Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

also happens to be the household servant who saved Oedipus from exposure as a child .
The arrival of the Corinthian messenger with news of Oedipus' father's death and the
good news of his position as king of Corinth reveals that Oedipus was adopted as a
child and that the messenger wasthe one who received him and took him to Corinth.
The ironic dramatic reversal, discovery and recognition take place as Oedipus '
insatiable desire to know his identity leads bim to discover the truth that he fulfi.lled
the oracle's prophecy.
In Rotimi 's versio n, Odewale , the African Oedipus, who believes he is the son
of Ogunde1e and Mobike of Ijekun Yemoja, kills his father , King Adutesa of Kutuje ,
and marries his mother, Queen Ojuola. Odewale does not solve the riddle of the
Sphinx to gain the kingdom of Kutuje and the hand of Queen Ojuola in marriage ;
instead, he saves the Kutuje people from the attacks and enslavement to the
neighbouring Ikolu tribe. Rescuing an enslaved group of peop le from the domination
of another mirrors the social and political role of the postcolonial African playwright
in an attempt to free his people from the slavery to western ideologies about the
colonized. Of equal importance to the period to European slavery is the universal
problem of ethnic wars . Both the history of African tribal wars , particularly the
Yoruba (ljaiye) wars of the late nineteenth century . and the Biafran war that was
raging at the time Rotimi wrote the play. make his replacement of the Sphinx more
effective. Moreover, making the character of Odewale , who thinks he is from the tribe
of Ijekun Yemoja , come in defense of one tribe against another warring tribe is
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