UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN THIS THESIS SUBMITTED BY ......................................................... ~ . WAS ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE O~ DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF ARTS OF THIS UNIVERSITY THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE AWARD IS ..................................i.9..9............................. ........................ ....:.k.~ .SECRETARY DATE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL ,-, "•..•. ) ~ITV UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY DEATH, NATIONALISM, LANGUAGE AND REVOLT IN J. M. sYNGE AND W9LE t?JYINKA - A THEMATIC STUDY' BY REUBEN ADELE.YE. ABATI B. A. H0n s (Calabar ), M.. A. (Iba cian) A thesis in the Depart~e~~ Of,TheatreArts Submitted to the Faeulty of Arts In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCT,oR DF PHILDSCfJHY UNIVERSITY or IBA~N MARCH, 1990. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY ii J ABSTRACT This thesis examines four themes in the plays of J.W. Synge and Wo.le S.oyinka - namely, death, nationalism, langLage and revolt - to represent the multiple aspects of conver- gence and divergence which a combined reading of their works reveals, and to appreciate the sensibilities, the social contexts and the significance (local and universal) of both writers. It is divided into six chapters: Chapter One: Introduction; Chap ter, Tw,q: Death in J'.M. Synge and Wole :" I • S.:Jyinka (Tharatomimesis ana Inana tOdi~~ .~Examined); Chapter. Three: J.M. Synge, 'W6Le"'-SOyinkeand the!tlIationalQuestion; • C'''' . . Chapter Four: Larrquaq er The Synge and' ~y;inka Experience; "1·-, (, Chapter Five: ~~odernisrra.nd the Theatre of Revolt: J. W. Synge and W~le 9Oyinka; Chapter Six: Conclusion. , The thesis advances four main propositions, viz: (a) Synge and S.oyinka express an abiding concern about the centrality of death in human experience; man, bnth writers contend, is, in the midst of life, in death; hence ,they paint an artistic landscape in which the individual urge to assert itself is often subverted by the reality or the threat of death, thus giving vent to UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY iii the idea that death is the ultimatum of life. (b) 8eith writers have been dismissed as a-nationa.l in their respective countries, not just because they are incapable of political thought, as has been alleged in Synge's case, or unpatriotic,as alleged in both cases, but because of their r-ef'u saI to embrace the reductionist and exclusivist literary dogma preached by the ultra-nationalists in their societies. Both of thernadvocate the freedom of the creative instinct from ideological fetters and assign themselves the task of desecrating the sacr-e d gods of their time with the belief that truth, as opposed to flattery, should be the oyster of art; and it is perhaps this critical detachment and objectivity that constitutes true nationalist writing. (c) Synge and ~oyinka, like many writers, accord language a pre-eminence in their scale of artistic tools; of particular interest is their foregrounding of language; that is, the fluency with which their language attains performative dimensions and generates visual and aural impulses, and the implications of this for the theatrical communication of their plays. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY iv (d) A search for the root of both writers' sensibility must be traced, in part, to the mOdernist temperament of their works manifest not only in their 'avant- garde' utilisation of language but more contextually in their revolt against preconceived existential and social notions and ethos. In sum, this thesis attempts to give intim3tions of the individual genius of both writers, situate them within their social and historical contexts, and assess their universal value; the parallels between them are highlighted but their differences are not overlooked. On the whole, however, this exercise can represent only the beginning of a more complex discussion of both writers, particularly with regards to their backgrounds: the Anglo-Irish National Theatre Wovement and the Modern Nigerian Theatre of the pre-Independence and post-Independence eras. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY v ACKNDWLEDGEMENTS I ~hould like to express my gratitude to the various people whose kindness and goodwill helped to make the writing of this thesis a less tedious experience than it would otherwise have been. Professor Dapo• Adelugba supervised me patiently and methodically and gave me free access to his academic resources. He introduced me to the subject area investigated in this thesis and also linked me up with other researchers in the field. Under him, I also received instruction in research methods, hard work and the fundamental tenets of the pedago- gical faith. I wish to thank him for his kindness and I hope that my post-doctoral work would justify all the efforts he has made to give me a good foundation as a scholar and student of theatre arts theory and c~ticism. -' I also wish to thank my parents for silently enduring the hardships which the cost of my long stay in school has imposed on them and the entire family. Throughout the period of my research, Tejumo.la O.laniyan of Cornell UniverSity, New York and Mr. Dip~ Kalejaiye of Oakland, California, U.S.A. sent me many useful documents; UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY vi Oludele Akinbo•ade, a D.Phil. student at the University of Oxford, shared his own experiences with me; Mr Dip~ Irele, Or. Fe.m.i Fatoba and Mr. S.o.la Fosudo of the University of Ibadan lent me some of their books; Professor Michael O'Neill of Cheekpoint, Waterford, Ireland, whose acquiantance I made in 1987 during his visit to the University of Ibadan at the invi tation of Professor Adelugba, ha s given me much encourage-' ment since his return to Ireland, Or. (Mrs.) Oany Lyndersay of Hilversum, Holland, my former tutor at the University of Calabar, whose final year on the Ph.D. programme, coincided with my first year on the programme, gave me a fore-knowledge of the demands of the doctoral programme; w option. goyinka's works, with the exception of Ake, 233 have not yet been translated into indigenous African languages but they contain a consciousness of the indigenous tongue since ~yinka writes in a powerful English which at appropriate times aspires to and attains the flavour of "Yorubanglish" •234 This may not invalid3 te the charge of obscurity which Wali and the "bolekaja" troika level against him but it dilutes their view that he is exclusively euro- modernist. There is also much evidence to show that §oyinka, contrary to the troika's argument, is committed to the African cause. Far from perpetuating the European hegemony, his plays are dispa ssd.onate interroga tions of African history - past and contemporary - with particular interest in the political evolution of the continent in its moral UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 294 and sociological imports. The modernist apparels of ~yinka's works are a confession of the fact of colonialism which no African writer can escape even when he pretends to the contrary; and these, we hope to argue more fully in Chapter Five, are not opposed to Af r-i.ce n literature as Chinweizu~ ale would have us believe. For all its modernist gestures however, S•oyinka's creativity is rooted in his traditional Yoruba background. As we have demonstrated elsewhere with "The Fourth Stage" and Death and the King's Horseman, 235 this back- ground reflects in his writings as the aesthetic foundation of his vision and a s the source of his metaphors, raw materials and linguistic idiom. It is this that establishes ~yinka, in the first instance, as a cultural nationalist. Many scholars have discussed this at length,236 ::pyinka himself attests to it severally: I cannot claim a transparency of communi- cation even from the sculpture, music and poetry of my own people the Yoruba, but the aesthetic matrix is the fount of my own creative inspiration; it influences my critical response to the creation of other cultures and validates selective eclecti- cism as the right of every productive being, scientist or artist. 