BOOK REVIEW - Humanities As Curative Prognosis for the Nigerian State: Culture and Communication, Literature, Theatre, Dance and Film

Quite a lot has been written by, and on Olu Obafemi as a scholar, critic and culture administrator. However, he has been mostly celebrated as a creative writer who occupies a notable space in the clan of African letters. He represents the essential spirits of second generation of Nigerian playwrights alongside Femi Osofisan, Bode Sowande, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Esiaba Irobi, Tess Onwueme, and Tunde Fatunde among others. He is identified, like his colleagues, with a radical theatrical aesthetics that is inspired by the need for revolutionary sociopolitical changes in the nation. Obafemi’s plays (Nights of a Mystical Beast, The New Dawn, Suicide Syndrome, Naira has no Gender, Dark Times are Over? and Ogidi Mandate attest his belief in human capacity to mend a world that is fiercely fragmented by violence, oppression, war, terrorism and inequality (of race, religion, gender and class). To him, in Humanities lies the hand that can straighten the crooked legs of postcolonial Nigeria in its descent into disorder. In creative writings especially the plays, he offers clear hope about Nigeria overcoming its rating as a third world nation in a dark continent. This overarching objective finds a more resonant articulation in his new book: Humanities As Curative Prognosis for the Nigerian State: Culture and Communication, Literature, Theatre, Dance and Film.

Keywords: Olu Obafemi Humanities Curative Prognosis Culture and Communication

Book Information

Title of Book: Humanities As Curative Prognosis for the Nigerian State: Culture and Communication, Literature, Theatre, Dance and Film
Author: Olu Obafemi
Publishers: Etchwise Consulting Limited
Pages: 338

Reviewer

• Gbemisola Adeoti