From Change to Chance: An Evaluation of Ahmed Yerima’s Hard Ground and Akanji Nasiru’s The Rally as Topical

Abstract

African literatures have been overwhelmingly influenced by politics and this is enough to make the readers believe that they have been provoked and produced by the same push factor that transformed the African continent. In this regard, writers have served not only as chroniclers of contemporary political history but also as campaigners of radical social change. Their works are unquestionably Afro-centric as they expose man’s inhumanity to man since independence thereby projecting the course for cultural and national revolution. This paper however presents evidences of topical issues that are prevalent in most African countries particularly Nigeria since the exit of the colonial masters through four contemporary plays: Ahmed Yerima’s Hard Ground and Akanji Nasiru’s The Rally. Using these plays, this paper is able to uncover the consequences of poor leadership and governance, religious and ethnic crisis, militancy, unemployment, politics, power, corruption, injustices and the like. As a result, the focal point of this paper is based on the social realities of Nigerian people and thereafter concludes that positive change is feasible if the youths can have a consensus by creating networks of resistance against recycled nefarious politicians, their constant gimmicks of oppression, and dehumanization