237 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 295 in other words, I have long been preoccupied with the process of apprehending my own world in its full complexity, also through its contemporary progression and distortions - evidence of this is present both in my creative work and in one of my earliest essays, The Fourth Stage.23B ~ Further, the claim by the "bolekaja" critics and W.H. Stevenson that S.oyinka's tigritude outcry stifled the growth of nationalist consciousness in Nigerian literature amounts to an avoidance of the facts of history. The negritude phenomenon in Africa WaS largely a Francophone affair as it WaS received with less enthusiasm in Anglo- phone Africa. This difference in reception must be traced to the different colonial experiences undergone by both blocks: Francophone Africa was subjected by France to an assimilationist policy with the intention of de-Africanizing and so, Frenchifying it completely. Thus, French colonia- lism waS more deliberately imperialist and racist; whereas in Anglophone Africa, Britain, through its indirect rule policy, asserted its might yet left a lacuna which allowed the survival of indigenous traditions. Consequently, while post-colonial Francophone Africa felt culturally disoriented; hence a need to return to its UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 296 native roots; its Anglophone cousin was less desperate •. In Nigeria, for example, while the negritude renaissance gripped Africa in the sixties, mgny Nigerian writers were reluctant to embrace its racist and propagandist cultural doctrines. This indifference is summarised in a communique issued b.y- the Society of Nigerian Writers founded in 1962, jointly signed by Ekwensi, Achebe, Nzekwu, Clark and W~le S.oyinka: Nigerian writers are free to treat the subjects they wish ••• writing does not germinate in the air but is the result of social and other pressures, allied with the desire for self-expression. The great theme of Africa today is the problem which concerns the entire continent and its leaders: the new national status, the arrival on the international scene, the national construction, the search far the right path in a wor-ld torn by opposing ideologies. 239 It may be argued, in the light of this evidence, that S.oyinka's anti-negritude stance is both an expression of his own revulsion against the hegemonis~tion of propaganda and literary provincialism and exclusiveness; and alsa an articulation of general Anglophone indifference tOWards negritude. If this is true, it is wrong then to accuse UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 297 him of single-handedly stifling the growth of nationalist consciousness in Nigerian literature. The truth is that his activities, particularly in the areas of drama and the~re, establish him as a true nationalist. Soyinka has• always frowned upon the slavish imitation of European artistic modes and encouraged the creation of a virile indigenous dramatic arts tradition. These are nothing if not the actions of a nationalist. His" 1960 Masks", a theatre group, founded soon after his return to Nigeria in 1960 and later supplemented by a younger troupe called "Orisun Theatre" in 1964 marked the beginning of an indigenous literary tradition in Nigerian theatre. Around this time, there were other theatre groups like The Players of the Dawn, formed in 1959 by some young , - gra duates r'esa.dent'an Iband,a 240 the Unt..ver at..ty 0f Ibadan Dramatic Society, the Arts Theatre Production Group and John Ekwere's Ogui Players known as the Eastern Nigerian Theatre Group. Although these other groups produced indigenous plays, the aspiration to promote indigenous dramatics was most successfully realised by the Soyinka group. o The example of the Orisun theatre engendered further interest in theatre arts and also inspired many young UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 298 dramatists for whom S.oyinka became a mOdel. The Orisun, like the Abbey, although in a slightly different manner, wa~also a national theatre and W?le ~yinka, its founder and leader, is to be credited for this achievement. Even after the demise of this group, §oyinka, in his teaching posts at the Universities of Lba can, Lagos and Ife. (now Obafe.mi Awolo~wo. University) continu8d to contribute to the growth of Nigerian drama both by personal example and by instruction. With Synge, we established a case of cultural nationa- lism and admitted, with several qualification.:sand reserva- tions, that he waS indifferent to politics •. With ~yinka, we are confronted with a marriage of cultural-and political nationalism. Unlike Synge, ~yinka has always played an active role in politics by allegedly holding a radio station at gun-point, staging one-man demonstrations against the killing of Nigerian students by the police, joining a political party, expressing political opinions in newspaper articles, making anti-government speeches, by condemning the tyranny of Idi Amin, Bokassa and Sese Seko, the incompetence of Shagari, the corruption of Go.•o•n..or the insensitivity of Buhari and Idiagbon or by accepting government appointments. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 299 In all these instances, his political goal is the same as his artistic goal namely the defence and the promotion of the humanistic and the national ideal. Let us repeat, for the sake of emphasis, that the issue at stake in a discussion of S.oyinka' s nationalisrr.is not, as in Synge's case, one of justification and r-a t.LonaLfsat.Lon for the simple reason that 9Dyinka's nationalism - political and cultural - is more or less, as earlier stated, an accepted fact. What seemS to deserve discussion, in our view, are some of the misconceptions which have dogged discussions of ~yinka's nationalism by other scholars, particularly the tendency to approach the subject from two divergent, extremist positions. One extreme, represented by the Wali - "bolekaja" axis, disrrlisses9Dyinka as anti- African and a-national; the other, represented by Peter Nazareth, Bruce King' and Femi Osofisan, claims that 1pyinka is pro-negritude and culturally narcissistic in some of his wri ting s, The fallacies at the heart of the former have already been highlighted, it is time to contend with the latter position. But first, the truth of the matter is that Soyinka C' belongs to no extremes. It is difficult to pigeon-hole him UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 300 into any .particular frame of sympathy. The fact that there is no .stance r d consensus a s to whether he is completely anti or pro-negritude is a. sa Lutar-y indication of thi s, A more dialectical interrogation of his plays reveals no evidence to prove that he consciously, as alleged, promotes either the indigenous tra di tion or its 'Nestern rival. In their discussions of The Lion and the Jewel, Peter Nazareth and Bruce King both describe the playas pro- negritude since in it, it is the traditional world-view that t·rl.um,p he,241 In his "Ritual and the Revolutionary Ethos", Femi OsofiS3n divides ~yinka' s works into two broad categories: those that are written in "a conscious Negritu- dist zeal" and those in which he attempts a dialectical interrogation of history. The fDrmer category is represented by Death and the King's Horseman, The Strong Breed and Idanre, the latter by The Road, Madmenand Specialists and Ogun Abibiman. "The first category of works are usually written 'in exile' in reaction to some racist attack on the African culture"; hence what we have for example in Death and tb.g King's Horseman, say s OsofiS3n, is a "narcissism which seems to reinforce a deca dent order". 242 This is not true. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 301 Soyinka's writings, where the issue of nationalism . • is concerned, contrary to the claim of the Wali-Bolekaja axis, do not seem to celebrate Euromodernism nor do they seem to celebrate negritude a s Nazareth, King and 0 sofisan opine. Granted that there is usually an interaction of two world-views in S.oyinka' splay s but he does not confess any allegiance to either of these. Even when the resolution of the conflict seems to be in favour of the Western world-view as in Kongi"'s Harvest or the traditional as in The Lion and Jewel and Death and the King's HorsemaD, the apparent success is merely a carapace for a more fundamental critical interrogation of socia-historical configurations. This is the pattern in A Dance of the Forests, written in commemoration of Nigeria' s i~dependence celebrations in 1960. Because of its historical significance, it is logical to expect this play to . celebrate the African heritage and flatter the ego of the newly independent nation and that of its lea ders but it does not. Traces of cultural nationalism ho~ever abound in it as in many of ~yinka's plays. First, it a dopts a story-telling forrrat, and employs local proverbs, idioms and performance modes. It is designed in form of a festival and the characters, particularly Agboreko and Obarieji UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 302 speak in (in English with a Yoruba flavour. Also noteworthy is the play's anthropomorphic