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Postcolonial Women in Three Plays by Tess Onwueme Kimi D

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Postcolonial Women in Three Plays by Tess Onwueme Kimi D Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2008 Prodigal Daughters: Postcolonial Women in Three Plays by Tess Onwueme Kimi D. Johnson Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VISUAL ARTS, THEATRE, AND DANCE PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS: POSTCOLONIAL WOMEN IN THREE PLAYS BY TESS ONWUEME By KIMI D. JOHNSON A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2008 The members of the Committee approve of the Thesis of Kimi D. Johnson defended on February 5, 2008. _________________________________ Mary Karen Dahl Professor Directing Thesis _________________________________ Carrie Sandahl Committee Member _________________________________ Natalya Baldyga Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii To my parents, George and Jeanne Johnson, for gifts beyond measure. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Prodigal Daughters” would not have reached completion without the involvement of the women who have helped me begin my career as a scholar of theatre. I would like to acknowledge Laura Edmondson for the inspiration to begin this project, and Carrie Sandahl and Natalya Baldyga for their input and encouragement throughout. Above all, I would like to acknowledge and thank my advisor Mary Karen Dahl for her patience and perseverance. She has seen this thesis from conception to completion, and without her motivation and support it would not have met its full potential. Thank you, ladies. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1. THE BROKEN CALABASH: THE WOES OF GENERATIONAL MISCOMMUNICATION.............................................................................. 21 2. PARABLES FOR A SEASON: DIVINELY APPOINTED POWER DYNAMICS .................................................................................... 37 3. THE REIGN OF WAZOBIA: CULTURAL SHIFTS AND REDISTRIBUTION OF POWER .................................................................. 52 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 71 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................... 78 v ABSTRACT Nigeria’s pre-colonial, British colonial and postcolonial history colors every aspect of its art and literature. The values and practices of the cultural groups that inhabit this country have been in flux since the beginning of the colonial wars in the mid-nineteenth century and continue to change in the light of the new theories and ideas that flood the country from both outside forces and its own people. In particular, colonization affected the customs and ideals of the Igbo people of Nigeria’s profitable Delta region. Tess Onwueme, a dramatist of Igbo extraction now based in the United States at Wayne State University, writes explicitly of the changes forced upon the Igbo people and their subsequent reaction to new ideas in their communities. Onwueme’s fictionalized accounts of the struggles of Igbo women in her dramatic work shed light on the changing perceptions of western feminisms, African womanisms, and female agency in “traditional” communities. Her stories problematize the idea of a united sisterhood for the promotion of world-wide feminism, and inspire us to reflect on our own agency in our communities. Through a close reading of Onwueme’s trio of plays, The Broken Calabash, Parables for A Season, and The Reign of Wazobia, I explore the effects of western education on Igbo communities and their inhabitants. How does education change how these women view their communities and their communities’ view of them? How has a shared colonial past become the catalyst for both sweeping change and stagnation? How is female agency employed and received in these communities? In my exploration of these questions, I hope to understand the impetus behind Onwueme’s heroines’ actions and explore female power in places of great cultural change vi INTRODUCTION Dr. Tess Osonye Onwueme (sometimes T. Akaeke Onwueme) is one of the more prolific Nigerian dramatists writing today. While many scholars admire her work for its concentration on women’s issues in the postcolonial state, this dramatist has intrigued me with her fascinating dramatic narratives on Igbo women and for her positionality as a Nigerian-born scholar in America. As a Delta-State (now Bendel State) native, Onwueme identifies as a part of the Igbo people. Many of her plays concentrate on Igbo women and their encounters with the conflict between Igbo cultural practices and Igbo women who have received an education in Nigerian schools based on the Western education model. In particular, Onwueme pays attention to the modern Nigerian woman’s struggle for acceptance in a conventional Igbo home. Onwueme states, “We live in a society where women have it very hard. Their lives are manipulated by others” (Onwueme 10). It seems as though Onwueme applies this statement to all women, whether Western or “Third World,” placing the playwright firmly within a feminist and womanist sphere of discourse. However, Onwueme concentrates on women from backgrounds similar to her own—each of the heroines in the three plays I study struggles to find the balance between contemporary ideals and desires and indigenous convention and practice. Onwueme herself is an Igbo woman educated in Nigerian schools (established by British colonizers), though she now lives and works in the United States. While women the world over have it very hard, the women of Onwueme’s plays encounter unique and poignant challenges. They face choices that will irrevocably alter their love lives, their political lives, and their freedoms. As American poet Daniela Gioseffi writes, “the protagonists of Dr. Tess Onwueme’s plays tend to be women who revolt against their misuse by an outdated and inhumane system” (Onwueme 10). More often than not, Onwueme’s women triumph over the odds, though this triumph usually comes at a heavy price. Although audience reactions to Onwueme’s work vary greatly, the plays address themes and conflicts that inspire discussions in which viewers can engage from a variety of perspectives. My research has led me to concentrate on the subtle warnings the plays provide against privileging a western set of ideals over those of the Igbo (or the opposite) in Onwueme’s work and the discussions that arise from this conflict. As Dr. Onwueme writes and produces her plays 1 in both the United States and in her country of birth (writertess.com), audience members in both the west and Africa view and enjoy her work. In this thesis, I explore how a trio of Tess Onwueme’s plays addresses the conflict between contemporary, educated Igbo women, and more traditional Igbo practices in a postcolonial setting. What happens when Igbo women educated outside their communities bring their new, western ideas home to roost? This conflict illustrates not just the issues of women in Nigeria, but the conflict of women, older ideas and traditions, and new systems of thought in countries the world over. Though there have always been generational disputes between youths and elders in this ever-changing community, I have chosen to focus on the tension that arises from the education of young, Igbo women and their clash with the rest of their more conventional community. Onwueme’s plays, The Broken Calabash, Parables for A Season, and the Reign of Wazobia each concentrate on contemporary, Western-educated Igbo women who come in conflict with the conventional values and cultural practices of their indigenous homes. In a close reading of these three plays, I will explore this conflict and discuss why it is a concern within these fictionalized communities. As an educated, western woman I find the conflicts that Onwueme introduces in her three texts particularly compelling. Because I am an audience member educated in African feminisms and postcolonial theory, I find myself in the interesting position of being able to analyze Onwueme’s work through the lens of the western audience member and as an academic. It is my hope that this positionality will enable me to deliver a nuanced interpretation of Onwueme’s trio of plays, informed by my scholarly research and by my position as a mixed-heritage woman with white privilege. Nigeria and the Igbo In order to understand the unique challenges that Onwueme’s characters must face, it is necessary to have some background knowledge of Nigeria’s current state and the creation of that environment. The Federal Republic of Nigeria is a large country (approximately twice the size of Texas) located on the central Western coast of Africa. Most U.S. Citizens know Nigeria primarily for being an exporter of crude oil: it is the sixth largest exporter in the world (Library of Congress). Nigeria’s popularity in news vernacular stems secondarily from the frequent violence surrounding this oil production (news.bbc.co.uk). Four primary ethnic groups comprise the country’s population: the Igbo, the Hausa, the Yoruba, and the Fulani. There are also
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