Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

CHAPfERl
11re Gods An Nol To BI4mr. Ola Rotimj's Transformation or
Sophodes' Ihdipus Ru:
( think every writer - whether a dramatist. novelist or poet ­
should have some co mmitment to his society . It' s not enough
to entertain; the writer must try to excite peopl e into thinkin g
or reactiDg to the situations he is striving to hold up to them in
his dramaor narrative . [think there must always be some
social relevance in whatone presents. Ola Rotimi 1
Ola Rotimi wrote 1M GodsAn' NOi To B/arnt in 1967, a year after civil war
bro ke out in Nigeria. The devastating conflict. which cam e to be known as the Biafran
war, was primaril y between the Igbos in the East and the Hausas in the North . but
there were also casualties among the Yorubas in the West and other ethnic groups.
Michae l Crowder, the director of African Studies at the University of lfe, had
suggested that Rotimi produce a dramathat will be "the star tum of the Ife Festival "
held annually in Nigeria (68) .2 Rotimi duly took on the challenge and chose wha t
could be considered the master dramatic tex t in the western literary canon , Oedip us
Roc. Sophocles' masterpiece . which wasperformed about a year after the outbreak of
the Peloponnesian War (43 1 Be .), wonsecond prize in the Athenian festival, the
Great Dioo ysia. Oedipus Rex was Aristotle 's prime example of a perfect traged y. the
focus of Sigmund Freud 's Oedipal Complex, and one of the plays most translated.
adapted and alluded to by various playwrights throughout the history of dramatic
literature. Rotimi was not onl y aware of the cul tural and religi ous similarities between
the Greek and Yoruba world view, but he was also cognizant of his role as a