portrayal of gods, its heavy leanings on orature and Yoruba cosmological beliefs evident in S.,oyinka' s portraiture of Dead man and Dead woman, in the setting of the play in the forest; and also in the use of masks and disguise in the characterization of Eshuoro. These cultural evocations of national identity are however not harnessed for the purpose of eulogy but to highlight the contradictions in the history of a newly independent state. A Dance of the Forests does not dramatise a confron- tation between two world-views but between two generational gaps, the past and the present, with a prognosis of the future. Soyinka's portraiture of the past is of particular relevance • • The play was written at a period when negritude was in full swing and it was then the norm to describe the past in idyllic terms but here, S•oyinka reveals that the past, contrary to the expectations of those living in the present, is not a rOmantic idyll but a morbid terrain fraught with corruption and bestiality. Hence, the ancestors who are invited to the Gathering .of the Tribes are not illustrious as Adenebi and other UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 303 members of the council had thoug'ht but lackeys, oppcr-tio- nists and uninspiring degenerates. .The living therefore flee from the dead in order to avoid contamination but in a sharp satirical swipe, l?Oyinka establishes that they have no moral justifications to condemn the dead because they are equally guilty of the same offences which they accuse the dead of. The present, ~yinka establishes, is an extension of the past and both levels of existence are "linked in violence and blood". 243 Human existence as depicted in the play is a cyclic exercise in futility. Dead Wan claims to have lived thrice and for him, each existence, was the same pattern of victimisation and futility. The future, like the past and the present is, as argued in the preceding chapter, tainted by the prospect of death. Interpreted in the light of nationalism, A Dance of ttleForests suggests that human experience is gloomy because of man's inhuman and unnationalistic tendencies - his love of war, graft, corruption, bigotry, hypocrisy, self- romanticization. These inadequacies are given a symbolic edge by the depiction of the intolerance and rivalry between UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 304 Ogun and Eshuoro - gods who because of their elevated con- consciousness are expected to be saner than men but whose actions reveal that they themselves are not immuned from the imperfections which necessitate the collapse of man's historical process. The central moral of the play to man, universally;. and particularly to the Nigerian nation, for whose -- independence it was specially commissioned, is that thehuman estate and the national estate can survive only when man begins to re-examine himself morally and avoid the kind of perversions which run through Mata Kharibu's court in the past and the city council in the present. S.oyinka establishes this without any ideological or historical fixation. In~gi's Harvest, the forces of tradition and modernism, represented by Oba Danlola and Kongi respectively are brought into conflict. The issue at stake and the central metaphor is the New Yam and the motivating question - Who will eat the new yam? Dba Danlola being the spiritual leader of the community is traditionally the first person who is supposed to taste the yam, bless it and then declare it fit for communal consumption; but Kongi, having come into UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 305 power as the new Head of State, decides to usurp this function. To DartLcLa and his fellow traditionalists, this is a taboo; consequently, they resist Kongi's decree but Kongi is adamant. The eating of the new yam must be seen only a s a symbolic event, a mere metaphor serving as a vehicle of dramatic action. The major thematic thrust of the play is on power and its intricate dynamics and the dominant picture here, as in A cance of the Forests and Opera Wonyosi, is that power is a potent intoxicant capable of sending man into fits of delusion. Beneath Kongi's crave for the new yam is a desperate desire to acquire DanLoLa t s spiritual power, which results from his role as the first-sater'of the new yam, and add it to his own'political power in order to realise his dream of becoming an absolute ruler who is not just the" EPIRIT OF HAAR-VEST!" 244 but also the author of life and death. But what must be noted is that Soyinka does not take • sides in this confrontation between Danlola and Kongi; nor does he attempt to portray either of them as the ideal form of leadership. Even though Kongism appears aggressive and UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 306 hence unsympathetic, and Danlolaism appears sympathetic because it is the victim of various brands of aggression, at the end of the conflict, our sympathy goes neither way. What we are left with is the r-eaIdsat.Lcn that neither Kongi nor Danlola is ideal for Isma. Danlola's power is people-centred, spiritual, level- headed and wise but it is exploitative in certain wayS. And because of its illiteracy, it can hardly survive the new trend of politics and hence appears inadequate for contemporary Isms. There is therefore a need for its replacement by a new order but Kongi who proposes himself as the alternative is hardly appropriate too. His power is too absolute, inhuman, unpopular and narcissistic. Its rule can only spell doom and d~cay and it is perhaps in order to highlight this negativism that 9Dyinka surrounds Kongi with symbols of oppression and repression. To drive home the inadequacy of both levels of power; neither of them is allowed to eat the new yam. Through a combined use of blackmail, force and coercion, Kongi succeeds in compelling Danlola to give up his right to eat the yam and as the feast of the new yam is celebrated, it does appear as if Kongi would realise his dream: UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 30? / 7- (The rhythm of the pounding emerges trium-phant, the dance grows frenzied. Above it allan the dais, Kongi, getting progressively inspired harangues his audience in words drowned in the bacchanal. He exhorts, declaims, reviles, cajoles, damns, curses, vilifies, excommunicates, execrated until he is a demonic mass of sweat and f'oam at the lips) (p.131). Oescribed as such, Kongi cuts the picture of an acolyte. at an orgy, intoxicated and lost in the mass mixture of euphony and language and a s he engages in this auto-drama ti- sation, the play reaches its climax and he, the main prota- gonist, prepares for what is perhaps the most important moment in his political career: Sagi returns, disappears into the area of pestles. A copper salver is raised suddenly high, it passes from hands to hands above the women's headS; they dance with it on their heads ; ••• (pp.131-132). This is clearly Kongi's moment of triumph. His happiness is imaginable as the salver is thrown from one to the other until at last it reaches Kongi's table and Segi throws open the lid. In it the head of an old man. In the ensuing scramble, no one is left but Kongi and the head, Kongi's mouth wide open in speeChless terror. A sudden blackout on both (p.132). UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 308 Thus, the feast of the New Yam ends with a sharp reversal of expectations and within .the short sequence quoted above, the play moves sharply from comedy·to the borderlines of tragedy. The.t Kongi is served" the head of and old man" instead of the new yam, illustrates the futility of his ambitions and establishes, with finality, the suggestion that he is neither the spirit of harvest nor a life-giving spirit but an agent of death and destruction. Thus, he fails at the very moment he expects success; in the ironic manner of all heroes who, like him, lay too much premium on their own understanding of reality. When these heroes are humbled by harsh empiricism, they hardly evoke our sympathy. Hence, Kongi' s "speechless terror" would seem to be a just recompense for his megalomaniac fits in the preceding scenes. By the time the drama resumes, the Organising Secretary is in flight; Danlola is engaged in a "rapid dialogue with (his) legs" (p.135) and for both political opponents, all roads have suddenly become one and self preservation becomes the only code of survival. In the midst of all these, the fate of the nation remains uncertain: UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 309 What happens now? The hornets' nest Is truly stirred. What happens to The sleeping world? [p, 136). Kong!' s Harvest ends with a question mark and with an ambiguous coda, without resolving the conflicts it drama- tises. With the deflation of Kongi and the flight of Danlola into exile, the two major antagonists in the drama are denied any easy victory and neither of them is presented by the dra~atist as the ideal in the struggle for political leadership in the play. The underlying suggestion is that they, are both greatly flawed, incapable of steering the ship of the state competently. Existing side by side with these two levels of power is a third level, namely the Daodu-Segi entente, which appears to be an alternative to Oanlolaism and Kongism. This level represents a level of moderation; that is, a kind of balance between both extremes. It embodies the good qualities of Danlola and Kongi but without their excesses. In other words, Daodu and Segi possess the spiritual power and traditional wisdom of Danlola. They also possess the educated snobbery of the Kongists. