Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

human features and interact with men, is a common motif in Afri can mythology and
foUdore. 1. P. C1arlc records the same tale as a beautiful drama observed in the annual
Igogo, a vegetation festival, at Owo in Western Nigeria. The hybri d woman/creature.
herecalled Orosen, is the central figureand the story is about how "her rival spouses
eventually encompass her downfall by lricking their man [Odewale] into revealing the
true iden tity of his favourite wife- (83-84) .
Rotimi ' s addition of a prolog ue to the original Sophoclean play is cruci al to the
trans forma tion of the fifth-«ntury B.C. Greek play into an African ritual
performance, one rooted in Yerub a drama . Edmo ndson Asgill , in •Afri can
Adaptations of Greek T ragedies," suggests that the prologue is necessary because
"Rctimi's presumed audience does not have the advantage of a prior knowledge of the
baclcground details on which an appreciation of the play so much depends" (1SO).
However, he conuadiets his ownprevious statement in which he asserts that the
preoccupation with adapting Greek: tragedies by African playwrights "may reflect to
some extent the depth of classical learning that featured in the syllabuses of colonial
education •. •• ( 175) .17 Oedipus Ra. as a written text, either in Greek or in the
English translation , wasand is still usedby insti tutions in Nigeria which teach in
English to citizens of a country whose official language is English. In other words. the
people who were and co ntinue to be subjected to the colonial education are the same
people who make up the majo rity of the English speaking theatre audien ce.
The prologue must be considered an integral part of the play. not because it
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