without which he will not be able to interpret

the plays for the audience effectively. The directors of the performances

mentioned in this research have shown through their directions that

Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die are very powerful and theatrically

effective plays that can move and inspire almost all kinds of audiences.

They have also shown that the success of Esiaba Irobi‟s plays on stage

lies heavily on the director‟s ability to decode and interpret the playwright‟s

metaphors and dialectics appropriately and propitiously.

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Recommendations

The Africa Society, as has been stated earlier, dwell so much on

figurative expressions as could be seen from her well stocked archives of

folklore – metaphor, proverbs, folksongs, legends, myths, folk riddles etc.

The audience in the African theatre is an active participant in the events

on stage. One of the ways to ensure the participation of the audience is to

ensure their mental participation through figurative and elevated language.

It is the recommendation of this research that contemporary playwrights

ensure the use of figurative and elevated language like metaphors,

dialectics and others. The playwrights should realize the way the Nigerian

mind is attuned to the powerful suggestions of rhetorically organized

language and figurative language and therefore, use such to make the

Nigerian audience to ponder; act and re- establish a sense of reality.

On the part of the director, it is the recommendation of this research

that every director develops an eagle‟s eye with which to fish out, analyze

and interpret every text distinctly; decode the metaphors and the dialectics

and even the rhetorical and grandiloquent dialogues and do his best to

externalize them clearly through a semantic sub textual interpretation for

effective actor-audience communication and for the enhancement of the

aesthetics of the theatre.

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No literary work should be simply dismissed with the wave of hand

or regarded as useless or difficult to understand or hermetic. The difficulty

or uselessness of any work in itself calls for critical study. The purported

difficulty of Soyinka‟s language, for instance, has given rise to several

critical works, academic dissertations and students‟ long essays. The case

should not be different with the plays of young writers like Esiaba Irobi.

Directors should take advantage of his great manipulation of metaphors

and dialectics and put up performances that are rich in information,

education, entertainment and aesthetics.

The analysis of Esiaba Irobi‟s language cannot be adequately

exhausted within the confines of this essay. The research is

recommending that further research be carried out on Esiaba‟s plays.

5.2 Conclusion

The researcher concludes that art is all about communication and

aesthetics and that metaphor and dialectics are essential communicative

tools as well as aesthetically valuable literary devices. Since societies

convey their meanings mostly, through metaphors, plays should as well,

contain adequate metaphors to enhance actor-audience communication.

There is need for directors to decode semantically the metaphors and

dialectics of playwrights through adequate interpretation of rhetoric and

74

grandiloquence. Without surmounting this feat, a play production may end-

up sending a wrong signal or may even serve mere entertainment and

loose the central focus of the theatre which is communication. When both

devices are properly mingled in a literary or theatrical work, it does have

lasting positive effects and lasting pictures on the lives and minds

respectively of the audience.

In the case of the plays under study the research concludes that

when a director decodes the metaphors and dialectics of any of the plays,

he will be in a better position to know the right movements, gestures,

transitions, voice modulations and tempo for every scene. And only when

he realizes these can his interpretation or performance be effective.

The research concludes that Nwokedi and Hangmen Also Die have

a lot of social relevance to the present day Nigeria and her nascent

democratic governance and must continue to be made to have that

bearing by directors in their interpretation of the plays.

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Integration” in Literature and Black Aesthetics. Ed Ernest Emenyonu. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, 1990. 328-40.

Johnson, Effiong. “Acting: The Myths, The Reality” in The Art of Acting: A

Student-Friendly Anthology. Effiong Johnson Ed. Lagos: Concept Publications Limited, 2005. 13-33.

Khan, Amadu Wurie. “Paradigms of Social Aesthetics in Themne Oral

Performance” in Oral Tradition, Vol 24. No1 (2009): 143-159.

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Nwabueze, Emeka. “Ranking of African Literary Writers and the Canonization of Texts” in Visions and Revisions: Selected Discourses on Literary Criticism. Emeka Nwabueze. Enugu: ABIC Publishers, 2003. 12-26.