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 310 .. They therefore appear to be the ideal form of leader- ship in the play and accordingly, they attempt to displace the other power-groupings. Oaodu and Ssgi are rebels and at the same time, Frye's "pharmakos" - sacr-Lf'LctIialambs who have to use themselves to check the excesses of the "one individual pole" whom Frye calls II the tyrant leader ••• who commands loyalty only if he is egocentric enough to represent the collective ego of his followers" •245 .---- It is instructive that the prize-winning yam at the feast of the new yam is from [)aodu's farm and also that it is prepared by Segi and her women. [)aoduappears, on account of this, as the spirit of harvest instead of Kongi. Oanlolaism and Kongism placed besides the Oaodu-Segi entente would appear selfish and unattractive devoted as they are , . to the perpetuation of personal fancies and the servicing of superstitions. [)aodu and Segi are forces of change, harbingers of a more promising political machinery. But at the end of the play,'they fail to displace the older powers; perhaps because their success would have amounted to an arithmetic and overtly optimistic resolution of dramatic conflict. By making them fail, S•oyinka ends / UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 311 the play on an ambiguous, objective note and the spectator is left to resolve the conflicts, in his own imagination as he contemplates the possibilities of pessimism and optimism which mark the ending of the play. Thus Kongi' s Har~~, through its ciramatisation of power-politics, presents three brands of nationalism: Danlolaism, Kongism and the Oaodu-Segi entente and in his characteristic dispassionate interrogation of social history, Soyinka betrays no allegiance to any of these. Kongi's tlsrvest, like A Dance of the Fore~, is a moral tale with a satiric edge. Two brands of nationalism are dramatised in The Lion and the Jewel: the traditional represented by Saroka and the modern represented by Lakunle and the pattern of conflict between them invites parallels with the confrontation between Danlola and Kongi in Kongi' s Harvest. Danlola and Kongi compete for the New Yam but here, it is Sidi, the village belle of Ilujinle, that is the bone of contention as Saroka and Lakunle compete for her hand in marriage. The parallels between the New Yam and Sidi must be noted: the struggle for both represents a symbolic competition for power and authority and a contest between two brands of leadership. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 312 In The Lion and the Jewel, Saroka wins and lakunle . loses but this resolution does not translate into a preference f for Saroka's brand of authority, as Bruce King and.Peter NaZareth have argued. 246 ~yinka may appear to be on the side of tradition as represented by Saroka but the truth is that ~yinka, as in Kongi~ Harvest, does not portray either of the two conflicting types of leadership as ideal. lakun1e loses but Saroka even in victory also appears vacant and fraudulent. The dominant impression is that both of them are flawed and they represent two undesirable extremes of political leadership. lakun1e, in spite of his eloquence and flair for dramatics, is ultimately a victim of inferiority complex, and a Short-sighted neo-ico Lnnda I agitator. He dreams of progress and civilization but his dream amounts to a se1f- denying Eurocentrism. Finding nothing good in his own indigenous custom and culture, he romanticizes European cu1ture and dismisses his own race a s "a race of savages". 247 He is however an appropriately comedic character. He carries himself with much aplomb and conviction but the fact that he is black deflates his European pretensions and the more he repudiates indigenous ways and espouses Europeanisms, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 313 .the more risible he becomes. That he loses Sidi eventually is a just illustration of the impotence of his boasts and dreams. At a satirical level, he is a caricature of the educated and the half-educated native - the cultural albino who because of a chance encounter with white ways insists on becoming whiter than the European and more Biblical than the cleric. Lakunle is an extreme example of this specie and it seems ~yinka set.shim up to ridicule the self- abdication that waS common in the colonial and early post- colonial period with educated Africans. Baroka occupies an opposite cultural pole. In his own case, he opposes any intrusion of Western culture into Ilujinle on the assumption that such intrusions would disrupt the cultural stability of the community. For example he bribeS the surveyor to ensure that the railway line is not brot,lghtto Ilujinle but Baroka, like Lakunle, is a specious culturologist. His defence of indigenous culture amounts to a desperate attempt to cling on to a vanishing mythology of the self as opposed to a genuine patriotic effort. Is it not ironic that it is the same Baroka who opposes the erection of the railway line who UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 314 engages in an infantile fascination with a maga~ine and a stamp-printing machine, obvious artifacts of Western culture? Saroka is deflated by contradictions such as this with the most outstanding being the fact that the aspects of indigenous culture which he admdttedly propagates are those which enable him to engage in a vainglorious game of ego-massage involving the erection of"a harem, lascivious escapades and engagement in wily schemes which are unbecoming for a man of his office. He cuts the picture of an undignified village chief and it is doubtful if S•byinka intended him to be anything other than a caricature. He may win Sidi at the end but that he does so through cunning schemes is a further comment on his moral ineptitude. His victory is an easy one, accordingly requiring no celebration; for if Lakunle had agreed to pay the bride price earlier on, the pendulum of dramatic action could easily have swung differently. The resolution of the play is therefore a mere dramatic event, a logical, inevitable resolution of the conflict, the unstated fundamentalist resolution of the play is that neither Saroka nor Lakunle represents the ideal political UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 315 leadership: the ideal lies perhaps as in the [)aodu-Segi entente in Kongi's Har~, in a reconciliation of the good sides of both tendencies. Soyinka'sapproach to the subject of nationalism, • especially where the use of traditional culture is involved and where this culture is juxtaposed with its Western counterpart, as in A Dance of the Forest§, Kongi's Harve~ and The Lion and the Je~l, would perhaps seem to attain a wider significance in a discussion of Death and the King's Horseman since in this play, the two cultures under refere- nce are brought together in a most decisive dramatic opposi tion. S~oyinka objects to this line or interpretation and warns against the tendency to reduce the play to "a clash of cultures". 248 "The confrontation in the play", he say s , I.. "is largely metaphysical, contained in the human vehicle which is Elesin and the universe of the Yoruba mind - the world of the living, the dead and the unborn, and the numinous passage which links all: transition".249 Elsewhere, he writes that his purpose is to "epochalise History for its mythopoeic resourcefulness". 250 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 316 The mythopoeic and metaphysical factors of the play are indeEd very much patent but of equal thematic value, hence of intellectual concern, is the sociological factor of the play represented by the cultural confronta tion . between the indigenes and the Pilkingses. The colonial factor is not, as S.oyinka claims, a "catalytic incident merely". 251 The confrontation in the play is partly a confrontation between two brands of nationalism - the indigenous and the modern; and easily, the characters can be categorised into two camps of opposition. On one hand are the indigenes - Praise-singer, Elesin, Iyaloja, the market women, the young girls and Olunde, on the other - the Pilking ses, Joseph, The Resident, The Prince and the Aide- de-camp. Standing mid-way bet~een .these two camps and useful not only for the comedy which arises from his antics but also for the fact that his cultural vacillation represents the kind of contradictions in colonial Africa and the manner in Which colonialism fragmented individual persona- lities into a mesh of opposing alliances and tendencies is Sergeant Amusa. The confrontation between the two camps arises from a conflict in the discharge of their duties as defined by UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 31? their individual cultural world-views, both world-views are diametrically opposed and each camp, in true nationalist spirit, insists on protecting and asserting the integrity of its own world-view. This is the logic which underscores the confrontations between Elesin and Pilkings, between Iyaloja, the market women, the young girls and Arnu sa, although the caveat must be added here that Amusa is not propagating the European culture but merely performing his official duty. "I am bere", he says, "on official business" (p.34). "You know me, I no like trouble but duty is duty". (P. 36). Critics must avoid the error of assuming that the play superiorises one culture and inferiorises the other. Osofisan's claim for example that the play is written in conscious negri tudist zeal to "reinforce a decadent order" is not validated by the text. The moral tone of the play may seem to indict the illogicality and the unwisdom of the actions of the Pilkingses and by extension, of the entire colonial apparatus, but the moral failure of this nationalist camp does not translate into a superiorisation of its opposite. The indigenes are admittedly accorded a moral UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 318 victory but it is a victory with a question mark and an implied contextual interrogation of their own world-view. The indigenes eventually achieve their desir~ to send a horseman after their late king in order to restore communal balance and well-being but far from reinforcing this tradition, S•oyinka subjects it to a dialectical inter- rogation. With the death of Elesin and Olunde, the future of the horseman tradition becomes uncertain. According to tradition, only first-barns inherit this social responsibility and if tradition is to be followed, Olunde's first-born should be the next Elesin, but within the context of this drama, Olunde has no child yet. The result is that the community would be ultimately compelled to re-examine its carrier-tradition. Through the confrontation between them and the Pilkingses, the playwright seems to be highlighting the dialectics which new socia-political realities impose on their culture. Interpreted thus, Elesin, at a sociological level, would therefore appear to be a victim of change and circum- stances because if the social context were pre-colonial, that is, if Pilkings had not intervened, he, despite his other shortcomings would still have succeeded in entering UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 319 J the metaphysical gulf of transition: "I would have shaken it off", he says, "already my foot had already begun to lift but then, the white ghost entered and all was defiled" [p,65). The entrance of the white ghost refers, at a wider level, to the phenomenal intervention of colonialism in the indigenous setting with its attendant socio-political implications, the most central being that it attempts to change the entire epistemological landscape of the indigenes. Pilkings then is a symbol of colonialism and his actions represent the kind of change which the phenomenon imposes on the life of the colonized. Iyaloja waxes eloquent about the horseman tradition .and rebukes Elesin, but as the community follows her bidding and turns to the futur~, it.would eventually be realised that the Elesin incident is merely a beginning of the changes which they wIDuld experience in their world not necessarily out of their own faults, but because society is in a state of flux. §oyinka emphasizes this flux and hence raises doubts about the survival of the horseman tradition and other communal traditions as the indigenous setting grapples with the winds of change imposed by colonial and UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 320 post-colonial reality. This soci·ological change also invariably affects the mythopoeic and mythical heritage of the community. ConclusioU This chapter has this far examined nationalism in the writings of Synge and S.oyinka. In Synge's case, our concern has been to combat the charges of anti-nationalism that have been levelled against him and on the contrary, justify him as a nationalist writer. In S.oyinka's case, such justifi- cations are hardly necessary since his nationalism is not so much in doubt, hence, we concerned ourselves with an examination of two of the gross misconceptions which have coloured discussions of S.oyinka-'s nationalism by other. scholars. In conclusion, let us state that those who seek in Synge and S.oyinka a propagandization of the racial or tribal or national heritage and cause or even of a particular a ttitudinal tendency; and those who disni ss them a sa-national for the same reason, are engaged in a haZardous academic exercise. In their treatments of the national question, both writers are more concerned with higher nationalism, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 321 already defined as a search for truth and a basically humanistic aspiration. Synge's cultural nationalism and S~oyinka's cultural/politicalnationalisn are har'ne ssed to fulfil this aspiration. It is important that the weight of polemics and literary history swing in favour of both writers. That S,oyinka is a national writer, for example, is an accepted fact. Synge who waS once dismissed as unnational later appeared to have anticipated post-colonial Irish nationalist writing as writers like Brendan Behan, Mervyn Will, John Montague, Michael Farrell and James plunkett adopted, in their portraiture of contemporary Ireland, a tone of skepti- cism and irreverence which is largely reminiscent of Synge. Is it not also ironic that Synge is accepted today as one of Ireland's leading nationals? Take The Playboy. This play which Was once rumoured to have been kept in the Abbey repertory in order to indispose the English public mind against Home Rule252 is now regarded as one of the landmarks of the Abbey. Is it not surprising and amusing that when the Abbey company, in 196B, had a special audience with the Pope, they presented him with a rare edition, bound in white UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 1 322 leather of that play which once caused riots: The Playbo);' of the ~tern Wor!£:? 253 Synge invites parallels with Hamsun,· Celine ,.Cervantes, Faulkner and Dante - writers who avoided politics and the nationalist insurgence of their time but who are no less nationalist on that account. S~oyinka however is a man of politics and action. His political nationalism reinforces his literary nationalism. B oth writers are conscious of the pitfalls of national consciousness. Synge, writing in a colonial context, dramatised these pitfalls and sought to caution his compatriots. ~yinka, writing in a post- colonial context, highlighted them and the extent to which they have traduced post-colonial ideals. The condemnation of both writers on nationalist grounds arises from their refusal to follow the bandwagon syndrome of nationalist thinking with all its errors of exclusiveness. In Synge's ca se, this means an opposition of the Gaelic League, in S.oyinka, a rejection of Negritude • Both writers attempt, in their works, a privatist, individualist and objective interpretation of reality. These works embody strong allegorical and ethical implica- UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY tions for the state and man but these are often ignored and misunderstood because they are not cast in the explicit, eulogistic mode of political sloganeering favoured by ultra- nationalists. By adopting this approach, Synge and S•oyinka emerge as true artists for true art is hardly propagandist. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 324 NOTES 1K•H• Minogue, Nationalism (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1969), p. 22.---- 2earlton- J.H. Hayes, ESsays on Nationali-sm (New York: Russel and Russel, 1966), p , 1. 