Okunna, Emman. “Art, Aesthetics and Environment: An Inextricable

Partnership” in Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities Vol. VI (2004): 1-11.

Oyibo Eze, Nobert. “Meaning and Singificance in Esiaba irobi‟s Nwokedi

and Hangmen Also Die” in Okike 44, 2000. Schneider, Raymond. “The Visible Metaphor” in Communication

Education, Vol. 25, Issue 2, (1976): 121-126. Uwandu, D.N. (Ed). Theatre Experience: A Journal of Contemporary

Theatre Practice. Awka: Penmark Publsihers, 2002. ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Encyclopedia Americana Volume 9. U.S.A: Grolier Incorporated, 1994.

Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 26. U.S.A.: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc, 2003.

PLAYTEXTS

Irobi, Esiaba. Hangmen Also Die. Enugu: ABIC Books, 1989.

_________ Nwokedi. Enugu: ABIC Books, 1991.

_________ The Other Side of the Mask. Enugu: ABIC Books, 1999.

Nwosu, Canice. Hopes of the Living. Onitsha: Eagleman Books, 2009. Osofisan, Femi. No More The Wasted Breed. Ibadan: Longman Nigeria,

1982. Soyinka, Wole. Collected Plays 1. London: OUP, 1977.

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Utoh, Tracie Chima. Cauldron of Death. Awka: Valid Publishing Company, 2001.

NEWSPAPER

Rotimi, Ola. “Politics and the Nigerian Theatre Artiste” in The Guardian. 22 January, 1999. 20 + 22.

INTERNET/ELECTRONIC SOURCES

Azuonye, Nnorom.“My e-Conversation with Esiaba Irobi” in Sentinel. Feb. 2008. 29 Dec. 2009. <http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/magazine>

Duckworth, George E. “Rhetoric” in Microsoft Student Encyclopedia

(DVD). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007. Gasset, José Ortega. The Dehumanization of Art. May 2003. 24 Sept.

2009. <http://www.bartleby.com/dehumanization_gasset.> Lawley, James and Penny Tompkins. Learning Metaphor. 2005. 20 Aug.

2009. <http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/learningmetaphor.html>

New World Encyclopedia. 2008. 25 Aug. 2009. <http://www.newworld

encyclopedia .org> Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2002. 25 Aug. 2009. <http:

//www.plato.stanford.edu > Tompkins, Penny and James Lawley. The Magic of Metaphor. Aug. 2005.

20 Aug. 2009. <http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk.> _________ “Grandiloquence” in Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 2009. 26 Aug.

2009.<http://en.wikipedia.org/grandiloquence> _________ “Metaphor” in Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 2009. 26 Aug. 2009.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/metaphor> _________ “Rhetoric” in Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 2009. 26 Aug. 2009.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/rhetoric>.

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PERFORMANCES

Nwokedi. By Esiaba Irobi, directed by Nnanna Ndubisi and performed at New Arts Theatre, UNN in 2007 for the University Community.

Nwokedi. By Esiaba Irobi, directed by Esiaba Irobi and performed at

National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos in April 1988 for the Lagos branch of University of Nigeria Alumni Association.

A Harvest for Ants. By Kalu Uka, directed by Domba Asomba and

performed at New Arts Theatre, UNN in April 2008 for ANA and the University Community.

Hangmen Also Die. By Esiaba Irobi, directed by Uche Nwozuzu and

performed at New Arts Theatre, UNN in 2009 for the University Community.

Hangmen Also Die. By Esiaba Irobi, directed by Gerald Okafor and

performed at Women Development Centre, Awka in October 2009 for Actors Guild of Nigeria, Anambra State Wing.

Cauldron of Death. By Tracie Chima Utoh, directed by Ikechukwu Odum

and performed at Paul Robeson, UNN in July 2009 for the University Community.

The Other Side of the Mask. By Esiaba Irobi, directed by Paul Olisah and

performed at Theatre Village, NAU in May 2003 for Theatre Arts Department, NAU.