3tJinogue, p , 31: "A nation", Milimogue Vl:Tites, "is a living component of nationalism". 4Elie Kedourie, Nationalism (London: Hutchinson and Co. Ltd., 1960), pp , 12-31. 5See Ernest Renan, "Qu'est-ce qu+une Nation? (1882), quoted in Kedourie, p. 81; also in Louis L. Snyder (ed.) The Dynamics of Nationa1i.§!!!.t.J3~.Eings in its meaning and ~velopment (princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company Inc., 1964), pp. 9-10; also quoted in Royal Institute of International Affairs, Nationalism: A Report by a Study Grou of Members of the Ro al Institute of International Affairs London, New York, Toronto; Oxford University Press, 193'9'J":-p. 259. 6K•H• Silvert, "The Strategy of the Study of Nationa- lism' K.H. Silvert (ed.), Expectant Peoples: Nationalism and Self Development (by the American Universities Field Staff), with a preface by Kenneth W. Thompson (New York: Vintage Books, 1963), p , 19. "Nationalism is the acceptance--ofthe sta te a s the impersonal and ultima te arbiter of human affairs"" 7Halvan Koht, "The Dawn of Nationalism in Europe" louis Snyder (ed.), p , 30: "That nationalism cannot exist without nations is self-evident". For further discussions of the concept, see F.H. Hinsley, Nationalism and the International ~~ (New York: Oceana Publications Inc., 1973), Chapter UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRAR 325 Four: "Concepts of the Nation", p. 5Sf.; also see K.R. Minogue, Chapter Five: "The Equipment of a Proper Nation", pp. 114-132; and see Chapter XIV of Royal Institute of International Affairs, Nationalism: A Report ••• : "The Nature of Nation~1 pp. 254-259. SH. Munro Chadwick, The Nationalities of Europe and The Growth of National Ideologies~mbridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), p, 3: "Although patriotism and nationalism tend to coalesce, they are apparently of different origins •••"• 9non Luigi Sturzo, "Nationalism as an ism" Louis Snyder ( ed, ), p.. 22: To confound patriotism with nationalism is to err not only linguistically but also politically. Nevertheless we have to admit that for many the two substantives were and are quite equivalent. 10For a full discussion of this view, see John Stuart Mill, "Of Nationality, as Connected with Representative Government" in Louis Snyder (ed.), pp , 2-4. cf. Carlton J.H. Hayes, Essays on Nationalism, pp. 16-21; cf, H.A.L. Fd sher , The common weal (London, 1924), p, 195 quoted in Louis Snyder, "The Historian's Understanding of Nationalism" in. Snyder (ed.), p. 26: What is essential to the growth of the national spirit is a common history - common sufferings, common triumphs, common achievements, common memories, and it may be added, common a spirations. Also see Abdullah-al-alayili, "What is Arab Nationalism?" Sylvia G. Haim (ed.) Arab Nationalism: An Anthology (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 120-127. Alayili outlines the following as the factors which engender national feeling: Language, interest, the geographical environment, ancestry, history and customs. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 326 11For a discussion of Arab nationalisr., see Sylvia G. Haim (ed.) ~b Nationalism: An Anthology (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1976). 12Hugh ~ton-Watson, Nationalism and Communism: ESsays; 194&-1963) (London: Methuen and Co. Lt d, , 1964), p.? 13Abdullah-al-Alayili, in Sylvia G. Haim (ed.) p. 122 cf , Royal Institute of International Affairs, p , XVI: "Among other difficulties which impede the study of 'nationalism' that of language holds a leading place". 14E• Haugen, "Dialect, Language, Nation" J.P. Pride and Janet Holmes (eds.) Sociolinguistics (England: Penguin Books Ltd., 19B2), p , 103. 15Quoted in Kedourie, p. 64. 16See Briefe au Beforderung der Humanitat, Br. 10, Vol.1, (Riga, 1?93), pp. 14&-148 quoted in Carlton J.H. Hayes, pp. 53-54. 1?For a full account of Fichte's views, see Kedourie, pp. 54-68. Note that Herder's and Fichte's views, when closely examined, are emendations of Kant's notion of autonomy 18K•R• Minogue, p. 122. 19Ibid., p , 121. 20For a full text of the address, see Louis L. Snyder (ed.), pp. 234-236. 21For further information on the Gaelic League and its revival of the Irish Language, see Desmond Fennell, "The Irish Language MovefTlen:t its acltievements and its failure" Twentieth Century Stud1g§, Nov. 1970, No.4: Ireland, pp.54-77. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY ,. 32'7 2208e lli!tionali ties and Subject Races: Report of Conference Held in Caxton-Hall. Westminster. June 28-30, ..12.1Q(London: p P. S. King and Son, 1911), p , 85. 23William Gibson, "Ireland's Greatest Need" in ibid, pp. 8?-88. cf. G. Gavan Duffy, "Failure of Imperialism in Ireland", Ibid., pp •. 89-90. 24·0n Nationalism in Africa, see Basil Davidson, ~h Way Africa? The Searcb.-for a New Society 3rd ed, (England: Penguin Books Lt d, , 1971). Elie Kedourie (ed.), Nationalism in Asia and Africa (New York and Cleveland: ~World Publishing~p.;;Y:-1970). Patrick, F. Wilmot, In Search of Nationhood: The Theory and Practice of Nationalism in Africa (Ibadan: Lantern Books, 1979). Nnamdi Azikiwe, Renascent Africa (London: Frank Cass and Company Ltd., 1968). Davidson Nicol (ed.) Africanus Horton: The Dawn of Nationalism inJM9dern Africa - Extracts from the political, educational and scientific writings of J.A.8. Horton, M.O •. 1835-1883. (London and Harlow: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1969). W.W. Macmillan, Africa Emergent Rev. ed. (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1949). Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Unity-Uhuru Na Moja. a selection from writings and s~eches. 1952-£2 (London: Oxford University Press, 196?). Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia Shall 8e Free: an autobiography (London: Heinemann, 1962). Obafemi Awolowo, AW): the Autobiography (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1960 • UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 328 Ndabaningi Sithole, African Nationalism, 2nd ed, (London: .oxford Univ. Press, 1968 ). 2~,IV.: 1.nogue, o , 121• 26Ibid., p , 124. 27I bid., P • 120• 28Soyd C. Shafer, Nationalism: Myth and Reality (London: Victor Gollancz, 1955), p.33. 29Ke d'our-a e , p. 80 • 30Ernest Renan, "Qu'est-ce qu'une Nation?" in Louis L. Snyder (ed.), pp , 9 and 10 cf , Harold Laski, A Grammar of Politics (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982), p. 219: "the idea of nationality is ••• essentially spiritual in char'a ct er-s. It implies the sense of a special unity which marks off those who share in it from the rest of mankind ••• ". 31Quoted in Kedourie, p. 81. 3~arl Deutsch, Nationalism and- Social Communication: an Inquiry into the Foundations of Nationa)itY Second ed. (Carr.bridge, Massachusetts and London, 1975 , p , 97. 33Max Sylvius Handman, "The Sentiment of Nationalism" Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXXV,I 1921, pp. 104-109. 34Hans Kohn, Nationalism a s group consciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1964), p , 18. 35~inogue, p. 33; for a clarification of this position, See chapter Four of his Nationalism: "Europe Exports Nationalism". 36Kedo' ur-a e , p, 9 • UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIB ARY 329 3? Seton-Watson, p. 4. 38Louis L. frJyder (ed.), p. ix.· 39Alfred Cobban, pNa;ti;on~al Self-determination (Chicago:University of Chicago 1944j, p~ 134. 40Louis L. Snyder, "The Historian's Understanding of Nationa1ism" Louis L. frJyder (ed.), p. 29. 41Carlton Hayes, The Historical Evolution of ~odeED ~ionali§m (New York: Russell and Russell 1968), p. 1, also see his Essays on National~ (New York: Russell and Russell, 1966), here, he argues that nationality has existed from the earliest times of which history and anthropology can treat. Most of the tribes described by anthropologists and most of the peoples whom we encounter in history, are nationalities (p. 21). 42Hayes, Essays on Nationalism, p, 26. 43More :complex forms of nationalism exist but these are variants of this basic taxonomy; in the main, these variants do not concentrate on the historical bi-polarity of the concept but on its character end its area of influence. Minogue, for example, identifies five classes of nationaliSm namely: "the originals, underdeveloped nationalisrn, Pan- movement or macro-nationalism, the nationalism of people in search of a home and fascism or totalitarian nationalism". He further classifies nationalism by the area of life in which it operates: "cultural nationalism, religious nationa- lism, linguistic nationalism, economic nationalism"; end also by the kind of nationalist politics we encounter: "Liberal, conservative, integral, right-wing and left-wing nationalisms" (for details, see Winogue, pp , 12-19). UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 330 Max Sylvius Handman identifies four types of nationalism: Oppression-na tionalism, "irredentism", precaution-nationalism and prestige-nationalism (see his "The Sentiment of Nationa- lism" Political Science Quarterl~, Vol. XXXVI, 1921, pp. 104-109). Carl ton J.H Hayes outlines five types: (i) Humerri tarian nationalism (ii) Jacobin nationalism (ii~) Traditional nationalism (iv) Liberal nationalism (v) Integral nationalism (see his The Historical Evolution of t."odern Natior1§.lism, pp. 16-1?, 45, 52-54, 56-5?, 8?-88 , 120, 135, 165-166. 44Mn• .noque , p. 4O. 45E•H• Carr, ~i£Dalism and Aft~ (London: St. Martins Press Inc. and Macmillan Co. Ltd., 1945), p. ? 46Royal Institute of International Affairs, p. 2? 4? See Arthur P. VJhitaker, Nationalism in Latin America (Gransville, Florida: Univ. of Florida press:-1962), Pet;;- F. Sugar and Ivo J. Lederer, Nationalism in Eastern Europe ( Seattle and London: Univ. of Washington Press, 19?1) , Kendric Charles Babcock, The Rise of American Nationality 1811-1819 (New York and Evanston: Harper and RowPublishers, J. and J. Harper Editions, 19b8) •. 48Astor in "Foreword", Royal Institute of International Affairs, p , v ; 49Mn.·noque , p , ? • 50Carlton J.H. Hayes, Essays on Nationalism, p. 2?5. For a detailed discussion of the dysfunctions of nationalism, see the la st four chapters of this book: Chapter V: "Nationalism and International War", pp. 126-155, Chapter VI: "Nationalism and f:.ili tarism", pp. 156-195; Chapter VII: Nationalism and Intolerance", pp , 196-244, and Chapter VIII: "Nationalism - Curse or Blessing?", pp. 245-2?5. cf. Hans Kohn, "A New Look UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 331 at Natiqnalism" The Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 32, Summer 1956, pp. 321-332;, also see Barbara Ward~ Chapter ?: "Nationalism's Failure". 51Hayes, Essays on Nationalism, p , 198. 52·Ibid., p. 274. 53H• ~unro Chadwick, p , 13. 54Karl W. Deutsch, pp. 181-191. 55Quoted in Hans Kahn, "A New Look at Nationalism", pp. 321-332. 56 li~, Hayes, The Historical Evolution of M~ Nationa-See Chapter VI: Integral Nationalism, p. 320f. 5?Louis L. Snyder has argued further that under Hitler, Gerrrany was "overtaken by the wrong kind of nationalism" which took the nation away from the aspirations of Bisrrarck and earlier Gerrran nationalists. (see his Gerrran Nationalism: The Tragedy of a People - Extremism Q£D!ra Liberalism in Modern German Historj' 2nd ed., Port Washington, N.York: Kennikat Press, 1969 • 58Hayes, Essays on~ionaliSl.!!., p, 260f. 59Royal Institute of International Affairs, !'::I a ti2..!:!a- ~~L It is instructive to note that the study which forms the background of this book was conducted out of a genuine concern about the evils of nationalism. "The present study", we are told, "ha s been written because contemporary develop- ments of nationalism appear to threaten the very future of civilization" (p. XIV). UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 332 6OH•J• laski, Nationalism and the Future of Civilization (london: C.A. Watts and Co. ltd., 1932), pp. 26-29, pp.42-437 Laski recommends an alternative - nationalism: "We must learn", says he, "to think internationally or perish". 61Hayes, ESsays on Nationalism, p. 260. 62Elie Kedourie, Nationalism (London: Hutchinson and Co. ltd., 1960). She argues that nationalism looks inWardly, away from and beyond the imperfect world. And this contempt of things as they are, of the world as it is, ultimately becomes a rejection of life, and a love of death (p.B?). Besides, she regards nationalists as pretenders, self-styled idealists and agents of falsehood. Nationalism,. Kedourie repea ts, is a pa ssiona te a ssertion of the will, but at the core of this pa ssion is a void, and all its activity is the frenzy of despair; it is a search for the unattainable which once a ttained, destroys and annihila tes (p. 89). 63Rabindranath Tagore, Nationali~ (london: Macmillan' and CD. ltd., 191?), pp , 28 and 29. 64John M • Robertson, Pat~ioti~ and Empire Third edition (london: Grant Richards, 1900), p. 30. 65".,,.,~nogue, p. 23• 66Ibid., p , 24.• 57 Karl W. Deutsch, p. 183. 68Ibid., p , 184. 69K•R• Minogue, pp. 146-14? UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 333 70Carlton J.H. Hayes, Essays on Nationalism, in particular see Chapter IV: "Nationalism as a Religion", pp , 93-125. 71Edward Shillito, Nationalism: Man's Other Rel19ton (London: Student Christian Movement Press, March, 1933 • 72Abdullah-al~alayili, pp. 120-127, see p. 120 in particular where Alayili say s nationalism is a religion "with all tha t the word connotes and entails". 73 Boyd C. Shaffer, Nationalism: Interpreters and Interpretation (Washi'ngton D.C.: Publication no. 10, Service Center for Teachers of History, American Historical Asso- cia tion, 1959). 74Jean-Rene Surra tea u, L'Idee Nationale de La Revolution a Nos Jours Paris: Presses Universi taires de France, 1972), p. 8. I have only translated Surrateau's view; here are his own words: " ••• Le principe des nationalites n'a-t-il pas fini de jouer un role determinant dans l'histoire du monde aujour~hui" [p , 8) 750n Marxism vs. Nationalism, see 8arbara Ward, Nationalism and Ideol~ (London: Harnish Hamilton, 1967) Chapter Nine - "A Post-National Attempt: Communism", Royal Institute of International Affairs, pp. 309-316., K.R. Minogue, pp. 138-144. 76For further details on this, see Hugh Seton-Watson, Nationalism and C~ism: Essays 1946-1963, p , 100f. Horace 8. Davi s , Toward A....M9~ist Theory of Nationali§!!l (NewYork and London: Monthly Review Press, 1978). 77H• Munro Chadwick, p , 6. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 334 78Hayes, Essays on Nationalism, p, m. 79 See, for example, W.8. Yeats,. Letters to t~ New Island Horace Reynolds (ed.) (Cambridge, WoaSSe , ·1934) , p.6. Yea ts writes that" there is no fine literature without nationality"; also see John Drinkwater, Patriotism in Literature (London: Williams and Norgate, 1924). Drinkwater writes generally on patriotism and illustrates his dis- cussion with literature. Some of the authors he cites are William Blake, Wordsworth, Congreve, Shakespeare, Whitman, Symons, Woilton, Kipling, Emerson, Shelley, Johnson, Yeats, Aristotle and Matthew Arnold. 80John M. Robertson, Patriotism and Empire 3rd edition (London: Grant Richards, 1900~p. 65. 81Ibid., p. 68. 82Ibid• , p. 66. 83Ibid• , p. 67. \ 85Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Critique of Nationalism", 1838 in Louis L. Snyder (ed.), pp. 157-158. 86H• Ernest Lewald, "Introduction" H. Ernest Lewald (ed.), lhe Cry of Home: Cultural Nationalism and the Modern Writer (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 19?2~ o , 11. 87Quoted in Elie Kedourie, pp. 84-85. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 335 89Robert Louis Stevenson (R.L.S.), "Britain: A Garden Enclosed" from R.L.S. "Virginibus Puerisque" (The English Admirals) (London, 1881) Quoted in Louis L. Snyder (ed.), p. 91; also in Frederick Page (ed.), An Antholog~ Patriotic Prose (London, 1915), pp. 5?-58. 908elloc's example is instructive. He is French but a naturalised Briton - this would seem to validate Handman's argument that nationalism is merely a sentiment which could be directed not necessarily at one's own country but any other country to which one's loyalty may have been transferred. (see Max Sylvius Handman, "The Sentiment of Nationalism", pp , 104-109. 91See Emmanuel Ngara, Art an~olog~in the Africsn Novel: A Study of~ Influence of Marxism on African Writing (London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 198?~-------- 92His role in Italian nationalism has been well docu- 8me1nfte~d:by Gaudence Megaro (see Gaudence Megaro, Yi ttori,gForerunner of Italian Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 19301. -- 930'Annunzio's practical involvement is only an isolated instance of the extent to whLch LtaLde n artists collaborated with politicians during Italy's most desperate moments. It is on record that many writers were also members of the Carbonari - one of the many secret societies which sought to create alternative means of liberating Italy. 940n the links between Romanticism and German Nationalism, see Hans Kohn~ "Romanticism and the Rise of German nationalism'~ Ib~eview of Polit~, Vol. 12, October, 1950, pp. 443-44?; also see Louis L. Snyder, German Nationalism: The Tragedy Of a People Extrem~~1rE-Liberalism in Mod~German History. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 336 95For details, see Louis Snyder, GermaD-Nationalism ••• , see chapter 7: "Music and Art: Richard Wagner and The German Spirit", pp , 153-179; also see Friedrich Nietzsche, ~ Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner (transl. Walter Kaufmann) (New York: Vintage Books, 1967). 96For details, see Louis Snyder, ~n Nationalism ••• Chapter 3: "Literature:Nationalistic Aspects of the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale~", pp. 44-74. 97· Turgenev adds: "Russia can do without us but none of us can do without Russia" (quoted in Daniel Corkery, Synge and Anglo-Irish Literature, Cork: The Mercier Press, 1971), p , 236. 9BJules Wichelet, The People trans by C. Cocks (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman, 1846), pp. 240-244. 99Quoted in Basil Davidson, Which Way-Africa? The ~b. tgr a New Society 3rd edition (England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1971), p. 55. 100The office of the Lord Chamberlainwa s qua shed in 1952 rbut its spirit still ling,ers in contemporary British Theatre. see John Calder, "political Theatre in Britain Today" Gambi.:b ver.e, No. 31,1977, p. sr. 101See John Bowen, "You Get What You Pay For: You Pay What you get" Gambit, Vol. 6, No. 24, 1974, pp , 77-84. 102See Anthony Ackerman, "Prejudicial to the safety of the State: Censorship and The Theatre in South Africa" Theatre Quarterly, Vol. VII, No. 28, 1977, pp. 54-57. 1030n Political and Literary Nationalism in Ireland, see .William Smith Clark, The Early Irish Stage: The 8 egi.!J- nings to 1720 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955). UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 337 , John D. Seymour, 8Dglo-Irish Literature 120Q=j582 [London r Cambridge University Press, 1929). Thomas Flanagan; Ihe Irish Novelists 1800-182Q (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959). Herbert Howarth, The Iris~iters: Literatu~ and Nationalism, 1800-1940 (New York, 1959). A. Norman Jeffares, 8n£1o-Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan Ltd., 1982). Dougla s Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland: From Earliest Times to the Present Day (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1899).' Robert O'Driscoll (ed.) Iheatre and Nationalism in ~entieth Century (Toronto: Unive.of Toronto Press, 1971), p , 40. Martin Wallace, ~Irish: How They Live and Work (Great Britain: David and Charles Publishers Ltd., 1972). Jeremiah J. Hogan, The English Lang~ge in Ireland. (Dublin: Educational Co. of Ireland, 1927 • Conor C. O'Brien and Maire, A Concise Hi~~ Ireland (London: Thames and Hudson" 1972). F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (London: Collins and Fontana, 1981). 104DoUglas Hyde, "The Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland" Louis L. Snyder (ed.) pp. 234-236. 105Ibid., p. 235. 1068ee Desmond Fennell, pp. 64-77. 107United Irishman, May 31,1902 quoted in F.S.L. Lyons, "James Joyce's Dublin" Iwentieth~ury Studies, Nov. 1970, No.4: Ireland, p, 17. UNIVERSI Y OF IBADAN LIBRARY 338 108See Note 81. Yeats's nationalist career is interesting. In 1903, he declared: I am a Nationalist~ and certain of my intimate friends have made Irish politics the business of their lives, and this made certain thoughts habitual with me, and an accident made these thoughts take fire in such a way that I could give them dramatic expression. I had a very vivid dream one night, and I made Cathleen ni Houlibsu out of this dream (W.B. Yeats, ~lorations selected by Mrs. W.B. Yeats. NewYork; 1962), p • 116. cf. Yeats statement in 1937: I am no Nationalist except in Ireland for pa ssing rea sons; Sta te and Nation are the work of intellect, and when you consider what comes before and after them they are, as Victor Hugo said of something or other, not worth the blade of grass God giVES for the nest of the linnet. (W.B. Yeats, f~~auQ Introductions~w York, 1961 ), p • 526. 109 Maud Gannet A Servant of the Queen (Lonc;lon,- 19~8), pp , 332-333; quoted in George }/.ills Harper, "Intellectual hatred and intellectual nationalism: The paradox of passionate politics" Robert O'Oriscoll (ed.), p. 53. , r-, 110For a full account of the activities of the group-', see Elizabeth Coxhea d , Daughters of Erin (London: Secker and Warburg, 1965J. 111Quoted in David H. Greene and Edward M. Stephens J.M. Synge 1871-1909 (New York: The Macmillan Co, , 1959),p.148. 112Ibid, pp , 146-147. 113Thomas MacANNA,"Nationalism from the Abbey Stage" Robert O'Oriscoll (ed.), p. 95. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 339 \. 114Ibid., p , 94. 115Examples of the Stage Irishman could be found in Captain WacMorris in 31akespeare's Henry V, iii, 2; Sir Lucius O'Trigger in 31eridan's The Rivals_and Tim Haffigan in Shaw's John Bull' s Other Island; and also in the writings of Maria Edgeworth, Oion Boucicault and J.W. Whitebread. It is based on an exaggerated conception of the Irish man and complements, at a literary level, the political attempt by the imperialist to deny the Irish any signi- ficant individuality. The Stage Irishman portrays the Irish as a wild and vicious race, boastful, dirty, child-like, unnecessarily excited, harum-scarum, fond of war and violence and congenitally treacherous and corrupt. 116See W.B. Yeats, Autobiogrsp~ (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1955), p. 424; also in W.B. Yeats, ~ Autobiography of William Butler Yeats (New York, 1953), p , 317, and in W.B. Yeats, "J.M. Synge and The Ireland of His Time" Thomas R. Whitaker (ed.) Twentieth Century Inter:- preta tions of the PlaYbO} of the Western World (New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1969 , p. 24. 117W•B• Yeats, "The Tragic Generation" Nobel Foundation and the Swedish Academy, !iQbel Pri~brary: Alek sandr Solzhenit~ R. Ta£l9re, Sigrid Undset, W,B.:...1£ill (New York: Alexis Gregory, and California: CRMPublishing, 1971), pp , 345-346. 118T.R. Henn (ed.) The Plays and Poems of ~M. Eo/nge (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1963), p. 6. 119Ibid., p. 10. 120J•L •. Styan, MOdrrn drama in theory and practice 1: B-ealism and Naturalism Cambridge: Cambridge UniverSity Press, 1966), p. 100. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 340 12~Maurice Bourgeois, John Millington Synge and the Irish Theatre (London: Benjamin Blom, 1965), p. B7. 122Quoted in Daniel Corkery, Synge and Anglo~Irish Literat~ (cork: The Mercier Press, 1966), p, 43. 123Corkery, p. 44. Corkery WaS a nationalist writer of note. He has been described as the only Irish ~Titer du.l'i.ntghe anxious years of 1916-1926 who gave himself "fully to the revolution". He is, says Francis MacManus, a most gifted, contemplative and critical scholarly man, well-read in the literatures of Europe including the great Russians, and a pa ssionate believer in the Gaelic tradition which, so to speak, was the marrow of his bones (see Francis MacManus, "Imaginative Literature and the Revolution" Desmond Williams (ed.) The Irish Struggle 1916-1926) London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), p.24. 124Quoted in Robin Skelton, ),w. Synge and His World (New York: The Viking Press, 1971 , p. 40. 125Quoted in loP. Curtis 'Jr.,."The Ancrlo-Trish, Predicament" ~ntieth Century Stud~~, Nov. 1970, No.4: Ireland, p , 50. 126Quo t·ed 1n Danie1 Corkery, p. 46• 127J.M. Synge, The Autobiography of J.M. Synge (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 26. I • 128The list is taken from Greene and Stephens, pp.28-29. 129IbO1d • ,po 250 • UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 341 130See Introduction to Frank J. Fay, Towards A National Iheatre:~ramatic Criticism edited with an introduction by Robert Hogan (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1970), pp , 9-10. 131See Ann Eaddlemyer, tI Stars of the Abbey's Ascendancy" Robert 0' Driscoll (ed.), p , 33. 132Quoted in Andrew E. Malone, Irish Dra~a (London: Benjamin Blom, 1965), pp. 34-35. 133In his "The ~/'uncipal Gallery Revisted", Yeats writes a s follows; John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory thought All that we did, all that we said or sang Must come from contact with the soil from That contact everything Ataeus-like grew strong We three alone in modern times had brought Everything down to that sole test again Dream of the nOble and the beggar-man. (W.B. Yeats, Collected Poems London: Macmillan, 1955), p , 49; also in Alan Price, Synge and Angl9.- Irish Drama (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1961), pp.61-2. 134Ibid• 135Quoted in Andrew Malone, p. 287. 136Corkery, p. 52. 137J.M. Synge, elays, Poems and Prose (London and ~Aelbourne: J.M. Dent and Sons Lt d, , 1988), p , 33. 138Ibid• 139Ibid., p , 107· 140Ibid., p , 108. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 342 141Ibid., p. 219. 142See Robin 3